Would you rather?

[iParanormalx]

Been almost 2 years a part of this site. I've heard talk about a merger, i've heard talk about a site upgrade - still nothing.

Just wondering what the consensus on this would be, say if the site were to be upgraded away from vBulletin, where there would be no reliable migration path. Would you rather keep what exists or upgrade it?

 

[carnageX]

If/when an upgrade happened, content wouldn't be lost. It would be migrated over.

Staff hasn't heard anything from the site owners on any progress on the merge or upgrade...(big surprise there /sarcasm).

 

[iFargle]

The last forum I was on that did this (Tech on Vent, some of you may remember) and the user base plummeted very shortly afterwards. better to keep the data

 

[zaka100]

The last forum I was on that did this (Tech on Vent, some of you may remember) and the user base plummeted very shortly afterwards. better to keep the data

U just have to upgrade the way the users want it to. If you start removing things that techist already has(eg: the recent posts box) and change the permissions then people will leave. Just dont remove the stuff people want and dont start organising stuff differently.

Basically just dont mess it up.

 

[iFargle]

I assumed he was talking about removing all the threads, posts, post counts, etc etc

 

[carnageX]

I assumed he was talking about removing all the threads, posts, post counts, etc etc

This is how I interpreted "lose all content" as well.

 

[MidnightShadow]

U just have to upgrade the way the users want it to. If you start removing things that techist already has(eg: the recent posts box) and change the permissions then people will leave. Just dont remove the stuff people want and dont start organising stuff differently.

Basically just dont mess it up.

I think the organization could actually help. There's been a few times I'm staring at the giant list of categories trying to figure out the best place to make a new thread. It could be condensed a bit, I think. Plus, there's a few features that I'm use to in other forums that I don't see here, such as a quick way to view threads I've posted in and such.

That said, I think the important stuff is the content of the threads. If we don't have any information to search through, then it looks like the forums aren't active at all. That's when you lose people.

 

[carnageX]

I think the organization could actually help. There's been a few times I'm staring at the giant list of categories trying to figure out the best place to make a new thread. It could be condensed a bit, I think. Plus, there's a few features that I'm use to in other forums that I don't see here, such as a quick way to view threads I've posted in and such.

That said, I think the important stuff is the content of the threads. If we don't have any information to search through, then it looks like the forums aren't active at all. That's when you lose people.

If you have thread subscriptions enabled (on by default I believe), you get subscribed to it when you reply in it. Click UserCP and it will take you to a list of your subscribed threads. "UserCP" and "New Posts" at the top menu bar are the 2 links I click pretty much right away when I get on TF.

 

[Trotter]

The plan is to merge the databases of both sites into one. Eventually. The main headache for the site team is to do so in a way so everything remains viable.

Another headache will be overlapping members.

 

[PP Mguire]

They tried an upgrade before and it had problems. Personally I feel things are fine the way it is. The site has been condensed quite a bit already, and the only thing I could ask for is an auto-save draft of a post and tagging abilities.