Question about the forum for all of you

[Chris]

Hi everyone,

As I said in the other thread, I have to upgrade the forum in order to keep it working, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to go. One possibility is to upgrade the forum to the latest version of vBulletin. This would have new features (not terribly useful in my opinion, but they would be there). Or I could attempt to fix this version of the forum to work with the newer underlying technology.

So I thought I would ask for your input before getting too deep into either of these options. Would you rather keep this place looking and working as it is, or would you prefer something more modern? The newer version would look something like this:

https://forum.vbulletin.com/

The colors could stay the same as we have now, or I could come up with new look, but I'm just asking about the general look and feel.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

[Sorrano]

vBulletin does not look bad to me but I do like the existing interface. But if more people are for a different look I'm good with that, as well. While I always look for new things, etc., I think I'd be inclined to keep with things as they are, but as long as it doesn't mean a lot of extra work for you.

[Chris]

It's not really a difference in the cost or the amount of work either way. I'm just trying to gauge everyone's preferences.

[Harvey]

vBulletin looks a bit confusing to me, but that is probably because I have not seen it before. I would get used to it. I would say as far as I am concerned, the main thing is the forum continues. If you get going in one direction and have to abandon ship and go the other way, that is fine. I would hate to have you commit to a certain format and then find it becomes a huge problem/lot of work. So, plunge ahead and feel free to make a U-turn if necessary.

[Chris]

Well, this forum is vBulletin. Version 3. But version 4 and the current version 5 are significantly different. So I could modify the version 3 we have to work with the new technology, or I could just go ahead and move to version 5. I could also switch to a different kind of forum software, though migrating everything over could be tricky. But I've done it before - this forum originally started on different software called UBB, if anyone remembers all the way back then!

[Harvey]

It's okay, go with whatever you prefer or is easiest to migrate. Actually I am on an opera forum and like their format which I had no idea, but looking it up i see is Vbulletin version 4.2.5.

[Michael]

Whatever changes cause you the least hassle, Chris. I'm sure it will be fine - as always.

[Albert Gans]

The old saying is:"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". I tend to agree with that. From what you say, Chris, the 'upgrade' would not make much difference in terms of what we do on the site.
In the transfer, you might lose some people, but on the other hand, it may mean that you just clean up the database in doing so.
All in all, I agree with most others: keep it as simple as possible for yourself.

[Megan]

One great thing about this new format is that it's so much easier to insert videos! Stress free.

On the other site it used to me hit and miss with me.

[Chris]

One great thing about this new format is that it's so much easier to insert videos! Stress free.

On the other site it used to me hit and miss with me.

Yes, the old way was something I had programmed in myself so we could have it - the software itself did not support it. So it was a bit of a hack, really. The current version of vBulletin supports it natively, so embedding videos should be a lot more reliable now.

[Decrepit Poster]

Anyone else have problems using the site with Firefox? With it, I can reach here and be seen as active, but don't get any actual forums or anything else useful. I'm here now via Brave Browser, which has no issue with the forums. Still, I'd rather use Firefox.

[Sorrano]

I am currently using Firefox and haven't noticed any issues. Make sure that you are using the latest version of Firefox and you might consider emptying your cache.

[Chris]

Yes, clearing the cache might help.

[Quijote]

I'm quite happy with the new look of the forum, thanks!

[Quijote]

Actually, there is one thing I noticed: it seems that I can't use accents such as umlauts, e-acute, e-grave, etc.
I give an example of each to show you what I mean:
- Sch?nberg (with o-umlaut);
- Faur? (with e-acute);
- Fr?re (with e-grave on the first "e").