The future of the intlwaters forum?

[TomMoorehouse]

As you guys know we run a YabbSE board. The YabbSE guys have dropped the project. They made a new forum called SMF you can see it at http://www.simplemachines.org/ I don't want to have us running a forum that is no longer supported, however the headaches of a totally new forum does not sound much better. The new forum is supposed to have an easy upgrade path. I myself honestly don't like the look of the new design as much as this one. It is however supposed to be customizeable with templates but how easy that is remains to be seen.

At this point I don't know what will happen. I thought I would let you all know what is going on though. Our entire website is based on the look of yabbse, It would be a huge undertaking to remake the entire thing again. I'm sure I would need help doing it.

Suggestions/comments are welcome.

 

[Slideblues]

SAY WHAT??

Well Tom I think you need a pat on the back for take'n it this far, My God we have went through this before many times with all the upgrades and then the designers drop the project.

Its your call Dude, I trust your judgement totally!!!!

Gene ;D

 

[MarkScott]

Tom,

I'm in the IT business.. One thing that truely sucks is when platforms come out with new / better (choke, gag, puke) applications.. There will always be bugs to work out.. However, it truely sucks when there is no support for the old stuff.. I support one customer that has hard/software that was outdated 10 years ago.. They don't want to spend the money since "it'll go away soon"..

I took a quick look... SMF looks cool.. I'd be more than happy to help you out, but what I can do from home (26.4 connection) or work (don't want to get caught doing that on company time) may be limited..

OB Nut...

 

[TomMoorehouse]

we need to evaluate if we want to continue with the yabbse developers with their new forum or possibly switch to a completely different one. Then there is the question are we going to move to a full CMS (content management system). I have looked at them and there might be a future in it for us..... my big problem is I just don't have available time to make such radical changes at this time.

 

[HendricX]

On the European Xtreme forum we had the same troubles .

http://www.xtremercboats.com/phpBB/index.php

Switched from EZ to phpBB.http://www.phpbb.com/

Works great.

 

[Propjockey]

I'm with Gene...you've done one hell of a job, Tom!

We all owe you a HUGE pat on the back.

Whatever the consensus is, I'll go along. (I know this forum has had it's share of "technical difficulties", but I kinda like the format.)

Don't know what I can do to help, but I'm here.

 

[Finne]

um... to me the new one looks alot the same as this one... and like the XtremeRc one, and like the.....

well anyway. my point is. I don't know if the change will be that noticable for uss users? So it's your oppinion as admins that matter realy.

I'm sure whatever you decide will work out great...sooner or later

 

[snowdog-2112]

Tom,

Having been affiliated with IT for about 10 years I know that upgrades can be a pain in the a$$. But the idea to move to a different package completely is painful enough to consider let alone launching it.

Some things you may want to consider are:

Is there user-level support for this package. Are others who use this package bailing and moving on to the new package? If not, are they continuing to use this one and be available to help others? Being in the maintenance field we have a saying which I'm sure many have heard: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Often, upgrades are necessary to fix vulnerabilities but beyond that, what else is really "needed"? Contrary to what Micro$oft has taught us, upgrades often are not needed if the system is working fine. Like OBnut said, some old software works just fine and doesn't need to be upgraded.

Another item to consider is: if this company has abandoned this package and won't support it anymore to pursue their new package, how long will it be before they do it on the next one and put you in this position again? Perhaps you should express your discontent and go with an entirely different company/package. Like Finne said, the forum that www.xtremercboats.com uses is nice. If you want, I can put you in touch with the moderators.

Have you considered open source? Often those products are usually supported by more than the company.

I hope this wasn't too much for you this early in the morning but wanted to give my $.02 and .02 Euro...I have both! ;D

Take care Tom and let me know what you might need help with.

Snowdog

 

[nitrotoys]

Nice Job Tom, and you do deserve a pat on the back.

You have one hell of a board here and all very nice guys.

and if your going to move, just let me know to where and when.

Sorry me computer stupid, Cant give IT help.

I almost can type ;D ;D

NT

 

[Don Templeton]

"DITTO", for NT

What ever happens, I'll be there.

Don

 

[Slideblues]

Tom, If time is a factor right now, let it slide fer a while and shop around till ya find something that ya like. Its been runnin fairly smooth lately, few log in probs and post errors, but dats it.

Gene ;D

 

[RUNNERX]

First I would like add to the pat on the back, you have been doing a great job.

Like they said if it aint broke don't fix it. You can shop around and decide on what you want to do until either there is a problem, or till you have the time to make a move.

If the makers of yabb have come up with something new, they should have something to move everything over to their new system. If they are not doing that for their current customers I would think twice about going with a new produst from them. Other than that I would talk to other forum admins and see what they like and why.

Also the new one looks just like this one with different colors.