I'm 978% on the PRO update front.
Everything that Sockratease says.
Security is number one.
Still browsing with xp, no antivir, no firewall.
Besides: There are so many little things that will improve the usability experience.
Over the years you might have arranged with the inconvenient way things work here currently, with all those little flaws and annoying bugs and the cluttered structure.
But technology improves over time.
So does forum software.
Also: There is no need for a downtime. No need to rush things.
As we tried to explain to Christian repeatedly: We can setup the new, clean forum under a new url like fractalforums.com/v2 while leaving this place open and running.
Those users who are interested are invited to do betatesting. By trying things in a closed environment we can smoothen the experience, optimize everything and others can slowly import all user data.
You wouldn't even have to reregister. (though I'd suggest that strongly. As if we really had 5600 active members. Those who really still want to participate will have no problem with a 2 step-re-registration.
Also: If both boards are active parallel, we could transfer single, important threads from the old to the new. (at least that is possible with the forum I run, phpbb)
When everything runs really smoothly we go open, everyone can participate in the new forum and after 2-6 or x weeks the old forum will be switched to read only.
Nothing is lost. A smooth transition.
What speaks against such a plan?!
That is what I would like to know.
We've been pushing for this for months, no years..
Christian, asking 'the people' is a great thing and should be done.
But asking without providing information about what the update will actually change is pointless.
And much more important: I really wish you would listen to the remaining
active moderator-team who's job it is to run daily business and who know about the technology and what a modern forum experience can be like.
We have so many good ideas and would love to just start working on them.
But we basically don't get the permission.
If we had simply used all the effort we had to put into convincing you of the necessity of a major upgrade, the upgrade had been finished months ago.
And you wouldn't even have had to do any work besides 2 clicks to setup a new database with the provider.
FORUM UPDATE NEEDED?
Yes. About 2 years ago.
ps: If anyone wants to see a feature update list, if we stick with smf, this is it:
http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Differences_between_SMF_2.0_and_SMF_1.1http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Differences_between_SMF_2.1_and_SMF_2.0my personal favourites:
- Tracking of new and old unread topics, not just from your last visit.
!!!! this is a big one! so much is lost, because every visit here marks all new posts read and you will never see them again unless someone posts. so many threads have died because of this.
- A new WYSIWYG editor SCEditor
- Post Drafts
- Likes
- I won't list all those countless security fixes.
- for smf2 there are responsive themes. finally browsing on your phone/tablet without hurting your eyes!
.....