Site Change?

[Handruin]

I've been contemplating for several weeks a redesign of the site. Before I make anyone shudder too much, I was considering the use of Invision board.

I feel they’ve advanced further than phpbb2 in terms of ease of use for managing a site. However, the most important part is the ease of use for end users who have to live with the system. If we could develop a forum “skin” that meets the needs of everyone, would you guys like or dislike the idea of changing?

I've struggled with our current design for quite some time, and I'd like to take a stab at reworking the entire site. I know our beloved news master Cougtek would love an easier interface to work with the news. Invision board has built in news functionality that we could harness and adapt our current news article into.

I'm open for ideas and I'm not rushing into anything without hearing from others. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, since it doesn't make sense to change the "presence" of our site (even if we have a small following) too greatly.

If people are interested, I can make a demo site to test out. If you think it is a waste of time, say so and explain why. Keep in mind that invision board has a converter so that we can keep all our exsiting data.

 

[Clocker]

I say go for it...I'm excited to see a change and what you can do with it Doug.

C

 

[timwhit]

I like the way it is, and I am not a very big fan of invision board either.

 

[Tea]

Up to you, Doug. You be da main man, and you won't go with anything that doesn't work right. I'm happy with the current setup, but you da man. If you think it's worth doing, go for it!

 

[Mercutio]

I'm only thinking of you, and the amount of time you'll want to spend playing HalfLife 2, when I say "PBBBBBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbTttttttttt!"

 

[CougTek]

I know our beloved news master CougTtek would love an easier interface to work with the news.

I'm getting used to it. No hurry as far as I'm concerned. Invision would be ok if a) it's free and b) it doesn't eat up too much of your time.

And... beloved ?

 

[Fushigi]

I've no problems with what we're using now, but if you feel another product would be better from an admin or user standpoint, then by all means give it a whirl.

 

[Buck]

The sites seems to work good Doug. But if you can implement a change that is better for you and easy for us, I don't see why you shouldn't give it a try. I would like to know why Tim doesn't like Invision Board though. Since most of us don't even know the software, it may be good to hear from someone like Tim who does.

 

[timwhit]

SR Forums use the Invision board. The only thing that I like about it is that the search actually works. Other than that it sucks.

I like the themes we have here. I am completely used to phpBB 2 as well. Have you ever tried to quote a message with Invision boards? It is a complete PITA. To top it all off Invision boards look fruity.

 

[Buck]

Ah, so that is what Eugene uses. I usually don't visit SR, so I haven't spent much time figuring out their software setup.

 

[Will Rickards WT]

Only if you can get rid of the stupidest thing from that board (assuming SR uses it). When I read every post in a forum it should mark the forum as read. At SR I have to mark the forum as read as well. This is at least 3 extra clicks when leaving the board.

 

[Buck]

Only if you can get rid of the stupidest thing from that board (assuming SR uses it). When I read every post in a forum it should mark the forum as read. At SR I have to mark the forum as read as well. This is at least 3 extra clicks when leaving the board.

Indeed, that shouldn't be. Once you've read something, it should be marked as such.

 

[Jan Kivar]

Only if you can get rid of the stupidest thing from that board (assuming SR uses it). When I read every post in a forum it should mark the forum as read. At SR I have to mark the forum as read as well. This is at least 3 extra clicks when leaving the board.

Sometimes, when I don't visit SR every day, there will be more than one page of new posts. When I go to page two, I see the new posts in page two. But at this point I can't go back to page one, as the forum marks all the posts in page one read when I reload it! This really sucks. This seems to be another "feature" of the Invision boards, as is the one in above...

Jan

 

[Handruin]

OK, you're right about Invision board where it won't track the new threads correctly. I use one of their forums for the RC car place and it pisses me off that I have to mark the new threads as read. I thought it was a problem with my install, but apparently not.

There is no immediate rush to make a change, I was suggesting the idea. I'll play around with IB to see if I can make it work. I don't plan to make any changes to our working site unless people are happy with a new change. The next option would be vbulletin, but that costs money. phpbb2.0 is coming down the road, most likely 6-8 months away, if not more.

IB does look a bit fruity as timwhit so colorfully described. I was hoping to change the skin to remove the "fruityness" of their software, but I don't even know if it is possible.

CougTek, when I suggested beloved, I meant "respected", even if the word I chose didn't represent that thought correctly. Sorry if I had you worried there.

 

[CityK]

I like the themes we have here. I am completely used to phpBB 2 as well. Have you ever tried to quote a message with Invision boards? It is a complete PITA. To top it all off Invision boards look fruity.

I think Tim summed it up well. I would stress that the Invision quotation method is exceedingly annoying and a royal pain to format if your quoting more then one person in a single post.

CK

 

[Handruin]

I've decided to skip using invision board because there seems to be a valid concern with the user interface. (quoting and thread tracking) I plan to wait for phpbb2.0 and re-evaluate at that time. Not knowing what phpbb2.0 will offer, it's best to not make that decision now.

• My first goal is to find a managable solution for a news system.
  
  A review system was discussed in the past, would that interest anyone?
  
  A link managment system is already in the works, that will be added soon.

Any other thoughts?

 

[blakerwry]

i like phpbb

down with invision boards!