For the newest update (17th April) please go to the bottom of the page. it is written with green font-colour^^
Well, as the title says, we are thinking about moving the boards to vBulletin. You may know it, but I want to give you some reasons, why we want to do this:
1st thing is that vBulletin allows us to make better styles for the boards then we are able to do now, also including an own website, that belongs to this forum (those from TF may remember)
2nd thing is that vBulletin is safer: We had a crush here at the beginning and many posts were lost.We did not have a databackup, but vBulletin has. So this would not happen to us again.
3rd: The features really are better than those we have in forumotion: the reputation-system works better, every member cab take influence regarding to his reputation.
I said that we'd be able to import the database from this board but forumotion and its partners refuse to give us the database (I have asked it feels like 1000 different people, all saying sth different before I recieved an official reply from forumotion. And there they say we won't get the database therefore the ImpEx programme of vBulletin won't work.)
So what we can do (in the case you want to move to vBulletin) is to leave this board behind as an archieve for the old posts. The themes will be locked but still viewable. The most important threads can be taken over (Copy and paste manually by staff^^')
The creator of the thread can be changed at vBulletin so that every thread would get its old original creator. The titles you got will also be saved/ given back to you once you arrived there. Also the post-count can be restored. Of course all this needs its time so not everything will be as it used to be immedeatly. But We can manage this, if you vote for the move.
Since those who have already voted gave their vote with the wrong information, you will be able to take your vote back and to vote differently, if you have changed your mind.
Other features are these (from vBulletin-webpage):
General Features
* Scalable solution - database server and web servers can reside on separate machines.
* MySQL back-end database
* vBulletin can be run on any machine that can support PHP and MySQL (Solaris, BSD, Linux, Windows, Mac)
* Written in PHP which makes for a fast and efficient product
* Admin Control Panel
* Moderator Control Panel
* User Control Panel
General Forum Features
Threads
* Thread display options - sort by, sort order, from date
* Thread and forum subscription (notification by email optional)
* Thread preview on mouse-over (optional, via Admin CP)
* Active Users viewing thread shown
* New Post Indicator
* Printer Friendly versions on threads
* Admin tools for Threads - edit/delete/move/lock/Make sticky/ etc
* Email page to a friend option
* Similar Threads displayed on all thread views
Posts
* Linear, Threaded, Hybrid display views available
* Supports BB Code in posts
* Supports HTML in post
* Smilies
* Avatars
* Optional WYSIWYG or standard editors for posts and Private Messages
* Attachment images (.gif,.jpg, etc) are no longer in the database (optional, via Admin CP)
* Quick reply box (with optional "forced" click on post to quote)
* Preview post option
* Post rating
* User reputation
* Polls
* Post Reporting - report posts to moderators
* User post count
* Admin tools for Posts - edit/delete/move/ etc
* Preview safe attachments
Members
* Member List
* Member Search
* User Style picker
* Private Messaging
* Buddy list
* Member Birthdays shown on Forum home
Calendar Features
* Supports multiple private and public calendars
* Viewable public and private events (adminCP option)
* Weekly, monthly and yearly views
* Jump to Today option
* Add single, ranged or recurring events
* Add all day events
* Option to show calendar event on forum home page (adminCP option)
* Show events to specific usergroups (adminCP option)
* Calendar Moderation
* Private events reminder
* Ability to add custom fields
General
* Who's online
* Search
User Control Panel Features
Editable user profile
*This information can be viewed by other members from the member list. Custom user title, URL home page, date of birth, instant messaging medium, location, occupation, biography, interests, vB version, plus any other custom user fields that may be defined by the administrator
Profile pictures
*Allows members to upload pictures that can be viewed in the users' profile.
Private Messaging
* Pop-up notification when new PM received
* Private Message Tracking
* Private Message filing in custom folders
User Options
*These include Daylight Savings options, forum style chooser, selection of notification types for PM, emails etc, thread display options, WYSIWYG editor options, language chooser, vCard downloads to allow the user profile to be placed into an address book
Attachment Management
* View attachment statistics - shows limit and used space
* View the attachments you have posted (link or thumbnail views available)
* Remove attachments
Avatar Options
* Admin Defined Avatars
* Custom Avatars - upload from your own computer or specify a URL
General
* View and manage subscribed threads and forums
* Calendar event reminders for subscribed events
* Pop-up auto-refreshing buddylist with ICQ-style alerts when new buddies come online
* Signature Editor
* Email and password changes require current password
* Joinable Public User Groups
We want you to decide. We respect your opinion, we are doing this for you not for ourselves. But we may also need a bit support from you. vBulletin is quite expensive. So that is why we need some guys who'd donate a bit. We can open this board. A donation-function will be enabled and there will be a button for those who donate sth. You don't have to do it, but we'd be very delighted if we got a bit support from you.
Donating is volunzary! We don't want anyone to feel a pressure to donate something, nobody is mad at anyone if this one does not donate. You should be at least 18 years old for donating
So please think about it and then vote.
Any question? Then please ask me or another admind...or post it here. We'll be glad to answer all your questions
So thanks to Miko-san we have alittle comparison between Forumotion and vBulletin. I have added just a few sentences taht are marked with these nice Clamps ( [ and ] ):
Quoted by Miko-angel, modifications by Shaolan:
"After reading everbody's comment in here, it seems to me somehow that most of you are still quiet concern about loosing your posts nor, there won't be much discussion going around in the new host, or this forum will be deleted if we're moving off etc. We, as the admin team member are aware of that and we did come up with quiet a few number of solutions which we believe it will work according to our plans. These solutions have already discussed/answered by Hatsu and Shaolan therefore, I won't be repeating the same statement ^^ However, I will give you a brief clarification about the advantage and disadvantage of forumotion host, and since Shaolan has already clarified about VBulletin in the announcement, I guess I do not need to explain about it
Forumotion.com is a company that provides free forums, and they offer quite a lot in comparison with other forum hosts and providers. They were formerly known as 'editboard' and 'forumactif'. In comparison with other forum providers. Forumotion forums are an extensively modified version of PHPBB, with a lot of extra features. However, whilst there are features on forumotion that PHPBB does not have, the reverse is also true.
Forumotion offer pretty much unlimited users and posts, and there are no bandwidth limits. There are support forums in various languages, where you can find and ask for help if needed.
There are quite a lot of features, so I may not cover them all.
--Standard Features--
-Creation of Categories and Forums
-Customizable skins: You are able to change the colours, buttons, logos and pictures on your forum. There are several pre-installed themes available if you're not feeling creative, or if you're a bit of an expert, you can edit the CSS yourself. One thing not offered by forumotion is the ability to have multiple skins, however they do provide a script to do this on the support forum.[Multiple skins are possible at vBulletin but of course, they'll need plenty of time for preparation]
-Portal Module: Once installed, you can add unlimited 'blocks' to the portal, which essentially acts as your homepage. It gives a nice, finished look to your forum. [the look of vBulletin's portal looks more professional...of course only if you have some graphic skill^^. But as hatsu-kun said, he has technical support and Miko-san is experienced with homepages and blogs we are quite optimistic regarding to this]
-Word Censors
-Addition of Rules and FAQ
-Addition of smileys
-Avatar Gallery: You can add and delete avatars to your gallery as and when needed.
-Member groups: Very useful if you want to classify groups, or create forums that can only be seen by certain members.
-Private Messages: Something I like about PMs on forumotion boards is that a record is kept of the dialogue between each person. For example, if I send a PM to 'Ayashi', she will then see our previous PMs underneath.
-Users Connected: With an adjustable time-frame, you can see which members have been connected recently. This is shown at the bottom of your index page.
-Calendar Module: If you activate the calendar, a link will show up in your nav bar and you will be able to add dates and events to it.
-Ability to add moderators: You can assign certain members moderator status across the whole board, or simply for a certain forum. [There we are more flexibel at vBulletin. That makes organization easier and more effective for us and indirectly for you, too^^]
--Extras--
-Integrated Chatbox: most interesting feature, though the dimension is quite big and it takes amount of scolling to see the actual forum. However, you can resize the CB once you logged in, athough, I find it is quiet inconvience for me since I hardly use the CB 7__7
-RPG Module: If your forum is an RPG (role playing game), this is a great addition. Once installed, members will have the option to fill in their RPG Character Sheet, and this information will then appear underneath their avatar in all of their posts.
-Gallery
-Spoiler Tags
**Points**
-Reputation system: which has recently been implemented, though there has been many occasions, we experience problem with the reputation system ( the same with the visitor message 7__7)[vBulletin has a different system: Here you recieve 1 point - or you loose it, depends on the vote- everytime when a member votes. So every member's voice counts equally. On vBulletin those members with high reputatipon have more influence in the reputation of others. This is the system i prefer, but maybe others find the other one better. A matter of taste of think]
*Vistor message: a great feature, however there are still minor glitches/issues occuring 7__7
-Pro Version of Gallery: As I mentioned earlier, this makes the gallery available to everyone and gives you unlimited storage.
**Disadvantages of Forumotion**
Whilst I do think that forumotion is a cut above other forum providers, there are downsides. The first of these is the inability to access the forum files, and so if you start your forum on forumotion but later you want to move to a paid host, you are unable to do so and take your data and members with you. If you're happy to stay on a free-hosted site though, this shouldn't be a problem for you. However, I cannot guarantee that your posts will be any in secure for now or in the future since this is a free host service and it may expriences down time anytime ( and yes, we did exprience the down time in the past and we did lose quite amount of posts)Related to this, as an adimin and member, you have to rely on the forumotion owners and technicians to add new features. Whilst you can suggest new mods on the support forum, there's no guarantee that they'll listen to you and this can be quite frustrating. For some time the forum I have wanted and needed multiple skins, and this has been suggested but as of yet, nothing has been done. The lack of multiple skins option is also a downfall of this provider.
A minor problem is that because forumotion is a French based company, there are the occasional things that are lost in translation. For example, on new updates, some things may at first appear in French until it is reported and changed.
A final complaint I must make about forumotion is the server problems. Whilst they are quite infrequent, it is frustrating when it happens with no warning. Although, as I said previously, that we did lose a few data in the past when the server went down."[/quote]
Last edited by Shaolan on Wed 22 Apr 2009, 03:14; edited 5 times in total
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