Ludachris
03-03-2010, 09:30 AM
From time to time, forums like ours require updates to the software, mostly for security and feature updates. It's getting close to that time for NASARM. What does this mean for the user experience on our site? A few changes in the functionality and look mainly. But also a few new features that many will enjoy.
Having built and managed a number of forums over the past decade, I know that many people don't embrace change very well. And some will be very vocal about it. Let me just say now that I'm sorry if you don't like some of the changes, but most of them are based in the forum software and little can be done about it without throwing lots of resources at it customizing the code base, which isn't really worth doing. Be assured I'll do as much as I can to keep things looking and working as close to the same way as possible.
Some things that will change/be affected:
- The Gallery section will be removed, as it is rarely used and not worth trying to upgrade it. We'll have another feature that we feel will be a good replacement for it and will probably be more popular among the site users.
- The user profile pages (the page you view when you click the "view public profile" link) will look a bit different. Some will like them, some won't. But there will be some new functionality on those pages, and it's a little out of our control.
- The forum layout will have minor changes, some you won't even notice. Some navigation links might show up in different places, others might disappear, etc. The left navigation bar will remain largely intact. But expect things to look a little different.
- We may experience some downtime. I'll try to keep it minimal, and will try to announce it before it happens, but it may be necessary.
I think that covers most everything.
If you have any questions or issues, please do post them in the Website/Forum Help forum. It's very likely that you'll have questions on how to find old sections/features after the upgrade. Feel free to ask. But please, try and be patient and open minded about the changes. As I said, it's a necessary evil. We need to keep the forum software up to date mainly for security, and unfortunately, that sometimes results in changes we don't necessarily care for.
Thanks all!
-Chris
Having built and managed a number of forums over the past decade, I know that many people don't embrace change very well. And some will be very vocal about it. Let me just say now that I'm sorry if you don't like some of the changes, but most of them are based in the forum software and little can be done about it without throwing lots of resources at it customizing the code base, which isn't really worth doing. Be assured I'll do as much as I can to keep things looking and working as close to the same way as possible.
Some things that will change/be affected:
- The Gallery section will be removed, as it is rarely used and not worth trying to upgrade it. We'll have another feature that we feel will be a good replacement for it and will probably be more popular among the site users.
- The user profile pages (the page you view when you click the "view public profile" link) will look a bit different. Some will like them, some won't. But there will be some new functionality on those pages, and it's a little out of our control.
- The forum layout will have minor changes, some you won't even notice. Some navigation links might show up in different places, others might disappear, etc. The left navigation bar will remain largely intact. But expect things to look a little different.
- We may experience some downtime. I'll try to keep it minimal, and will try to announce it before it happens, but it may be necessary.
I think that covers most everything.
If you have any questions or issues, please do post them in the Website/Forum Help forum. It's very likely that you'll have questions on how to find old sections/features after the upgrade. Feel free to ask. But please, try and be patient and open minded about the changes. As I said, it's a necessary evil. We need to keep the forum software up to date mainly for security, and unfortunately, that sometimes results in changes we don't necessarily care for.
Thanks all!
-Chris