Forum thanks

[2mad]

And lose the bloody pink!!!!!!!!!!

I like it ..

[Draven]

And lose the bloody pink!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure how i'd handle that. It's been pink for such a very long time.

[uglee]

Nooo, updating and adding loads of features that slow things down and frustrate the end user is not a good thing. Maybe add a thanks function, ditch the pink for a fresher white and blue format and that is all it needs!

If they do update to a newer version, just because there are lots of features doesn't mean they need to be used. I frequent this forum as it just loads in no time, no pop ups, adverts, stupid massive signatures. I'm offshore a lot on a slow connection and this is the only site that doesn't suffer too much from that.

You only have to look at forum feedback on pistonheads to see the mountain of cross platform/browser compatibility issues that they are seeing. Although IMOC doesn't have the same numbers viewing there 'appears' to be very few problems in that regard here?

[SonicSW20]

A newer version with more features doesn't necessarily mean a slower experience. The newer version may be more resource efficient.

[2mad]

Yeah i dont want imoc to change or get slower .. i would just like a feature were i can thank people and we all keep score by our name.


I think it would be a fun feature.

[gnzyza]

Same here just some updates here and there if possible. This forum is the easiest to navigate on mobile devices or slow connection so no need for a massive change. A thanks button would be nice, which shows the name of users under the post that's Thanked.

[JAAASH]

And lose the bloody pink!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure how i'd handle that. It's been pink for such a very long time.

Keep the pink. Don't think I could handle it being another colour either

[JohnnyC]

Lose the photo re-sizing.
IIRC that was introduced around 8 years ago. Our internets are much much faster now and our phone screens much much bigger

[toxo]

I have written the definitive answer on why we haven't upgraded the forum software before but I can't find it now. So here we go.


A long time ago the forum was administered by a guy called Esmond (username on here I think is pontesym). Alongside managing the forum he also actively developed and supported many published community phpBB plugins, including the garage functionality that we use here. Back then phpBB wasn't very configurable or expandable, so changes like the garage, feedback, premium member/paypal integration and even some of our moderation tools were all hand coded by Esmond, directly into the phpBB code. ANY upgrade will lose ALL of that functionality. There's now a lot of data in the garage, knowledge base etc which is valuable to IMOC and its members. We'd be daft to just dump all of that data and only keep topics and posts, which is what would happen by either upgrading phpBB or moving to another product like VBulletin.

There are now many varied plugins and add ons to forum software to do the things we do on IMOC like the garage and knowledge base. We could install a new version of phpBB or VBulletin, use the automated upgrade and conversion tools supplied with them to convert everyone's topics and posts, install these new plugins and then try and convert the data from our old plugins to fit our new ones, but that is a horrendously complex task, round peg into square hole.

I administer the server and the forum software, it's not outsourced. I have been chasing down bugs in phpBB and backporting fixes from version 3 into our modified version 2 to stop us getting hacked, adding in spam protection etc. It's like trying to patch holes in a sieve, but what I inherited was a mess that hadn't been administered properly for years, so I'm making the best I can of a bad situation. Personally I think you'd all be pretty annoyed if one day you logged on here and it was a newer version of the forum software but all your garage data (photos, modifications, dyno sheets), all the knowledgebase articles, all the avatars, all your feedback scores and your items for sale had disappeared and no one was a premium member anymore

HTH

[JohnnyC]

We could install a new version of phpBB or VBulletin, use the automated upgrade and conversion tools supplied with them to convert everyone's topics and posts, install these new plugins and then try and convert the data from our old plugins to fit our new ones, but that is a horrendously complex task, round peg into square hole.

Do this
Anything like the garage that won't convert over, nuke it
It's not too much trouble for users to re-do their garage etc. (and a lot of the garages are probably now inactive users)

The last thing you want is using this very forum code for the next 20 years

[toxo]

I edited my post while you were writing that, I was trying to think of all the addons we run. I've listed a few, I'm sure there are more though.

I have actually run the forum through the conversion process a while back, on one of my test servers. So there is a copy of IMOC somewhere that has been converted and has all that data missing.

Do you really think IMOC will still be here in 20 years?

[JohnnyC]

The knowledge base could do with a makeover anyway.
I mentioned years ago that the guide photos should be stored on the imoc servers otherwise the photos just go missing, this is how they're done on mr2oc.
My guides on there are missing lots of pics, I've not deleted them, but they were hosted by imageshack who are sh*t at the best of times

[toxo]

The knowledge base could do with a makeover anyway.
I mentioned years ago that the guide photos should be stored on the imoc servers otherwise the photos just go missing, this is how they're done on mr2oc.
My guides on there are missing lots of pics, I've not deleted them, but they were hosted by imageshack who are sh*t at the best of times

Are you gonna write a new knowledgebase plugin that behaves like that then? I'm not I've only just fixed the search functionality to return all posts from users with large post counts - this version of phpBB wasn't designed to be searching posts from users with 13000 posts!

[JohnnyC]

this version of phpBB wasn't designed to be searching posts from users with 13000 posts!

Don't worry, it'll only miss out RedMR²'s posts

[Ben]

Do you really think IMOC will still be here in 20 years?

Obviously. But it'll be full of Powerfully Built Company Director types who can afford the astronomical prices 'classic' MR2s are commanding