ATTN: Everyone who seems to be having issues with this new format
03-17-2009, 10:10 AM
#23
AudiWorld Super User
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Yeah me too, hopefully that gets turned on.
Not to beat a dead horse, but hear me out. One thing that just popped up in my head, I took the photog users through the exact same thing a couple years ago but it was a change from one forum to another forum software. Our reasons for the move was not $$$ motivated.
We used to be on meetup.com and it was great and all but we started to outgrow the site especially when the group size went from a couple dozen to just over a thousand, and I think we were the second largest group there with the NYC photog club being the largest but they weren't the most active group compared to us.
We sent meetup our feedback on how things must change as there were several shortcomings with their forum and unfortunately they just ignored us. A few of us mods/organizers agreed that moving off of meetup.com to our own website/forum was the right thing to do to accomdate future growth.
We switched over to the phpBB and of course it was a change that impacted the members. New format, even some functionality lost, and messages on the other site were not migrated over to the new site. We initially had a lot of disappointed users at first, similar to what's happening here, as they didn't like the new format and found it difficult to post, read, etc. and they preferred the old single-section format. This all boils down to the user's comfort level and/or willingness to learn something new, really no different with what's happening here. We also had the concerns that a lot of users wouldn't make the switch but in reality they did and stayed. After a short period of time, everybody agreed that it was a good move, even those who disagreed initially, but of course our reason for the move was to help improve the forum from the crappy layout on meetup.com.
During the first year we got a lot of feedback on how to make the site better, so I finally hacked in some of the features that we lost and other things suggested by members to help improve the site.
Now I understand that our photog site migration wasn't for the same reason as AW but given that it is really the only one of it's kind in Toronto, we have grown considerably to the point that I think everybody forgot about that blasted old site and currently we have a couple thousand users on the forum and the most active one for the GTA (though fair number of those users are lurkers).
So will people stay or go elsewhere, I imagine some will go, maybe a fair bit, but time will tell. And hopefully the feedback we're providing about the layout of the current forum and what could be done to improve it such as Dave Cheng's suggestion on cleaning up the format (and no going back to kawf isn't one of them), IB will pick up on that and consider making these changes, though I highly doubt it so prove me wrong.
Just my two cents.
Not to beat a dead horse, but hear me out. One thing that just popped up in my head, I took the photog users through the exact same thing a couple years ago but it was a change from one forum to another forum software. Our reasons for the move was not $$$ motivated.
We used to be on meetup.com and it was great and all but we started to outgrow the site especially when the group size went from a couple dozen to just over a thousand, and I think we were the second largest group there with the NYC photog club being the largest but they weren't the most active group compared to us.
We sent meetup our feedback on how things must change as there were several shortcomings with their forum and unfortunately they just ignored us. A few of us mods/organizers agreed that moving off of meetup.com to our own website/forum was the right thing to do to accomdate future growth.
We switched over to the phpBB and of course it was a change that impacted the members. New format, even some functionality lost, and messages on the other site were not migrated over to the new site. We initially had a lot of disappointed users at first, similar to what's happening here, as they didn't like the new format and found it difficult to post, read, etc. and they preferred the old single-section format. This all boils down to the user's comfort level and/or willingness to learn something new, really no different with what's happening here. We also had the concerns that a lot of users wouldn't make the switch but in reality they did and stayed. After a short period of time, everybody agreed that it was a good move, even those who disagreed initially, but of course our reason for the move was to help improve the forum from the crappy layout on meetup.com.
During the first year we got a lot of feedback on how to make the site better, so I finally hacked in some of the features that we lost and other things suggested by members to help improve the site.
Now I understand that our photog site migration wasn't for the same reason as AW but given that it is really the only one of it's kind in Toronto, we have grown considerably to the point that I think everybody forgot about that blasted old site and currently we have a couple thousand users on the forum and the most active one for the GTA (though fair number of those users are lurkers).
So will people stay or go elsewhere, I imagine some will go, maybe a fair bit, but time will tell. And hopefully the feedback we're providing about the layout of the current forum and what could be done to improve it such as Dave Cheng's suggestion on cleaning up the format (and no going back to kawf isn't one of them), IB will pick up on that and consider making these changes, though I highly doubt it so prove me wrong.
Just my two cents.
03-17-2009, 03:22 PM
#25
AudiWorld Senior Member
Join Date: May 2008
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It's not about vB!
My logic is like this: business is half about your customer base, and half about your product. Whether or not your product is of higher quality, if your customers prefer one thing, you don't change it 100% on them.
This implementation could have gone swimmingly IF they had spent more time on the development end. vB has the infrastructure to be fully customized, and the same information can be conveyed in several different manners.
Young people like flashy stuff and to be able to PM, apparently - conversely, those of us who chose AW over AZ and FT made the decision based on the quality of the people, and the ability to grasp the majority of the replies without having to scroll through everything.
If the developers had spent time making two different themes - one that was threaded (similar, not necessarily identical to KAWF) and one that was linear (as we have now), users would have a choice but WITHIN AW. What IB has done is ignore their present user-base, in the hopes of dragging users from other forums; in the long run, people aren't going to switch unless they're unhappy or something is vastly superior. From a business model alone, Internet Brands has done everything they can do to show that they don't care about the user base, they want more ads revenue.
Fvck that, and fvck IB. Sorry, April. I understand you guys are just caught in the crossfire.
Yes, I'm part of the younger crowd, and I'm a little more resilient. Yes, I'm annoyed by the change, and yes, I've joined QuattroWorld. That being said, I'll still poke my head in here; until IB picks up the slack and makes this an EVOLUTION instead of a completely different system, Meegis might be the only active user left.
This implementation could have gone swimmingly IF they had spent more time on the development end. vB has the infrastructure to be fully customized, and the same information can be conveyed in several different manners.
Young people like flashy stuff and to be able to PM, apparently - conversely, those of us who chose AW over AZ and FT made the decision based on the quality of the people, and the ability to grasp the majority of the replies without having to scroll through everything.
If the developers had spent time making two different themes - one that was threaded (similar, not necessarily identical to KAWF) and one that was linear (as we have now), users would have a choice but WITHIN AW. What IB has done is ignore their present user-base, in the hopes of dragging users from other forums; in the long run, people aren't going to switch unless they're unhappy or something is vastly superior. From a business model alone, Internet Brands has done everything they can do to show that they don't care about the user base, they want more ads revenue.
Fvck that, and fvck IB. Sorry, April. I understand you guys are just caught in the crossfire.
Yes, I'm part of the younger crowd, and I'm a little more resilient. Yes, I'm annoyed by the change, and yes, I've joined QuattroWorld. That being said, I'll still poke my head in here; until IB picks up the slack and makes this an EVOLUTION instead of a completely different system, Meegis might be the only active user left.
03-17-2009, 03:33 PM
#26
AudiWorld Super User
![[KRAFTIG]'s Avatar](https://www.audiworld.com/forums/customavatars/avatar69804_1.gif){kind=avatar}
Yeah me too, hopefully that gets turned on.
Not to beat a dead horse, but hear me out. One thing that just popped up in my head, I took the photog users through the exact same thing a couple years ago but it was a change from one forum to another forum software. Our reasons for the move was not $$$ motivated.
We used to be on meetup.com and it was great and all but we started to outgrow the site especially when the group size went from a couple dozen to just over a thousand, and I think we were the second largest group there with the NYC photog club being the largest but they weren't the most active group compared to us.
We sent meetup our feedback on how things must change as there were several shortcomings with their forum and unfortunately they just ignored us. A few of us mods/organizers agreed that moving off of meetup.com to our own website/forum was the right thing to do to accomdate future growth.
We switched over to the phpBB and of course it was a change that impacted the members. New format, even some functionality lost, and messages on the other site were not migrated over to the new site. We initially had a lot of disappointed users at first, similar to what's happening here, as they didn't like the new format and found it difficult to post, read, etc. and they preferred the old single-section format. This all boils down to the user's comfort level and/or willingness to learn something new, really no different with what's happening here. We also had the concerns that a lot of users wouldn't make the switch but in reality they did and stayed. After a short period of time, everybody agreed that it was a good move, even those who disagreed initially, but of course our reason for the move was to help improve the forum from the crappy layout on meetup.com.
During the first year we got a lot of feedback on how to make the site better, so I finally hacked in some of the features that we lost and other things suggested by members to help improve the site.
Now I understand that our photog site migration wasn't for the same reason as AW but given that it is really the only one of it's kind in Toronto, we have grown considerably to the point that I think everybody forgot about that blasted old site and currently we have a couple thousand users on the forum and the most active one for the GTA (though fair number of those users are lurkers).
So will people stay or go elsewhere, I imagine some will go, maybe a fair bit, but time will tell. And hopefully the feedback we're providing about the layout of the current forum and what could be done to improve it such as Dave Cheng's suggestion on cleaning up the format (and no going back to kawf isn't one of them), IB will pick up on that and consider making these changes, though I highly doubt it so prove me wrong.
Just my two cents.
Not to beat a dead horse, but hear me out. One thing that just popped up in my head, I took the photog users through the exact same thing a couple years ago but it was a change from one forum to another forum software. Our reasons for the move was not $$$ motivated.
We used to be on meetup.com and it was great and all but we started to outgrow the site especially when the group size went from a couple dozen to just over a thousand, and I think we were the second largest group there with the NYC photog club being the largest but they weren't the most active group compared to us.
We sent meetup our feedback on how things must change as there were several shortcomings with their forum and unfortunately they just ignored us. A few of us mods/organizers agreed that moving off of meetup.com to our own website/forum was the right thing to do to accomdate future growth.
We switched over to the phpBB and of course it was a change that impacted the members. New format, even some functionality lost, and messages on the other site were not migrated over to the new site. We initially had a lot of disappointed users at first, similar to what's happening here, as they didn't like the new format and found it difficult to post, read, etc. and they preferred the old single-section format. This all boils down to the user's comfort level and/or willingness to learn something new, really no different with what's happening here. We also had the concerns that a lot of users wouldn't make the switch but in reality they did and stayed. After a short period of time, everybody agreed that it was a good move, even those who disagreed initially, but of course our reason for the move was to help improve the forum from the crappy layout on meetup.com.
During the first year we got a lot of feedback on how to make the site better, so I finally hacked in some of the features that we lost and other things suggested by members to help improve the site.
Now I understand that our photog site migration wasn't for the same reason as AW but given that it is really the only one of it's kind in Toronto, we have grown considerably to the point that I think everybody forgot about that blasted old site and currently we have a couple thousand users on the forum and the most active one for the GTA (though fair number of those users are lurkers).
So will people stay or go elsewhere, I imagine some will go, maybe a fair bit, but time will tell. And hopefully the feedback we're providing about the layout of the current forum and what could be done to improve it such as Dave Cheng's suggestion on cleaning up the format (and no going back to kawf isn't one of them), IB will pick up on that and consider making these changes, though I highly doubt it so prove me wrong.
Just my two cents.
