The Future of the Board?

[Fritz]

So, it's been on my mind some, both between the recent upgrades of the GBHQ and Nightsquad boards, and the latest round of delays in Proboards' upgrading.

I've given some strong consideration to giving up and moving over to Forumer--they offer PHPBB boards, the same software that GBHQ, GBCentral, Nightsquad, and the GBI board this week run on.

The advantages: PHPBB is a better software, probably better in ways still than Proboards V4. Member groups, poll options, and Mod abilities look to still be better than 4

The drawbacks: It means starting all over again. I can't even transfer post counts (that's one part of a PHPBB profile even an Admin can't touch) and I couldn't do what Net and Bo were able to do, namely transfer the database to the new server. And PHPBB, especially as offered by Forumer, is far less flexible--we're almost guaranteed to have the standard blue and grey board design. And Proboards is more flexible in assigning mod and administrative powers.

Let me know what you think.

[Miss Janine]

I voted maybe. Post counts don't concern me all that much (unlike some people at some boards I've been to), and I like this site's layout and colors. Mainly I have a wait and see attitude about it.

[TheRazorsEdge]

Eh, I never liked the look of the GBI boards. I say stick with Proboards.

[Jeremy Hicks]

I'm with MissJanine on this one. Let's wait it out.

[Kingpin]

On the plus side, it would have better options as Fritz mentioned, and the set up would be that there probably wouldn't be the risk of a forum being rendered out of action if the staff get ill.

However, as mentioned, posts probably can't be carried over without specific arrangements, and alot of posts are here, short of everyone basically posting "EMPTY POST - CONTENT WILL BE MOVED FROM THE ORIGINAL FORUM PROMPTLY" in each post, thus recreating the original post structure, I'm hazardous, especially after the sudden move that occurred at GBI which gave us little time to prepare.

Additionally, do Proboards have coding like that cool SPOILER code that got used I think here and at the Ectozone?

But that's my two cents.

[Fritz]

I thank you all for your input.

I was floating this suggestion now for the very reason Ben mentioned: I didn't want to do it the way Rich did: move and tell everyone else about it later.

Proboards does have a Spoiler code--it was up at the Omnibus board. PHPBB has one too--a board I go to occassionally ( www.animejump.com/phpbb )uses it. But Forumer's package is pretty weak on allowing code plug-ins, and I'm not sure I could use it.

I dunno...Proboards has been very good to me, and it's customization options are awesome, but some of the abilities in the PHPBB software do make me jealous at times, especially after getting to Mod one again. "Split Topic" has proved so so very useful on GBHQ.

According to the poll, "Wait Until After the Upgrade" is winning for now, and I admit that's my preference as well. I guess it's just frustration that it's taking so long talking.

[TheRazorsEdge]

Well that "Upgrading in progress" flash video is up at the GBWC and Omnibus boards, so it looks like he wait will soon be over.

I still say that whatever options and code they have to offer can't be so special that it's worth all the hassle and the less appealing design. Honestly, what's wrong with the stuff we have now? I've never made a post, then wished that I could do such-and-such, because there's a ton of add tags buttons there, and I already don't use most of them.