Hey Gang,
It's time to talk. As you have surely noticed, there's been an attack of spam on the site for about the last seven days. As a site gets larger, and shows more traffic, it becomes a target for these sorts of things, and we as a group are very good about keeping the battle out of site from the members for the most part, with the exception of theVOG. The software here has some limitations that are keeping us from operating as we prefer to. Two of the major limitations are the operating speed of the forum itself, and the ability to block certain countries/ IP addresses/Etc from registering and posting spam.
I am fully prepared to hear the argument that "Everything was fine until you came along Aaron!". You'll just have to trust me and my experience when I tell you that this happens on ALL forums that grow to a certain size.
We would like to convert the forum to Vbulletin, which is what we use on most of our sites, but we don't want to do it without discussing it with the members first. Here are some of the benefits:
1. The forum will operate much faster. i don't know about you guys, but it can get pretty laggy for me.
2. Upgraded almost everything. PMs, gallery, graphics, etc
3. It will me much easier to search and navigate. You may disagree with this for the first day, but after that, you'll wonder how you ever got around without it.
4. Selectable skins. Pick from a couple of different skin themes. Keep it all dark like it is, or step into the light. Have it your way.
5. Spam fighting tools! One click sends a spam report to ALL the admins and moderators. From there its one more click for me to send them off to spammer afterlife and ban their IP address.
6. Banned IP address database. keeps known spammers away before they even try.
7. All your data will come over with you. Posts, PM's, pics, all that.
8. It is a vastly more efficient and intuitive way to interact on a forum.
The Downsides...
1. It'll be a little chaotic around here for a couple of days. We'll start a thread for anything that might go missing or wonky, and have our team fix issues as they come up. It's just inherent in a forum conversion that a couple things don't happen automatically.
2. It will look a little different to you. The basic organization and navigation are very similar, you just might have to find a button that's moved a bit.
Ok, there you have it. Discuss!
It's time to talk. As you have surely noticed, there's been an attack of spam on the site for about the last seven days. As a site gets larger, and shows more traffic, it becomes a target for these sorts of things, and we as a group are very good about keeping the battle out of site from the members for the most part, with the exception of theVOG. The software here has some limitations that are keeping us from operating as we prefer to. Two of the major limitations are the operating speed of the forum itself, and the ability to block certain countries/ IP addresses/Etc from registering and posting spam.
I am fully prepared to hear the argument that "Everything was fine until you came along Aaron!". You'll just have to trust me and my experience when I tell you that this happens on ALL forums that grow to a certain size.
We would like to convert the forum to Vbulletin, which is what we use on most of our sites, but we don't want to do it without discussing it with the members first. Here are some of the benefits:
1. The forum will operate much faster. i don't know about you guys, but it can get pretty laggy for me.
2. Upgraded almost everything. PMs, gallery, graphics, etc
3. It will me much easier to search and navigate. You may disagree with this for the first day, but after that, you'll wonder how you ever got around without it.
4. Selectable skins. Pick from a couple of different skin themes. Keep it all dark like it is, or step into the light. Have it your way.
5. Spam fighting tools! One click sends a spam report to ALL the admins and moderators. From there its one more click for me to send them off to spammer afterlife and ban their IP address.
6. Banned IP address database. keeps known spammers away before they even try.
7. All your data will come over with you. Posts, PM's, pics, all that.
8. It is a vastly more efficient and intuitive way to interact on a forum.
The Downsides...
1. It'll be a little chaotic around here for a couple of days. We'll start a thread for anything that might go missing or wonky, and have our team fix issues as they come up. It's just inherent in a forum conversion that a couple things don't happen automatically.
2. It will look a little different to you. The basic organization and navigation are very similar, you just might have to find a button that's moved a bit.
Ok, there you have it. Discuss!
