DW is one of the only forums I use that feels right. I like the layour and feel. The TC forum does seem a more 'tradidional' car forum layout which i don't like. At the end of the day though, I'd still use it whatever software was used so i don't really mind. What I would absolutely love though would be a stealth mode, or low bandwidth version, which removes all the graphics and colours for easier browsing at work.
Probs better if you keep it the same between the two forums as its easier to manage and reduces time from a management perspective.
With IPB you can change your user settings so that you do not view images in posts, avatars or signitures so once you have loaded one page your browser should have very little to load again. You would need to turn these settings off once you were home/wanted to view images again but its only a couple of checkboxes!
Cheers for the feedback guys. Part of the issue with Vbulletin is that the version we're using's not really supported any more and the newer version's really not great. Still pretty buggy by all accounts. VBulletin have changed as a company and certainly aren't as cutting edge as they were say 5 years ago.... Whilst I think VBB works well for a purely informational site where people are discussing computer virus activity, xbox modifications and such, IP Board stuff seems to be much better for communities who see each other and keep in touch as people rather than just information sharers. Sure we can tweak the look and I see what you mean about the DW content being more condensed. It makes the TC stuff look a bit spaced out and childish maybe? But that's all easy things that can be played with. It's more about the functionality, how it all works and what it's got to offer people. For example, have a click around on someone's member profile on the TC forum. It's closer to something like a Facebook wall and with the right tweaks, it'd mean people can have a profile page where they can show a bit about themselves, list their sponsors and such. Mobile phone integration is fantastic with IP Board, loads of people are checking sites on their mobiles these days so that's a must for us. Andy, have a look at the mobile skin on TC (you can change it in the drop down box at the bottom of the screen) that's really simple formatting with a load of the styling removed, so that may well be exactly what you're after We know people are scared of change but it's a healthy process and we strongly feel this would be a change for the better. Of course we'll do our best to make it as good as possible
At first i grumbled lots but i looked again and... i dont like the homepage at all, too much going on. I like the current DW homepage/blog because its simple! You get a taster and click on it if you want to read more, i likes that. Forum wise... i really like the one you've suggested Phil. all the facebook stuff etc i'm a bit gay and would love that haha I also like the idea of the featured garage thing, i used to have it on my old forum a couple of years ago. Users would add pics and specs to their profile, then they'd randomly pop up so other users can read specs and info about their car.
If it ain't broke...don't fix it tbh. Although a mock up of how a Driftworks version would look may help people decide properly? Not that you are busy anyway...Just an idea.
I dont think the problems are with the forum software itself. I think the track culture forum looks really dated, the colour scheme, the page curl thing on the corners of the tabs, the separate boxes everywhere makes it too cluttered. Also I think the overly compressed blurry logos and images at the top don't help with the datedness either! So yeah, re-design it to look more simple and compress your images properly and it'd be ok (p.s Im a full time web and graphic designer for loads of household name companies, so I feel qualified to comment )
Not really. Everyones hated every little change on here at first until they get used to it. The other forum works really nice on my mobile, but I malldont struggle using this one really apart from sometimes clicking on a page number as thats pretty small. I prefer the look here, but mostly down to cosmetics.
The MX5OC swapped forum software a couple of years ago and it nearly killed the forum - they lost all the old content and the new forum software had more advantages for the admin team than the users. You could check for new threads once a week and not miss anything. It's better now, but they lost a lot of the fun people. If you can migrate all the old threads on to the new software then it's less of an issue, but you have to keep the old stuff - they didn't which meant that all the project threads died and the search function became useless. While you're at it how about an under 17s area for those that don't drive to keep them off the main forum? We can just ignore all the stupid newbie questions then, and it won't get so full of crap at half term. As far as the looks go - I like the DW black/orange skin. Keep that the same and half the users won't spot the difference.
I was thinking something more along the lines of this as a comparison: JZX World Forums (Powered by Invision Power Board) as normal JZX World Forums as lo-fi. I just quite like the bare bones when all I want/need to do is read the text. The skin you reccomended though, James, is pretty good. Basically, if it is condensed, and grown up, and all the old content is kept, I don't think there would be much problem with a change. I personally hate how everything has to be social-networkable these days so I don't see the point in that respect, but if it makes it easier to manage and still retains and possibly adds more (useful) funcionality, I'm all for it.
As has been said, TC looks more dated than DW to me. I don't like the look of it much, but that's just a skin and personal preference. The headers are definitely not as crisp though, you need to sort those out as it doesn't help! Using TC, it seems OK, but I'm so used to VBB that in a quick play, it just doesn't seem as nice to use. I guess the main problem you face is that VBB is so prevalent that most people who use a bunch of forums are completely used to it and the way it looks, and anything else just doesn't feel the same. I use six or seven forums regularly, and all but one of them use VBB. What are the advantages to switching from the user's perspective? What does IPB do that VBB doesn't? Also, as a massive Facebook hater, I hate that the forum is integrated with it and asks me to login via FB and has FB logos on every page. I wish FB would fuck off. But that's probably just me.
im having a prob but when i click on someones user name i cant find the dropdown seams to be off the screen ???
I hate FB too. Every time they e-mail me to ask me to join they send a list of potential "friends" which is a list of people from my past I never want to see again.
Does look fresh, layout and colours could be tweaked a little but overall looks a nice upgrade from the standard vbb.
