The Garage Journal V3

[jb3]

I'll bet that's highly dependent on the demographic.

Probably not the case with the old fart set.

Personally I still don't understand people who go around all day with their face buried in a phone. Dad Gum whippersnappers.

It may be, but people who design websites cannot afford to ignore that by 2023 285 million people in this country alone possess smart phones. Designing for desktop and mobile formats together is an understood reality of web design.

I personally prefer the current format, but only because i am used to it. I spent some time on the HAMB really trying to find something that i could be critical about, and at the end of the day, what it really comes down to is its different. Not bad different, just different than what im used to. I think some of the people objecting to it need to spend more time experimenting over there.

 

[BillK]

Sure. For starters, on computer monitor (1920 x 1200), I can see 24 threads listed at the same time. On HAMB, I can only see 12.

My point exactly in my earlier post. And as much as I use my phone all day long I very rarely look at forums on it.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

One of the advantages of the new forum software setups like Xenforo is that they offer "responsive design". They sense what the user is using to surf the site, it knows if you are on a phone or a tablet or a laptop or a desktop computer. And it knows the window size when you are using your computer. The site uses that information to customize the website for the users display! Frankly, it's awesome.
Responsive design is also the death of apps like tapatalk, because the site looks and works just great without tapatalk. And the owner can set it up as they see fit. Also, using tapatalk requires the owner to give up lots of control and info to the tapatalk company.
Currently the garage journal really stinks on a cell phone... which has pushed some users to tapatalk. And lots of people dislike tapatalk too.
Xenforo will fix all that.
Remember, Xenforo is HIGHLY customizable. Ryan will be able to make the garage journal look however he wants on desktops, phones, and tablets. And if he gets complaints about a feature and he wants to change it, he can.

 

[reader2580]

I think the issues are less about the Xenforo software itself, and more about what happens when a forum owner changes to Xenforo. Most forum owners seem to use the change to Xenforo to redesign their forum, and the redesigns are often pretty bad.

I will say there is one forum that did a redesign (I don't know if they switched software) and I haven't visited since. The design is so bright white it almost hurts your eyes.

 

[Ryan]

Having some delays due to people catching Covid and what not, but we are working on it still...

 

[Bad Eye Bill]

Having some delays due to people catching Covid and what not, but we are working on it still...

No problem, you'll get there and it will be fine.

The crying is entertaining to a point.

 

[shephd]

I only noticed this thread today. You have to do something, so carry on and good luck!

 

[Old Man Roger]

Having some delays due to people catching Covid and what not, but we are working on it still...

Hope no one has any serious symptoms, best wishes.

P.S. Take aaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllll the time you need.

 

[MikeK]

I just read through the 15 pages of this thread, and look forward to the conversion. I used to own two large discussion boards that I converted from vB 3.x to XF 1.5. As with some of the comments in this thread, many threatened to leave if anything changed, and some did. Most remained.

One active member (over 25,000 posts) reacted very negatively to the conversion because he couldn't access the site with Tapatalk. When I explained to him that XenForo works with all mobile platforms and outperforms Tapatalk, he wouldn't accept this and demanded that I delete his account. After a few back and forth exchanges, he again demanded that I delete his account. I told him I would be happy to purge his username from the website, but would not delete the content since this would be too disruptive to the flow of the years of contribution. I also cautioned him that this would not be reversible. Again, he insisted, so I made him disappear. About a month later, he used the "Contact us" feature to request his old account back. He eventually accessed the site on his phone, and was pleased at how it looked. Too bad, so sad, but no.

In my opinion, vB 3 was the last stable version with regards to security and data integrity. Unfortunately, it was no longer supported and the wolves were getting smarter. The vB 3 developers left to start XenForo, and the attention to security was immediately obvious.

One thing to consider as a user, is to export any important PMs prior to the conversion. XenForo treats these differently than vBulletin, and I don't know of any way to preserve a PM thread after the conversion. XenForo refers to private messages as "Conversations". These are similar to private threads instead of email-like exchanges. There is no Inbox or Outbox in XenForo, just private conversation threads.

 

[theoldwizard1]

So .... WHEN !

 

[Vintage Veloce]

One thing to consider as a user, is to export any important PMs prior to the conversion. XenForo treats these differently than vBulletin, and I don't know of any way to preserve a PM thread after the conversion. XenForo refers to private messages as "Conversations". These are similar to private threads instead of email-like exchanges. There is no Inbox or Outbox in XenForo, just private conversation threads.

It is possible to preserve vBulletin PMs as XenForo Conversations. It will depend on what Ryan wants to do. However, it is a very good idea to copy out any critical stuff you have in Garage Journal PMs, just in case.
And you are correct, Conversations do work a bit differently on XenForo than PMs on vBulletin. I'd say better. ;-)

 

[justanengineer]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but it’d be nice to set a timer for threads to self lock to prevent zombie threads from a decade ago being needlessly brought back. Seems we’ve had quite a few lately.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Old Man Roger]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but it’d be nice to set a timer for threads to self lock to prevent zombie threads from a decade ago being needlessly brought back. Seems we’ve had quite a few lately.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s usually spammers bringing up the old threads, the update should take care of the spammers.

Sometimes old threads get brought up for good reason too.

 

[Wrench97]

If I remember correctly closing threads also negatively effects the Google analytical rating for the site.

 

[Bad Eye Bill]

Enlighten me, what's wrong with bringing up old threads?

Nothing wrong with it in my opinion. I've found some good reading many times in old threads that someone brought back .

 

[niget2002]

Enlighten me, what's wrong with bringing up old threads?

Nothing wrong with it in my opinion. I've found some good reading many times in old threads that someone brought back .

The ones that I consider annoying is when the person that brings up the old thread asks the OP a question... and the OP hasn't been on the site in 4 years.

 

[Bad Eye Bill]

The ones that I consider annoying is when the person that brings up the old thread asks the OP a question... and the OP hasn't been on the site in 4 years.

Yeah, I'll give you that one.

 

[like2wheel]

The ones that I consider annoying is when the person that brings up the old thread asks the OP a question... and the OP hasn't been on the site in 4 years.

But the only reason other people read the thread is to get information for themselves. So I don't think the people reading it particularly care if the op is still around.

I think it's better to continue to add information instead of starting a new thread. Makes is easier to find info when more discussion is in one place.

What annoys me is the people that seem to get their jollies out of calling out the person who revived the old thread, like they are going to win some sort of prize for being the first to notice. Seems like they are just trying to embarrass the poster & make themselves look better.

 

[Bad Eye Bill]

But the only reason other people read the thread is to get information for themselves. So I don't think the people reading it particularly care if the op is still around.

I think it's better to continue to add information instead of starting a new thread. Makes is easier to find info when more discussion is in one place.

What annoys me is the people that seem to get their jollies out of calling out the person who revived the old thread, like they are going to win some sort of prize for being the first to notice. Seems like they are just trying to embarrass the poster & make themselves look better.

Exactly.