***** Site Conversion to vBulletin *****

[Vinnie]

I must apologize for the complications we seem to be having with this thread.
We are reposting it and would really appreciate if people wanted to leave their comments that they please try again. Thank you.

Originally Posted By: shepherds

Hi GSD community,

Hope your week has gone well.

This thread is to let you know that we will be converting germanshepherds.com to a new software platform called vBulletin.

If you frequent other online communities, chances are you may have already used vBulletin before.

Here are the reasons we are doing this conversion:

- vB is by far the most recognizable and used forum software in the online community; it is infinitely more secure and offers on-going support and development from the software designers

- Our team uses vB across all sites so the VS team can manage upgrades, security updates and sites add-ons much easier and more efficiently with it

- vB has a better "modification" system where we can add new features more easily and faster when the community needs it

- vB has a nicer upload and picture gallery system that's easier to manage and use (IMO)

Our team are seasoned technicians at doing these conversions but with any major conversion of this scale, there are always going to be some bugs and glitches that will need to be worked out. We are doing everything to minimize this but if it does happen, please be patient. We will fix it.

The ETA for this release is the end of January to early February. The mods and admins will help do some testing on the new platform and if possible, I will see if we can release the test environment for the general community to take for a ride (so to speak).

If you have private messages that are dear to you, I would suggest copying them and saving them in a text file just in case. We will be moving the entire database over to the new platform but it's always good to be safe and back things up when it comes to moves of this magnitude.

Also, we are going to have a contest regarding the new platform so please look for a thread about the contest.

I'm leaving this thread open for questions you may have. I'll do my best to answer them. Thanks!

Admins and Mods

[GunnersMom]

I'm familiar with vBulletin. It's nice!

Will the web address for this forum remain the same, or will we at least be automatically redirected? Don't want to be unable to find you guys!

[shilohsmom]

I don't know anything about the new system but if it has something like our PM's we use now can we:

1. get more space for them
2. get some type of notice that would come up (maybe as we logged in) that said we were 'over our limits'.

Just a couple of suggestions

[littledmc17]

I use it on another forum and absolutely hate it
this one is so much easier

[Barb E]

Rosa - I think they've already increased our PM's here - I have more than 50!!!!

[shilohsmom]

Thanks Barb, I've been busy making sure I delete things so I don't go over the limit.

[DianaM]

Shepherds, do you have links to some of your forums that are vB-coded so we can see examples in action?

[MaggieRoseLee]

Originally Posted By: DianaMShepherds, do you have links to some of your forums that are vB-coded so we can see examples in action?

http://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=screenshots

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...to-find-a-skin

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/content.php

[DianaM]

Thanks, MRL!

http://www.dobermantalk.com/forumindex.php
Dobie forums that is also vBulletin.

Honestly, I really like this interface but vB doesn't seem so bad. If I may make a requesr, can we still have color options like the "Fabulae" theme?

[kelso]

Originally Posted By: DianaM If I may make a requesr, can we still have color options like the "Fabulae" theme?

This is the same thing I was thinking!!! I cannot go back to the pale colors, must have "fabulae"or something like it! That was my concern! hehe