Changes to Access World Forums

[Lightwave]

I personally wouldn't mind if it was free for the first year and then maybe £5 a year after that.

I like the fact we don't have advertising at the moment but understand the need for revenue.

 

[Vassago]

We do have advertising...

 

[Rich]

We do have advertising...

Yeah but a lot of it is now blocked because their security certificates have expired

 

[Jon]

Rich, what do you mean by that? How long have the adverts been blocked? Which advert locations?

 

[SOS]

Rich, what do you mean by that? How long have the adverts been blocked? Which advert locations?

Well, I know that I get this when I first log in to the site:

 

[Jon]

Thanks for that. Looks like it must be something to do with the LivePerson code. Will have to fix that.

 

[Jon]

Since we are on a new super-duper host, the next step is to upgrade to vBulletin 4.0 and their CMS system. Any thoughts on this?

 

[georgedwilkinson]

Go for it.

Also, I noticed that they have a Wiki over at UA now. Any chance the new software has a user managed Wiki?

 

[Jon]

vBulletin CMS system allows promotion of posts to articles and it is quite possible for users here to write articles for the main site. Do you think people here would be willing to do that? The idea is to create a knowledge base for Microsoft Access programmers or users.

 

[georgedwilkinson]

I'm not sure what people will do but I'd say based on UA's response and based on our own samples and demo sections that it would go over well. I am in the process of writing some wikis for the UA site and was going to cross post them here.

 

[Jon]

I've been reading a lot of stuff about vBulletin 4.0 and their CMS suite and I am in two minds over making the switch. A lot of people don't like the look and feel of the new version and people are bitching about the CMS suite big time. So what do I do?

I would like to turn the whole site into something a bit more special, rather than it just being a forum based site.

 

[georgedwilkinson]

Reasonable from your perspective. All I can tell you is why I like this site over others.

The look and feel of the site (mostly because of vBulletin) is especially neat and easy to read and administer, as a user. Though UA has improved considerably since their upgrade, it is still easier to read and use this site. I like the layout of threads with the borders around each post, and the tools for posting. I also like the layout of the Today's Posts view, which makes it incredibly easy to tell which posts you've already read or decided not to bother with.

Even after their upgrade, UA "seems" cluttered to me. This site always "seems" fresh and clean. I'm not even sure how to describe this without sitting down with somebody with both sites up on the screen.

I have used one non-Access site that has the new vBulletin and I find it very difficult to respond to a post. That may be because of the way that site is set up. Everything else on that site looks and behaves about the same as this site, though...very clean and easy to follow.

 

[Kryst51]

Also as a question, as long as we are taling about improvements, is there a way to be able to change a post to resolved or not? I have heard some people say you can edit the subject line, but have not been able to on my own threads.

 

[vbaInet]

Reasonable from your perspective. All I can tell you is why I like this site over others.

The look and feel of the site (mostly because of vBulletin) is especially neat and easy to read and administer, as a user. Though UA has improved considerably since their upgrade, it is still easier to read and use this site. I like the layout of threads with the borders around each post, and the tools for posting. I also like the layout of the Today's Posts view, which makes it incredibly easy to tell which posts you've already read or decided not to bother with.

Even after their upgrade, UA "seems" cluttered to me. This site always "seems" fresh and clean. I'm not even sure how to describe this without sitting down with somebody with both sites up on the screen.

I have used one non-Access site that has the new vBulletin and I find it very difficult to respond to a post. That may be because of the way that site is set up. Everything else on that site looks and behaves about the same as this site, though...very clean and easy to follow.

Absoultely agree. Good use of colours and sectioned properly. The reason why I hardly go on UA.

 

[Jon]

Interesting feedback. Any other things you like about this forum or don't like? What do you prefer on UA verses here?

 

[SOS]

About the only thing I like about UA better than here is that they have more emoticons to choose from, including one for welcoming new users to the site and a few other custom ones. But where we have about 12 they have about 40.

 

[vbaInet]

About the only thing I like about UA better than here is that they have more emoticons to choose from, including one for welcoming new users to the site and a few other custom ones. But where we have about 12 they have about 40.

SOS does like his emoticons

 

[SOS]

SOS does like his emoticons

Yes, I do...it helps me convey things past the bland text.

 

[georgedwilkinson]

The new feature of UA is the Wiki. It is very appealing in concept, though I still come here instead of there.

 

[Jon]

Here is an example of a home page and forum using vBulletin 4.0. What are your thoughts?

http://www.dnforum.com/content.php

http://www.dnforum.com/forum.php