Exciting Mac-Forums Announcement

[pigoo3]

Hello Mac-Forums members & visitors. The Mac-Forums Staff has some very exciting news to share with everyone. Mac-Forums very soon will have a new look & feel...with an upcoming software upgrade.

Mac-Forums has been running on the current site software for approximately the last 10 years...and after 10 years things are a bit dated:

- Most significantly the current Mac-Forums mobile device experience is not the best. With the new site software...Mac-Forums mobile device experience should be MUCH improved.
- Website speed should improve.
- Site security will improve.
- As well as many up-to-date features & ways of doing things expected from a modern internet forum.

We're sure there may also be some important initial details many of you may be interested in regarding member accounts. To the best of our knowledge...most member account data should be unaffected:

- Login's & Passwords
- Avatar's
- PM messages
- Post Count
- Reputation

The upgraded site software does have a different reputation/reward system. Current member reputation is converted to "Likes".

If you have any questions...please let us know. We will do our best to answer all of them.

The new site software has many new features (or different ways of accomplishing the same things we do currently)...and we may not immediately know exactly how every feature works (at this time). Many initial questions will likely revolve around "How do I do this?" or "How do I do that?". Rest assured...once the new software is up & running...we will make every effort to answer all questions.

Timing for the changes is estimated to be within the next 7-10 days.

Prepare for some awesome excitement coming soon!

Your Mac-Forums Staff

 

[ferrarr]

Thanks for keeping us updated. This is very exciting news.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in keeping this site up and running, and for getting it to grow and expand.

 

[pm-r]

OK... but...

Mac-Forums has been running on the current site software for approximately the last 10 years...and after 10 years things are a bit dated:

If it ain't really broke, is this an attempt o actually break it???

The new site software has many new features (or different ways of accomplishing the same things we do currently)...and we may not immediately know exactly how every feature works (at this time).

Ahhh yes... sortof like Apple does and maybe even hide some if not completely removed.

But please please please, DO NOT change the default black font to light grey on a slightly darker grey background aka Apple's crazy vogue!! So hard for old eyes to read!!!

Actually, i'm sure everything will be nicely improved and work better than it ever did.

Good luck and thanks for all your work, updates and maintenance.



- Patrick
======

 

[lclev]

Well I am sure it will be awesome - once the kinks are all ironed out! Translation - as soon as all us old farts figure out how to use the new fangled stuff!

Lisa

 

[dtravis7]

Pat, that is the issue, This software IS BROKEN. Remember when we were going to loose the forums so I bought VBulletin and put up a back up which we were moving to? There is so much broken that no longer does what the manual says. So yes Vbulletin is broken and I have not seen any effort on their part to address some issues that are still there and affect us as Admins here.

Give the new software a chance please.

...Dennis

Also I have been able to finally have a Mac that runs catalina and with a fast SSD and it's an amazing OS if people will just give it a chance.

 

[harryb2448]

Patrick you sure a 'half empty glass' fella. Remember how you couldn't post?

Praising Cataline Dennis? Careful bucko you will be accused of losing it lol!

 

[chscag]

Hi Folks:

Dennis is quite right. The current software (vBulletin) is antiquated and sometimes does not work the way it should. (an understatement) We (the Staff) have given this quite a bit of thought and discussion and have come up with forum software that we feel you will like and that allows more versatility.

As Nick pointed out, the mobile version we currently have is not the best especially for use on an iPhone. The new software lays out much better when used on iOS and Android devices.

Now... I know from personal experience and from my long stint of employment with the US Govt, that it's easy to be resistant to change. That's why we ask that you be patient and to give the new software a chance. We will likely have to tweak it and make changes.

Thanks from the Staff.

Charlie

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Looking forward to the new site myself but prepared for some growing pains. The UI overhaul a while back, while sorely needed, required some tweaking before it got to what we have now.

 

[pm-r]

So yes Vbulletin is broken and I have not seen any effort on their part to address some issues that are still there and affect us as Admins here.

Give the new software a chance please.

I did notice some rather flippant and cocky "We can do no wrong" type comments on their vBulletin forums pages when I was trying to find a solution to a problem another forum's page is having with their display (ehmac.ca, their forums windows doesn't wrap text properly when made narrower).

I assume from the administrator comments here that mac-forums will be switching over to a completely different application software base and not just updating to some newer versions of vBulletin.

That sounds like a lot of hard work and not an easy cake walk, so good luck with the whole change-over.




- Patrick
======

 

[Slydude]

I assume from the administrator comments here that mac-forums will be switching over to a completely different application software base and not just updating to some newer versions of vBulletin.

That sounds like a lot of hard work and not an easy cake walk, so good luck with the whole change-over.




- Patrick
======

Yes. We'll be moving over to a new program rather than update to a newer version of vBulletion. The general idea is to get the basic software up and running for a few days to give it a sort of "shakedown cruise" so to speak. If all goes well there, the database of posts can be migrated over to the new software.

 

[pm-r]

Yes. We'll be moving over to a new program rather than update to a newer version of vBulletion. The general idea is to get the basic software up and running for a few days to give it a sort of "shakedown cruise" so to speak. If all goes well there, the database of posts can be migrated over to the new software.

WOW...!!! That should keep some computers and servers and some people busy during this current pandemic, but not too boring I hope.

That must be a lot of data, but is ten-year+ old stuff still actually needed these days to be added to all the migrated stuff??? Just sort of wondering out loud...




- Patrick
======

 

[pigoo3]

That must be a lot of data, but is ten-year+ old stuff still actually needed these days to be added to all the migrated stuff??? Just sort of wondering out loud...

It can be for user's that swear macOS 10.6 Snow Leopard was the best OS Apple ever released!

But seriously...there are user's out there searching for old Apple info all the time...and all that old info can come in really handy for the user looking for it!

- Nick

 

[krs]

Yes. We'll be moving over to a new program rather than update to a newer version of vBulletion. The general idea is to get the basic software up and running for a few days to give it a sort of "shakedown cruise" so to speak. If all goes well there, the database of posts can be migrated over to the new software.

During that "shakedown cruise" period, will the new forum software be accessible by everyone or only by the moderators?

And is there some emergency contact information, at least for a few days, in case one cannot access the new forum at all?
I remember a while back this forum could not be reached and there was no way (known to me at least) to reach any mod or admin to let them know.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

The two systems will be working in parallel and we will not expose the new system to the general member base until we are certain it is functioning as we like it to. In the meanwhile, you will continue to use the current system as it stands. Once we transition, we can look to providing another way to contact Staff if the forum has issues.

 

[lclev]

I believe last time we used Facebook if the Forum was acting up. That might be a viable option during the time of transition.

Lisa

 

[Slydude]

I was thinking the same thing for those users that use FB. I'm back to checking FB regularly so I should see if something has been posted there.

Being in a couple of other tech-related FB groups, some Mac-related and some not, I find FB dead awkward for sharing the kind of information we typically have to share in most of our threads, but it's good for quick contacts and messages such as what would be needed if the forum were to be down.

 

[pm-r]

It can be for user's that swear macOS 10.6 Snow Leopard was the best OS Apple ever released!

But seriously...there are user's out there searching for old Apple info all the time...and all that old info can come in really handy for the user looking for it!

- Nick

Very valid and accurate points Nick.

But of course, for those using Snow Leopard 10.6.x, they hardly ever had questions or problems. Unless of course they started hacking and modifying things a little bit too much... who me...???

But speaking of old Mac support questions, will the new software have a better and easier to use search function than the existing vBulletin, which I find almost useless???

But the google webpage Search function works quite well.




- Patrick
======

 

[krs]

I believe last time we used Facebook if the Forum was acting up. That might be a viable option during the time of transition.

Lisa

Sounds like a good idea.
Can you post a link to FB for this forum please.

I don't really use facebook but I somehow ended up with an account years ago that is still active.

 

[krs]

It can be for user's that swear macOS 10.6 Snow Leopard was the best OS Apple ever released!

That would include myself, not that I actually tried every macOS release between 10.6 and now.
But macOS 10.6 was advertised as mostly a clean-up and bug fix issue; I just read that macOS 10.16 is supposedly planned to be similar.

 

[Slydude]

Sounds like a good idea.
Can you post a link to FB for this forum please.

Here's the link to the Mac-Forums Facebook page. There's usually not a huge amount of activity tartar unless the forum goes down. Perhaps we can change that in the near future.