Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Imperial Symposium. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Should we upgrade?
Yes 6 (100%)
No 0 (0%)
Total Votes: 6
Upgrading the board...; ... from InvisionFree to ZetaBoards
Topic Started: Aug 30 2011, 12:37 PM (140 Views)
The Silent Orator
Member Avatar
Administrator
[ *  *  * ]
ZetaBoards is another type of board that InvisionFree hosts. It is slightly different in setup than how these boards are set up. If we do upgrade, it may take the staff a little bit to get used to the new features of the board, but I feel that the greater control and features could be useful for everyone.

http://if.invisionfree.com/announcement/18/

That topic explains the board in some detail as well as gives the pros and cons of the new board.

http://docs.zetaboards.com/newmemberfeatures

This will explain the changes for members of the board.

http://docs.zetaboards.com/newadminfeatures

If anyone is interested, this will explain the changes for admins of the board.

I personally wouldn't mind the upgrade and I'd be all for getting used to the newer system if it meant better usage and efficiency of the board, but I'm leaving it to you guys to decide whether you want the upgrade or not.

Actually, to be honest, for those of you who remember foruming back in 2004-2006... the new ZetaBoards reminds me of ClicDev.

Discuss why (or why not) we should upgrade in here. I'll leave this up for a few days (a week maximum) to get a general feel for how everyone feels about this.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Emperor Scorpious II
Member Avatar
Hail Caesar!!
[ *  *  * ]
It looks pretty interesting, though the list of changes is kind of confusing. The links list things changes but doesn't actually describe what they are.

For example, what is this?
"PM Notifier Toast"

Wut. Toast?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The Silent Orator
Member Avatar
Administrator
[ *  *  * ]
I think it means that when you get a new PM, you get a little pop-up whenever you're on the board and you surf a page saying, "Hey, you got a PM!"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Emperor Scorpious II
Member Avatar
Hail Caesar!!
[ *  *  * ]
That would both be rather annoying and useful.

I just feel that the new "features" need to be better described before I say yea or nay to the upgrade.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The Silent Orator
Member Avatar
Administrator
[ *  *  * ]
I just asked a friend of mine on FB (who's, like, amazing with technology and stuff) about the difference between ZB and IF and what're the pros and cons of updating. He put it as simply as he could. I'll quote what he said.

Quote:
 
Pros:
-Unlimited Subforum hierarchy
-Joinable groups with permission masks and configurable join settings
-Greater web standards compliancy, likely better accessibility for text-to-speech programs
-Multiple skins on one board, each with their own image sets
-Integrated blog
-Admin assistants (can manage a subset of the admin cp, like members/boards/etc)
-Integrated Custom Profile fields
-PMs act as conversations (a la gmail)
-PM tagging capability
-Online/Offline notification in topic view
-Report CP (easier management of reported posts)
-Integrated website maker
-Users can request name changes
-Member/Topic autotools to perform multiple preset actions at once
-main_url function makes it easier for coders
-More BBC tags
-Post previews use ajax instead of page reload
-Improved user account security settings (via User CP)
-Guest welcome box
-Trash can alternative to post/thread deletion
-Developed in-house, so adjustments/improvements can be made more easily

Cons:
-PMs cannot be deleted
-Lack of control for custom member titles (IF had configurable post limit)
-Tracked topics do not notify via email
-Bulk emails must be sent to one group at a time (instead of selecting all groups that should receive it at once)
-No pre-registration
-Previous skins/codes incompatible without major renevations
-No user option to turn off fast reply
-[doHTML] can no longer be used (still works in converted posts until edited)
-HTML cannot be used in forum descriptions, rules or group pre/suffixes
-Contact information displayed only on profile, no longer accessible from topic view
-No getnewpost function accessible from forum view (only accessible from recent topics listed on board index)
-Less familiarity

The pros/cons for Invision are pretty much the inverse of Zetaboards'. The pros definitely outweigh the cons by sheer numbers, but the value of some features may be too precious to give up. It's up to each individual board admin to decide. I'm guessing, however, that the list of cons will shrink over time as bugs are worked out and features are added to bring ZB at equal footing with where IF was.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The Silent Orator
Member Avatar
Administrator
[ *  *  * ]
From what I can tell (as this has been a unanimous vote for yes), everyone has agreed that we should upgrade to Zetaboards. I shall be doing that some time this weekend (most likely on Monday, but don't be surprised if it's earlier). Thank you everyone for participating in this poll.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Forum Suggestions · Next Topic »
Add Reply


[ Copy this | Start New | Full Size ]