Impending system upgrade

In the very near future, I am intending to convert this site over to the newest version of vBulletin. However, there are a lot of features on this older version that were custom made and would have to be done over again in the new site. This will not be easy, nor cheap, so I am pondering over which of those features are not worth the effort and cost of migrating over.

So I figured I would run them by you all to see what you think. Some of them are probably NOT going to be converted over, just based on present lack of usage, but are included anyway just for my own info.

There may be others that I have forgotten about that I will have to add later.

This is a multiple choice poll, so you can click on as many as you feel you have an opinion on.

Thanks.

The classifieds control panel is great. I use it every time I log onto the site.

User warnings are a good way to moderate posts.

User ratings is a quick way to see someone's selling/buying status (if more people would use the system). It might be a little redundant in connection with the BOI, but it has saved me some time searching for good guy/bad guy posts.

The contributor icon is nice - but probably could be a little smaller.

I have paid little or no attention to the rest of the features... Such as highlighted ads. I rarely even notice them. I'm sure the chat boards are great, but I have never used them.

In my opinion, if I had to choose just one of the features listed, it would be the classifieds control panel. That's probably the best addition this site has had for me.

The feedback feature is nice but very underused. It could be dropped with very little negative impact.
I like the warning system. It's like a public clothesline to hang dirty laundry on. Whether it is of use enough to keep though is more a decision of you and the moderators than the general users.
The contributors icon is nice and I'd like to see that stay. It let's people know who cares enough for the site to help keep it running.

For myself, the chat features are not needed, but that's because I'm just not much of an online chatter. I guess it depends on the amount of traffic the rooms get, which I have no idea about.

The classifieds ads highlighting and sponsor bar are purely a matter of economics. Do they generate enough revenue to pay to have them converted over to the new system so that they would end up making money in the end? If they do then keep them, but if not there's no use investing money that those features will not return to you.

Well, I have to admit that so far the results of my poll has presented me with some real puzzles.[list=1][*]If so many people want me to keep the chat room, how come nearly everytime I check status it is empty?
[*]I can count on one hand the number of people who have used the classified highlighting to date, why are so many people voting to keep it?
[*]From all the hate mail I have gotten from people dunned by the warning system, I would have thought most people would be glad to see it ditched.[/list=1]

But the two lowest votes don't surprise me at all. Nearly no one uses the links in the discussion forums to the individual chat rooms. Matter of fact, if I keep the chat room tied to FaunaClassifieds, I will probably eliminate all of the rooms other than the lobby.

And as for the Sponsors bar dropdown advertising pages, I doubt most people even know it exists. The ads there do get a lot of hits from those people who do discover it, but it doesn't bring in enough revenue to justify converting it over in the new upgrade.

As for the size of the contributor icon, heck I thought it WAS small. But I guess it is relative to the resolution you have on your monitor screen.

Yeah, I'm looking more closely at how I plan to spend my money on this system in the future. I'm too far in the red as it is. If I had it to do all over again, no way I would have spent the money I did on that chat software. To be honest, people over on my CornSnakes.com forums have been asking for their own chat system, so unless it sees more usage over here, it probably is going to go over to that site during the conversion process. I guess it comes down to "use it, or lose it" now. Once it is gone, it is not coming back.

Same situation with the classifieds highlighting. Usage so far has not even come close to paying back what it cost me to implement it. So it definitely is on the chopping block.

So maybe things are just wrong with the above concerns? Do they need to be fixed rather than scrapped?

I have to admit that I would miss the chatroom as I am quite partial to it. I've met some good people on there and it makes a nice diversion when there are folks in there to talk to.

I can certainly understand that it might be a pain in the butt to move, set up again and keep running but the software is already bought. As I understand it it doesn't cost to keep it running at all so I'd say just keep it. Cutting down on the rooms to simple categories (snakes, lizards, etc etc) might help in cutting down the amount of time for set-up.

I'm not sure that anyone uses the links from certain forums at all.

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I like the warning points because it lets me know who to disregard when I am reading through posts. If I read a post from someone that seems a little forceful, I like to be able to look at the warning points to see how their attitude normally is.

Also, I think it serves as a nice visual and official warning. It's not easy to miss or misinterpret.

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The highlighted ads we've used once or twice but I don't think they stand out as much as hoped. Perhaps it's due to the fact that they aren't stuffed in with the regular ads which would draw the eye more to it. I don't believe that is an option, though.

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Good luck with your upgrade!

Originally posted by MR_Jungle_Mist

The highlighted ads we've used once or twice but I don't think they stand out as much as hoped. Perhaps it's due to the fact that they aren't stuffed in with the regular ads which would draw the eye more to it. I don't believe that is an option, though.

The highlighted ads can be done any number of three ways:
[list=1][*]Background of the text made an eye-catching color, floating as a regular message in the classified forum.
[*]The ad can be stuck to the top of the classified forum, without highlighting.
[*]Both highlighted and stuck to the top of the forum.[/list=1]

It is completely up to you which option you prefer to use. Lacking any input to the contrary, I always use #3.

I can certainly understand that it might be a pain in the butt to move, set up again and keep running but the software is already bought. As I understand it it doesn't cost to keep it running at all so I'd say just keep it. Cutting down on the rooms to simple categories (snakes, lizards, etc etc) might help in cutting down the amount of time for set-up.

It will cost me money to switch over the chat board to the new version upgrade. I think it's more the fact that if it is underused, I feel the work involved is not appreciated. So my thoughts are that perhaps it would be more appreciated, and correspondingly used, tied to another one of my forums. Ordinarily I wouldn' just take it down, because as pointed out, I have already paid for the software as well as the integration of it. But since I am going to have to spend money one way or the other, whether it is integrating it with the new version of this message board, or tying it to another one, I have to consider which way is the better way to spend my money. "Better" meaning, who will appreciate it more.....

In case some people aren't aware of it, ANY person who sets up features on their website for you to use which get a ho-hum response gets quite discouraged over that sort of reception for their hard work. I know that I may set up polls here to see what people want, and to get even three percent of the people to care enough to vote on it is an exceptional turn out. The old adage "build it and they will come" does not necessarily apply to web sites.

Background of the text made an eye-catching color, floating as a regular message in the classified forum.

My personal opinion is that this might be more eye-catching. I'm not sure that it would make a difference in those that would opt for the highlighted ads but could certainly be yet another, among endless, options for folks to let their preferences be known.

I certainly would be curious to know why this feature isn't used more than it is. Fellow Classifieds ads users..?....what say you?

I think it's more the fact that if it is underused, I feel the work involved is not appreciated.

ANY person who sets up features on their website for you to use which get a ho-hum response gets quite discouraged over that sort of reception for their hard work.

TOTALLY agree with you 100%. I'm sure almost everyone here who has made their own website and has tried an interactive approach to it has come out feeling very appreciative of those who truly have a working site such as Fauna. I am among those.

I just want to go on record as saying I'd be disappointed if the chat room would disappear!

(Yoda...I'm sorry I disappeared from the chat room! I got disconnected and poofed off! This poor guy must feel like I'm doing on purpose to ignore him as it's the second time today!)

Your hard work is well appreciated here, Rich.

Last call on this. I need to make the decisions REAL SOON.

Thanks.

well considering that most of the hits to this site are from the leopard gecko comunity we hold our monthly leopardgecko chat there on the first tesday of every month i personally would like to see more chats set up this way i love it and get alot of input from others about leopard geckos if more sponsers of the forums would set up these chats im sure more people would use them but as to how many people are on at the same time (unless notified of an event like this) is minimal i hope this helps and i love this site KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Billy Blanchet

One of the features that the upgrade will have is the ability to set up different calendars for specific uses. So this will allow us to set up a calendar specifically for chat sessions (if people will use it) so people will know when chats are taking place.

But I doubt I will keep all those individual rooms in the chat system. That was a real waste of time setting that up!