Forum Upgrade Imminent!

Almost here!

vBulletin 2.0 has been released (the Beta version, that is), and the stable release should follow within a week or two. When that is released, MovieForums will upgrade.

Now, here are the side-effects:

- The layout and graphics may look funky for a couple days.
- The polls may screw up on us - I'm not sure if they will or not...but don't worry: all posts and members should be just fine.
- The board may be down for a day or so - probably less.

Here are the additions!

- Private Messenging - this allows you to send little "emails" here on the forums - a good way to let other members contact you without giving your email address out.

- Improved Polls - more stable, graphical bars to represent totals/percentages, and just a smoother system overall.

- A Community Calendar - this will allow me to list public events, and for your to list your own private events. Public events are viewable by all visitors, private events are viewable only by the member who creates them.

Another part of this is that each calendar day will list all the birthdays our members have that day.

- Rating Threads: this will allow you to rate a thread from 1 to 5 - I don't know if this will be implemented or not...we'll see.

- Fully sortable threads - you'll be able to sort the threads by things other than the most recent posts - replies, totals, thread starter, views, and rating, if we end up using it.

- Thread subscriptions - this allows you to STOP receiving emails on threads you're receiving emails on (same as you do now, thanks to a small hack). It also allows you to view all the threads you're subscribed to.

It ALSO lets you click a simple link on a thread's page to receive emails for that thread without posting!

- A Buddy List for each member - part of their "Control Panel" - each user's control panel will feature their buddy list (to show which buddies are only, and to allow you to easily PM them), their Private Message center, their forum options, their profile information, and they're thread subscription management options.

- AVATARS! These are little graphics (usually 50x50 or so) under each person's username on each of their posts - should we activate these or not? If we do, we can provide default avatars for all members, and allow only members with a certain number of posts to upload their own.

- Custom Titles! Don't like "MovieForums Critic"? Well, all members with a certain number of posts will have the option to specify their own user title, assuming it's short enough.

That's all!

It is, however, [red]VERY IMPORTANT[/red] that I get some basic input from everyone on this - I need to know which of these features you want, and which you don't - it's a big deal! Abling and/or disabling these features can be a pain in the butt, so we need to make some choices.

Thanks everyone - feel free to post your thoughts!

I'm cool with all of those. The subscription thing I probably wouldn't use much, but the others sure. Any news on the pics in profiles thing?

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Horror's Not Dead
Latest Movie Review(s): Too lazy to keep this up to date. New reviews every week.

The pic/profile thing would be a major pain in the butt - however, you could *easily* use your picture as your Avatar - a lot of people do that.

Everything sounds really good Chris. I'm looking forward to the private messages.

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Movie-Fever.com | New! Movie Fever Forums

your list - and my response -

- Private Messenging - ohhhhh yesss

- Improved Polls - umm, i don't think i'd notice much of a difference but isn't this automatic?

- A Community Calendar - cool beans

- Rating Threads: doubt i'd use it but if people actually did it'd be cool.

- Fully sortable threads - YES

- Thread subscriptions - YES

- A Buddy List for each member - part of their "Control Panel" - YES

- AVATARS! - hm, is there a way to activate/deactivate your own avatar, rather than have everbody use one (or not)? i would think it'd contribute to clogging up the screen space and messing with the mood, unless you only let people pick from certain movie-related avatars. also, some people never pick an avatar and therefore several people will have the same generic one, which defeats the purpose and still takes up space. Rows and rows of an identical avatar isn't really conducive to a board with diverse identities.

I like the idea though that if you've made enough posts you can load your own ... within limits. I'd think it be better if the avatars stuck to some similar theme or something, rather than total randomness. Or, to make it easier on everybody (and you most especially) ... just don't have em at all?

- Custom Titles! - Coolness. I like.

Actually, if you don't upload/choose one, you just wouldn't have any picture there at all.

Everything sounds great, especially the Community Calendar. Thanks for the heads up!

Avatars- 2 thumbs down.

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<--junger-->

"Chances are, if your parents didn't have any kids, then you won't either."

Everything there sounds good to me.

Everything sounds great.

I wouldn't subscribe to any threads since I come here everyday anyway, but I would like to stop receiving emails when someone responds to a thread.

Avatars would be neat, I have a cute frog I'd like to use. Maybe I could give him some popcorn or something so he would fit the theme better.

Yeah, it all sounds good.

I wouldn't use most of it personally, but it's still good stuff, and a good addition to the forum.

Rating threads doesn't usually work, in my experience. Avatars and custom titles sound good though .

Hi, firstly great site. Ive only been here a short while but Ive had some good discussions.
I think the upgrades you plan sound great, as long as it is USER FRIENDLY? I dont want to seem sceptical but sometimes sight ugrades make things harder to access.
A few suggestions maybe as Main Forum Topics you could maybe add 1 or 2 of these to the front page.

1. A Top Ten Lists section or A Best/Worst section
2. Maybe have a seperate rant forum for those of us who need to vent about the travesties of modern day cinema & sometimes get a little to passionate.(still enforcing the no name calling but allowing for heated film debate)
3. A Filmakers or Writers forum where those of us with writers block or technical film question can post for advice.


Hopefully you can utilize one of these suggestions if not I understand. Either way keep up the good work & I look forward to the upgrades (but I fear change).

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******"The Majority Is Always Wrong" Steve Mcqueen in Enemy Of The People******

wise choice. i have a vb2 and i have to say they are VERY good, and well worth the price.

i have everything you listed turned on except post ratings, i really don't like the idea of that. avtars are good although for some reason they are not in a drop-down menu, so be careful because the page size could go through the roof unless your careful.

I understand exactly what you mean, and I'll do my best to make sure this site remains powerful, yet simple. Upon re-designing these forums, one of the first things I did was remove a lot of the text and links that I did not feel were totally necessary.

I'll likely do the same after the upgrade. Going to try to reduce cluter as much as possible.

I'll consider the new forums - however, the only time I add new forums is when I think they can "carry" themselves - IE: a fair amount of people will post there.

When I created our DVD forum, I was able to move a dozen or so threads there from other places like the General Movie Discussion, so it had interest shown beforehand.

Thank you. Feel free to post your link here, or in your signature.

http://www.crystalff.com/forums

it's a gaming site, we ain't finished everything yet, so please don't register, but feel free to look around.