Still progressing although very slowly. I do have a separate trial forum up and running on a different domain. It is taking quite a while as I am setting up a complete new member tier system. I have done a trial import of the posts, users and categories etc from this forum and all worked perfectly.
The new colours are clean and crisp but totally different to any of these styles. I think most will like it and some won't. Can't please every one all the time though.
When it comes time to do the migration I will get members to move over to a slightly new url for the forum. This way I know it will be running perfectly as soon as you start to use it. I will then set up a redirect on this forum to the new address. EG instead of it being
http://ausubaru.com.au it may become
http://ausubaru.com.aus. I am not sure what I will make it yet but that doesn't really matter at this stage.
There will be changes made to the subscription service we have now. I will be creating a few different options. The basics are
Moderators - full read/write access to all areas.
Guests - limited access. Need to log in as general member to gain more access.
General Members - more access but no trade permission. No charge
Premium members - special benefits to be announced. Small fee - will be worth it.
Private trader - trade permission but limited access. This is for people that just drop by to sell some stuff and then they are gone. Small fee/limited time frame
Retail trader will be given a special package that is yet to be finalized. Set fee for set time frame.
Don't worry, it is not going to change any thing for most of the users we have now. It is just a restructuring of the current system to give more benefits to the people that have put in more already. The bulk of the forum will still be just as it is now.
I won't be adding more smilies. There is more than enough now for you to get your point across.
Attachments will be displayed with the post but will not be in the text area. They will be directly below. They will upload directly from your hard drive to the gallery hosted on our server with a simple browse/select button. I don't think I can import the current gallery we have now. If there is images on there you don't want to lose then I suggest you start downloading them. I will be doing as much as I can to bring them across but at this stage it is not looking good.
The live chat thing was tongue in cheek. I have never liked the idea although it has been suggested on a number of occasions. I figure if you want to chat then use text, facebook, msn or the like.
Pruning and streamlining of the forums is a must. We won't lose any thing of value.
I will be trying to tie our wiki in to the board in some manner as well.