New Website and New forums

[LightORamaDan]

We are setting up a new main website and new forums. All data from this forum will be presevered in the new one. We attempted to keep the new forum looking pretty much like this one to minimize any issues with the switch.

We are looking for some suggestions, corrections, and general feed back on the new website. The new website is: http://test.lightorama.com

You can get to the new forum via the forum link under support or you can go directly to it at: http://test.lightorama.com/forums/forum.php

Thanks
Dan

[shfr26]

Thanks for the info Dan,

It might just be my computer, but the new sites appear to be running a little slow. I think you will get some good ideas from members. I do not know enough about web pages to offer any so all I can say is keep up the great work. Have fun at the mini also.

[Gary Levelius]

Dan, the new website looks absolutely fantastic so far. Definitely looking forward to checking out the forum setup as well when I have more time.

-Gary-

[Tim Fischer]

I actually like vBulletin better than WowBB by several magnitudes... Virtually every other forum I use (Christmas or non) uses vBulletin so part of that is familiarity. vBulletin also seems to do a much better job of keeping track of what threads are new since your last visit.

vBulletin is also highly customizable, so if someone has any real issue with it, it's pretty possible it can be worked around.

Oddly enough, when PC moved from WowBB to vBulletin, a lot of people were clamoring for LOR to follow suit

I'd say give it a chance. Change isn't always fun, but I think it will work well in the long run. Also remember that just because the forums are changing look/feel, doesn't mean the culture will dramatically shift

[rgardner518]

Why are you doing the change? Its like everyone wants to be the same. I could be wrong. Will the form be two shades again? I like when your not signed in and everything has a gray shade to it. And when your logged in, everything's green. It helps to know if your logged in without having to do it every time.

[Don]

ny_yankee_25 wrote:

Why are you doing the change? Its like everyone wants to be the same. I could be wrong. Will the form be two shades again? I like when your not signed in and everything has a gray shade to it. And when your logged in, everything's green. It helps to know if your logged in without having to do it every time.

So long as you don't chose the 'default' theme of the forum, this will hold true no matter where you are. Sounds like you've selected the 'green' theme, so that's what you get when you log in.

[Tim Fischer]

ny_yankee_25 wrote:

Why are you doing the change? Its like everyone wants to be the same.

Dan explained a few days back that the WowBB software has not been revved in about 2 years. That's a long time for a product such as this (especially when they're paying good money for it). Even if you're happy with the feature set (which I personally find a little lacking), the vendors need to keep up on security-related matters (so the board doesn't get hacked).

I'm fairly sure it's not "so LOR can look just like PC". Different skins, etc. can be made to keep that from happening if people are worried about it...

[jimswinder]

Hey Dan...

Just three questions/comments for right now:

1) I see that there is a "Recent Threads" in the left hand column, but I really liked to be able to click on the old "Recent" tab to see the latest posts and all the pages. This new one only seems to have the last "top ten", and no way to see more "recent posts".

2) Also in the left hand column there is a blurb about only being able to have 50 Private Messages. Is this a total of 50 "saved" in our account, or a total of only 50 that we can receive or send? If it is the latter, is that for a month, year...is there a time period?

3) Me, I personally don't like the Home page...just too many different styles of flashy "logos" of the 6 different products...but I am a "less is more" kind of guy.
You have a great product, you don't need the "blinky-blink" to sell it. :cool:

[Don]

I'm not Dan, but ...
jimswinder wrote:

1) I see that there is a "Recent Threads" in the left hand column, but I really liked to be able to click on the old "Recent" tab to see the latest posts and all the pages. This new one only seems to have the last "top ten", and no way to see more "recent posts".

Click the "What's New" button. Will show you the recent posts. Seeing as how it's a test site, I'll bet they won't show up as new right now.

2) Also in the left hand column there is a blurb about only being able to have 50 Private Messages. Is this a total of 50 "saved" in our account, or a total of only 50 that we can receive or send? If it is the latter, is that for a month, year...is there a time period?

That would be total that you can have in your account. I'm sure it's just a default setting, and will be looked at over the coming days.

[rgardner518]

jimswinder wrote:

3) Me, I personally don't like the Home page...just too many different styles of flashy "logos" of the 6 different products...but I am a "less is more" kind of guy.
You have a great product, you don't need the "blinky-blink" to sell it. :cool:

I agree! I like the new current lor main site now better.

[jimswinder]

Don wrote:

Click the "What's New" button. Will show you the recent posts.

I have logged into the test forum...I don't see a "What's New" Button anywhere.


Edit:

Never mind...found it.

How about changing it to "Recent Posts".

[jimswinder]

ny_yankee_25 wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

3) Me, I personally don't like the Home page...just too many different styles of flashy "logos" of the 6 different products...but I am a "less is more" kind of guy.
You have a great product, you don't need the "blinky-blink" to sell it. :cool:

I agree! I like the new current lor main site now better.

It just hit me the word I wanted to use...it doesn't look "professional"...looks like a child designed it (no offense to the adult who did design it).

[kzaas]

Love the looks of the new web site. Clicked around a little and its pretty cool. Again another job well done by the LOR crew:)

[huskernut]

I am good with the new website, only 2 things I couldnt find:

1. Link to the summer sale and price list

2. Link to the new software

;);););););):P

[marquisite]

To be honest, I prefer the look of the current LOR website with the darker blues, and less "activity".

The new website looks too bold for me. It doesn't look very businessy.

Also, the blue forum design is nearly the same as PlanetChristmas's blue style.

I say keep the current website design. Change the content if necessary, but leave the design as is.

Reconfigure the blue forum design to be darker, so that it matches the current LOR website.

I've attached a photoshopped screenshot of the current 'new' forums.


One more point: It also might be worthwhile purchasing the "Branding Free" option for the vBulletin template for US$50 - http://www.vbulletin-skins.com/products/Branding-free.html




Attached files

[Tim Fischer]

huskernut wrote:

I am good with the new website, only 2 things I couldnt find:

1. Link to the summer sale and price list

2. Link to the new software

;);););););):P

You forgot:

3. The announcement of the fabled RGB flood :) :dude:

[rgardner518]

marquisite wrote:

One more point: It also might be worthwhile purchasing the "Branding Free" option for the vBulletin template for US$50 - http://www.vbulletin-skins.com/products/Branding-free.html

I agree with this. And Love the picture. I agree. The new look with the old, mixed with the darker colors. I do like A LOT!

[LightORamaDan]

Thanks for the input posted so far....

Dan

[marquisite]

ny_yankee_25 wrote

I agree with this. And Love the picture. I agree. The new look with the old, mixed with the darker colors. I do like A LOT!

Thanks! I just hope other people prefer it compared to the bolder blue currently used (both on LOR's new forum and PlantChristmas)

It should be real easy to darken the blue gradient on the header blocks. A little more effort is needed to change around the top part (logo and navigation bar) to match the current blue LOR site, though.

[ErnieHorning]

I get the impression that there is more concern on what color you get and whether it might resemble PC then the actual functionality of the forum. Personally I would rather the forum look more like the Grainger site so no one at work would know that I was wasting time looking at a Christmas site than doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

I like the ability in vBulletin to only see the threads that I’ve posted in and not just new stuff whether I posted in them or not.

I would like the ability to format the screen more the way I want and not just based on a predefined theme though maybe that’s not possible. I would like to only see the posts in a thread and a one line menu at the top, nothing else on the left or anywhere else. You can display Light-O-Rama at the top but I don’t care, I know where I am.

I would like to see something more eye catching for when a private message is available. Just a number, doesn’t look any different if your not looking right at it. Maybe blinking the number is enough and changing the color to fire engine red (Snowflakes falling, water dripping, light bulbs dropping and breaking). Maybe allowing a user defined of a WAV file to be played once or repeatedly with a defined wait in between.

I can’t think of anything else until after I hit send.