TS4F

LMAO!

Widespread use makes it better? I guess the next thing to do us make all your users sell their Audis and get Honda Accords because there's more of them on the road.

I think the response of the users the last few hours is a pretty good indication of how good the vBulletin software is.

MarkHunter

Ubiquity is now synonymous with superiority. At one point in his Presidency 70% of Americans really thought George W. Bush was doing a good job. He was, by this and all other metrics, the best President ever.

Snark aside, the backsliding on the display capabilities of vB is nothing short of astonishing. Early screenshots had a threaded view that was nearly indistinguishable from kawf. After we learned that was probably unworkable we were asked to take solace in vB's native threading. Now that that's gone we'll take solace in the fact that avatars are not, as JET once claimed, disabled.

Oh wait.

MarkHunter

Respectfully, Adrian, the important consideration here is that no one asked you. You weren't a member of a vibrant community for many years that was just eviscerated by a bunch of dissembling corporate lackeys. Your opinion on the status of chocolate on the hierarchy of flavors is as important to me as your opinion on what kawf could or could not do. It could display threaded posts, end of discussion.

IB Adrian

Forgive me here - I believe when we initially attempted to convert the site to vbulletin approximately 8 months ago, we placed it on a threaded view format.
Unfortunately it failed.
We spent the ensuing 8 months learning what caused this it to fail, and trying to improve the conversion process, and one of the reasons was the threaded view format (or conversational format) could not be sustained in vbulletin on a site as large as Audiworld.

If it was communicated to you on this conversion process that the threaded view would be available that was not our intention, and I can only apologize if that indeed did occur.

Adrian

IB Adrian

Testing ZIP attach

On edit: Seems to work for me

S4iowa

So explain then how VB is better than the previous system? With a lot of users and a lot of activity, keeping everything in a conversational format is even more important IMO.

It's a backwards step, and you'll see a loss of traffic because it's less efficient for the users.

YYC_A4

Adrian, you didn't completely answer my question. With regard to the current state of discontent; what steps do you have in place to satisfy members and improve the steadily declining approval of Internet Brands among AudiWorld members?

IB Adrian

As I am sure you may be aware, last June we attempted to convert the site to vbulletin in a "conversational" (or "threaded") format.
We had spent close to 4months with 3 developers attempting to get this right.
Unfortunately, (as I am sure you are also aware), this did not work.
We then spent the ensuing 8 months trying to get the threaded view format to work, which we discovered on a forum the size of AudiWorld is simply not possible with vBulletin.

As for how vbulletin is better, everything from security (likehood of the site being hacked and us loosing all the information), through to spam management, ability to communicate through a format outside of e-mail (private messages), not listing your e-mail (so the spam crawlers don't pick up your e-mail address and add you to their list), integrated photo albums, proper user profiles, a garage facility, integrated classifieds, a fully functioning search engine, the ability to attach not just images to posts
This comment may come off as sounding arrogant, I will state, that is not my intent.

I am not here to be loved. My interest is I want Audiworld to be the best site it can possibly be. I want it to be the best for all people that come to AudiWorld, both existing users and new users, I want it to be the resource for all things Audi, and above all, I would like it to be an enjoyable community to be part of.
We were faced with a situation, do we continue with an existing format that is well and truly outdated, or do we do what we feel is best for the community and bite the bullet and upgrade it to a software that is the best platform available, and gets updated on a regular basis.

If I may, I would associate Kawf to an original Audi Quattro (My uncle had one), its something with character, but ultimately it isn't that fast, and it will happily dump its transmission on the freeway, leaving you stranded.
vBulletin is a B7 RS4, a lot quicker, ultimately a much better car with more features, more reliable, it does everything that the quattro does, but better, it just doesn't have the cache' of the quattro... and that isn't because it doesn't have the cache', its just because you haven't owned the car as long for it to get "under your skin" and for it to build the reputation of the quattro.
Just my 2c

TheLex

If vB were a car, it would be labelled with a Salvage Title. It's a wreck. You're still missing the point. vB doesn't come close to replicating the sense of community that kawf offered. It's not about being hack proof, a "garage", or other useless features. It's about being able to post and get feedback in almost real time, and having dare I say, almost "intimate" user friendly features.

andysprague

If VB is so great, then why can't it handle this:

"We then spent the ensuing 8 months trying to get the threaded view format to work, which we discovered on a forum the size of AudiWorld is simply not possible with vBulletin."

As for the other comment: "As for how vbulletin is better, everything from security (likehood of the site being hacked and us loosing all the information), through to spam management, ability to communicate through a format outside of e-mail (private messages), not listing your e-mail (so the spam crawlers don't pick up your e-mail address and add you to their list), integrated photo albums, proper user profiles, a garage facility, integrated classifieds, a fully functioning search engine, the ability to attach not just images to posts" - Those things mean nothing to me & I never had a single issue with AW in respect to the way any of that was handled in the past.

Without a quality website that people want to use, none of that BS really matters.

I do realize you are running a business, but what the business thinks is right for the customer is not always right. And the customer is the one that decides that & I'm sure you will soon see that impact.

Atleast now there is an alternative out there. I won't say what since I would probably only be edited or deleted.

End of rant.