The march of IPS forums

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

Tell me I'm the only one who finds IPS forums a mess. A couple of my 'go to' forums have migrated to it and up to the latest update, they have been 'managable'. The latest issue is, to me anyway, a bloody nightmare trying to navigate/customise.

My second port of call is about to go the same way. Everything is starting to look like Twitter of Facebook. Aaaaagh!

 

If I AM the only one and everyone else thinks the new 'trendy' look is 'well cool', I'll hush up.

 

AVSIM, whatever you do please don't change the forum software, I beg you!

[Poppet 707]

Is that the Invasion Power Series?  never heard of it,  just goggled there now.   Its a Television forum? 

[Jim Young 2,356]

Hi Ron,

 

AVSIM has been an IPS Forum for as long as I can remember.  It all depends on how it is set up and what is turned on.

 

https://www.invisionpower.com/features/apps

 

I agree with you that too much integrating with Twitter and Facebook is not good.  I cannot stand those apps that steal ones privacy if you are not careful.  I never did like our ability to sign up new members via Twitter or Facebook.  But then that's just me.  Hopefully we won't get too far away from your expectations!

 

Best regards,

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Yeah, I agree with both you guys!

 

Integration these days is out of control and is almost beyond our control.  This is not good.

 

The other day my Aunt had a plane reservation, and Google sent me her itinerary.  Then my wife... same thing.  Neither one of them sent me there itinerary, and the only "link" was that I had them both in my Google Contacts - I've checked left, right and center!

 

Now I'm a retired computer engineer, and I know quite a lot about computer networks and security, but I'll be darned if I can figure out how Google knew to send those itineraries to me.

 

Then my flight info some how showed up in my Google Calendar and gave me a reminder - all by itself! 

 

I'm neither kidding or exaggerating.

 

Integration. Worked out where this was concerned, but can you imagine what else is going on?

[Chris Bell 165]

birth ropes guys nothing more; IPS is an excellent framework

it has been around for a long time; like it or not they are one of the most together companies out there,

they are responsible for big portion of the online community we swim in for many years now,

they know what they are doing, still it’s not magic; there is a process to go through,

 

speaking of the latest update fiasco; I’ve been right on the front lines myself with 4.1.x

it will get stable in 4.1.4 again; everyone around has a learning curve to catch on to,

 

older board have the hardest time moving from older framework to a new one,

it’s like taking an engine from an old Porsche and trying to fit in today’s chassis

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

Chris, is this a case of 'it's new so it must be good'?

[Chris Bell 165]

there's more than meets the eye with the new framework; I’m a novice myself,

our dedicated dev working on our instance (as much as she doesn’t like the changes; she admits it’s a superior framework to its predecessor)

allot more modularity is now integrated; this is all based on past experience with 3.x, customer feedback, mistakes, and general progress,

 

when 3.x was introduced allot of the connectivity we have today didn’t exists; interaction through devices we didn’t have back then etc...

yes you can still retro fit many elements to 3.x but at some point this framework will not have what it takes to keep marching forward,

the key here is to keep up with smaller changes then to make a one huge jump in version; as the framework stabilizes,

 

personally I like the old style board; I was very uncomfortable with 4.x when I started with it few months ago,

I don’t like changes; especially when all the other boards are still using the older style; but as much as we don’t like the wind of change,

It’s the new kids on the block who dictate these changes we have to keep up with; if one wants to stay relevant and comparable to other forums that is,

 

In a year or two from now someone is going to ask for some integration for his device; there will be no more support for the old framework or developers working on that;

Then another one will want another feature and so on, these probably don’t even exists today yet or we haven’t heard of them yet; but we will,

As a site owner you do want to provide the most comfortable experience for your audience to keep them coming,

[Chase 303]

older board have the hardest time moving from older framework to a new one,

it’s like taking an engine from an old Porsche and trying to fit in today’s chassis

 

Yeah, we know what you mean.  Our IT guy has been scratching his head quite a bit trying to get the update to work in our sandbox environment.  What makes it even harder are the all the apps that don't like to play nice with new versions.  It's like an iPhone update where half of your apps don't work yet with the new iOS.

[Chris Bell 165]

From my experience so far Chase I can give you one advice;
Spear your IT guy from IPS code work; it’s not going to happen from your IT guy,
Not that I have any doubts he is a capable professional; this is simply not a simple task,
It requires allot of knowledge and experience working directly with IPS framework hands on day in and day out,
Anything short of that and your heading for a tail spin trying to make sometime even the smallest change,

If you’re playing with 3.x application trying to get them to play nice on 4.x; id say slim chances for that happening;
Maybe one or two will seemingly work; but most of their hooks are likely broken; everything changed in 4.x
So now you have double trouble; you need to know IPS 3.x well, as well as IPS 4.x; to understand what needs to be changed,
Ok… it’s not in the sky right; well it is in Matts head for now; as IPS 4.x still lack any sort of documentation atm,

In short if your IT guy is a phenomenal; he knows IPS 3.x inside out and is excellent in IPS 4 brail; you stand a chance,
Short of that you will need a dedicated IPS dev; it will be practically impossible to make the move without one atm;
even people who been dedicated IPS dev for many years struggle with 3 vs 4 logic,

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

Orbx has fallen foul of V4. Jeez, it's HORRIBLE!

[Rimshot 1,140]

I like it. I can reduce the zoom of Chrome back to 100 percent from 110 to 125 percent. And I can read it all! 

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

I like it. I can reduce the zoom of Chrome back to 100 percent from 110 to 125 percent. And I can read it all! 

Very handy.

[tttocs 301]

Orbx has fallen foul of V4. Jeez, it's HORRIBLE!

 

Ah the humanity! 

 

Looking at the new Orbx forums, I see things I like and things I don't.  Some of the things I don't like may just be that I'm not used to them, or I really may not like them - time will tell.  But I haven't found the "HORRIBLE!" bits yet.

 

I'll keep looking. :wink:

 

Not a fan of change for change's sake (I'm waay too old for that - change isn't inherently good or bad despite what the PC police say, it's just change) but it is inevitable and I don't see too much to stress over from the end-user's perspective in this case.  Keep in mind that Orbx' changeover is still a work in progress as well.

 

Scott

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

Ah the humanity! 

 

Scott

What, does that mean I'm guilty of cruelty to forum software? :wink:

[tttocs 301]

What, does that mean I'm guilty of cruelty to forum software? :wink:

 

Nah... I just felt badly because the forum software was torturing you.

 

Scott