@Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
Now that things have calmed down here... I think it is time for your much needed transparency.
I see you have updated the ZI forum site with upgrades and the like.
So what's in store regarding that, what is being improved upon and changed?
If I may say something, and I know this is indeed a work in progress. However,
I'm still not fond of the design of the forum itself. It just isn't robust, easy to use, and it still isn't inviting either. Especially on mobile, there is a lot of unnecessary space. What makes things worse, is that there is no true design to that forum yet. Nothing about it seems like I want to spend my time there, it just isn't very robust, user friendly, nor inviting.
Like I said though, I know this is a WIP. I'm just expressing my thoughts on the matter thus far to create a better forum in the future.
All that happened is that Mases upgraded the forums from IPB 3.x to 4.x. Nothing else actually occurred. There hasn't been any layout work or templating, zero addons added, etc. What you see is literally the base layout and package that comes with IPB. Just like what you saw before was ALSO the base layout and package that came with IPB 3.X save one logo swapped image at the top.
First step was always to upgrade to the latest and most well supported version of IPB. Next step is making sure everything is functioning. Right now, the upgrade of an entire version broke the ZI to IPB bridge - not really surprising. This is why you can't login. Well, you can if you reset your password every login (and you can reset it to the same password if you want), but obviously that's a big hassle and no one is going to use the boards in that state. Which is fine. We have the original developer of the IPB to EE bridge working on updating the bridge for 4.x, so that should be done within a week I'd say (end of the upcoming week I hope). Once that is done, the entire forum will be "shut down" per Mases' orders. He doesn't want both boards active (even though there were clearly some active ZI only members). But it is what it is.
Once the boards are shut down, that's when the real work begins. Templating and skinning, getting the various addons, and then as quickly as we possibly can - merging the boards (sometime after TPHD comes out). I am assuming there will be a fair warning, but the goal as far as I am aware is a two day shutdown of the ZD boards. Hopefully with everything merged within 24 hours, and then another 24 hours of keeping the new boards offline so we can fix any errors that crop up from the merge (and let's be honest, no matter how merges are done, or any major software change one way or the other, issues always crop up).
As for why go to 4.x instead of staying on 3.x? IPB 4.x was basically IPB recreated. They tore down the entire code base and started from scratch to get rid of a lot of the ongoing issues. Because they did this, it is now the best and most stable version of IPB to ever exist. As for the advantages you will see - we're currently looking into using the gallery for various things, and the gallery is plugged right into the boards. User blogs have been overhauled and are now easier to organize, access, and creating content for. Obviously these are things not really present on these boards as is.
Beyond that, there is an ability to create what is called a "question and answer" board. Basically if you ask a question it allows moderators or the OP to be flagged, moving it to the next reply to your question on page one. This ensures anyone clicking in with the same question doesn't have to dig through the thread for the answer - they get the very best answer right away. Very useful stuff.
Moderating tools are way more robust than anything Xenforo has currently. This wont' really mean much to you folks, though. Just makes moderation easier to do and keep tabs on. IPB also has a bigger mod community - meaning getting the addons we need and having them be well supported isn't an issue. The mod community for Xenforo is still lacking, even as the guy behind the software has finally started to push forward with it (after a long lawsuit with VB finally ended).
Let me be clear - Xenforo is not a bad piece of software. We used at ZI for a couple years. But it's extremely limiting in many regards as well and there is so much base functionality that is simply built into IPB 4.x - especially for user groups and moderation - that take paid addons to get for Xenforo.
Ultimately, which forum software is better is always... personal preference. Though, everyone seems to agree that both packages destroy VB entirely today.
So yeah, just a few things you can look forward to. Honestly, most of what you may end up liking about it you're just not going to see until the place launches.
