Before I start, I would just like to assure you that this is meant in the most polite manner.

I'd just like to voice my concern on the way in which the change-over to PHP has been handled - because frankly it's ridiculous.  I can't help but think you underestimated one of the most important reasons your community has grown to such a huge membership.

I'll tell you :

It's because people feel (or use to feel) at home here.  Renderosity stood-out from the rest of the "forum-crowd" with a more workable threaded forum-list format than all those generic, and IMHO, rather tacky PHP forums.

We could see at a glance how much life a thread had - not any more.

We could see everyone who had posted without even entering a thread - not anymore.

We could actually see what everyone had wrote in their posts - not anymore.

Did you even ask us if we wanted to see the back of those features?  If you did, then forgive me but I for one, never saw it.  Did you even once in this marvelous age of technology - hold a poll to find out what the members are not prepared to do without?

Just before Rosity switched to "slow-death" mode (870 members currently online BTW), I stated in the Bryce forum that if you folks go ahead with this without polling - you just might find that you've removed the only things that made Renderosity - RENDEROSITY!

My word - you have certainly succeeded.

You should have kept the same format we had - thrown in Avatars and Smilies - updated the database format - and left the f*ckin' rest alone.

Your ignorance to your members has resulted in nothing more than alienation of your members and DEvolution of usability.  For god sake take the site down and reinstate the old format while you still have some members - the old format was much more comfortable, and should have been adapted to PHP - not replaced in it's entirety.

Return the old - and rework it.

 Len (BTW I'm on IE6 and I'm still getting extra line-feeds and no italics)

Oh - almost forgot ;

RENDEROSITY in it's current format - no longer has a reason to be used over the other forums.

Just thought I'd point out the obvious - before every member here suddenly realises...

...there's actually no longer a reason to prefer this place over THOSE other forums.

Len.

"RENDEROSITY in it's current format - no longer has a reason to be used over the other forums."

Actually, it does, and it will. In spite of all the complaints and the general expressions of unhappiness regarding the changes, it will survive this, and people will continue to frequent the place.  With all the other problems, I see no reason to take it for granted that the number of users online is an accurate count.

As you can see, this particular forum has seen a major surge in acivity as of late. The reason for that isn't exactly what they would have preferred, I'd imagine, but nevertheless it shows that people still can use the new format. ;)

And on the scale of controversies this site has endured over the last seven or so years since its inception, believe me, this is nothing more than a flesh wound.

Most of the other major Poser sites were actually results of the afformentioned controversies, and it's entirely possible this will spawn yet another...

Pumeco,

We are moving the entire site to the PHP platform not just forums so we couldn't just leave them on the old format and add features.  Over and over again the Community told us how outdated and awful our  old forums were and we did listen.  Not everyone likes the PHP base but certainly it can't be expected that everyone in a large group such as this would. There are good things and bad things always with change but in life change is  inevitable.   Also with change it takes some getting used to and time for everything to come together.  When we had our Community survey we had a very large percentage of members requesting PHP forums. 

I'm sorry you feel the way you do but certainly you are entitled to and thank you for expressing your concerns.

I agree, MikeJ (ahh - the light of experience, eh? ;-)).

Renderosity has massive momentum. And I can't think of anywhere else with this level of useful activity amongst all the primary hobbyist program users (otherwise I'd be there).

Bear in mind also, Len, that the 1000 or so forum/market surfers should be added to the 1400 or so gallery/freestuff surfers. Before the server change, the forum surfers would have been combined with the gallery surfers for a much bigger number.

Of course, none of this means the admin shouldn't be soundly slapped with large, wet fish for their blasé carelessness over the manner of introduction of the new system. They should be; the result is major grief for the members and the coders. (admin - consider yourselves thoroughly fish-slapped).

But Renderosity will survive this. The new forum system is basically good under the hood, and this goodness will most likely find its way to the surface eventually.

.

the reason to prefer this place over the OTHER forums is because this place has the most traffic.

give the new forums some time and you'll get used to them. The old style was pretty primitive and from what i've read, many people prefer this new format, myself included.

gadzooks! I hadn't noticed this previously, but pum is right. there may be something changed in the software that counts the number of clients connected, as it was always between 2000 and 3000 prior to the forum change-over. I just glanced up, and it's now 785. either this means less people are connecting, or it means that multiple connexions by the same user are no longer counted. either way, the server logs will be able to confirm if there's been an huge drop in client visits. :b_confused:

It depended on the time of day you were on the forums.  I've seen around 1000, and I've seen as many as almost 3,000.  It just depends.

You're forgetting that the forums are now on a different server to the galleries - before the change they were together (with no way for us regular members to tell who was doing what). If you add current forum surfers to the now separate gallery surfers, you end up with about 2500 Renderosity surfers overall - slap bang in the middle of your range for previously.

PJF is right. This is members only on the Marketplace side. Previously everything was combined so the numbers are in the "normal" online range when you add both sides.

Never mind

stacey:

why does the overhaul have to leave us with less useful features, and less customability?

Sorry, I don't buy it.

Ok - so I wasn't aware of the seperated server logon counts (Peter, I'm waiting to be fish-slapped).

But what you are doing now, is what you've been doing since this whole PHP thing was brought up.

Trying to use the format of PHP as an excuse for bad communication and implementation might work on the general mentality around here - it's just corporate 'cool-off' talk which goes in one ear and out of the other of THIS marketer - it won't work on me.

PHP is a format of code - it's not an excuse to rob us of the features we became accustomed to.

Renderosity should and COULD have been re-coded in the more versatile PHP format - and it COULD have been done without removing everything that made Renderosity different.

There was no need to rip the guts out of it like you have - if it were human, it's barbaric!

I'm not against change, evolution, whatever... but I've a low tollerance of inefficiency and BAD logic.

Renderosity had a WINNING formula, and you've just removed it - nice one!

I think it's unfortunate that the coders for this site are currently working their asses off in order to fine-tune a system which, when it's completed, will be less usable than the format we had before.

Anyway, I'm not going to do one of those I'M GOING TO LEAVE UNTIL YOU GIVE ME WHAT I WANT thingummies, nah - I have too much respect for all the work that's going into it for that.

Nevertheless, you now have a format that is TOO-MUCH like the competition - and after the novelty of Avatars and Smileys have lost their impact, I think you might find Renderosity will get lost in the profusion of other similar forums.

I hope I'm wrong Stacey - best of luck to all, and thank's for the reply.

Len.

Everyone has different opinions and feelings on things, that is what makes this world go round. While I disagree with a lot of what you say, its your thoughts and of course you are entitiled to them.

QUOTE:

"Everyone has different opinions and feelings on things, that is what makes this world go round."

I agree - which is EXACTLY why you should have polled before you went ahead with this mess.

Len.

The decision to move to the PHP platform was a business decision for various reasons but also one that the Community (as I stated above) asked for in large numbers during the Community Survey this past year and in prior years..

Stacey, this could go round in pointless circles.

I understand what you're saying, and I understand why you had to make the decision to go ahead with it.  What I don't understand though, is why you didn't poll, and why you had to remove the features that made Renderosity different (something which you still haven't answered BTW).

After all, PHP is a very versatile format - and I seriously can't understand why the old format couldn't have been re-coded in PHP and brought up to date that way - that's all I'm saying.

This new format is NOT more usable than the old format - no matter how you promote it.

Len.

You're right, we have to agree to disagree and move on from this. 

Some will like the new forums better and some will always favor the old.  But the new ones are here now and we will continue to make them the best that we can over time.

In time, when all the bugs are sorted and the thing runs as it should,  members will get comfortable with the new format. At present it is an adventure into the unknown every time i come here... my current gripe is the emails for EVERY reply to a thread... but this will pass. This IS a better format, it IS more versatile and it WILL work. It's just going to take time, and patience is required until the bugs get sorted.

Jack

Still no answers to the two questions I see - but yes - it's clearly time to move on.

Len.

Why no polls?  The move to PHP was a business decision as I stated earlier and the Community Survey results for the past few years have indicated what the majority of members that participated in the Survey wanted to see and that was PHP forums rather than the old outdated .EZ forums.   Sometimes decisions have to be made that are part of a larger, bigger picture affecting the site as a whole and this was one of them.

Why features were "removed"...With changes such as this you can't expect that everything will fit into the new format.  The forums being functional (which they are or we wouldn't be posting, LOL) to get them moved over so the rest of the Community side could follow was the first priority. This doesn't mean that other features won't be added over time (as I stated earlier).

"We could see at a glance how much life a thread had - not any more." manually typed break
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FWIW now I can see instantly the number of views and replies that a thread has. I assume that is an indicator of "how much life" it has. I like that. And I don't have to scroll so far down pages with a large list of responses to the same thread before I see what the next thread is. That makes forum browing quicker for me.

Why is it that women in positions of power have to be so bloody difficult to get an answer from ? :biggrin:

Thank's Stacey.

That sounds a lot better.  I suppose I'll just stick it out here and hope that the thread lists are redesigned more akin to the older list style.  That said - I actually DO like the threads better like this, it's just the thread 'index' part that's ruining it (for me anyway).

Thank's for your reply - and just for that, I'm gonna reward you with my favorite smiley :tt2:

Len. (And I don't just give-out those to anyone either - just ask a Brycer)

Yea, Yea, THANK YOU!!!!!!   I love that smiley too, its too cute

BTW: is that you  in your avatar?

If that truly is pumeco's avatar and word gets out that I've been sandwiched between two ladies of such aesthetically pleasing quality, my reputation will forever be legendary.

Bobasaur--------->

:lol:

LOL

Nah, it's Yulia Volkova (Musician).

I like it though 'cos it's fun to see all the sexually frustrated males here ( ICM, PJF, Rayraz, Vile ) try to chat me up in their own unique ways.

They get quite a shock when they discover I'm actually a guy (well, all those except PJF I mean) 

Len.

Hey Jani! manually typed break
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I've noticed that you have never put your picture up where I could see it. Hmmm. You and SandCastie. What secret delights are you hiding?manually typed break
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Get thee behind me you cruel temptresses!

@pumeco manually typed break
If you think they're shocked, you should see what happens when people find out I'm an adult. (legally!)

Hahaha @ Bob and pumeco.. you'll are cracking me up over here!!

~cracks up laffin~

My ava....IS me ROTFL!!

Actually.....I only have my face plastered on one place on the net.....too scary to plaster it everywhere hehe!

That's what SndCastie said. And you know what... I've never seen you and her in the same place. Kinda like Micheal Jackson and Diana Ross. Could you two be the same person?manually typed break
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Naaaah. Couldn't be.manually typed break
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???????

LOL! Nope, we are different peoples.....now I gotta ask ya..are you doing that manual type break on purpose?
If no, what justification do you have set in the reply box? I have Left justification set....and I think it works for breaks....but then I could be wrong as I often....no wait..Im never 'wrong'..I could just be 'confused'....HEHE!

Okay Jump, you gotta come up off the pic.. Thats not fair.  I will HUNT until I find it, LOL..

~GASP!~

Me and my big mouth LOL

Yes, I'm doing it on purpose. The text formatting box that you enjoy apparantly is based on Javascript that is not backwards compatible with Opera (Windows and Mac) and Safari (Mac). Therefore those of us who use those either of those browsers can't access it. Furthermore when we hit return on our keyboard it won't display - apparantly because of the way the text box is integrated. Therefore if I want any kind of space between my lines or at the end of a paragraph I have to manually type in html code for a line break. manually typed break
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I can live without the text formatting but the inability to break up paragraphs without typing code is extremely frustrating. Run-on paragraphs are difficult to read and the extra hassle of having to type the breaks in manually make it quite unpleasant to respond to anything complex. Therefore I'm pointing out the hassle. manually typed break
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I have no doubt that StaceyG, SndCastie and williamsn would fix it if they could but the people above (hiding behind??) them probably need to see that it is a real and genuine problem rather than just an issue of making things pretty. manually typed break
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It's rather sad that I have no problems formatting text and seperating paragraphs on your little php-based board with my browser but I can't do so here on this big 'professional' site. And since it's the result of a deliberate application choice, it's not a bug that will eventually be fixed. I've been very patient about those (the bugs), and tried to be supportive but this is really ticking me off. manually typed break
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Sadly they don't even have a smiley code for :Pissed-as-Hell: manually typed break
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(Angry and cursing are understatements.)

The advantage of the current forum format is having more thread titles on screen.

The disadvantage is as stated by pumeco.

And the simple solution is attaching a

I find myself wondering why I got 24 ebots for this thread by Thursday at 5:00 even though the last time I had visited this thread was Wednesday evening?
I also wonder why I seem to recall just a couple days ago the link in the email would actually bring me to the reply in question, whereas now it just loads the main page of this forum? IIRC, it didn't work, then it briefly did, now it doesn't again. None of that detracts from the functionality, IMO, because I can deal with all this, but in spite of trying real hard to not complain and moan, I have to consider the fact that I can't think of a website phpBB that seems to have anywhere near the number of problems Renderosity now does.

I have just read all this with great interest.....and I am on the way to TRY to copy and paste a whole SCARY!!) script thing in to get rid of this NASTY WHITE page... though I am sure it won't STRETCH OUT THIS SILLY SKINNY FORUM STRIP here... because if I mess it up, I have nothing to loose!

I have alreay chosen a new "forum home"...and I have taken note of other php forums that have a one click "theme" color button one can use to change the color scheme... and I get the feeling that the guys here like to do things "The hard way" and then have to FIX it...

and now... I have to make sure I do NOT subscribe to this or any other thread because I am SICK of the e mail SPAM with two line subject lines taking up space in my mail box! I would have thought that this would be a major priority!! With the plan to do the GALLERIES too, the e mail notices are SO important!!  If that system is not fixed and the galleries go the way of these forums, then I am SO gone... the Gallery format is the ONE MAIN REASON I have come here over others...but...

It is my FRIENDS here that have actually said PLEASE STAY a  while longer and see how it comes out... as I am so ready to go and not come back....but I did empty out my wish list, ignor the latest coupon....and as I said... I am off to TRY and FIX the look of this place with a code change...something a user should not have to do.   THANK YOU pumeco for stating my feelings so very well.

I for one don't mind PHP boards. What I do mind are poorly executed PHP boards.
I've visited many PHP boards over the years and each and every one of them had selectable themes/backrounds. So why is this one different? Are you TRYING to make us all blind?
Did no one complain about this crappy theme before it was launched?
PJF is right though. Rosity will survive this. If they can survive all the other mistakes, the yearly September foot shootings, the AOY fiasco, etc. They can survive this. Question is, will my sight survive this? :)

Bobasaur I keep telling you if I put my real pic up here you would run for the hills :lol: