I'm looking to implement several forum upgrades in the near future and would appreciate any feedback you may have. I'm posting this here as both as a plan of action to make myself carry it through and also to receive comments and suggestions from you, our community. Background: The cancuncare forum currently uses VBulletin version 3.xx and is running at the latest version. When we switched from the old phpbb forum style which was a totally different system over 2 years ago Vbulletin version 4 was new, was buggy and had little to no customisation available. So version 3 was the obvious choice as the most stable platform to use in December 2010. Now, version 3 is no longer supported and has no new feature updates apart from security patches. Version 4 has been developed and is bug free, has tons of customisation and will be supported with new features as the Internet evolves for the next few years. The migration from V3 to V4 is complex with such a large number of posts (almost half a million) and 23,000 members. It is not without risk of losing the whole lot, and will also need down time of maybe a day or so. Phase 1 Review current forum structure: Cancun and Riviera Maya Section: Move subforums so that the busier forums appear towards the top of the page. Cancun Hotels Forum: Seldom used - close and merge existing content to Cancun Info forum. Temptation Cancun Section: Temptation Los Cabos: Close forum - Temptation Cabo is moving to Desire brand, has no connection to Cancun and people get confused and post in wrong forum when referring to Cancun. We dont have Desire Cancun forums for a reason and now TTR Cabo is to be Desire Cabo soon it would be out of place. Temptation Chatter Forum: Close forum and merge forum into general Temptation Forum. Underused and confusion about where to post. Add "Temptation Cancun Reviews" Forum: Aim: Separate community from research. Too often great trip reports get lost due to the speed of the general Temptation forum pushing them down. This would be a new forum where people can't start new topics but can reply. Quality trip reports would be moved over there once they have dropped down the main TTR forum. Also would help search engine rankings for "Temptation Cancun Reviews" and attract more members. Also move stickies such as tips for first timers and FAQ's. This would reduce the number of stickies in the main Temptation forum so that they dont take up half the first page! Anything that involves community would stay such as roll calls and Boobs Cruise dates. Information would move. Phase 2 Migrate to version 4: - Add extra functionality not currently available - Improved social options such as share with Facebook / Google + - Improved access for smartphone / tablet users - Speed up the forum - Implement CDN to allow faster loading times. CDN is Content Delivery Network. This means common files such as avatars / images will be downloaded from a local area server wherever you live increasing the speed of the forum. Download speed helps with search engine rankings which will hopefully lead to more members. I don't expect many replies to this thread but if you have any feedback on the proposed changes please let me know. It's time to move on to today's Internet or there's a danger we'll get left behind.
I agree, Steve you rock! I always thought it would be nice if you could implement a pop up chat like on FB, this wld be nice for short and fast convos between CC friends instead of doing private msging? Just a thought, otherwise I LOVE CC. Its given me the chance to chat n meet with the best of the best and Im greatful...makes our trip that much better. Its genious!!! Keep up the AWESOME work! Sounds like between this and the Cruise, your very busy We all appreciate it very much
Here you go again… The pucker factor must be setting in for you already. Just remember that you’ve survived the upgrades before and you are more experiences with lots of lessons learned so it “should” be easier this time. On Phase 1: I like the idea of the trip report forum. Makes a lot of sense for the reasons you’ve listed. Combining chatter back into the forum sounds good too. You’re right always has been confusing as to which goes where. On the Cancun Hotel one.. hmmm.. would think that it gets a lot of traffic even if not a lot of posts. Very good research tool that you’ve put a lot of work into. But I guess the “reads” let you know that folks aren’t going there. It’s funny.. you talk about the stickies covering the first page… I hardly ever go into the forums directly, now that I’ve been here a while and only hit the “New Post” button to see changes across the Board since my last visit. But I guess, if I think about it, at least newbies would start there and probably a lot of others continue to go that route, so I can see where that could be a problem. Phase 2 looks to be keeping up with the rest of the world… Bet you didn’t think it would be so complicated when you started that little hobby 10 / 11 years ago? Still going strong and still doing a great job bringing folks together. Who would have ever thought that one day you would have created the “Cancuncare Nation!” Hang in there and let me know if I can help in anyway. Jamie
Phase 1 Review current forum structure: Cancun Hotels Forum: Seldom used - close and merge existing content to Cancun Info forum. Would keeping these forums not help your search rankings for general cancun hotel searches? Temptation Chatter Forum: Close forum and merge forum into general Temptation Forum. Underused and confusion about where to post. Sounds good to me. Add "Temptation Cancun Reviews" Forum: Aim: Separate community from research. Sounds good to me. An additional thought would be to keep a log of all reports as an announcement. Similar to the idea below: Also move stickies such as tips for first timers and FAQ's. Have you thought about having a "Start Here" announcement that stays as the top post. Have links to all the community stickies, such as how to post an avatar, tips for newbies... ? Still keep everything, but instead of 15+ stickies, just one announcement with links to what are now the stickies. Phase 2 Migrate to version 4: - Add extra functionality not currently available - Improved social options such as share with Facebook / Google + - Improved access for smartphone / tablet users - Speed up the forum - Implement CDN to allow faster loading times. CDN is Content Delivery Network. My opinion of the biggest benefit version 4 offers is the improved useability for mobile & tablet users. Been a long time coming. Looks like a solid plan. Insert quote of everything Jamie said here, including let me know if there's anything you need help with.
Thanks for the comments everyone. Re the Cancun Hotels forum, Jamie and Dan, the original posts are all 7 years old from 2005. Some of the hotels have closed, some have been renamed, star ratings have changed, the descriptions of the facilities are probably no longer accurate and most of the links no longer work or go to the wrong page. As it is, it's not an accurate resource and hasn't been for some time. Search engine rankings for hotel names are not great due to huge competition and they probably dont pull much traffic, although some do get a good amount of views e.g Cancun Palace at 120K views is roughly 50 a day. I'd be merging them into the Cancun Info forum so they'd still exist and I guess if SE traffic finds them then they'll get bumped. I do think it was/is a good concept but it needs a total rewrite. I might redo them one day, it's quite labour intensive so I'll probably outsource it but it's way down the list for now. Dan, yeah a 'start here' sticky/announcement with links to other threads is what I too had in mind. With this we can have a lot more FAQ threads such as a FAQ on boobs cruises which will reduce my PM's answering the same questions over and over! Jamie, I use the new posts button on some forums (usually slow moving ones) but hardly ever on here. It's a good reminder that people browse the forum in different ways. Yes, the domain will be 10 years old on 5 August this year. I never dreamt we'd still be around 10 yrs later. Let's hope for another 10! You did say if there was anything you could do to help.... well, an update of: http://www.cancuncare.com/forum/tem...-information-resort-map-updated-may-09-a.html after your May trip would be a great sticky for the new reviews and research forum if you have the time
I think with the new version there are several IM/chat type features that could be added. I'll review them all and look at adding one once things are running well with the new setup. edit to add>>> How about this one? http://www.123flashchat.com/vbulletin-instant-messenger.html
I have been seriously delinqient on that and had planned to really get it caught up this year. Now I'll make sure I do. Jamie
