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Those of you who have been around here a few years likely remember our transition from vBulletin 3 to vBulletin 4. This 'revolutionary update' which was promised to add increased functionality and continued support turned out to be the cause of many, many headaches. That was a very long year for us, as we waited for the developers of the software to fix the instability issues and many bugs found in the early versions of vB4. We finally got to a point where we've had a stable site for the past couple years, but the end result, in my opinion, has always been just so-so. While internet savvy folks can generally figure things out by trial and error, many of our other brothers in arms have difficulty with registration, navigation, posting photos, and using the site in general. When I created this community I did so to bring us together and strengthen the community. I believe in order to do that we need a reliable, easy to use site so people will want to come back as often as possible. Internet Brands, who developed vBulletin 4 and now vBulletin 5, has been on a downward slide ever since the release of vB4. While it's unlikely they'll be out of business anytime soon, we've seen the writing on the wall for far too long now.
This new platform is developed by the same team who developed the much-loved vBulletin 3 platform before the company was purchased by Internet Brands. For those who don't know, vBulletin 3 is the version used on The High Road, Glock Talk, 1911forum, and many other firearm forums since around 2001. Internet Brands prioritized profit over product quality, which didn't sit well with these developers, so they set out to create the platform Internet Brands deemed too costly to develop. After waiting a year for the non-compete to expire they released their first version in October 2010. We've been evaluating this software ever since, and now believe it's ready for the NorthwestFirearms.com community.
One of the biggest mistakes we made during the transition from vBulletin 3 to vBulletin 4 was the lack of input we solicited from our members. I remember it clearly, and told myself I wouldn't make that mistake twice. It's because of this that I'm making this announcement; we'd like you to give it a test run and give us your opinions. It's also because of this that we haven't set a migration date yet. It could be two months, it could be a six. We know we can't please everyone, but we'll know it's time once members are as excited about us to make the switch.
Most of you don't know I've been developing a sister site for NWFA for the residents of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, called Southwest Firearms. I've been working on it on and off for a couple years now, but never really had the time to devote to spreading the word. NWFA has been an overwhelming success, and I think it'd be great if we could apply this same formula down there. The reason I mention this is because SouthwestFirearms.com has also served as our test environment for this new platform. If any of you have friends or family down there, be sure to mention it!
Those of you who wish to provide feedback on the future NWFA platform are encouraged to create an account over there. Play with the buttons, tweak the settings, take it for a test drive, and report back to us. The more feedback we get from NWFA members the better we can plan this migration and make sure we're making a positive move.
http://www.southwestfirearms.com
This new platform is developed by the same team who developed the much-loved vBulletin 3 platform before the company was purchased by Internet Brands. For those who don't know, vBulletin 3 is the version used on The High Road, Glock Talk, 1911forum, and many other firearm forums since around 2001. Internet Brands prioritized profit over product quality, which didn't sit well with these developers, so they set out to create the platform Internet Brands deemed too costly to develop. After waiting a year for the non-compete to expire they released their first version in October 2010. We've been evaluating this software ever since, and now believe it's ready for the NorthwestFirearms.com community.
One of the biggest mistakes we made during the transition from vBulletin 3 to vBulletin 4 was the lack of input we solicited from our members. I remember it clearly, and told myself I wouldn't make that mistake twice. It's because of this that I'm making this announcement; we'd like you to give it a test run and give us your opinions. It's also because of this that we haven't set a migration date yet. It could be two months, it could be a six. We know we can't please everyone, but we'll know it's time once members are as excited about us to make the switch.
Most of you don't know I've been developing a sister site for NWFA for the residents of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, called Southwest Firearms. I've been working on it on and off for a couple years now, but never really had the time to devote to spreading the word. NWFA has been an overwhelming success, and I think it'd be great if we could apply this same formula down there. The reason I mention this is because SouthwestFirearms.com has also served as our test environment for this new platform. If any of you have friends or family down there, be sure to mention it!
Those of you who wish to provide feedback on the future NWFA platform are encouraged to create an account over there. Play with the buttons, tweak the settings, take it for a test drive, and report back to us. The more feedback we get from NWFA members the better we can plan this migration and make sure we're making a positive move.
http://www.southwestfirearms.com
