New Forum /Version.....

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

Pro Boards is very kind in that they host these message boards for free. The young fellows that created ProBoards are extrmely bright; and helpful I've found when I've run into problems.

Right now there's a tremendous push to have their current forums convert over to a newer V5; a Beta version. It would allow some things for you, the members, to do much easier though it does take a bit of adapting/adjusting to.

John and I have been reading and checking things out a fair bit lately. We've really been tossing around the pros and the cons. And; there's still some bumps in the road from what I gather with the new Version 5 including the potential of garbled posts and possibly loosing a few.

I've even contacted a couple of others who have a forum to see how they feel about the conversion; they've had no problems.

The thing is; at some point I'm pretty sure it's going to happen even if we don't want it to. And; they do have that right.

Sometime today I'm hoping to do a "test drive" and see how it works. In a nutshell they'll use/create a backup of our existing forum to facilitate a trial run. It should NOT effect this forum.

I'll let you know how it goes....

Wish me/us luck!

[susanny]

oh boy, and I'm an old dog. Seriously, hope it's not too complicated to learn as I have a really hard time lately. I do wish you of course!

[bobbioh]

LUCK

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

The thing is Sue; it's gonna become mandatory by the end of April though they may have an "opt out" period of time. Ultimately though.... it will happen. At least this way the Admins will get a chance to "try it out" first. I hope .

If anything it might even be easier for members in the long run; including uploading pix.

Hey..... you don't think my little knees are a knocking?

[John]

You will do ok Good luck !

[annabob]

Is this going to be like teaching old dogs new tricks
I dont know if it is just me, but I find the older I get the harder it is to grasp new ideas.

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

Nope Annabob..... so far it "looks the same" not as many functions that we use here but a lot of that is becasue of extra coding we've added ourselves....

Not to worry; we'll be checking it out thoroughly.....

[Deborah]

Jackie: Thanks for letting us know and thanks to you and John for looking into it. I know you both will make it as easy as possible for the rest of us. It's hard when the change is imposed but as long as the service remains free and relatively easy I am sure we will adjust fairly quickly.

Deborah

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

Thanks for your support Deborah. It "looks" pretty much the same but there are differences. I've still a lot of checking /trying different things there, John's been there now as well and the mods will now be spending some time looking it over and providing me their feedback.

Nothing's written in stone and; if it isn't gonna be an easy transition etc we may just go for the "opt out" until we're "forced" (could be the end of the year)........ or later even! The fact of the matter is as Admins we have to be assured that it'll work for our members here.

There's no rush on it.....

I'm telling e'one these things so that there's no out of the blue shocks.... and; we can't help anyone else unless we know how things work ourselves.

Besides; better to be informed than not when it comes to some things don't you think?

[Deleted]

Thanks Jackie & John good luck

[susanny]

So far it looks like simple posting will remain the same. that's a relief I'm sure most will agree to (Ann and Me).

[sandy07]

Looks like it will be okay. Any change takes a bit to get used to.

[mary57]

Thank you both, Jackie and John, and to Sue and Sandy, for checking this out and for letting us know about it. I'm sure it will work out fine, just one more thing to update in our minds. not always easy, but doable. Again thank you all.