bmwcca.org/forum

[steven s]

Well, we are live.
Not really looking for styling comments since I have little control over that.

We have a membership of over 70,000 members. While many don't use the forum, it is there for their private use as a member benefit. The main feature of the forum is a single sign on using our membership database.

When a person logs in on the home page, a username is automatically created in the xenforo if one did not exist. If a person changes their username in their profile section of the club membership page, xenforo uses that new username.

Permissions are also based on our membership database.
When a member logs in their permissions are automatically updated in xenforo.
If the person is no longer a member, they can no longer post.

We started with vBulletin and vBadvanced which was migrated to Drupal.
We could not use our vB posts since they did not import into Drupal.
To get to the point we are now, I updated our old vB3 forum to the last version.
Changed attachments and avatars from filesystem to database.
Removed all the hacks and mods. Created new forum sections in preparation for xenforo.
Then copy and paste each drupal comment into vB3 including timestamps.
Import into xenforo.

Hoping v1.1 doesn't break anything.
http://www.bmwcca.org/forum

 

[MarcosPreviato]

cool design, two suggestions:

1) the social symbols in the footer would be nice if deixase them colored by passing the mouse! (Hover effect).

2) the logo is cool but it was higher in both the header and footer, would be more harmonious with the site!

Congratulations on the site!

Hugs!

 

[steven s]

After one week no one says the new forum sucks.
I consider that high praise from our group.

The negative comments when we used Drupal were relentless and not unfounded.
I announced the new forum to those who have posted since converting from vB to Drupal trying to lure them back.
We really scared them off.

We will be announcing the new forum to the rest of our membership next week.

Our single sign on is working pretty well.
I only have to intervene with a one or two a day due to missing data from vB which was part of the previous SSO mod.

 

[steven s]

Our forum has been open for a couple months.
While people aren't posting as much as I hoped for, they aren't complaining like they did when we were running the drupal forum

Made an interesting observation after looking at the analytics.
Drupal we were averaging 20 hits per day and they were pretty much all complaints.
Launched XenForo mid Nov and it looks like it averages around 250 hits a day and no complaints.
Still a lot of lurkers. Once we are updated to 1.1.1 I hope that the notices system will help increase participation.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Love the landing page for http://www.bmwcca.org/ - very well done.

What powers the Classifieds ?
http://www.bmwcca.org/classifieds/listings.php?id=1723
They look great.

Your Classifieds would be even better if they could be Watched, Liked, and would show up in What's New ! A native Classifieds app would be great.

Lots of cool stuff on your site.

I found some content out of place.
Shouldn't THE FOUNDATION MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS HISTORY be in the About Tab ?


Your forum ! ... something felt washed out about it.
http://www.bmwcca.org/forum/index.php
I think it the grey text. It is so washed out. The other Tabs (news, Events, well everywhere else) has nice (easy to read) black ! why mushy grey for the forums ? Black please ! It seems very quirky that the numbers for the discussion count and the word Latest appear super black against the grey.
The blue orange forum icons should be tweaked to match your site ... there are good tweaks for that now.
I think your forum is fixed width .. and pretty small. The recent posts seems super squished, The titles don't stand out (I find it very hard to read), there doesn't appear to be divisions between entries ?

I think your Forums need a link in the Top Level Tab.
In your current setup, the Forums link is given the same prominence as History.
I can't tell how much content and activity is in Galleries and Stories.

Idea:

 

[steven s]

Lots of cool stuff on your site.

Thanks.
I have very little input over the style of the site.
My little world is only around forum. I suggested xenforo and our developers accepted my suggestion.
They did suggest other packages but couldn't stand to see grown man cry.

The forum is wrapped around drupal.