Migration, Surprise or Heads Up to users?

Sagar

Sagar

Active member
Just wondering, whats better way for a small community?

Test every nut and bolt and change over night with an announcement of surprise, or start communicating about migration, progress and cut-over day?
 
I agree with the above. We are great with forums. Some are not.

I get about a dozen emails a week from members who are new to forums or haven't been to one in awhile asking how to log in, post, find past posts, etc. Anything you can do to minimize the anxiety will be welcomed. Post screen shots, write an email blast about how to log in, and if realistic, plan what date you're going to make the switch. This is not only comforting, but builds excitement.
 
Change it overnight and then reply to every new thread, post or email received on the subject with complete denial that anything has changed.

...or what we're actually going to do....announce the change, publish screenshots & teasers, maybe video, announce a projected changeover date, all public. Like Chimpie said above, build it up with a slow and seductive reveal.
 
When I did the change from vb3 to 4, I actually set up a public play with it type of sandbox while I did the actual conversion on my private server that only I could access. After we'd described what the upgrade was doing, why we were doing it, and people had had a chance to use it we went live with the new copy. It went really smooth and in general the users were happy.
 
Thanks bambua thats indeed a great approach
bambua said:
When I did the change from vb3 to 4, I actually set up a public play with it type of sandbox while I did the actual conversion on my private server that only I could access. After we'd described what the upgrade was doing, why we were doing it, and people had had a chance to use it we went live with the new copy. It went really smooth and in general the users were happy.
Click to expand...
 
The site I'm installed XenForo on will be a replacement for one of my current sites. The only thing being imported are the members, everything else will be a clean slate. I have already told them about the software changes. Tuesday I will install the XenForo for me and my staff to play around on and at the same time I'll post some screen shots to see what the feedback is like. If everything goes as planned I will go live in Mid October.

My site deals with ages 13 to 18 currently, so change is always demanded but not welcomed (even though they ask for it :rolleyes:). So we'll see how it goes, overall I think once they get past the change they will like it much better :)
 
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