MistyMeanor
Active member
I have been a LONG TIME vBulletin user. I JUST spent a buttload of money buying a vB license because I wanted to open up a forum for all people living with a neuromuscular disease. There are thousands in the world, and a LOT of different types of NMDs. Many people commonly know the terms, Muscular Dystrophy, ALS, Lou Gherig's disease, Duchenne, SMA (spinal muscular atrophy).
I have fun vb forums before, but it was about 10 years ago. Back then it was for exotic pet owners. There were never any problems with it then, and it was considered the top forum platform on the market.
Well, I just launched this forum of mine and have been SLOWLY getting registrations, but really expected them to roll in much quicker as my team and I belong to other FB group discussion groups and such. But, it seems as if the platform scares members. Like it is too busy and overwhelming. A couple of my members have stated it's confusing or difficult to navigate. It was like pulling teeth just to get my moderators SOMEWHAT familiar with it! So I am sitting her scratching my head, saying to myself, what is so hard? what am I doing wrong? and I did/do think it should have a more clean looking skin... but there is so much more to it than just the skin. I hired on some people to help me with my site and upgrades and such and they highly suggested I switch to Xen. At first I said absolutely not, because I just bought this license. But began to look more into it and try the demo and was impressed with how clean it was, smooth, and seemed to be fairly user friendly.
But I am scared. I have asked some questions of the people that told me this, and one of the things I am REALLY NOT liking is that I have gender specific forums and over 18 age forums that are password protected. How in the heck would I set up usergroup permissions to allow only men? only women? and must be over 18?
The other thing is, I am being told I need to purchase a couple of add-ons, one being xencarta, moderator essentials, and one to set amount of posts needed to post in certain forums. All I see is $$$$... I have already dropped so much money on this current forum, and bought a skin and hack for it recently as well, hired on my new team of "helpers" should I say to manage my forums monthly, and now may need to switch platforms to maybe gain some active members.
So yeah, I am scared on if I am doing the right thing. This forum only has 35 members. That includes the mods which there are 4, and maybe only 3 or 4 of the members have been posting. Otherwise its been me and my team trying to create content to get people involved.
I have fun vb forums before, but it was about 10 years ago. Back then it was for exotic pet owners. There were never any problems with it then, and it was considered the top forum platform on the market.
Well, I just launched this forum of mine and have been SLOWLY getting registrations, but really expected them to roll in much quicker as my team and I belong to other FB group discussion groups and such. But, it seems as if the platform scares members. Like it is too busy and overwhelming. A couple of my members have stated it's confusing or difficult to navigate. It was like pulling teeth just to get my moderators SOMEWHAT familiar with it! So I am sitting her scratching my head, saying to myself, what is so hard? what am I doing wrong? and I did/do think it should have a more clean looking skin... but there is so much more to it than just the skin. I hired on some people to help me with my site and upgrades and such and they highly suggested I switch to Xen. At first I said absolutely not, because I just bought this license. But began to look more into it and try the demo and was impressed with how clean it was, smooth, and seemed to be fairly user friendly.
But I am scared. I have asked some questions of the people that told me this, and one of the things I am REALLY NOT liking is that I have gender specific forums and over 18 age forums that are password protected. How in the heck would I set up usergroup permissions to allow only men? only women? and must be over 18?
The other thing is, I am being told I need to purchase a couple of add-ons, one being xencarta, moderator essentials, and one to set amount of posts needed to post in certain forums. All I see is $$$$... I have already dropped so much money on this current forum, and bought a skin and hack for it recently as well, hired on my new team of "helpers" should I say to manage my forums monthly, and now may need to switch platforms to maybe gain some active members.
So yeah, I am scared on if I am doing the right thing. This forum only has 35 members. That includes the mods which there are 4, and maybe only 3 or 4 of the members have been posting. Otherwise its been me and my team trying to create content to get people involved.
