So JJ and I were talking and we want your guys' input.

What do you guys think of switching forums? To like donutplains.net/forum?

Yes, we'd lose all posts. We'd start over. I know that's not appealing, but we're just starting to think a few things.

1) A fresh start. We might need it, we might now. It just depends how you think

2) Legitimacy. Quote honestly, I'm not sure and I don't think JJ is sure that people still consider Invisoonfree legitimate.

3) Customizing. We'd have a lot more options with a new board.

It's a big decision, so let us know what you think.

I am 100% for.

Fine by me. Doesn't seem like there would be anything wrong with it.

So, if this does happen, everyone who cares about a certain thread should write down the title of it somewhere, so you can start it back up if we do get new forums.

*shrugs* Whatever you think best. And more customization sounds nice.

I'm totally game for this. A fresh new start is exactly what Donut Plains needs.

Mind explaining why we exactly need a fresh start?
Iunno, this seems kinda unnecessary, but whatever floats your boat.

These are like, really really surprising results. I wasn't expecting this turnout :o

The new members aren't jumping the idea but old ones are. Honestly I didn't see that coming, if anything I thought it would be the other way around.

That being the case, I should probably explain the whole fresh start thing.

We don't NEED one, we just are wondering if having one is better. There are a few reasons for this:

1) Legitimacy, as already explained

2) Less Limits. We can do a lot more with a professional forum (IE: Simple Machines) than with Invisionfree.

3) The forum's...image. While we haven't done anything wrong , the forum just has never really excelled. It's no one's fault, don't get me wrong, but we can do much better.

There are some more reasons but yeah. I'm not sure Invisionfree will take us where we want to be in the future.

Sounds good, I'm for it. Though just to understand what is also at stake... what would be some possible down downturns from switiching?

The one main disadvantage I see is that we would lose everything we've built up on the forums in 2 years. Even if that might not seem like much, it's hours and hours spent writing. I mean, we won't lose what we've built up, but we'll lose the traces of it.

Sorry guys I haven't been posting. Settled into summer classes now (and doing well) so I will be able to post more.

I haven't read the whole topic but I am more than 100% for it. I feel this place needs a fresh start anyways and there's more you can do.

Wouldn't really lose anything... you can still come back here like you can still go to SMRPGL's boards and look around.

Lol, I keep editing this post:

You could just change all the boards to read-only when you switch over.

I am for it. A better, fresher, more customizable forum is the kind of boost we need, imo. If it does happen, I would tell everyone ahead of time so have a bit of time to note what threads we would like to restart.

I think it would also make the forums feel less distanced from the site, since you will probably be able to skin the forum similar to the site, and the fact that it will be hosted on the domain itself.

Edit: Also, a radical idea, you say? Hm...

Yep. It works.

I agree a fresh start could help the forums, and right before E3 is a great time too since it could bring more people to the forums and would be great to do to help the fresh start excel.

So I vote yes.

Lol. Logic fail.

I don't exactly know what to say about this proposal.
Even though I guess I am about ~75% in favour of it, I don't exactly see the need to give the forums a fresh start.
If anything, having a forum with as many threads like here will help encourage users to sign up, so that where my uncertainty comes from.

Well, there's 2 different ways to interpret it.

1) There's 13000 posts, good enough to join

2) There's 13000 posts but most of the forums are dead, so why bother?

Here's a preview of the default setting of what the new forum would look like. You might recognize it.

http://static.sftcdn.net/fr/scrn/52000/52557/3_SMF_3.jpg

It might even be a bit outdated from that screen, since I believe I've seen a slightly different, newer looking version. That, and of course, we'd skin it.

I've used Simple Machines before. They are definitely good pieces of software.

I'm 100% for it.

Actually it might look more like this

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php

Radical.

Square root of awesome squared. It definitely looks more like Zetaboards with its bigger space inbetween each forum selection.

So...its awesome. Haha.


But yeah, looks nice.

It seems as though the new board is a good idea. I really hope everyone will be there and enjoy it.

It's installed, and we'll be switching over soon

Everyone start writing down topics to switch over since we won't be able to transfer them!

I just got Forum Games.

Definitely the best of the board. :P

Some of us are talking on MSN and I think we basically all think this new board will be much better.

Do you have a link for us yet?

I do but because it's now on the DP server I need to test some databasing things first before it's ready.

Will it be ready by, say, 9:00 CST?

Possibly. It will be close to it. We're trying to pick a skin

► So it's almost like having your own board and not depending on Invisionfree anymore. (Hoping to not be terribly wrong here.)

That's exactly it!

► Whoo! I feel better about that. Ahaha.

It will be having the sandwich of victory. And the discontinued use of Invisionfree will be the mustard on that sandwich. (failed Fawful-ian)

Lol, it was good :P

It will be up soon :3

I... I'm all alone.... where is everyone?