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NEW BANGSHIFT.com FORUM STYLE COMING
Here's something we've been working on for months, and it's days away from happening. The BangShift.com forums are changing to vBulletin, a forum structure that you are probably familiar with from all over the gearhead internet. It's used at places like YellowBullet.com, the HAMB, Lateral-G.net, Pro-Touring.com, Team Chevelle, and many others. We tell you this so you know this is pretty normal stuff. Don't freak out. Our version may look a little different and have some different features than the sites we listed, but it will still be familiar and easy to use.
Why are we changing? Because vBulletin is way more user friendly and has more features. Here are some of the things that you will get:
- Easy photo uploading! No more having to host photos at remote sites for embedding in forum posts. It will be very easy to upload pics right from your computer.
- Video embedding! You'll be able to use embed codes from YouTube to show videos in your forum posts.
- Readers Rides! We will have a special Garage section where you can upload photos and stories about your own car so all BangShift.com visitors can check it out.
- Photo galleries! Within your profile, you can create as many photo galleries as you want, with up to 100 photos each. You can choose if your own galleries are viewable by registered users, or only to your friends. Other users will be able to comment on or rate your photos.
- Social Network! If you want to, you can join or create special user clubs, like for Forum Freaks, or for Michigan BangShifters, or whatever. These groups have private discussions all to themselves. You can also do friending and other stuff like that, but you don't have t if you don't want to.
- Improved Blog Commenting! Now if you want to tell Chad, Lohnes, or any of our guest bloggers that they're great or have their heads where the sun don't shine, you won't have to head to the forums. The comments will appear directly below the blog item as they do on most blogs, not in the forum section.
Those are the big things, but there will be a bunch of other new features that you'll discover. Like you can customize your own display, you can pick the users you want to ignore, there's better PMing, more smilies, and you can hover your cursor over thread titles and a small window will pop up to show you the discussion so you can preview it very quickly without having to click on the topic to see if you care. There are a lot of features like that. Another one is that there will be a new rating system so that people with lots of posts can work from being a Slushbox member to becoming a full-on BangShifter! (We think your old post count will be lost, so everyone will start from scratch).
The new forums are also easer for search engines to find, which helps BangShift.com get more traffic. That helps us a lot.
When we change over, all the old threads and photos will still be in place. Your existing user names will still be there, too.
HOWEVER, EVERYONE WILL NEED TO CHANGE THEIR PASSWORD TO GET INTO THE NEW FORUMS. That's the big message we want to send in order to make the transistion as easy as possible. Our computer guys say that the password database is so protected that it can't be swaped from one forum software to another. That's why you WILL NEED TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD TO GET INTO THE NEW FORUM AFTER THE CHANGE.
ALSO YOUR BOOKMARKS TO THE FORUM WILL HAVE TO CHANGE. When the forum is updated, just come to the site by going to www.BangShift.com instead of using any bookmark you may have that takes you to the forum. You can re-make your bookmark on the new-style page.
When we make the change, the forums will be down for 4-6 hours. We will let you all know well in advance exactly the time when this is going to happen.
We know there will be some people who fear the change or don't like it, and we may even have some glitches to fix. However, we're convinced that the newer forum style with easier photo uploads and with the reader's galleries will make this new system way better in the long run.
Ask questions if you've got them. We may not have answers right away, but we will get them.
Thanks! BangShift.com is moving on up!
Here's something we've been working on for months, and it's days away from happening. The BangShift.com forums are changing to vBulletin, a forum structure that you are probably familiar with from all over the gearhead internet. It's used at places like YellowBullet.com, the HAMB, Lateral-G.net, Pro-Touring.com, Team Chevelle, and many others. We tell you this so you know this is pretty normal stuff. Don't freak out. Our version may look a little different and have some different features than the sites we listed, but it will still be familiar and easy to use.
Why are we changing? Because vBulletin is way more user friendly and has more features. Here are some of the things that you will get:
- Easy photo uploading! No more having to host photos at remote sites for embedding in forum posts. It will be very easy to upload pics right from your computer.
- Video embedding! You'll be able to use embed codes from YouTube to show videos in your forum posts.
- Readers Rides! We will have a special Garage section where you can upload photos and stories about your own car so all BangShift.com visitors can check it out.
- Photo galleries! Within your profile, you can create as many photo galleries as you want, with up to 100 photos each. You can choose if your own galleries are viewable by registered users, or only to your friends. Other users will be able to comment on or rate your photos.
- Social Network! If you want to, you can join or create special user clubs, like for Forum Freaks, or for Michigan BangShifters, or whatever. These groups have private discussions all to themselves. You can also do friending and other stuff like that, but you don't have t if you don't want to.
- Improved Blog Commenting! Now if you want to tell Chad, Lohnes, or any of our guest bloggers that they're great or have their heads where the sun don't shine, you won't have to head to the forums. The comments will appear directly below the blog item as they do on most blogs, not in the forum section.
Those are the big things, but there will be a bunch of other new features that you'll discover. Like you can customize your own display, you can pick the users you want to ignore, there's better PMing, more smilies, and you can hover your cursor over thread titles and a small window will pop up to show you the discussion so you can preview it very quickly without having to click on the topic to see if you care. There are a lot of features like that. Another one is that there will be a new rating system so that people with lots of posts can work from being a Slushbox member to becoming a full-on BangShifter! (We think your old post count will be lost, so everyone will start from scratch).
The new forums are also easer for search engines to find, which helps BangShift.com get more traffic. That helps us a lot.
When we change over, all the old threads and photos will still be in place. Your existing user names will still be there, too.
HOWEVER, EVERYONE WILL NEED TO CHANGE THEIR PASSWORD TO GET INTO THE NEW FORUMS. That's the big message we want to send in order to make the transistion as easy as possible. Our computer guys say that the password database is so protected that it can't be swaped from one forum software to another. That's why you WILL NEED TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD TO GET INTO THE NEW FORUM AFTER THE CHANGE.
ALSO YOUR BOOKMARKS TO THE FORUM WILL HAVE TO CHANGE. When the forum is updated, just come to the site by going to www.BangShift.com instead of using any bookmark you may have that takes you to the forum. You can re-make your bookmark on the new-style page.
When we make the change, the forums will be down for 4-6 hours. We will let you all know well in advance exactly the time when this is going to happen.
We know there will be some people who fear the change or don't like it, and we may even have some glitches to fix. However, we're convinced that the newer forum style with easier photo uploads and with the reader's galleries will make this new system way better in the long run.
Ask questions if you've got them. We may not have answers right away, but we will get them.
Thanks! BangShift.com is moving on up!
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