ORIGINAL: RCadmin

It actually was not a "new rcu" but an upgrade only of our forum software from the previous version to the new released version of same. The new package was not on long enough for anyone to actually see what it could do or why it holds great potential to be far better then what we have here.

We could build upon what we have here to add those same feature but since the latest version HAS them already one has to wonder why we would recode it all from the ground up just to do what the existing package does.

I am confident with everything working correctly that just about any user would come up to speed on it in a day or for those less computer literate maybe 2 or 3 on the outside. Nobody got to see the product working as intended though or long enough to see how it works.

All that said my main concerns with the upgrade is performance. The upgraded version may be too heavy for some older computers or slower laptops. I don't know what percentage of our users were affected but even 5 or 10 percent concerns me. As such we are putting the upgrade on back burner and going to add some features to this codebase we have now which will be less of a "shock" to those who do not want to see changes and love us just the way we are

One thing people should have faith in is my skills especially if you like what RCU is today. It is a product of me and my partner who are programmers and users of the site PLUS member feedback. You have to believe that if we got us to where we are right now that anywhere we take the site we are confident the moves will allow you to love the site that much more. Small changes are certainly easier for end users to adapt to. This one was not small but also not huge if you had a few hours of it working properly just to look around a bit more to see what it actually could do.

In the meantime I tossed a nugget in tonight in THIS forum...you can now embed YoutTube videos into posts with our YouTube tag (just use the button on the editor here and paste the youtube link in between the tags. Easier yet paste the youtube link in the post, highlight it then click the youtube button and it will tag the link for you. Keep your eye out for more nuggets. I don't know how much more we can tweak search as that relies on MSSQL FullText search capability which doesn't hold a candle to the google gold standard. Google does a great job and spoils all of us. On our search page we do have an RCU search by Google which you can use to supplement your searches if ours comes up short. We will see where else we can improve our own search though and take it as far as we can.

thanks for your support

marc

ORIGINAL: RCKen

It's absolutely true that the old software is pretty much at the end of it's life. This RCU is running on ASP and the developers have stopped supporting it. The newest software will be on Dot Net platform. The biggest issues we have with the software are behind the scenes and the public will never see it, but it will make things run better on the front end. The new look was simply cosmetic. I have been on the phone with Marc several times in the last couple of days and he pointed out something funny. The complaints that we got from the new look are the same complaints that we got LAST time RCU made an "appearance" change.

Anyway, I spoke with Marc earlier this evening and for now the upgrade is on hold. Marc has some real concerns that the new forum will slow on less than top of the line computers. We're going to be doing some more testing on that. But Marc's word was that if the new forums are slower than what we have now it may never come back. It' something he's going to be taking a serious look at over the next couple of months. Everything is on hold for right now.

Ken