Staffing Should I Switch?

[Dawn 1]

(First of all, if I put this in the wrong area I'm sorry.)

 

Recently I have been debating whether I should move to Jcink. I am currently using ProBoards, and I LOVE ProBoards. I find it very easy to use and easy to navigate. I have always loved it, however, they are updating soon, and from what I've heard this update is going to change a lot. So I've been panicking on what I should do if I don't like the update. My brain's solution: Jcink. I've never been a big fan of Jcink, but I've heard a lot of good things, so I assume it must be alright. I have been messing around with a test site recently and have found everything to be to my liking. The other staff members on my site are fans of Jcink and have some experience with it, so they could definitely help me figure things out. The more I research about it, the more things I like. The idea of being able to have a rating higher than 2 1 1 would be amazing! Also the ease of switching between accounts. So all in all, it sounds great.

 

The problem is, on the site I currently have, we have over 5,000 posts and 150 accounts registered. I hate the idea of uprooting so many people and having to recreate everything over on Jcink, but in the long run it might be worth it. So I'm looking for an opinion. Is it worth it to switch to Jcink if we have to move everyone and lose what we currently have? 

 

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read through my panicking.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Dawn

[Elena 546]

I moved to jcink too after 3 years and 12,000 or 17,000 of posts (I don't remember exactly). I did it smoothly, without uprooting anyone, as a new volume of the ongoing story. I copied the site documentation on the new site, I made coloured easy navigation buttons from a site to another, and the people just copied their bios on the new site. The stories of the year 1719 remained in invisionfree, the stories of 1720 on jcink. You can look around if you want.  The invisionfree site is our archive story for 1719.

[Arceus 1,082]

Aaaye that's a bit to lose. But, I think the first thing you should do, is bring this to your members, if you haven't already. You'll inevitably lose a few, but if the majority are okay with having to move stuff, then, that's that. Personally because of their ToS I really dislike PB, so I'm kind of biased here. But if you like Jcink, and you yourself are okay with starting fresh, this could be a good thing for your site, too. It'd certainly open your board's horizons; a lot of people that dislike PB really love Jcink, but the same can be said the other way, to be fair about it.

 

If it helps, I don't think PB really deletes old boards, I've heard of friends finding years-old PB forums they haven't thought of in nearly a decade still lying around. And I haven't really heard of anyone having a particularly hard time getting the hang of Jcink, it's pretty straight-forward, and John is very active in the community and constantly adding new things. I will always have good things to say about that guy.

 

But! Most importantly, really, is what you think, what you are comfortable with, and what your members are okay with, not what some random stranger on the internet says. At the end of the day, you have to be okay with this move because it's your board. If you and your members are down, why not?

Take a deep breath. It'll be okay.

[VirusZero 176]

Unfortunately you won't be able to easily transfer everything from proboards. They don't give you easy access to a database (not without going for their whitelabel/paid version, if it still exists). Even if you had that, it's an entirely other question if there's even a converter for that. (Jcink and proboards have different database structures so trying to put a proboards database in Jcink without converting it won't work.)

 

So if you intend to move you're going to have to either move everything by hand (doable but time consuming) or start over fresh. If you were already looking for some "spring cleaning" (to clear out old/unused accounts and get rid of abandoned plots) this could be a benefit to move. (Plus I'm sure you could trim down that number some... I mean there's no point transferring anything from the ad section over so that'd knock off ~600 posts right there.) If you were planning to transfer things, I'd recommend looking into 2 JFH features, if you haven't already, which would be immensely useful: pre-register and post-as/change poster. This would allow you to create accounts for people and then you could copy/paste posts in for them. 

 

If you want to ask your members if they want to move, I'd suggest showing them some benefits of why they might want to. Maybe make a new theme to go along with it? And showcase some posts/accounts there so they could see what it'd look like?   

I mean this is going to be a big change for them and there are going to be bumps along the way. And of course be prepared for the fact there are always some who don't want to change. (Some people are diehard proboards lovers.)

 

As for the rating, I know this may sound crazy... but if you don't actually intend to use it then don't go for the higher rating. I mean getting it means paying for premium. And it also comes with the caveat that if you stop paying, everyone but you gets locked out of the forum... even if there's no actual mature content there. (So why pay for something unless you were, for certain, going to use it?) Even if you do intend to use it, I'd still recommend holding off until the transfer is complete and people are settled in. (This way you can introduce it as a new feature later to get people hyped.)

 

Personally I think the further away from proboards the better off you are... but I have a rather obvious bias against them so grain of salt. At the end of the day though it's up to you. Do you want to go through that work? Will the outcome make things better off? And do your members want to? 

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2016 by VirusZero

[Morrigan 1,826]

As already discussed there are pros and cons of either decision. I would certainly bring it to your members and be transparent about it. as possible. When you feel it's time convert. I would make sure your important stuff and new skin is up. I would also maybe do something about creating the accounts for the members so they don't have to as a show of good will for the move. You can create a thread asking what characters they want to move to make your life easier.

 

@Dawn

[Dawn 1]

Hiya everyone! I just wanted to say thanks for the advice/comments. I decided to move my forum to Jcink. We just started the switch today, so fingers crossed everything goes well!