Originally Posted by
jackal
Unlike most of the candidates (except nsx, who posted just above), I actually have sat down with Internet Brands and brought up this very topic.
First, let me say this: Internet Brands is very pleased with FlyerTalk and is very happy to leave us pretty much alone and let us do what we want. That's good; there really hasn't been any orders sent down from the top to do things a certain way against the FlyerTalk community's wishes. Most of the IB-initiated projects come in the form of additional bolted-on products like TopFlyer that really don't affect the core of the FlyerTalk forum itself.
I laid it on pretty strongly to IB, though, that our technology platform felt out of date. IB didn't disagree; vBulletin 3 (what we are currently using) came out in 2004, and it definitely feels like we're still in 2004. This was brought to a bit of a head recently with the introduction of MilePoint running the vastly more modern XenForo forum software product. (No reason to dance around the issue and pretend MilePoint doesn't exist.) Frankly, I'm not proud that we're still stuck in 2004, but the IB tech guys are hesitant to move us to vBulletin 4--there are still a lot of bugs with that product, and IB values (probably rightly so) stability over look/feel/functionality.
Truthfully, though, I'm not all that unhappy that vBulletin 4 isn't ready for us. vBulletin 4's look and feel and functionality is not all that different than vBulletin 3 and is still not really competitive with some of the alternatives out there--like XenForo. My hope is, though, that now with the existence of a modern alternative forum software, vBulletin's development team will be spurred to significantly improve their product. Will it happen overnight? No; the scale is going to be measured in years, not months. But as one of the larger forums in Internet Brands' portfolio, we can keep the pressure on them to keep improving their forum software.
Other things like improvements to the mobile app, the return of the premium (ad-free) membership, and a replacement FlyerTalk merchandise store are in the works, as are other bolt-on additions (in the manner of TopFlyer) that have the potential to be engaging, although even if they aren't, they won't interfere with the forum itself.
I really don't understand this whole "competitive" technology comment. Is this costing FT posters -- in other words, have a significant number of people left FT for MP because of the technology change? Before I make judgments on whether we *need* to be competitive with the Milepoints in terms of technology, I'd really like to know if most of the more prolific posters care about the fact that we're on some vBulletin 3 implementation. For example -- while it would be nice to have a Like button on occasion, I think the "Like" button is a disaster over on MilePoint. And how many long-time users would get frustrated and leave if the changes in platform were too drastic?
Some of the "cooler" functionality that's available on vBulletin 3 has been disabled either for performance reasons or the potential for annoyance.
My plan would be to seek out a sampling of regular posters and see if there's a consensus for features that are really wanted. I'm guessing there really isn't, but I'm willing to be proven wrong. XenForo has some nice features and a nice feel in certain ways, but has its own bundle of annoyances.
My expertise in the real world is in the area of Capacity and Performance Management. In other words, when there are periods of high demand, are there enough computer resources available to handle the demand without being slow or unavailable. Also, as the user base grows, will there be enough processing power to handle that organic growth. So understand, I will always value stability, speed, and performance over bells and whistles that slow down the user experience for FTers.
But I have a good deal of experience in IT and have evaluated new technologies and requirements as part of my day gig for a long time and I would certainly roll up my sleeves and get involved in this process should I be elected.