Regarding the NTBA forum, it's very unfortunate that the technology there hasn't kept up with the times. I still visit there, I'm a life member of the NTBA, but it is unfortunate that changes haven't been made.
I let my NTBA membership lapse, a couple years back. I wasn't realizing any benefit from my dollars and their forum was just to painful to endure any longer. I suspect it's been 18-20 months since I last visited that site. I'm not proud of it, but it is an indication of how much I dislike trying to use their forum.
A little over a year ago, when I made the decision to move this site to Invision Power Board, my other option was to leave the site on vBulletin 3.8.x. But it was already announced that 3.8 was a dead branch and I didn't want to go on and on with a piece of software that was going to be out of date. I am always amazed to see the
Hotrodders Bulletin Board, which is still running on vBulletin 3.0.7. They've got themselves a really large site and it's neat to see how well it runs on software that is so out of date. If memory serves, vBulletin 3.0.7 was from back around mid-year of 2005. I ran it myself, years ago. I suspect (and it really is just a guess) they've made enough modifications to the 3.0.x software, that they would have a problem bringing all those modifications up to date and have decided to just keep using what it working for them. VBulletin had really big upgrades from 3.0.x to 3.5.x, then 3.6.x, then 3.7.x, then 3.8.x and they are now running on 4.0.x. I cringe at what it would take to upgrade a site with 1 million-plus posts from 3.0.7 all the way up to 3.8.x or 4.0.x. <shudder>
That could be the problem the NTBA has. I've no idea what their forum software actually is, but maybe there is an issue converting their database over to something more modern. I don't know. I offered the NTBA a dedicated forum on this site, but nothing ever came of it. At one point, someone from the NTBA contacted me about supporting this site and I repeated the dedicated forum offer. And once again, it died on the vine. 3 or 4 of their 'bubbas' ended up over here, telling me what I needed to do so this site would be more like their own and it didn't take too long for me to run them back out of here.
I could easily set up some dedicated forum sections for the NTBA to use here. I could also set up private forums for them to use. With a list of their members, I could set up a new usergroup that would allow each of them access to private forums for NTBA members only. We could set their tech articles up in our Tech Library. I think it would go a long way toward unifying T-Bucket owners and fans, which seems like it could only be a good thing. But all of us are aware they have themselves a a very small handful of problem-children. No need to name names, we all know who they are. I'll not endure any of their games on this site and they damn well know it. I'm quite sure that bunch find it easier to put up with antiquated software than to play well with others and they would scream like mashed cats if we tried to move them into their own space over here. In the end, that leaves the NTBA folks to moderate those bampots and I reckon I'm really OK with that. :winkn:
As for this site, we're always going to stay atop software changes. Our photo gallery software works just fine, but just wait until you see the upgraded version that is about to be released. As soon as it is available, I will upgrade. I've always been that way and that is what has kept us up to date with new features and functions. How many T-Bucket sites out there have registration integration with OpenID, Twitter and Facebook? How many T-bucket sites out there allow sharing topics with Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Buzz, Deli.cio.us, Reddit and StumbleUpon? How many T-Bucket sites offer tech articles that are so closely integrated with their forums? How many T-Bucket sites offer photo galleries so closely integrated with their forums? How many T-Bucket sites offer Classified Ads so closely integrated with their forums? How many T-bucket sites offer a Support Desk at all, much less one so closely integrated with their forums? You might find sites that offer one or two of these features, but find another one that offers them all. In about 45 minutes time, I could have integrated blogs set up on this site, too. People don't seem interested in them, so I've not bothered with the expense and maintenance to add them. But they are available, if there is enough interest in having them. Imagine having your own blog, hosted on this site. No need for you to buy hosting and learn how to use WordPress, you could have a blog right here. Maybe there will be enough interest in them, one of these days.
I think (hope?) we're offering everyone the most robust T-Bucket forum experience available and it is my plan to keep doing just that.
