I would like to save, Migrate archive or link our current volume of posted info.

definitely would be great to be on a platform that makes posting easier, and possibly..... works with some apps.. like tapatalk or similar? Having an app makes it so much easier to post photos from your phone quickly, and that has recently been bogging me down here.

Usually there will be associated costs, and I am willing to chip in, but I know they can get expensive.

Searchability  and archived posts with some way of retaining photos, will be the perfect scenario.. :D
 

I would like to make a plea for no Google or Reddit, those are god awful in my opinion.

I looked closer at Xenforo, 1 year's support + image hosting looks to roughly be $225.00 then $75.00 thereafter. Looks like there's some other options in there too where they will help you migrate. More than happy to pitch in here's a link to pricing https://xenforo.com/purchase/

Here's a link to a simple Xenforo forum that I frequent I am sure you could tone down the colors if it's too flashy for people's liking. http://www.spiuserforum.com/index.php

 

I am extremely concerned that if we move the forum to a different forum site it will ultimately result in the forums demise.   I have a business degree and a good understanding of marketing and have done a lot of analysis as to the causes of the decrease in the traffic to my own website over the last 5 years, and feel what I have learned applies to the forum as well.  Part of the decrease in activity is not about being able to host pix, its a decrease in people restoring this cars.  People are very active when they are working on their car but when it's "done"  them may not come by as often.  Not to mention the fact that there are less unrestored Mustangs out there.  This is why several large mustang parts suppliers are no longer in business.  The second issue and the biggest problem is social media.  The masses want what is easy. They don’t want to take the time to type a well thought out post, let alone read one.  They want to trow up a few pictures and a one or two word description and or add a video, then be able to click "like", and if they are looking for info they want to watch a video rather than read. It is this factor that has taken people from forums and info sites like mine to places like Facebook and Youtube.  This forum is not the only one that has lost participation.  Participation in all the forums is down and many forums that were strong and active 10 years ago are no longer in existence. The third issue (and the reason I am posting this response in a talk of moving is web presence) If you move the forum, even if you are able to migrate all the content we will loose all the links and internet search-ability established over the last 8 years.  I am all too familiar with this sort of problem. My website was originally hosted by my ISP.  I had my DazeCars domain name but a lot of the links that other people had shared out there were direct links to my individual pages.  That meant that when my website moved, all the links and internet presence I had built up over the years through forums and such now all became dead links and traffic to my site was instantly cut in half.  For a while other than my domain name I wasn't even searchable.  It has taken me a lot of work over several years to reestablish my internet presence and as part of that I have been forced to use Youtube and Facebook to try and bolster traffic to my website.  (I am not saying Facebook and Youtube are the answer, just pointing out what I had to do for my business)  If we move the forum it will, from an internet point of view, be like a new unestablished site.  Yes we will move the members but we will loose all established links and the current internet presence effectively eliminating the potential for new members being able to find the site.   I feel that is part of why traffic went down when the forum was upgraded in 2013.  We lost that established internet presence in trade of better features.  Thankfully the old site remained up quite a while directing traffic to the new site and thankfully the forum was large enough that it was still able to thrive even though it lost some members and internet presence.  But  now I fear if you move a forum that already has a decrease in traffic the forum won’t make it.  Sites like this REQUIRE participation   We all have jobs lives and interests outside of this group that take our time so activity comes as goes as projects come and go.   With the decreased traffic we have now I do not think in the long term the forum will be able to servive a move.  I don’t have a solution.  I knew people wanted to be able to post pix and have been asked at least half a dozen times how I do it.  That is why I suggested a group picture hosting site.  I love this forum, its members, and it has always been my favorite ever since I found it in 2000.  If there is anything I can do to help being good with computers and web based things please don’t hesitate to ask (but I don't have the skills to build a forum from scratch).  If we decide to move the forum to another hosting site I will move too and support it. I just wanted to share my concerns so that everyone realizes there is more at stake than just the hassle of moving to gain the ability to easily post pix.
 

The shared hosting account isn't a bad idea, but it presents two problems:

-  only established members will know the account info and have access to it, which means new members won't be able to post pics and the "how do you post pics?" questions will continue.  How long would a new member have to be a member before they are granted access to the log in and password for the pic hosting site?

-  if you attempt to solve the above problem by creating a sticky and making the account info public so new comers can use it too, who knows what pics might wind up uploaded to it.  And what would prevent an unscrupulous individual from using the credentials to access the pic hosting site and then, once they are in, changing the password, effectively giving them sole control of the account and locking all of us out of it? 


I think we either need to migrate to a new platform that has its own built in pic posting functionality and preserve as much as we can or keep the current platform and just let everyone know that if they want to post pics here, they need to have their own account on a pic hosting platform and link pics here.  And if we go with the second option, I expect the volume of pics posted will go way down. And trafffic too.

The way I see it if you want to post a picture here bad enough there are ways to do it. It appears that doing it instantly on an I phone perhaps not. I can post all day long if I want to but need an internet connection.
For me, the forum as it exists it’s fine with me. My wife says I don’t like change.

If you want a picture of me I can post one!🤪

Last edited by Rudi (6/14/2021 2:18 PM)

Daze wrote:

I am extremely concerned that if we move the forum to a different forum site it will ultimately result in the forums demise.   I have a business degree and a good understanding of marketing and have done a lot of analysis as to the causes of the decrease in the traffic to my own website over the last 5 years, and feel what I have learned applies to the forum as well.  Part of the decrease in activity is not about being able to host pix, its a decrease in people restoring this cars.  People are very active when they are working on their car but when it's "done"  them may not come by as often.  Not to mention the fact that there are less unrestored Mustangs out there.  This is why several large mustang parts suppliers are no longer in business.  The second issue and the biggest problem is social media.  The masses want what is easy. They don’t want to take the time to type a well thought out post, let alone read one.  They want to trow up a few pictures and a one or two word description and or add a video, then be able to click "like", and if they are looking for info they want to watch a video rather than read. It is this factor that has taken people from forums and info sites like mine to places like Facebook and Youtube.  This forum is not the only one that has lost participation.  Participation in all the forums is down and many forums that were strong and active 10 years ago are no longer in existence. The third issue (and the reason I am posting this response in a talk of moving is web presence) If you move the forum, even if you are able to migrate all the content we will loose all the links and internet search-ability established over the last 8 years.  I am all too familiar with this sort of problem. My website was originally hosted by my ISP.  I had my DazeCars domain name but a lot of the links that other people had shared out there were direct links to my individual pages.  That meant that when my website moved, all the links and internet presence I had built up over the years through forums and such now all became dead links and traffic to my site was instantly cut in half.  For a while other than my domain name I wasn't even searchable.  It has taken me a lot of work over several years to reestablish my internet presence and as part of that I have been forced to use Youtube and Facebook to try and bolster traffic to my website.  (I am not saying Facebook and Youtube are the answer, just pointing out what I had to do for my business)  If we move the forum it will, from an internet point of view, be like a new unestablished site.  Yes we will move the members but we will loose all established links and the current internet presence effectively eliminating the potential for new members being able to find the site.   I feel that is part of why traffic went down when the forum was upgraded in 2013.  We lost that established internet presence in trade of better features.  Thankfully the old site remained up quite a while directing traffic to the new site and thankfully the forum was large enough that it was still able to thrive even though it lost some members and internet presence.  But  now I fear if you move a forum that already has a decrease in traffic the forum won’t make it.  Sites like this REQUIRE participation   We all have jobs lives and interests outside of this group that take our time so activity comes as goes as projects come and go.   With the decreased traffic we have now I do not think in the long term the forum will be able to servive a move.  I don’t have a solution.  I knew people wanted to be able to post pix and have been asked at least half a dozen times how I do it.  That is why I suggested a group picture hosting site.  I love this forum, its members, and it has always been my favorite ever since I found it in 2000.  If there is anything I can do to help being good with computers and web based things please don’t hesitate to ask (but I don't have the skills to build a forum from scratch).  If we decide to move the forum to another hosting site I will move too and support it. I just wanted to share my concerns so that everyone realizes there is more at stake than just the hassle of moving to gain the ability to easily post pix.
 

You have valid points, **but** search indexing is not hard provided the new site has all the previous keywords set plus any new ones, as you know that's a core tenant in SEO. It doesn't take long for the Google bots to find it. You could also leave this site up with a pointer to the new one for a time, that just simply needs to be calculated in the cost.

Edit: I would also argue that a newer more modern forum would attract users and as long as existing member's usability  concerns are addressed there's no reason we'd lose anybody.

Last edited by Raymond_B (6/14/2021 2:26 PM)

Raymond_B wrote:

You have valid points, **but** search indexing is not hard provided the new site has all the previous keywords set plus any new ones, as you know that's a core tenant in SEO. It doesn't take long for the Google bots to find it. You could also leave this site up with a pointer to the new one for a time, that just simply needs to be calculated in the cost.Edit: I would also argue that a newer more modern forum would attract users and as long as existing member's usability  concerns are addressed there's no reason we'd lose anybody.Last edited by Raymond_B (Today 1:26 PM)

The issue is not google being able to find the new site, the issue is all the established content that google currently finds or in the case of a new forum, the lack there of.  If I google a classic Mustang topic, threads from this site come up.  Yes the new forum will have topics that google can find but not 8 years worth.  We are effectively starting over. Yes we can link this site to a new site but if I am a potential new member and I find a forum that is not active I have no reason to signup because I can't ask questions on the topic that brought me to the site in the first place and if take the extra step to follow the link to the new site (which a lot of people wont) the post I am looking for is not there.  It is about the lost content that that will no longer drive people to the site. If I want a hamburger from the diner down the street and I show up to an empty restaurant with a sign that reads "we have moved"  do I drive across town or go a few blocks down the street to another dinner.  It depends on how good the food was at the first dinner but if I have never eaten there before I have no reason to put in the effort to go across town when another diner is just down the street.  Same is true of the internet.  If I find a topic in a dead forum that relates to  my question but I still need more info do I take the time to click a link to a second forum, sign up, then take the time to post my question, OR do I go back to my original google search and look at the next site that came up.  I think most people would do the second option. We can not think about this in terms of current members we are here because we have connections with the other members.  New members don't have that connection and need a reason to want to initially be here.  On top of that the simple truth is forums are on the decline and anything you do that reduces your audience will only make that decline worse.  Could we gain some members and some activity if picture posting was easier? yes.  Would those new members and activity be enough to cover what we would loose in new members and traffic due to starting over and having no content?  No, I don't think it would.
 

wsinsle wrote:

Daze as I was reading down through the first half of your post I agreed with what you were saying but figured that wasn't any reason to not upgrade to a new host. These were things that we can not change. Less cars to rebuild and less people interested

You are absolutely correct and I totally agree that those are things we can not change, but I mentoned them because It is important to recognize those things are a factor in our current situation. We are trying to maintain something that is already in decline and anything we do that adds that decline is going to amplify the problem.  

Chaplin wrote:

I don't understand why, if we migrate all of the content of this site onto new forum software, will the migrated content fail to come up in Google searches? Why won't Google bring up old threads from this site that have been migrated to a new platform the same as it would bring people to old threads on this platform? If we migrate the content over, won't the content still be there to be searched and found by Google, regardless of which forum software that the old threads are housed in?

Yes you are correct. If we can migrate the content google will be able to find it, but it is not just content. It is a full web of links. I have shared links from this forum on other sites. If this forum goes away those links become dead. Just the other day on my electric power steering thread several links from the VMF were shared. If the VMF were to move those links would become dead. Same thing happens with all links shard from content in this forum over the last 8 years. This is the exact problem I ran into with my own personal website when I had to change where it was being hosted. Traffic is not just generated by Google and Yahoo it’s also generated where people have shared links to the existing site. The other issue is googles search algorithm, and when I say Google I mean Yahoo Google any other search engine, part of what ranks the pages that come up on the search engine is how many people are going to them. The more people that are going to them the higher rank. In other words the rank is what order the sites come up on the search results . So yes Google will be able to find the post if they are migrated but those post will have little to no traffic as opposed to posts that have thousands of hits. So instead of the search result giving you a post from the forum on say page 2 of the search results it may now be on page 15 or 20. Forum migration is at its core making a copy of what we have and putting it some where else, but that copy does not have any of the information Google would use to rank the new forum's post as high as they would have been from the established forum.  Like I said it’s affectively like starting from scratch.


As an aside I hope no one thinks me to be argumentative or overly passionate. I absolutely love this forum. I have been here since 2000 have attended 10 bashes and I consider the members of this group to be like family. I would love for it to be easier to post pictures and video but would hate for those added features to come at the expense of the longevity of this group.

Last edited by Daze (6/14/2021 4:14 PM)

Kinda like what Daze said....I do know we lost a lot of regular posters when we went to the one we have now over the original. Just figure out how to put the easy picture posting back and I think it would be fine.
 

Last edited by BILLY WALTON from GEORGIA (6/14/2021 4:59 PM)

Perfect sense!  😀