The Ultimate Decision

[Administrator]

Or, for the sake of having a song reference, it's the final c o u n t d o w n.

Yeah. This is the biggie, the tell-all, the ultimatum. What is going to become of Lanorae? (Ominous no?)

A few days ago I mentioned finding a forum host know as AcornRack. Now, it caught my attention due to the fact it's completely customizable, and I mean completely, right down to how your memberlist is displayed. Of course I was intrigued, so I began to poke around a bit on it.

I am going to say right now it's wicked xD Seriously, simple as that, wicked, and yes I do realize I am abusing the bold tags for some reason. However, what I'm wondering is should we stay or should we go? (Ha, another song reference).

I love Proboards, I've been with Proboards for years, however, there's only so much you can do on it unfortunately. Yes, v5 is coming out, but it's been in productions for over two years and there's still no mention of a release date. Who knows when it's going to happen and when it does, well, they already confirmed all the coding we used is going to fail because of the new coding system.

Sad but true, this version of Proboards is entirely reliant on Javascript to alter the layout at all. That means to add, remove, what have you, it's all Javascript, meaning that currently we have about 50 codes or so running just to get Lanorae how it looks right now.

To be honest, the customizability is why I'm considering this move in the first place. What I've found on AcornRack is that you can have several pages on a profile, which are all fully customizable, meaning an account can be set up for Account per Character or Player per Player where the character profiles can actually be found in your profile. Money systems are available, there's the capability of allowing your team to be shown under your mini-profile.

To give a few examples of AcornRack sites: Waterfrontier, Apollyon, Abditi Caelus, Macabre, Creations Between Worlds, Merovech, ect.

Please look for either the login and whether or not it's filled in with "Guest" (if so just hit login), or look for key words like "Preview" or "Sneak Peek" in the links. They allow you to look at the full website as some of the pages are hidden =3

Obviously, seeing this is a big step, I want the input of my lovely members before I do anything. However, I did decide that should we choose to make the jump, now during construction would be the time to do it. Obviously, all your characters/Pokemon/ect. can be transferred over no problem.

I do know that back when Max was not banned from Proboards, he and I did talk about purchasing a host for Lanorae to have the features like this available, and this happens to be free. And construction may even go quicker on AcornRack simply because the coding is something I'm far more adept at (CSS and HTML with some Java) rather than being completely reliant on finding Java codes.

As I said though, I do want your guys' input. I may be the admin, but obviously I'm not going to just jump onto something without giving you guys some say.

And just to give a heads up, while those sites I posted examples of are one-skinned, style switchers are fully capable, and actually after browsing the forums some layouts can actually be made available only for certain members, so we still will be able to have Steampunk/Abyss/whathaveyou skins.

[♥.:.RizuChan.:.♥]

Well, so long as you can make it work like the Lanorae here (I love the menu and being able to see the board in which I role play and the description, etc) I say go for it. Maybe do a preview run with some simple code to see how Lanorae would look before making the final decision?

:3

[Liz]

Yanno, I've always been kind of conservative. I like my stuff best when it stays the same, so I don't have to freak out when I don't know exactly what I'm doing. Like Ayra, me and proboards go way back. Sure, I still don't know half of what you could possibly do on proboards coding wise and all that jazz, but it's like a safe haven. I know how it works and how it looks and... yeah.

And then I joined Willowvale.

They host their stuff on Invision, which I avoided like the plague at first, but when I came across Willowvale I was actually confident enough I liked the place that I decided to just give it a shot. After I joined Willowvale, Kanoa came back, and I started attending both, and then I realized how much Proboards sucked compared to Invision. I dunno what it is, but...I just don't like Proboards as much as I used to.

Don't get me wrong, Proboards is still an okay place and if Lanorae was to stay on Proboards you won't hear me complain... But I think that a place like Lanorae could really thrive on a different host. Look at the time Ayra puts into designing layouts and customizing everything. Lanorae is Ayra's baby. And she's a gorgeous little baby, yes she isss.

What I'm trying to say is that it doesn't really matter much to me. I'll adapt and learn to work my way around AcornRack if we move there, and I'll be a happy little camper for as far as gloomy mood allows me. For me as a person, I wouldn't mind leaving Proboards or staying here, but when I think about what it could mean for the site, I say we take the plunge.

Thumbs up for moving. I'll start packing mah stuff. *has Ryan pack her stuff*

[RATED R FOR REX]

a-acronrack! :'D
to be honest, i absolutely love acornrack, though invisionfree has my heart forever and always. to be able to use html in posts is always a good thing. c:

although, if we move, i do know that it'll probably have to be one character per account, because of acornrack's (awesome) profile features.


and i like rizu's idea of a preview run. c:

[Spiderc]

i have no experience with AR, but if you think it'll make your job easier and make the site better, i'm 100% for it

[[Ronin]"]

I say yes. I haven't used AcornRack, but, as I haven't had any bad experiences with it and you seem so excited about it, it can't be bad at all. And anything that speeds up construction is a plus. I think those sites look nice, too, and you can just go crazy with the coding xD

Two thumbs up (again) from me.

[Ely]

They look pretty.... *in trance* and knowing Ayra she'll know a code twice as good as those XD. Sure! I mean I've looked at Willowvale and it's interesting and all but.... AcornRack looks soo much more like an website/blog...

AKA (*lets out fangirl side*)

SQUEE~! YUSH!

[Miss Brightside]

We spoke of this earlier. =P But, you know. My marker board kept being stolen for the devices of evil. So I couldn't really tell you how I felt.

From the sounds of it, you like AcornRack ten times as much as Proboards. I have no loyalties nor preferences to any sites, I just take it as it comes. You know me, I'm adventurous and brash and my initial thought is to go for it. After all, it'll be something new for me to explore and figure out, and I love that more than anything else in the world. Ever in life ever. Except for maybe hot men, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. And Rex <3

My concern is.. Well, look at the board. We've got seven (eight, including me) people that are participating in this discussion. Will we move and find that it's just us? Are we okay with that? This might result in a major, major member flush. That's my only concern.

My turn to be the rain on the parade! Krakabooooom!

[RATED R FOR REX]

ohey, so i was thinking again (and i'm being lazy stupid some neutral adjective and not editing my post.
but basically, i was thinking what andi was thinking. a lot of people here are probably really used to proboards, or something simple. and a change to posting with html and etc might be a little... idk, new? scary?
so maybe if you can find a way to add ubbc coding to posts? (cos that would be awesome, js)

-joins andicloud-



and ily2, andi~ <3

[~Birdybot~]

I had never heard of that, but to be honest I think Lanorae would really do well with it. I'm for it!

[Administrator]

Yes, George insisted on pressing the point that apparently I'm a cultist and a target for alien abduction xD

Regarding the member flush concern, I do think that seeing everyone seems to be in support so far that we can at least expect most people to be supportive on the matter. Obviously I can't expect everyone to be "Oh, yeah, great idea" and I would hate to lose anyone, though, even the cbox is a living example that it's impossible to cater to everyone =< As it stands, it's quite possible that members that are iffy on the idea could potentially come around eventually, and we'll welcome them with open arms if so.

Regarding the ubbc thing, Rex, I can certainly look into it, though there's no mention of any suggestions on going about doing that from what I can tell on the forums. Fortunately, html, at least the basic stuff, really isn't too different from ubbc, so if nothing else I can at least have a thread or something highlighting the basics. You figure, all the size change is in html is <font size="1"></font> and all it is in ubbc is [*font=1][/*font], and they did mention they have safeguards in place so any majorly messed up coding won't affect the site.

But I'm glad everyone is so supportive about the potential move <3 I made an account and I'm currently working on a layout and some of the features and whatnot. There are definitely a few new things to learn (if (} commands and whatnot), but nothing majorly difficult. We can make a final decision once I have at least a base-layout coded, anyway =3 We're going to go with the Industrial Utopia skin initially, but there are multi-layout capabilities, it's just a matter of coding in a styleswitcher.

[McBeaver]

*falls unconscious due to complete awe, tongue rolls out, showing the word 'Yes' written on it in ranch dressing*

[Affectionate Zombie]

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm all for the move if it's what you want to do! C: I've got no experience at all with AR but it does look nice, and if it would work for Lanorae (which I'm sure it would, you're such a talented coder that I believe you can make it work no matter what) better than Proboards, let's go for it~!