How does switching software affect your members?

I have a community I recently set up using MyBB. It hasn't taken off quite like I expected it to, but I know there's still work to be done: promotion, marketing, encouraging, etc.

But having said that, I've wondered if jumping to vB or MyBB would also have a positive effect on the the community. Meaning, would members be more likely to join if the community was using IPB/vB instead of MyBB. Or do they really even care from an end user perspective?

So my question is to people who've been with a freebie and then converted. Did you see your registrations increase? Did you see your current members increase their posting activity? Or is the software you use (as long as it's one of the "main" ones) a moot point?

 

Actually, I've never converted, it's really about visibility pretty much. As I've said in other threads; For a user with no prior knowledge on forum software vB and MyBB are the same thing [only for a user for no knowledge]. For my Anime forum I'll be switching to vB from MyBB, just for the simple fact that I think it's more likely to achieve the look and capability I''m looking for with vB than MyBB, although MyBB is still my software of choice, I think can suffice my needs graphically, plus, the mods for vB are amazing. xD

Again, for a person that knows nothing about forum software it's the same thing and basically first all about the 'look' of the forum. They see the forum then read around. ^^

 

I moved to MyBB from phpBB when I had OnlineGamingForum. Some members were lost because they were not used to MyBB and some were gained because MyBB was more simple than phpBB.

 

it depends.....there will be some members who love the change, others who dont (like everything admins can do to their forums, someone is going to complain about it)

i guess it depends how similar they are, cause some members might not be used to it, and may take time learning how do do things.

one forum i am on changed from vbulletin to one i had never heard of.....think the admin made it himself. it was sooooo complicated to use at first, really hard to navigate and a lot of members stopped coming on because of it.

 

Like in my case I went from PHPbb 3.0.4 to VB 3.8.4 and started to see a increase in flow... Then jumped to the VB 4.0.x and continue to customize and make it better now I'm happy to say I've got 30-50 member a day on average and growing yet!

So VB4 might have issues but people tend to understand it better and want to use it more... So in my mind the $160 bucks the members paid for it was worth it.

 

My experience after converting a couple times is that the forum software doesn't necessarily matter on its own. IE: You're not going to see a sudden shift in how many people sign up because you go to IPB or vB. In fact, although with a very small ~5-10 person group, MyBB was rated as a better experience by all. These were people who rarely visited forums or maybe were just members of a couple. Since then, one of the testers has gone on to start her own forum at a forum service website. They preferred using MyBB to vB, but had I not told them, they wouldn't have known the differences otherwise.

On the flipside, you do always have the fanboys and fangirls, but I think you have to ignore those voices to a certain degree. It's like BQ said, someone is always going to find a reason to carp with a change. It's not possible to please everyone. Yes it's a great idea to please the community as a whole and try to make the pleased group the majority, but some folks just don't like change. For some people it means re-learning or finding locations of different things.

If you have a more experienced base, then the above is less of a problem. However, if you're talking about topics outside of IT, computer games, etc. then you have to assume x% is not fully computer literate.

My advice is to always get on and look at it from an end user perspective. Create an account and log out of the admin account for a bit and just surf and maybe try a few posts. We're blessed with the benefit of knowledge so that even a new forum system is not that difficult to subdue. Not everyone is as strong in computers, though, so you have to look around with that in mind.

 

I did a vBulletin to MyBB change about a year ago. Most of the members liked the change, a few didn't and left. If you can manage to make the change without members losing a ton of things they love I don't see switching having a major effect on members at all.

 

Have not switched, but it appears we will.

I'll try to roll it out in phases with select members using a test site, screen casts to show people how things are done the new way, and a lot of background communication prior to making the final conversion.

 

well......the traffic will increase if people will like the new looks.........and it will vice versa

 

ya... if people like your website and the change you make to it.....then surely the traffic will increase otherwise if it ll look bad the u may even loose ur members