I am in the process of upgrading Stafford Forum. There are a lot of brilliant features that this will bring, which I will announce at a later time, but I've hit a bit of a stumbling block.
The Events system that we use was created by a third party, who now no longer seems to support the system. What this means is that, whilst it does work with the incoming upgraded version of The Forum, it may well not work in future, thus delaying future upgrades and possibly causing system instabilities.
To that end, I am thinking of doing away with it. This would mean that there is no Forum Calendar, and no notification of upcoming Events. The Events sub-forum would remain, and people could continue to post details of things happening in Staffordshire in there, but it would just be a discussion forum like Stafford Chat, General Chat, etc. - there would be no embedded Google Maps, not RSVP system, etc. It would just be a case of creating a new thread with details of your event, then people could reply and interact with it, ask for information, say they were attending, etc. - like they would with any other thread in any other sub-forum.
How do people feel about this? I get the impression from some people that the Events system isn't viewed as terribly useful, in which case I dare say people won't care. I may be wrong, however, and people would rather I try and keep it. If that is the case, I can make enquiries about the possibility of paying someone to maintain and support it, or perhaps moving to a different calendar/events system (although to be honest I've looked into that and it doesn't seem too feasible at present).
Just to clarify: We wouldn't be losing the ability to post and chat about upcoming events - it's just that there will be no calendar system, and therefore there will be no side-block showing you upcoming events, etc.
Please let me know by voting in this poll. I would also appreciate some feedback as to why you chose your vote, if possible, please.
Thanks.
The Events system that we use was created by a third party, who now no longer seems to support the system. What this means is that, whilst it does work with the incoming upgraded version of The Forum, it may well not work in future, thus delaying future upgrades and possibly causing system instabilities.
To that end, I am thinking of doing away with it. This would mean that there is no Forum Calendar, and no notification of upcoming Events. The Events sub-forum would remain, and people could continue to post details of things happening in Staffordshire in there, but it would just be a discussion forum like Stafford Chat, General Chat, etc. - there would be no embedded Google Maps, not RSVP system, etc. It would just be a case of creating a new thread with details of your event, then people could reply and interact with it, ask for information, say they were attending, etc. - like they would with any other thread in any other sub-forum.
How do people feel about this? I get the impression from some people that the Events system isn't viewed as terribly useful, in which case I dare say people won't care. I may be wrong, however, and people would rather I try and keep it. If that is the case, I can make enquiries about the possibility of paying someone to maintain and support it, or perhaps moving to a different calendar/events system (although to be honest I've looked into that and it doesn't seem too feasible at present).
Just to clarify: We wouldn't be losing the ability to post and chat about upcoming events - it's just that there will be no calendar system, and therefore there will be no side-block showing you upcoming events, etc.
Please let me know by voting in this poll. I would also appreciate some feedback as to why you chose your vote, if possible, please.
Thanks.