Changes at YF...

Coming to the end of a long road preparing our vBulletin-based forum to migrate to XenForo. We're shooting for a September migration because our traffic is typically lighter this time of year.

This process has been particularly challenging due to the proprietary code underlying YF, thus upgrading to the latest versions of vBulletin was impossible. As more vB vulnerabilities began to expose themselves (remember the JetForums hi-jacking!), we began evaluating various platforms and realized this nightmare might be a blessing in disguise as we became more familiar with XenForo. If you visit JetForums, you'll have a good idea what to expect. Ultimately, I think XenForo is a better program and other forum admins are following suit. It was developed by several of the original coders at vBulletin who left the company after it was purchased by Internet Brands. They knew they could create something more streamlined, intuitive and ultimately secure.

This transition won't be without challenges. Some of our senior members (read: old guys) will likely be a bit grouchy about this and I'll be the one fielding their complaints. Please keep in mind that I'm coming up to speed too, juggling the back end of two very different forums, so when you send me a complaint, know that you are not alone.

To help streamline the migration, I've combined several forums. The 'Frequently Asked Questions' forum has been merged with the General Discussion forum. The Chris Craft Roamer forum has been moved under the MotorYacht category, where it should have been originally for best indexing. Soon the Classified Section is going away and it will be replaced with something we're pretty excited about. More on this later...

I encourage you to visit JetForums, sign-up and make a few posts in the "Ten Mile High Club" to get comfortable with posting, attaching images, sending PM's, etc. You don't need to know anything about jets, just use the forum to practice.

Thanks to everyone for their patience.

Thanks Ken. Although I've shared some of the challenges with you over drinks, I learned something from my friend Lars Modin in the early years... always smile and never let 'em see you sweat!

It's important that visitors to YF find a professional environment with friendly folks. Not sure how well I've done on the latter, but I now understand why so many of my peers running large forums have sold out.

Every business presents challenges and I'm certain there are many far more difficult. I've done my best to embrace and adapt, but the internet has become an increasingly difficult environment.

I won't bore anyone with the behind the screen antics, but I will say I've grown more disenchanted with old-school boat builders and antiquated business models. That said, I'm taking YF in a different direction in 2015. More on this later.

I hope you're right Brett. I'm trying to minimize frustration for our members following the migration because I need to turn my attention to the next project, which I hope will benefit our community. We started working on this two years ago but got side-tracked when vB's vulnerabilities rocked the boat.

On a personal note, thank you for the wealth of knowledge, wisdom and fairness you bring to YF. We are fortunate to attract members of your caliber.

No plans for Tapatalk. I'm not a fan of apps that don't allow screen enlargement, but mostly I'm concerned about security with 3rd party plug-ins. Instead, I think we found a better solution with XenForo's responsive design, which makes viewing on a mobile browser a MUCH more palatable experience.

Xenforo is optimized for mobile devices, so we struck a balance favoring reader ease in portrait mode, while still maintaining the full site display in landscape mode. Head over to JetForums using your mobile device. The side banners are removed on smart phones with limited screen sizes, such as current iPhones. With larger-screened Android devices and iPads, the side banners should only display in landscape mode. I think this is a proper solution!

Here is JetForums on the iPad in portrait mode. Notice the side banners are removed, leaving more reading real estate...

Here is JetForums on the iPad in landscape mode. Notice the side banners are present now...

Thanks Dave, I just learned something about XF. It doesn't have a password reminder feature like vB! Checked the net and found an add-on. Will upgrade later. In the interim, send me the PW you'd like to use and I'll get you back in.

Carl (at) YF (dot) com

Once you're in, go to the top right corner of the header and click on your user name. A box will drop down with the option to change your password.

In your Idall Time, maybe spend a little more time on JF then OSO.