Is TAZ now (or soon to be owned) by VerticalScope?

[Taylor J]

Taylor J Would you say he's being a..... thorn... in your side...

I hate you for making me laugh lmfao

 

[Nabix]

Taylor J lol I noticed the username and immediately started crying lmao

 

[R0binHood]

I went over to AVS to have a butchers expecting to hate it. And while I don't love it, I don't actively hate it either. They've made a few half decent UI improvements to the basic XF platform, but the overall design and feel of their Fora spin off just doesn't feel that polished compared to a top tier custom theme. I guess I would describe it as more marginally more functionally modern than a stock XF install, but not beautiful.

 

[ThornInYourSide]

^^^ Their angle (as explained on one of their boards a year or so back) was that all boards be the same, no custom fluff or polish. They wanted to be able to apply updates and fixes enmasse across all of their sites without having to tinker with any individual ones.

Look at any of their boards and they'll all look basically the same except for color schemes.

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[R0binHood]

Yeah, I get that and I had seen a few other VS forums on Fora.

The idea makes perfect sense, but for such a large network of sites with such large backing, if feels like their design system is going in a half decent direction (given that I'm sure their primary goal is to optimise for ads), but the whole thing still feels to me like it lacks polish. Especially when you jump from one site to another.

 

[R0binHood]

no custom fluff or polish

Custom fluff is one thing. Have a polished design and UX is independent of that.

 

[R0binHood]

I guess what I'm saying is that while I see what they're trying to achieve with fora, I kind of expected more from their custom design system that is pushed out to every forum they own, from a company that just dropped tens of millions on a recent acquisition.

It will be a shame when we lose the lovely theme we have now to the version of Fora that is currently live.

 

[zappaDPJ]

My only real criticism of Fora is that it's light on borders. For the most part it's not an issue but some of the text heavy reviews look to be missing a style sheet in places.

 

[Paul M]

There is nothing wrong with the software in use atm, it does the job, well, and is easy on the eye.

Change for the sake of change never goes down well, at least in my experience.

I'm not sure what more "resources" would be needed, everything seems to run ok.
I'm also not sure why TAZ would need "a decade of community management experience" ?
TAZ itself is at least 17 years old, and many staff here have been forum/community admins/mangers for way more than a decade.

I'm equally unclear what the benefit of "additional community leaders" would be ?
We will see what transpires, I know nothing about VS and have never had any dealings with them, so my view of them is neutral.

 

[mysiteguy]

To me, it means it's time to remove any Threadloom addons from my own forums. Its a bad idea allowing a large forum network access to their smaller competitor's databases.

 

[KimmiKat]

On a railroad mboard I'm on, they just DeLoomed their board.

 

[Cam!]

This is surprising news. I'm sure TAZ isn't what they're prioritizing with these acquisitions, but it will be interesting to see what will be happening with Threadloom as a whole.

 

[ThornInYourSide]

I went over to AVS to ...

They're kind of thin skinned over there and not real friendly.

 

[Alpha1]

They're kind of thin skinned over there and not real friendly.

lol. It may be me, but that statement comes across as if you went over there and said something not real friendly. Tell me I'm wrong...

 

[AdamD]

I've always been quite resistant to change, especially when it comes to sites like Taz, which has a warm fuzzy feel to it (Aww ).

This site has always been a good place to get advice and debate about sensitive issues, so it's a good community with a lot of long-time members.

I can't say I've ever seen a positive comment about VS, it's always been negative, a bit like Internet Brands when they buy out sites, plaster them with ads and let them die.

But, I try and remain optimistic, but after being in the forum "scene" for about 22 years now (god I'm oldddd!), I've seen a fair amount of posts by previous owners who'd sold their sites, promising big changes and much-needed money for investment into the future of the site and I'd hazard a guess, 50% of the time, it turns to ruin.

Truth be told, I'm one of those people, I sold my site during a period of quite a deep depression and regretted it later on, even more so when the site just died due to bad decisions made by the said new owner.

If changes are made here, I hope they are made with the communities input and not just rammed down our throats.

 

[ThornInYourSide]

If changes are made here, I hope they are made with the communities input and not just rammed down our throats.

VS never does that. Never. They put up a front asking for feedback, but they never act on suggestions or undo changes people don't like.

One very, very small example if s the Edit Post button. They hid it behind three dots. Most other boards, including this one, it's out in the open, usually bottom left like here. That was something everybody complained about on one of the boards I frequent. They never made the change we requested.

 

[KimmiKat]

On a non-VSed board I'm on it has the edit behind the 3 dot thing. But that is part of the InvisionBoard platform they use. You can also see that on the boards for Second Life.

VS never does that. Never. They put up a front asking for feedback, but they never act on suggestions or undo changes people don't like.

One very, very small example if s the Edit Post button. They hid it behind three dots. Most other boards, including this one, it's out in the open, usually bottom left like here. That was something everybody complained about on one of the boards I frequent. They never made the change we requested.

 

[ThornInYourSide]

I 'won' a so-called contest on a VS board that VS promoted and sponsored. Never got the stated reward. Not a reputable operation.

 

[Will_Watts]

I don't understand what you say "forced" in this instance. They entered into an agreement, they acquired the rights, etc., much like when someone buys a house, they can decorate, however they choose. Not everyone appreciates change, but sometimes it is necessary. I've never been one to believe the software or a logo that defines a community, it's always been the people a part of the community that do that.

An old post, but, whilst VS definitely have the right to do whatever they want with sites they own, changes like the Fora platform can feel very forced against the wishes of the community.

The last forum conversion I was part of on a VS site to the Fora platform - a huge chunk of the admins and staff quit almost immediately and haven't returned in over a year, they just left and went to competitor sites. Particular points of contention were that the permissions given to staff and admins on the Fora platform are extremely limited, and you have to ask VS for virtually any change.

This was also after many years of decline under VS community management - the site used to be a huge player in it's niche, with often 10-20k viewers online at a time, and after 6-7 years of VS ownership all of that traffic is on competitor sites in the same niche.

All a bit of a moot point though - if TAZ is owned by VS now, then eventually it'll convert to Fora, regardless of what anyone posts here, and I don't expect anyone to speak badly about their own employers.

 

[TLChris]

I 'won' a so-called contest on a VS board that VS promoted and sponsored. Never got the stated reward. Not a reputable operation.

I can't speak to the said event you are referring to, but did you follow up with the team that was giving said reward away? Might be beneficial to follow up the official channels within the community.