What do you miss about the old forums?

[slenderman8888]

I just want to hear what everyone misses about the old VBulletin forums. For me it is the avatars and the "timeline" that showed what versions of Trainz you had registered to you. And the general look of the forum with the rail-related theming like the unread topic indicators being semaphore signals and let's not forget the default user titles that the forum gave.

 

[pware]

I don't really miss any of those features you listed. The Timeline was often no help in deciphering which Trainz version a user was complaining about, and that fine tradition continues today.

Avatars and User Titles were just lipstick.

The new menu options - 'New Posts", "Your Threads", "Threads with Your Posts", "Unanswered Posts" I find to be very useful.

 

[slenderman8888]

I do miss my avatar though. I'd rather have my image be a HHP-8 than just a single letter on a background colour. Some users actually managed to get custom avatars though. I also kinda miss the early 2000s vibe the old forum layout had. (I actually used to visit it on my Windows XP retro machine (which has UTC and TRS 2006 installed on it) to be fair I kinda don't get why the effort was spent to upgrade the forum? An old saying goes "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it."

 

[IsambardKingdomBrunel]

Much preferred the original "red" forum back in 2002.

 

[Frank_Dean]

This forum will be perfect the day that those who do not have a registered version of Trainz will be prevented from active participation, I mean opening or answering threads.
We would avoid the spam that is almost daily.

 

[livingsteam]

Given that this forum has over a million members, not knowing the actual reason why the old forum was abandoned, I would suspect it wouldn't scale with the growth of the userbase. Just a guess, but I bet the old forum was "creaky."

 

[JCitron]

Given that this forum has over a million members, not knowing the actual reason why the old forum was abandoned, I would suspect it wouldn't scale with the growth of the userbase. Just a guess, but I bet the old forum was "creaky."

The old forums were abandoned because the software had become old, and as you said was creaky with lot of leaks requiring more patches than the duct tape could cover.

If you noticed, us older users have a start-date of November 9 2006. The reason for that is an older forum prior to that had completely crashed and the forums had to be recreated from that date on. Given that the old forums dated back to November 2006, it was time to retire them and go to something new and shiny.

There isn't a whole lot that I miss from the old forums. Having the timeline and registered versions on it helped a lot with support but the rest of it was old.

What I miss is the forum prior to November 2006. There was a sense of community that disappeared when the forum died. Gone with that forum were many people with historic product knowledge and a sense of humor that has been lacking here since.

 

[pcas1986]

While I applaud the move from the old (second?) system it kind of bugs me that I can't change my info under my name from "well known member", which is ridiculous, to something more meaningful. I prefer to post in Trainz Discord. While its populated with some infantile members, you can run a meaningful conversation with like minded members there. I'm seriously thinking of ignoring the forums completely.

 

[sultan1966]

I just want to hear what everyone misses about the old VBulletin forums. For me it is the avatars and the "timeline" that showed what versions of Trainz you had registered to you. And the general look of the forum with the rail-related theming like the unread topic indicators being semaphore signals and let's not forget the default user titles that the forum gave.

Not the old forums alone but lets go

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

I miss the ability to fit my ridiculously long forum name in 1 line of text.

 

[hiawathamr]

What I miss about the old forums are these:
- showing off my registered copies of Trainz
- my Trainz 15th anniversary collection badge (thank goodness I found an image)
- the semaphore signals each category had (and changing them by double clicking on them)


Cheers

 

[mick1960]

Gone with that forum were many people with historic product knowledge and a sense of humor that has been lacking here since.

Come on, not all! At least us old farts are still here

How is Beethoven?

 

[pware]

At least us old farts are still here

... and the sense of humour still survives!

 

[JimDep]

What do I miss ? The laughter, the friendships, the charm, all the great stories.......the .......the .........huh? What was the question again ?

 

[wilts747]

Its lost the enthusiasm and intimacy of the old forum but perhaps that's just a sign of the times and a reflection on the direction Trainz is going in. Prior to T:ANE and in the days of 'Kickstart' there was this great enthusiasm for this new vision for Trainz and when it arrived on a whole T:ANE was well received. With hindsight most probably wished they had never purchased TRS17, and when TRS19 arrived, yes I thought it was better but understandably not the game changer T:ANE had over TS12. TRS22 on release was little more than TRS19 with a few bells and whistle and there has been little to look forward to since.

Those with subscriptions have seen the introduction of HD terrain, S2.0 and so forth but all of which arrived without fanfare and too frequently still under development. Even the News Letter these days is more of a sales brochure than an anticipated look into the future. Those, with all good reasons, who do not have subscriptions currently have little to look to in the world of Trainz, and those with subscriptions are too busy trying to resolve one too many issues, hence I feel the Forum is very much a reflection of 'Trainz'. That said, I still spend too much time reading this dribble and only wish I had the knowledge to contribute more to resolve members issues. Peter

 

[mmmittchel]

Hi,

This sounds amazing as I found it
very much useful and informative to be honest. Also, I have gone through this
post which definitely helped me out a lot as a new member I am looking forward
for more such discussions.

Thanks

 

[capdiamont]

Don't really miss the old forums.

 

[martinvk]

Ah yes, the rose colored glasses syndrome along with selective memory that highlights the good and suppresses the bad unless you're contrarian with a bone to pick.

 

[ajrf]

I do miss my avatar though. I'd rather have my image be a HHP-8 than just a single letter on a background colour. Some users actually managed to get custom avatars though. I also kinda miss the early 2000s vibe the old forum layout had. (I actually used to visit it on my Windows XP retro machine (which has UTC and TRS 2006 installed on it) to be fair I kinda don't get why the effort was spent to upgrade the forum? An old saying goes "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it."

Same here. Proud user of a Renfe 252 avatar. Not to mention that with the branches it's easier to identify which versions does everyone use.

 

[mick1960]

To be honest I don't remember the old forum anymore. Maybe due my age, who knows...
The only thing I really miss are those who took 'The Spanish Train' already.