I don't want to say it was "worth the wait" because 10 years is way too long, but I am ecstatic that Rivals has taken the first big step in upgrading site technology. This is just the first of changes we should see in the coming months as other rollouts will follow such as front pages, story pages, recruiting database, etc.
As for the board software, it would have been much easier just to start with a clean slate (brand new boards with no posts) but Rivals lead engineers went the extra mile to ensure posts carried over. It wasn't easy, since Rivals was licensing a third-party software (Xenforo) that was completely foreign to the old proprietary software.
As I've said before, there are so many new features that should add to the overall user experience. I still have the ability to customize certain things and will work on that in the coming days. I will clean up the extra unnecessary boards and likely just leave four (Dungeon, Fan Forum, Water Cooler, Tickets). I have flexibility in editing "user levels" (basically what you're seeing with the "Well Known Member" title) to anything we want based on different variables (post counts, points, etc.). Getting the old smilies back.
I believe the private messaging feature (aka "Conversations") has yet to be fully activated (Rivals was going to push out an update to correct this soon).
Some of the text/URL colors will be tweaked as links and text are indistinguishable on sites with black as a primary color.
The early feedback though has been overwhelmingly positive. I know functionality on mobile is so much easier now. It was a cinch to update the baseball game thread via my phone tonight.
I hope everybody is getting the hang of things and don't hesitant to ask any questions if you need assistance with something.
As for the board software, it would have been much easier just to start with a clean slate (brand new boards with no posts) but Rivals lead engineers went the extra mile to ensure posts carried over. It wasn't easy, since Rivals was licensing a third-party software (Xenforo) that was completely foreign to the old proprietary software.
As I've said before, there are so many new features that should add to the overall user experience. I still have the ability to customize certain things and will work on that in the coming days. I will clean up the extra unnecessary boards and likely just leave four (Dungeon, Fan Forum, Water Cooler, Tickets). I have flexibility in editing "user levels" (basically what you're seeing with the "Well Known Member" title) to anything we want based on different variables (post counts, points, etc.). Getting the old smilies back.
I believe the private messaging feature (aka "Conversations") has yet to be fully activated (Rivals was going to push out an update to correct this soon).
Some of the text/URL colors will be tweaked as links and text are indistinguishable on sites with black as a primary color.
The early feedback though has been overwhelmingly positive. I know functionality on mobile is so much easier now. It was a cinch to update the baseball game thread via my phone tonight.
I hope everybody is getting the hang of things and don't hesitant to ask any questions if you need assistance with something.
