Klov thinking about upgrading forum software – Voice your opinion

I wanted to endorse this movement for sure. Klov arcade forums are finally, again, looking at upgrading their forums. Only minor changes have been made over the life of the forum, some 6-7 years with only small upgrades. A year ago they were looking at an upgrade, and then….nothing. People waited, people asked questions, and no response was given. Hopefully this time, they follow through.

Make your opinion known

Any and every opinion. Talk about integration between the terribly outdated VAPS, the forums, and klov.com. Ask for upgrades in search and the ability to actually add photos to your post inline without having to go externally, size them, and then link them into your post. Ask for the best in software, I would recommend choosing vBulletin for sure. Ask to make the dynamic post ids changed using mod-rewrite to have pretty url’s so that search engines can more easily find the forum, index it, and let general searchers stumble in and join. I mean, where is Klov in the Google searches? Not on the first page for ‘arcade forum’ or ‘arcade game forum’. Spam laden Gamehourz would appear to be our first choice.

The past track record doesn’t speak to Klov’s strengths. Maintenance has switched hands a couple of times over the 15+ years, I think that there has been an under construction sign on VAPS ever since I started collecting so that has been at least 3 years! Wow.

But, everyone should get a chance to improve, and I think this time the Klov forums will follow through with it. They know that if they come out, take feedback again, and then do nothing for another year they will just anger more people and more people will leave. Klov would be wise to set a specs document and timelines for completion. Set timelines for when feedback has to be in, set a timeline for when a final specs document will be published, and then set smaller benchmarks on when each improvement can be expected to be made.

I know these guys donate their services and their time, but that doesn’t mean they can sit on their laurels while arcade collectors are screaming for so much more.

If change is made, that is all that I ever wanted. I wanted someone to follow through with what they said they were going to do. I am not asking for a system that integrates artwork, a game database, a pcb database, etc. etc. on and on in three months. But what I am asking for is constant improvement. Small improvement, over time. What technical system is still viable after 5 years with little to no upgrade? Just about nothing, and that is what the klov forums are, not viable and a horrible time drain when they could be so much better.

The alternative – I got tired of waiting

As I said before, I’m not a programmer. I can’t tie everything together and make everything great. But…I work my butt off. I am trying something of my own, that may or may not take off. I have heard from so many guys that ‘We’d like this and that, we have the skills but we don’t have the time right now’ All I can think to do is invest an hour a night, and a year from now hopefully there will be a great site to visit. Otherwise, I technically don’t have the time either.

So, if you are looking for a forum that is miles above UBBThreads, as well as free blogs, image hosting, an online video gallery (Like our own little YouTube), integrated chat, game groups and more, it resizes images for you – no external linking, check out;

It’s like MySpace, but nicer looking. I am not saying it’s for everyone, but at least give it a shot. Poke around. You will find that it will make your collecting life so much easier.

We’d love to have the Klov guys throw their weight behind our forum, obviously. We are not nearly the size of them or have the retained audience, and we may never be. But our interaction features are so much better, and we could use some help. Greg McClemore is a database admin, so working together we could all make for a great site.

So, there are the options

Try the CoinOpSpace arcade game social network, or give all of your feedback to Greg to make the Klov forums better. He has mentioned a number of great things that an upgrade can bring to users. Otherwise, Greg, let’s pool resources and make the best community available. Let’s work out a deal with Quarter Arcade to use GGDB, improve on it, and dump VAPS altogether.

Change is finally coming, one way or the other.

Here are some similar arcade posts

• Ning vs. Klov Round 2 – RSS Feeds
• Klov vs. CoinOpSpace (Ning) Round 4 – Directly upload images
• Ning vs. Klov Round 1 – Usernames
• No ads for a year at CoinOpSpace.com – Arcade Game Forum
• Hey hey, Klov forums got an upgrade

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