Today I am officially confirming our plans to move to vBulletin, professional forum software. The staff agreed to the move months ago, but we kept quiet on it since we knew it would take a while to prepare. The forums will start from scratch and will lose all data (posts and registrations). We believe it is worth it. These are some of the benefits of moving to vBulletin:
The Bell Tree is one of the biggest Animal Crossing forums on the internet, but it has also acted as a general gaming forum and a general discussion forum. We will keep all three of these in mind.
Not only are we going to move to vBulletin, but we will also use a new domain name: www.belltreeforums.com. This is why I called it "The Bell Tree Forums" in the title. This domain looks better without the hyphens and is easier for newcomers.
Quick FAQ:
- More powerful forum software means a better functioning community, with more features, etc. Currently The Bell Tree is stagnate and is in need of some creativity and activity.
- A wide variety of forum modifications, including a powerful money system. We will implement a better Bell system for the forum. If you've been to NSider2, it will be similar to their money system.
- The Bell Tree will control the hosting and ad revenue, not ZetaBoards.
- We can compete better with the big Animal Crossing forums, such as ACC. Maybe we can be the primary Animal Crossing forum on the internet when the next game comes out.
- vBulletin has integrated websites and user blogs. In the future we could look into creating a user-made Animal Crossing guide site at the forum.
- Overall, the forum looks more professional
The Bell Tree is one of the biggest Animal Crossing forums on the internet, but it has also acted as a general gaming forum and a general discussion forum. We will keep all three of these in mind.
Not only are we going to move to vBulletin, but we will also use a new domain name: www.belltreeforums.com. This is why I called it "The Bell Tree Forums" in the title. This domain looks better without the hyphens and is easier for newcomers.
Quick FAQ:
- Q: When will the new forum open? A: Likely in December.
- Q: Will I lose all my posts? A: Yes.
- Q: Will you be accepting donations to help pay for the costs? A: Yes.
- Q: Will there be any incentives to donating? A: Probably, but I don't know what yet.
- Q: What will happen to the current forum? A: The current domain will eventually redirect to the new domain and the current forum will stay up as an archive. People will obviously not be able to post or register when it is an archive.
- Q: Will you be hiring more mods? A: In the future, yes. Maybe they will be hired to do special jobs as well.
