Announcing Soompi 3.0 Beta Test

Update: We have finally launched the Soompi 3.0 beta site to all Soompi staff and Friends of Soompi! If you would like to participate in the beta testing, please send a PM to me or rocojulie and we will send you instructions on how to access the site. Thanks!

Hi Soompiers,

We have a big announcement to make! After ten years using IPB forum software, we will be moving our forums to a new platform in approximately two weeks. Why are we doing this? Simply put, our current platform isn't equipped to handle the heavy level of traffic we experience on a daily basis. No doubt that many of you have noticed our frequent driver errors and "Unable to Complete Request" messages. Well, those are examples of our forums not being able to deal with so many users visiting at once. Therefore, we are migrating to a new platform which has been proven to scale more effectively for a larger audience -- and includes some pretty cool new features, too!

I'm pretty sure you have some questions right now. Let's cover some of the major ones right now.

Will we be keeping all our data?

Yes. Even though it is very difficult for us to migrate all the threads, posts, PMs, and profile information to the new platform, we are working hard to make sure everything remains intact at the time of launch, because we realize that you've worked hard to create all this content!

Will the forums be going offline while you make the change?

Yes. Unfortunately, there will be some downtime while we migrate the data. To minimize the inconvenience, we will schedule the migration during off-peak hours, and we will try our best to limit it to four hours or less. We apologize in advance for the disruption, and we will keep you informed as to when the site will be going offline.

What are some of the new features we can expect to see?

We really hope you will enjoy the new features as much as we do! Some of the new features will include:

• Autosave drafts of a forum post or thread,
• Ability to bring members into a thread by mentioning them,
• Search features per individual forum,
• Embed YouTube videos,
• Some badges and miscellaneous voting features (no negatives).

Will the forum organization change?

It is not necessary for the organization to change as a result of the platform change. However, based on member response, we have been considering combining some of the Korean entertainment forums, to a setup similar to what we had a few years ago. For example, merging the music group subforums into a larger group or group members forum may address some of the issues members have with the content being too segmented and "over-organized." We are still deciding, so please give us your feedback!

When will the new forums be unveiled?

Currently, we are thinking early April. We will keep you informed as the date approaches.

No. This thread does not answer my questions.

We will be here to answer your questions, so reply here and ask away! Thanks for your support and understanding!

Ohh finally. Great to see the forums finally get a nice new internal make over. The current version of IPB doesn't really like userbases this big.

So are we moving to the new version of IPB, another off the shelf forum software or is this an internally built platform? And are we getting a new theme to go along with this as well or is it all under the hood?

I'm also guessing current bb codes won't change, so we won't get issues where older embeds suddenly don't work on the new platform.

the updates sound exciting! can't wait to see & try out the new soompi! ^^

It's kind of an upgrade, so I'm guessing that most of the issues we had on IPB such as when we were unable to access Soompi because of the servers will be solved.

I'm really excited to see what the new version will bring and how it will look! The features mentioned above sound great! ^0^

I'm so excited! This just sounds great. Not sure I'll cope easily with forum downtime, though! x)

WOW, what a great news. Really thank you for all your efforts Although I will surely suffer during the downtime but I am so excited to see the new look of our soompie

What are some of the new features we can expect to see?

We really hope you will enjoy the new features as much as we do! Some of the new features will include:

* Autosave drafts of a forum post or thread,

* Ability to bring members into a thread by mentioning them,

* Search features per individual forum,

* Embed YouTube videos,

* Some badges and miscellaneous voting features (no negatives).

I can't wait to try out these new features!

Will the forum organization change?

It is not necessary for the organization to change as a result of the platform change. However, based on member response, we have been considering combining some of the Korean entertainment forums, to a setup similar to what we had a few years ago. For example, merging the music group subforums into a larger group or group members forum may address some of the issues members have with the content being too segmented and "over-organized." We are still deciding, so please give us your feedback!

I personally like how it is now. It used to be so difficult to find threads back then. For instance, say I wanted to go to Han Ye Seul's thread, I'd have to sift through the drama threads, the variety show threads, the sitcom threads, the movie threads, and the other actor/actress threads. With the forum being more organized, it's a lot easier to find threads that interest you.

Though, if you guys to end up merging the forums back, it'd be nice if there were subforums. For example, if all of the drama, movie, actor, etc. threads were put into one forum, subforums would be helpful.

As for the rest of the changes, they sound great.

oh how exciting!!!

I can't wait. And no matter how many times you guys change the forum look, this will always be my home. <3

That's great news. What software are you guys switching to? Homegrown?

Whatever happen to admin, soompi_coder?

Any way, this is welcoming news.

But I think some focus should also be directed toward the profile and PM page. I'm assume the coding was changed.

I see weird bugs like miscalculated counts on posts, post counts not showing up at all, different dates. Also, some members have a link to view all their archive posts and threads, yet others don't (I have to manually type the link to get there).

Please fix these issues. I keep seeing guess ask about bugs, yet their never fixed.

i'm hoping this upgrade with fix this finally.

I'm ready! Let's go!

Hopefully there will be a lo-fi version so I may navigate more optimally.

will the forums come with the features already out or will we have to wait (indefinitely) for them to roll out when we switch?

a couple of months ago 6theory changed platforms and they have a lot of upgrades on their new platform to do before they match their old forum platform and all the things it had (bb code buttons, etc..)

@user above good point, lo fi would be awesome, as aesthetically pleasing as soompi's forums are they aren't very easy on my monthly internet limit...

Wow, this great news of changing software has cause me to change my underware too!

Will there still be a mobile version?

I love how IPB looks like but if it can't handle Soompi's needs, then I'm all for the software change. My only wish is that it won't look like the 6theory forums after it changed (or anything similar to that layout). If the new software would still look like IPB... then it will be great!

I hope it's vBulletin. 

To answer your questions,

There will be a mobile-friendly version. We are not sure at this stage about a lo-fi version, but we are looking into it. Lastly, I can't answer any questions about the specific forum software -- I've been asked to keep it under wraps for now. Sorry!

Okay, I'll take note of the forum organization. Any input, please let me know!

I also have to announce some unwelcome news -- the Soompi fan clubs will not be appearing in this next version. They will (or at least should) reappear at some point in the future, but the interest in the fan clubs has been very low compared to the amount of resources they would take to redo and fix (as you may know, they are quite buggy right now). So in the meantime, we will be taking them down to focus on the news and forum experience. Fan club moderators will receive a PM from either me or lualm within the next week. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I'm assuming soompi will remain with IPB(upgrading IPB version) or switch to vBulletin board as they are at the moment considered the two top software.

althrough XenForo is also a large possibility

will the forums come with the features already out or will we have to wait (indefinitely) for them to roll out when we switch?

a couple of months ago 6theory changed platforms and they have a lot of upgrades on their new platform to do before they match their old forum platform and all the things it had (bb code buttons, etc..)

@user above good point, lo fi would be awesome, as aesthetically pleasing as soompi's forums are they aren't very easy on my monthly internet limit...

Soompi should consider the 6theory forum situation if they are planning to do the later one.

6Theory lost a large component of it's user since changing platform.

Recently, situation there has became even worse, with resemblance of an internal civil war. Pretty much what happened a few of the old 6theory members created a new forum called "hallyu8" attracting the most of the remaining 6theory members to migrate there.

But then again the main problem of the new 6theory was the long wait for simple features.... with lack of dedication of the admins

YES! AUTOSAVE DRAFTS! I LOVE THIS ALREADY!