Over the past months FlowerChat has gone through the largest transition in our almost 11 year history.
Back in 2002 when I founded FlowerChat, there were few professional-grade software platforms available to host online forums, and the clear king among those was vBulletin. A proven and popular choice, vB was developed by some of the sharpest minds on the internet and pushed by a large and dedicated network of 3rd party developers. It was the natural choice for our new community!
But, in case you missed it, the Internet has changed since 2002. Back then forums were social media, now we have the interconnectedness of Facebook, Google+, and Twitter, not to mention the smaller yet still important players like Pinterest and LinkedIn. Also during that time vBulletin was acquired by a large corporation and soon the software began to resemble its ownership – bloated, corporate, inflexible, and broken. Like hundreds of thousands of other sites, FlowerChat was impacted by the changes to vB, and not for the better.
It’s Time for Rebirth
Recently, a new platform has arisen from the ashes of vBulletin’s greatness (and a lengthy court battle with vB’s new owners). Lead by some former vB lead programmers, along with new talent and a revitalized developer community, XenForo hit the market running and has provided us the first viable alternative to vBulletin in 11 years.
XF is fast, lightweight, designed for the modern internet – and is Responsive from the core! That means that while you can continue to access FlowerChat from your ForumRunner app, you can also use FC anytime, anywhere on your smartphone or tablet without the need for an app – you’ll just get a mobile-optimized version of the site that’s not lacking in content or features.
Some of the FlowerChat features that have been cornerstones of our community are still being overhauled. The image gallery is about to be completely replaced as soon as we can effectively migrate all the content. The Directory is still active for the time being, and continues to serve as a recognized Google Local citation source, but will be replaced with a more modern and user-friendly service in the near future.
So what makes the new FlowerChat so great?
In short, it’s the FlowerChat that you’ve loved for almost 11 years, with the same great content, just faster, smoother, and well … smarter.
I hope you will take a look around and enjoy the new FlowerChat.com!
Back in 2002 when I founded FlowerChat, there were few professional-grade software platforms available to host online forums, and the clear king among those was vBulletin. A proven and popular choice, vB was developed by some of the sharpest minds on the internet and pushed by a large and dedicated network of 3rd party developers. It was the natural choice for our new community!
But, in case you missed it, the Internet has changed since 2002. Back then forums were social media, now we have the interconnectedness of Facebook, Google+, and Twitter, not to mention the smaller yet still important players like Pinterest and LinkedIn. Also during that time vBulletin was acquired by a large corporation and soon the software began to resemble its ownership – bloated, corporate, inflexible, and broken. Like hundreds of thousands of other sites, FlowerChat was impacted by the changes to vB, and not for the better.
It’s Time for Rebirth
Recently, a new platform has arisen from the ashes of vBulletin’s greatness (and a lengthy court battle with vB’s new owners). Lead by some former vB lead programmers, along with new talent and a revitalized developer community, XenForo hit the market running and has provided us the first viable alternative to vBulletin in 11 years.
XF is fast, lightweight, designed for the modern internet – and is Responsive from the core! That means that while you can continue to access FlowerChat from your ForumRunner app, you can also use FC anytime, anywhere on your smartphone or tablet without the need for an app – you’ll just get a mobile-optimized version of the site that’s not lacking in content or features.
Some of the FlowerChat features that have been cornerstones of our community are still being overhauled. The image gallery is about to be completely replaced as soon as we can effectively migrate all the content. The Directory is still active for the time being, and continues to serve as a recognized Google Local citation source, but will be replaced with a more modern and user-friendly service in the near future.
So what makes the new FlowerChat so great?
- Responsive Design
- Faster than ever
- Social integration
- Register or log in with your Facebook, G+ or Twitter account
- AJAX features let you do more with fewer clicks
- More social connection options between members
- New message editor
- Pasting images into posts
In short, it’s the FlowerChat that you’ve loved for almost 11 years, with the same great content, just faster, smoother, and well … smarter.
I hope you will take a look around and enjoy the new FlowerChat.com!
