“So, what’s the deal with the JBL forums, Mainframe?!!”
That’s a question that some of you might be asking after an earlier post teased that the forums were getting an update. There is some news on that forums update– some good and some bad so I’ll break it down as follows:
- The forums are updated and functional for all registered users.
- Registration, however, isn’t quite working for new members.
In a nutshell, the current iteration of JBL’s forums is approaching its seventh birthday. That’s right– there are nearly seven years worth of posts, registrations, uploads, attachments, etc cluttering the database. Our hosting company, GoDaddy, has informed me that the database is a larger than it should be by nearly a factor of 150%! This meant that the forums needed some serious attention– something that they’ve not seen in an administrative sense for a long time.
After a few hours work, the database has been pared down somewhat but there is still more work to do on the back end. However, for anyone who has previously registered on the site, the old forums are back in business. This means that anyone who has posted to JBL in the past 6+ years should be able to log in use the old site just like they used to.
It’s a fact that the forums traffic has dwindled in the past two years. Much of that came from the hiatus of the site admin (namely me) from the hobby failing to generate new content to the site. Further attrition is probably due to the ups and downs of the brand over the past few years as well as the rise of social media sites like Facebook. Let’s face it– the advent of Facebook groups means that just about anyone can set up a group, invite their friends, and start posting. Plus, the average net users spends over 10% of their daily time on the net on Facebook.
The point is– the JBL forums are still open for business. If you’re so inclined to log back in, poke around, and discuss the world’s greatest toy line we’ve left the lights on for you. So, why not stop on in and check them out once more? You might just enjoy yourself. (In the meantime, I’ve got to get the user registration settings fixed!)