A New Chapter for Interference.com

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Elvis

Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Joined
May 22, 2000
Messages
4,007
Location
Orange County, CA
Everyone,

As many of you know, Interference has evolved over the years and our community could use an upgrade to the latest version of vBulletin (the software that runs the forums and is the back end for the main site), some new features, and a face lift. I have been in communications with Andy at Social Knowledge, a firm that manages online communities like ours. Andy and I have been chatting for over two years as he was interested in making an investment into Interference. We have chatted at length and see eye to eye on so many things. His management style is to let the admin/mod team run the site, much like I have enabled the current admin/mod team to do. He is very passionate about online forum communities and has extensive background with the software and the whole upgrade process. He also seems like a cool guy who loves music (but his exposure to U2 is more limited then ours ). After two and half years of chatting I have decided that it was time for Interference to join the Social Knowledge network of online communities.

So what does that mean for Interference?
Really not much will change other then Andy will be working with the staff to upgrade the software that runs the site and tweaking the new features to how we want them configured. I know he would like to modernize the look and feel and plans to work with us on that. He understands the amazing community we have here and is looking forward to fostering things to take us to the next level.

As the staff knows best, while my intentions have been good on making these upgrades myself, I simply do not have the time. I am now going to have the least time available for Interference since it's creation. I have moved back to southern California, and I am in the process of launching a startup business (which will be announced in the next month or two). A new, and extremely demanding, chapter of my life is beginning. A new chapter in Interference’s ‘life’ is now starting as well.

I am sure many of you are curious about the terms of the deal between me and Social Knowledge. Our agreement has some language that prevents me from disclosing all the details but I can say that Andy has made a commitment to make a significant investment in order to add the site to the Social Knowledge network. Interference is now owned by Social Knowledge and although I plan to stay on board my role will be less as Andy works with the staff to take things to the next level.

The decision to have someone take on this role, in my place, was not an easy one. It has been a lengthy process, and carefully thought out.

I was mostly interested in making sure that the integrity of the community would stay intact and that someone with financial and technical resources could take things to the next level. A qualification for me was that they would do so without coming in and trying to tell the current staff how to manage the community.

I want all of you to know that in the last couple of years I had also considered passing the site along to the staff. Honestly though I couldn't come up with a viable solution for that... in terms of who would back it financially, as well as technically, in order for it to grow and develop in the way that I envision.

Interference is my baby, my ‘Frankenstein’, my love, my headache, and my pride and joy, etc... and all of you have been a part of that. As well, there are many others in Interference’s history that have also moved on. Past, present, and future the staff and members of Interference are what make it what it is… a truly awesome community, the largest group of U2 fans in the world. I thank all of you for being a part of Interference.

I’ve had some absolutely amazing experiences, met some fabulous people, gotten jobs, met my girlfriend, and much more… all because of Interference. Truth is, everything that has happened positive in my life since I created Interference has been a cascading result of Interference itself. I want to emphasize, and hope that you all understand that this was not an easy decision for me.

I have nothing but good feelings about the future of Interference, Social Knowledge, and Andy at the helm working with the staff.

Please welcome Andy to the team and be kind enough to hear things through and give him some time to gain your trust. I am very confident that you all will enjoy what’s to come as a result of him being involved.

For those of you interested, you can keep apprised of what’s going on in my life and projects on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel_Tanner/670384345

Joel
 
I saw action in IB and thought it was a banning. :lol: :shifty:

I think this will get even more attention than a banning though. :wink:

Congrats on the sale. Sounds as if it's been well thought through.
 
Change scares me too, but I just want to say that I am really excited about this. The board is being upgraded to the most current version of vbulletin and there will be sooo many cool new features, I know once everyone gets used to it they will LOVE it.

Andy is a really nice guy and he knows what he's doing. Nothing is going to change as far as the staff and how we run things here. We're just going to have a much better forum, its going to be really fun trust me.

The staff really needs the member's support right now. Any questions or concerns PLEASE post them in this thread and we will address them as best as we can.
 
I'm wondering what specifically will be different for us as posters when these upgrades occur.
 
I don't like change either and hopefully the transition will be smooth and things will only change for the better.

Good luck Sicy and the rest of the staff! I am so glad that Elvis made you guys part of the deal, so to speak. Software upgrades, modernization and such are great but staff changes, not so much :no:
 
The only question that could possibly matter:


How much did Elvis get for the place? :shifty:
 
Lenny Dykstra got $55 million for his car wash, so Elvis should be in that area.
 
LemonMelon said:


No, it's going to be this shitty combination of white and gamboge. :yuck:

It's going to be as close as you can get to Bailey's without your eyes getting wet. Creamy beige.
 
Oh, and I forgot to add, good luck on all future endeavors, Elvis. This place has always been in good shape, and you were a large part of that. :up:
 
Ditto to that. Thanks for all you've done, good luck, and I'm very curious to see what Interference will look like with the new changes!
 
A lot is going to be different, as far as the forums, a lot of new features and a slightly different look, but don't worry its still going to be blue. I made sure of that. I know its going to be hard for some to adjust and I hate change as much as the next person, especially since I've seen this place stay the same for pretty much 8 years, but we are in the process of testing the new forum and I honestly think once everyone gets used to it they will love it.
 
LemonMelon said:
Oh, and I forgot to add, good luck on all future endeavors, Elvis. This place has always been in good shape, and you were a large part of that. :up:
 
Sicy said:
A lot is going to be different, as far as the forums, a lot of new features and a slightly different look, but don't worry its still going to be blue. I made sure of that. I know its going to be hard for some to adjust and I hate change as much as the next person, especially since I've seen this place stay the same for pretty much 8 years, but we are in the process of testing the new forum and I honestly think once everyone gets used to it they will love it.

Blue = good. Though when I was at an office job it always made me nervous because no legitimate website I would have been on could possibly have been blue. :lol:

Good luck Elvis. When will we start to see the changes? Is there a forum out there right now that has them implemented that we could go lurk on to take a look?
 
Interesting. I'm wary of this due to a string of bad experiences of ownership changes, but I'll try to be positive.

I do hope the forum upgrade doesn't add features just for the sake of having more features. We're all familiar with sites like MySpace that are just overburdened by feature after feature. Simpler often tends to be better and clearer. Like Varitek, I'd be interested in seeing an example of another forum already running on the latest software.
 
Sicy said:
A lot is going to be different, as far as the forums, a lot of new features and a slightly different look, but don't worry its still going to be blue. I made sure of that. I know its going to be hard for some to adjust and I hate change as much as the next person, especially since I've seen this place stay the same for pretty much 8 years, but we are in the process of testing the new forum and I honestly think once everyone gets used to it they will love it.

:hyper:

I know how much you hate change, and if you are actually excited about this, I know it HAS to be good!!! :D
 
Hey there,

Thanks for the kind welcome Joel (and Sicy).

I am really excited to be joining you all here. I love music (in general) and have been a U2 fan since I was in my early teens (around 20 years ago). My favorite venue is Red Rocks where I saw various shows while I was in College in Colorado. I travel quite a bit taking my laptop with me and working from the far corners of the world (there is high speed internet everywhere). My most recent trip was to Africa where I spent 9 weeks seeing things first hand and learning about all the issues Bono talks about.

I'll respond to some of the questions that have been posted.

As Sicy mentioned, Blue Crack is staying. The new version of the software will have minor changes such as the buttons (quote, new topic reply, etc). For the most part the site will look exactly the same but it will just be the latest version of vBulletin (the software that runs this forum). It will not be any kind of overwhelming changes more like modernization while trying to keep the character of the site that you all love so much intact.

the new features are pretty much just out-of-the-box vBulletin features that have been added to the software over the last 5 years. They include things like better handling of attachments and lots of new tools for the staff. There is no plan to go feature crazy like MySpace but you will be able to make friends with each other (that is one of the standard features of the new version).

Please keep the questions coming and I will respond to them as soon as possible.
 
corianderstem said:
Thanks for all you've done, good luck, and I'm very curious to see what Interference will look like with the new changes!

:yes:

Best of luck to your Joel. And welcome to Andy :wave:

Be gentle with us :wink:


Mr. BAW - :giggle:
 
Mr. BAW said:
My 2 cents ~ I hope Bono is alright with this...:shrug:


:lmao:


:hug: I love you Mr. Baw :love:



This sounds really positive, Welcome aboard Andy, hope we don't scare you too much :giggle:

Good luck Joel with your endeavours, sounds like you're entering a new and exciting phase in your life!
 
Originally posted by gluey Actually, one quick question.....will this change make a difference to our subscriptions?
No, nothing will change with your subscriptions. We will be looking at ways to bring more value for those of you who subscribe while at the same time trying to give non-subscribers a little more access also. We have not worked out the details but we have started talking about it. After the upgrade and a few other projects we will circle back to this.
 
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