I had "Viper Owner" status before this new forum. I am both a VCA member and Viper owner. Can't seem to be able to enter in anything for my signature either.
Can someone please explain to me why I have to send a private message to get these things changed when they are in and have always been in my profile? Also why do I have to send in my proposed signature to get it place in, as well? The whole thing is just weird to me.
Happy to explain it: As you may have noticed these forums are completely
new. Not partially -
100%. Oh, they have the same names and even the same posts, but the software engine and everything that is associated with it is brand spankin' new.
Now you had a few guys working overtime one night to migrate
everything over to this new - and far better - format. And while 99% of it was accomplished in record time, there were a handful of things that didn't migrate properly: Avatars, signatures, and some user titles (probably about 10% of the latter). All the user ID's, passwords, VIN's, addresses, etc. all seemed to be fine. Likewise the
hundreds of thousands of posts that were moved over to this new software. All in all, a rather incredible accomplishment if I dare say so myself.
Now, we have approximately 5,500 people registered on these forums. Hundreds and hundreds (if not thousands) of posts every day. You have two administrators and two moderators running it on a day-to-day basis, with a web committee helping to shape policy and provide constant feedback on the direction of the site. All are unpaid volunteers with "real" jobs outside of the VCA. These same
four people are working this site as much as humanly possible to "fix" any issues as soon as they are discovered. Two of them have been manually updating avatars (which involves four different spreadsheets to cross reference) and titles. The latter involves verifying VIN's and VCA member numbers. You would be surprised at the number that don't check out.
So the issue is simply this: We have a brand new forum setup with some minor bugs. We fix them as soon as they are brought to our attention or if we stumble upon them like this. And yes, you were verified and your title updated - all while never having to send a PM. That said, it would make it MUCH easier for the two volunteers doing the avatars/titles if you would simply drop them a PM. Sure, it's a minor inconvenience for you. On the other hand it is
far more difficult to read through 1,000 posts a day looking for complaints so we can fix them. But we do that too.
Enjoy your forums!