New forum software upcoming

Folks, I would like your input on this.

The current forums lack a lot of functionality which would help us build a better sense of community. Therefore I have bought a license for vBulletin http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/ and will implement it as soon as possible. However, we will first find out how to import all the data from the current forums, since there is no automatic import tool. We also need to build a new template which matches the colors and feel of Hypography, rather than the standard vBulletin templates.

There are some important decisions to make in the process and I would like your feedback. Basically, it is about the import procedure and whether we can start from scratch or whether we have to import everything, which might prove a very difficult task (not that we will not try).

1. What we will most likely lose in an import: Private messages, avatars, some of the personal settings.

2. What we could do in place of the import: Make ONE post in the new forums for each of the old threads with a link to the old thread saying "This is a continuation of the following thread in our old forums" and just let the discussion go from there.

3. Why this upgrade is necessary: We will gain a lot of new functionality like a user control panel where you can control your private messages, subscriptions, buddy lists etc in a much easier way than today. We will get the ability to create sub-forums in the different categories so that we can split the major categories into smaller groups when necessary. We will be able to send out e-mail messages on a regular basis to keep people updated (optional for all users) and to send out important system notices (required). Also, the forums will appear faster, more flexible, and it will be easier to find relevant threads for new users. It will be easier to find the LATEST posts and not always be directed to the first page of a thread with 100 posts only to have to navigate several pages to get to the end of it.

Each user will also have more personalization possibilites - more avatars, more smileys, better posting tools, better topic subscription tools, user rating functionality, MUCH better forum search etc etc.

I would like some input on these points:

1) Would it be okay to leave the old forums up with a "These are our old forums for archive purposes" (as stated above) and start over in a new forum? The new forum would have the same basic category structure to begin with, but no posts (except if we go for solution (2) above). There will be a CLEAR link to "Find our archives here".

2) Would you be willing to go through the registration process again so that we can be sure that all members are correctly registered in the new software? We will correct the "post count" when so that nobody starts at 0 if they already have posts in the current forums.

Please post with a short response to 1) and 2) and any comments you may have.