Moving from Nats3 to Nats4
 

Guys, do you know any successful stories about moving from Nats3 to Nats4? Is everything smoothly during upgrade?

Don't do it. If you've been on nats3 for some time stay with it. Nats 4 is completely different. It's not an upgrade it's a NEW system. There are a number of big companies that have decided not to upgrade.

There have been plenty of companies who upgraded and then rolled it back to NATs3 as well...

Although the stats interface is nice from an affiliate point of view, as an affiliate myself.. I never log in to the sponsor anyways... I only use NiftyStats to see if I have sales, besides, NATS3 told me what I wanted to know anyways.. which is, what was the referrer for the sale. All the rest of the pretty pie charts don't really mean much to me.

Oh? Who are these plenty of companies?

NATS 4 is not "completely different". There are a number of changes for sure. There are a lot of additions, and with that comes changes. "completely different" and a "NEW system" are gross over exaggerations.

Thx for answers.
TMM_John: Could you show examples who moved from Nats3 to Nats4 and are happy now?

Groan... seriously? Mmkay....

August 14th - Twistys NATS4 downgraded to NATS3

[email protected]
date Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 2:15 PM
subject We're Back to Nats3
mailed-by platinum.swiftwill.com

We have migrated back to Nats3 - it appears we have a lot more work to do before we are able to make Nats4 work for all of us.

Some GFY posts:

08-20-2009, 10:29 PM xxxjay: Nats 4 is horrible. We asked to be switched back to 3 and they told us it couldn't be done.

LINK 08-21-2009, 09:28 AM Raja: We're in the process of upgrading to NATS4, think we'll hold off a little bit. Maybe send a mailer to our affiliates and see what they want.

Now and this is just taking about 10 minutes to look this up... I just don't think the adult world was ready for NATS4, and like I said before, it's all fancy and schtuff, but I don't give two flying fucks about pretty pie charts, and i'm sure most other webmasters can agree on one thing - getting paid. Give me stats on how I made my money, and when it got paid and that's pretty much all I need. Most of the time, I'm getting my data through a third party stats program anyways, which trumps the affiliate interface anyways, because I don't promote just one program.

Now if NATS could find a way to combine every other NATS program under one login like CCBILL does, that would be fucking revolutionary and might be enough for webmasters to actually login to the interface and use it.

Not hatin'... just sayin. Don't sue me for being honest. :2 cents:

That's one who rolled back. You said plenty. Who are the others?

I'm not going to vouch for people's feelings as only they really know them :) I'd be more than happy to provide you with a list on Monday tho of those who have moved. If you could email me, albright/toomuchmedia/com I'll shoot it over once I get it.

Also, the move to NATS4 from NATS3 isn't an instant upgrade. It is installed along side v3. You have as much time as you would like to explore it, learn it, and become comfortable with the changes. Once you're ready we do the final data import and flip the switch. Its not an instant move over once v4 is installed for you. Everyone has been done this way, certain people just didn't bother to take any time to actually look at it and learn it before saying to flip the switch.

I think 1 is plenty enough.... and other who have either not wanted to upgrade, or apparently told they couldn't roll back. Anyways, i'm done in this thread, not about to continue this drama... maybe you could take some of my suggestions in my reply... that would be cool!

You seem to have a thing for making comments about TMM/NATS, I've generally ignored them, but that one was blatantly wrong enough for me to reply. One affiliate program is hardly "There have been plenty of companies who upgraded and then rolled it back to NATs3 as well...".

You shouldn't be stating things you have no actual knowledge of. Comments like Raja's stem from comments such as yours that are made with no basis. If you have positive and constructive feedback, I'd like to hear it. If you want to just make things up and post non-sense then I'll go back to not bothering with it.

I seem to have a thing about NATS? You must be kidding me. It's a tool I am forced to use with certain programs I promote... I will have an opinion about it. Your the creator of it. Don't like my opinions about it? Then ignore me... please! Once again, I suggested a revolutionary idea about NATS twice in this thread, but you still make no mention of it... it would really be great if you made a interface for all NATS programs under one login... that would certainly put NATS over the top.

Now we can agree to disagree on this point.. but please... let's call it a day right here... I seriously don't care to continue arguing over moot points.

You were wrong about it, so now its a moot point? It is not your opinion I have an issue with. It is your stating of things as fact that are simply wrong.

Now let's be careful here... I stated an opinion that you interpreted as fact... no where did I say that it is a fact that "plenty" of companies have rolled back to NATS3. Why the post above mine says almost the same thing...

"There are a number of big companies that have decided not to upgrade."

You going to argue that "a number" of big companies is another fact?

I am starting from NATS4 and it looks baddass.

Also, to address your points for those who may be curious...

1) You'd be amazed how much we're working towards something along the lines of what you mentioned with the logins. Its quite a complex undertaking and requires a LOT of things to be done up front. We're working towards it, and you'll see the first pieces of it fairly soon.

2) NATS4 is much much more than some pretty pie charts. It gives a tremendous amount of information to the affiliate which they didn't have before and provides many more tools for both them and site owners. Unfortunately, we did a pretty shitty job in making all of these new things feel natural and easy. We're addressing that. There is a "v3 look" skin which will be rolling out within the next two weeks or so. There is also a v4 "simple" skin coming in 4.1 (a bit further out than two weeks, but not ages away) which will be much more in tune with what it seems like affiliates are looking for. It will be much more simple, have a much cleaner look, require less clicks to get to the most common things affiliates want, and be no where near as busy as the current NATS v4 default skin. Its well on its way, and it is on its way because a lot of people do provide constructive feedback which we value and use more than you can imagine.

There is a lot more coming also, mostly based around feedback, but those two should address the points you brought up. I'm ALWAYS welcome to constructive feedback. Either here on GFY or privately if anyone prefers.

http://www.nnteenmodels.net/gfy/clapping.gif

Outstanding..... can't wait to try that out when it rolls out! Have a great night! :thumbsup

Thanks.

That vast majority of programs who start on v4 love it.

Too high a number of programs who move to v3->v4 rip some of their hair out.

If you reached in the same exact spot for your wallet every day for 4 years and then one day someone said "Oh my god, for so many reasons there is a much better place to keep your wallet." and they moved it there you'd be kind of annoyed the next day when you reached into your normal spot for your wallet. You'd probably be annoyed until you became used to the new spot and realized the benefits it brought.

There are many advancements in v4, but when people are so used to something that they use so frequently and for such important tasks, they'll often be aggravated at any change, good or bad.

Programs starting on v4 who never got used to having their wallet somewhere are by and far much happier with the system as it is their first experience with it and its how they are learning it.

As time goes on and people who were used to v3 become more used to v4, and as we make improvements to make the transition easier, the documentation better, and the overall experience more natural, people will be more at ease with their move from v3->v4.

Its 1am and as bad as my analogies are I think its time for me to get some sleep.

Your statement was this:
"There have been plenty of companies who upgraded and then rolled it back to NATs3 as well..."

That's a statement of fact. There is no way that is interpreted as opinion.

I'm sorry, but you've tried dodging it every which way you can. Just admit you were wrong about it!

I was mistaken... my statement was supposed to be in the singular instead of the plural.... my bad :)

Hooray! Now we can go to bed and move on to moving things forward tomorrow :)

There is a lot of discussion going on internally at TMM about cross program features. Whether that's the one login system mentioned earlier, a statsremote type system (iphone app maybe?!), a windows application to grab all new hosted galleries from all of your NATS sponsors at once, or something even more ground breaking, the conversation is happening now. If you'd like to include some thoughts I'm more than happy to have them and you know how to reach me :) NATS4 gives us the basis to do many many things. Its really just the foundation.

Note to self: Should of finished debate classes in school instead of surfing porn....

2) But I like the pie charts!

as much advising / consulting as we did to get clients to use nats3
we are now advising clients to not use nats4

the problem is without nats3, there is nothing worthy left
ES is not that great, and neither is the other one that i forgot the name off.. shit