We Preview the New Kaskus

As we informed previously, on its 12th anniversary Kaskus is ready to leave VBulletin for a new forum platform which was developed internally. At the time of publication there had been no word of when the migration to the new Kaskus will be rolled out. In the meantime, it is only being made available to a select few members and is likely to be fully implemented in early 2012. If you would like to know what it looks like, read on.

Visually, new Kaskus is cleaner and sleeker. There’s fewer advertising slots that are being offered, which can only mean that the advertising rates for the forum will increase. Aside from using a Kaskus account, you will be able to use a Facebook, Twitter, or even a Yahoo! account to register.

There is a new tab bar across the bottom of the screen which offers a more practical way to switch between forums within Kaskus. In this new design, it separates Forum from Jual Beli which are the two main destinations, followed by Groupee, Radio, and Blogs.

Specific to Jual Beli (FJB) there is a dedicated menu for those who are buying or selling. In three easy steps, you can categorize the product, its condition, and the price offered for it. One curious point however, is that I can’t seem to find the payment options, whether it had already been integrated to the system or not, it’s unclear. What is happening to the widely used Rekening Bersama (joint account) is also unclear at this point.

The search feature has received a significant overhaul. Results are now classified by categories and whether they are found within the broader forum or withi Jual Beli. Displayed results are also contextually relevant. Hopefully the concerns raised by Rama no longer surface in the new Kaskus.

Visually Kaskus seems to have answered the calls for a cleaner and more usable interface and experience even though it’s not exactly what yo would call beautiful. The primary question however is stability. Once it has gone live, will the new Kaskus be able to deal with the load as the largest and most popular forum in the country, one that even VBulletin apparently raised a white flag to.

While you wait for the full implementation of the new Kaskus, here are several screenshots of it. You can also follow the discussion about it with the CEO and CTO of Kaskus here.

Note: The information tab across the bottom was captured and shown as being in the middle but its position actually remains pinned at the bottom of the screen.