Thanks Shaun. Your search traffic seems to have taken a hit post migration to XF.
That is the most important factor for us.
Only in the short term (
which is expected as Google detects a change of platform and reindexes like a hamster on speed) - it recovered
much quicker than when I migrated vB to IPB (
there's a whole big thread over on IPB about SEO and the effects myself and others noticed after migrating to IPB. All told I think it was about six months for things to level out after moving to IPB).
The big difference for me though, and the reason I moved in the first place, is the user experience. XF is just a pleasure to use and administer compared to the multi-click, multi-screen, click-and-scroll setup of IPB 3.1.4 where things are all over the place and not set out in a logical (
for me) order. [NB: This may well have improved in later versions, it's been a while since I used it as Admin].
I have only seen improvements since moving to XF - better in-line modding tools, easier editor (members getting on with it
soooo much better than the IPB 3.1.4), faster search results, lower load on the server, and - best of all - an increase in participation. More uploads/attachments, more PMs, more threads and posts.
I've also been through two upgrades since converting and none of them broke my skin; I stopped upgrading IPB Suite because of the amount of work involved in repairing the skin each time an update was applied (
at the time the point releases were coming out within weeks
of each other!).
I think my main concern was that I'd miss a lot of the finer controls that were present in IPB - like vB it has been developed over many years and has had a lot of features and settings added to suit various customer requirements and requests - but the simple truth is that whilst I missed them to start with, I soon found that the site worked just as well without them and that it didn't have anywhere near the impact I first imagined it might have done.
I get more done in less time and my moderator team and membership are more than happy with the change - it has definitely been a good move.
XF won't suit everyone, and if you're currently heavily using Gallery, Blogs, Chat, Content and Nexus then you've got a bit of work cut out both in finding suitable XF add-ons and migrating the data (
I had to do gallery and blogs manually) - but for me I feel it was worth the effort and that moving to XF was the right move for CycleChat.
Cheers,
Shaun