Hello all,
First off, thank you to those willing to help me with my queries. I realize there is a lot of information scattered in Pre-Sales but I'd like to be specific in my questions hence this post.
Just so you know you're not wasting your valuable time, I've been a Webmaster, Site Owner and Website Re-seller for over a decade now. The site in question here is a small yet passionate Gaming Community comprised of members who've known each other for over a decade.
We've put a lot of effort into building a solid foundation for new Membership in 2014 and are now starting to see the fruition of our efforts.
The focus now is to finally make the Website work by putting effort into SEO, marketing, usability and aesthetic.
The answers I get here will heavily influence my decision to switch from my current Forum Software (vBulletin) to XenForo.
A successful migration may translate to full adoption of Xen resulting in another 3 or so Web Community conversions over the next few years.
...
PREFACE:
I've just gone through a major re-branding phase with my Gaming Community and have decided to put in the work required to make it relevant. I've ambitious goals in mind for this Community and one of these goals is a simplistic manner of delivering content starting with the most difficult area, the forum.
1. vB Conversion:
I'm currently running vB 4.2.1 which I realize is severely outdated but vB has gotten progressively worse since 3.6.x and I only update now if I have to.
2. Theming/Code Reduction:
The Community I'm looking to switch from vBulletin to XenForo is http://bandofothersgaming.com/forum/
It is very much in a "Work in Progress" state so I ask you please understand.
To give you a rough idea of the direction I'm heading in I've a loose mockup for your review:
There are a number of things I need to work in order to achieve my vision among which are as follows.
This question is aimed specifically at XenForo Media Gallery and XenForo Enhanced Search; are these required to bring XenForo to a state equal to or better than vB 4.x?
My hope is that XenForo on it's own can handle screenshots as vB does and the Search is similar to vB.
...
Again, if you've gotten this far thank you for taking the time.
Regards,
Ken
First off, thank you to those willing to help me with my queries. I realize there is a lot of information scattered in Pre-Sales but I'd like to be specific in my questions hence this post.
Just so you know you're not wasting your valuable time, I've been a Webmaster, Site Owner and Website Re-seller for over a decade now. The site in question here is a small yet passionate Gaming Community comprised of members who've known each other for over a decade.
We've put a lot of effort into building a solid foundation for new Membership in 2014 and are now starting to see the fruition of our efforts.
The focus now is to finally make the Website work by putting effort into SEO, marketing, usability and aesthetic.
The answers I get here will heavily influence my decision to switch from my current Forum Software (vBulletin) to XenForo.
A successful migration may translate to full adoption of Xen resulting in another 3 or so Web Community conversions over the next few years.
...
PREFACE:
I've just gone through a major re-branding phase with my Gaming Community and have decided to put in the work required to make it relevant. I've ambitious goals in mind for this Community and one of these goals is a simplistic manner of delivering content starting with the most difficult area, the forum.
1. vB Conversion:
I'm currently running vB 4.2.1 which I realize is severely outdated but vB has gotten progressively worse since 3.6.x and I only update now if I have to.
vB Conversion Questions:
1. Will I require a vB update prior to converting to Xen?
2. Will smilies, attachments, user profiles be broken after the conversion process and if so, is there an easy way to minimize the impact?
2. Will smilies, attachments, user profiles be broken after the conversion process and if so, is there an easy way to minimize the impact?
2. Theming/Code Reduction:
The Community I'm looking to switch from vBulletin to XenForo is http://bandofothersgaming.com/forum/
It is very much in a "Work in Progress" state so I ask you please understand.
To give you a rough idea of the direction I'm heading in I've a loose mockup for your review:
There are a number of things I need to work in order to achieve my vision among which are as follows.
Theming/Code Reduction Questions:
3. Goodies:3. Can each individual Main Forum Category have a unique image associated with it? I'll choose not to display the latest post data, discussions, messages, etc., text via .css or code removal. All I'll require is the unique background image preferably in a manner I can animate in hover and visited states; tied of course to session ID.
4. From above, are there any security risks associated with removing lines of code that simply display information such as latest post data, discussions, etc.? vBulletin typically handles this as <vb:if condition" "> statements so if I were to draw a parallel to Xen it would be complete removal of some instances of code between <xen: if condition " "></xen: if>. All I'm trying to do here is increase the content to code ratio.
5. Is there an ability to have the sidebar display selectively and/or site-wide rather than simply on the forum index via include or vb:raw'esque statement?
6. Is it possible to display my Header, Footer and possibly Navbar from Wordpress to Xen? This is not critical but would represent a bit less work for site-wide aesthetic consistency. Incidentally, I'm using Thesis for Wordpress as my Theme engine (which also requires serious updating).
4. From above, are there any security risks associated with removing lines of code that simply display information such as latest post data, discussions, etc.? vBulletin typically handles this as <vb:if condition" "> statements so if I were to draw a parallel to Xen it would be complete removal of some instances of code between <xen: if condition " "></xen: if>. All I'm trying to do here is increase the content to code ratio.
5. Is there an ability to have the sidebar display selectively and/or site-wide rather than simply on the forum index via include or vb:raw'esque statement?
6. Is it possible to display my Header, Footer and possibly Navbar from Wordpress to Xen? This is not critical but would represent a bit less work for site-wide aesthetic consistency. Incidentally, I'm using Thesis for Wordpress as my Theme engine (which also requires serious updating).
This question is aimed specifically at XenForo Media Gallery and XenForo Enhanced Search; are these required to bring XenForo to a state equal to or better than vB 4.x?
My hope is that XenForo on it's own can handle screenshots as vB does and the Search is similar to vB.
...
Again, if you've gotten this far thank you for taking the time.
Regards,
Ken
