Considering my options for migrating from IPB

[Soshi]

I am a current IPS customer(actually just renewed my license like two weeks ago) but i am not at all really happy with some bugs and the lack of help/answer. So i may be selling my license and chat subscription this week and migrating over to either Xenforo or Vbulletin this weekend.

Now i know about the case and lack of development for xenforo currently and all that stuff(which is part of the reason i sort of overlooked xenforo) but right now i am giving it a second glance.

Here is what i am currently looking for

1. Bulk PM
Not mass email feature but a bulk pm feature. I love to be able to announce things via private messaging to my members in case they do not see the thread in the forum such as new features, downtime, etc etc.

2. Like Feature
Liking posts on our 3.4 ipb forum is quite popular. Does your like feature work the same way here?

3. Reputations
On IPB forum it has the repuation feature. Is there something similar here?

4.Showing member age and current time on the forum
is somethign like this possible to do with xenforo? where we can show a member's current time and how old they are in threads on the forum?

5. Forum store
is there a forum store feature? where members earn points by posting adn can then use the points to "buy" things in the store? not like actual products but forum stuff.

6. twitter like tags
is there a feature for @ someone to tag them? This is big on my forum and a deal breaker for moving from ipb to xenforo.

7. Admin permissions
Certain things i allow some admins to be able to do and some thtings i don't allow certain admins to do.
like one admin can ban someone while the other can't

also i like to give my moderators certain permissions to access the admin panel(on ipb, you have to manually ban someone from inside the admin panel and i give my super mods limited access to the admin panel)

is it possible tot set up admin restrictions?

8. Updates
I am not so much worried about updates from xenforo itself...as long as the software is performing the way it should and there are no security risk, i am okay....ipb has had 2 updates in the past tfew wweeks and i am constanly having to see what still works and what doesn't.

but i do want to know that there is at least 3rd party people still adding skins, mods, hooks etc to the xenforo store for download. 3rd party development is important to me and even though ipb has tons more mods, skins...most of them are not compatible with the current version of software or are no longer supported. Is xenforo's 3rd party development at least decent and growing?

As i said i am strongly considering xenforo and should i not be able to fix this MAJOR issue i am having with ips on my forum, i may be purchasing my license for xenforo as soon as tonight.

 

[Digital Doctor]

1. Bulk PM
Not mass email feature but a bulk pm feature. I love to be able to announce things via private messaging to my members in case they do not see the thread in the forum such as new features, downtime, etc etc.

Do you know Notices ?
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/notices.18390/

 

[Adam Howard]

Careful adam...you might tempt me to hit that buy button now lol

My general goal is not to "temp" people, but to be honest with my option and personal experience. The right forum / community software is only what you believe is the right one for you.

And from what you've shared with us, I personally as a matter of an opinion, believe XenForo would be a better alternative. I speak of course not only from your shared experience, but also from the written experience others here have posted in the past (now also including you).

XenForo in my opinion & experience is not only more resource friendly, faster, easier to learn, easier to customize, and more secure, but also offers better support. You need only read the support forums here to notice not only are people helpful, but they follow up.

And while you're reading those support forums, you'll notice that you can read them, because as a matter of my believed opinion... XenForo has nothing to hide or any shame in how people are treated & so there is no reason to hide support. I always found it interesting that IPB hides their support forums from general public view (or at least they did from my last visit from there. If that's changed, I'd be surprised.)

I think I recall being told that hey hid it for various reasons, but I always personally felt (from my opinion) after purchasing IPB that it was hidden so the lack of friendly & useful support would not drive away business. Of course that is only my personal opinion from my view-point, based upon my own experience... ie... Its how I interpreted the "vibe" there as being a customer. And if I am not mistaken, as I interpret your comments, you too also felt that "not so friendly, not so helpful feeling".

it seemed like they sort of wanted to rush the issue off and i had to keep sort of pressing(to the point i felt like i was being annoying) them to get answer.

From my personal experience and opinion, with the public forums here to give a demonstration of where & how I concluded to reach that opinion of XenForo support being better.... I have no doubt you'll notice a difference (even from a guest point of view).