Considering Purchase of Xenforo

[L4SN]

Hello,

After researching different forum software for several weeks I have narrowed it down to two options, with XenForo being my preferred choice. I believe you have a quality product and that it may very well fit all of my needs.

I have some questions I would like to ask in order to make a final decision -

1. I'm currently running PunBB which is a very lightweight forum software. How much of a CPU difference will there be on a shared server when upgrading to XenForo?

2. Is there an option available to import a PunBB forum to XenForo? We have roughly 750 users and 450,000 posts. I would like to be able to move all of the posts, users, passwords and avatars over without having to go through a third party.

3. Does XenForo come with the ability to 'tag' a user in a post? By 'tag', I mean the ability to place a user's name in a post and tag it so that an email alert and onsite notification will appear for the tagged user, possibly with the addition of phone text.

4. Is there a multiple medal system where a user can be assigned more than one medal?

5. Does XenForo have the ability to assign users to multiple groups?

6. Is there an option to 'thank' users for posts?

7. When quoting multiple people in a single post, does XenForo have the ability to truncate or shorten the quotes so that it does not create huge posts?

8. Is there a private messaging system included in the base software?

9. Is the ability to 'ignore' users available in the base software?

10. Is the mobile version included in the base software and does it function cleanly across all devices?

11. Is there a simple way to add custom navigation links or a custom nav bar?


Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and answer my questions.

 

[Chris D]

I believe you have a quality product and that it may very well fit all of my needs.

Thank you

1. I'm currently running PunBB which is a very lightweight forum software. How much of a CPU difference will there be on a shared server when upgrading to XenForo?

We have no benchmarks compared to other software but a lot of our customers are using shared hosting and the minimum requirements for XenForo are fairly limited. Anecdotally, most people are happy with performance after moving to XenForo.

2. Is there an option available to import a PunBB forum to XenForo? We have roughly 750 users and 450,000 posts. I would like to be able to move all of the posts, users, passwords and avatars over without having to go through a third party.

There is an unofficial PunBB importer here: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/punbb-importer.27026/ You will be able to download it once you have bought your license. Of course you should fully test the import before going live with anything. There hasn't been any updates on that for a while but apparently it is compatible with PunBB 1.4.x (I believe the latest version of that was 1.4.4).

3. Does XenForo come with the ability to 'tag' a user in a post? By 'tag', I mean the ability to place a user's name in a post and tag it so that an email alert and onsite notification will appear for the tagged user, possibly with the addition of phone text.

@L4SN we do have the ability to "mention" users. This doesn't generate email notifications, though. Just an onsite notification (which I hope you will have seen now).

4. Is there a multiple medal system where a user can be assigned more than one medal?

No, but there is a fairly popular "Medals" add-on available (free, I believe).

5. Does XenForo have the ability to assign users to multiple groups?

Yes, generally you would keep all users in the default "Registered" groups then apply permissions through a combination of secondary user groups. A user can be assigned to as many user groups as you like and you can create as many user groups as you like.

6. Is there an option to 'thank' users for posts?

Our equivalent of that is the "Like" link below each post.

7. When quoting multiple people in a single post, does XenForo have the ability to truncate or shorten the quotes so that it does not create huge posts?

Yes, quotes have a maximum height and then you have to expand them to view the full content.

8. Is there a private messaging system included in the base software?

Yes.

9. Is the ability to 'ignore' users available in the base software?

Yes.

10. Is the mobile version included in the base software and does it function cleanly across all devices?

We employ responsive design principles so everyone gets served the same site, regardless of device, and that elegantly adjusts elements to ensure everything fits the screen.

 

[L4SN]

@Chris D

Thank you for the quick response.

One final question -

11. Is there a simple way to add custom navigation links or a custom nav bar?

 

[M@rc]

11. Is there a simple way to add custom navigation links or a custom nav bar?

Yup! And I believe there is a free add-on too to simplify the process.

 

[L4SN]

Yup! And I believe there is a free add-on too to simplify the process.

Thank you M@rc for that information.

This pretty much confirms the direction I will be taking my site in.

I'll be reviewing this later today and double checking a few things before confirming purchase.

If there is any advice that anyone has to offer in regards to making a smooth transition in forum software from PunBB to XenForo, I would very much appreciate the opportunity to read your thoughts.

And again, to both Chris D and M@rc, thank you very much for the quick response and detailed answers.

 

[Paul B]

If there is any advice that anyone has to offer in regards to making a smooth transition in forum software from PunBB to XenForo, I would very much appreciate the opportunity to read your thoughts.

There's a general guide here, which will help with the import process when it comes to doing test imports: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/importing-guidelines.25325/

 

[L4SN]

@Brogan, thank you for that link. It's greatly appreciated.