Have a Real Names Forum on Anonymous Site

[chipgallo]

We have vBulletin 4.x with a number of add ons. How to find consultants who can help with the migration to Xenforo? A key issue is retaining functionality such as Shout Box, Classifieds, Calendar, etc. There is some desire to have basic CMS features related to historical information that runs over 10,000 characters and which is presently hosted in vBulletin's CMS.

The current forums generally have anonymous users (except for some who use their real names as IDs). Is there a way to keep this but support real name users in one forum area? This would be so people running for local office would feel comfortable and might keep the discussions less combative.

Thanks -- the site we want to migrate is at:
http://www.shannondale.org/forum

 

[borbole]

We have vBulletin 4.x with a number of add ons. How to find consultants who can help with the migration to Xenforo? A key issue is retaining functionality such as Shout Box, Classifieds, Calendar, etc. There is some desire to have basic CMS features related to historical information that runs over 10,000 characters and which is presently hosted in vBulletin's CMS.

The current forums generally have anonymous users (except for some who use their real names as IDs). Is there a way to keep this but support real name users in one forum area? This would be so people running for local office would feel comfortable and might keep the discussions less combative.

Thanks -- the site we want to migrate is at:
http://www.shannondale.org/forum

XenForo has a built in conversion, however it does not support third party mods. But there is a shoutbox mod for xenforo. I think there are a Classified and a Calendar ones as well.

Regarding the Anonymous users, their usernames will be carried over the same as they have them at your vb forum. (That is if you meant users who haven't registered with their real names but a nickname).

 

[chipgallo]

I think the intent with the "named user" forum would be to only expose their real names in that area and NOT link it to their regular, probably anonymous nick. The previous system admin, who died a few months ago, was enthusiastic about privacy. It doesn't always lend itself to serious discussions on community issues so I am hoping to continue the anonymous IDs everywhere but in specific areas. This is not part of the migration but rather a new feature.

 

[Paul B]

There is no option in the core software to display different user names based on the node (forum).

There may be a third party add-on available which does, but I'm not aware of one.