If You are Thinking Of Buying/Switching to XenForo, Don't...

Business Coach

Active member
Hi,

I own a few Vbulletin Licenses. I have one in particular with lots of members, posts etc. I am doing a total revamp. I need to build a modern community. One that fits with todays socialized network. These were things we were doing to it 3 years ago, with twitter and facebook integration, and back then it was spotty at best.

Vb 3.8 is where we left it, due to heavy modification and styling. Vb 4.anything is totally horrible, not to mention the things they are doing and treating their customers, they pretty much have lost me for life.

So I heard about this xenforo thing from vbulletin of all places. On a thread where Vbulletin was asking about what customers think about their latest release, 90% complained and hate it for one reason or another. Not aesthetics mind you, but FUNCTIONALITY and RELIABILITY.

This is important. I have to ask myself:

How well can the community engage each other?
Will they get frustrated because it is slow or buggy?
How does this fit into modern convergence of web 4.0 (TV/ Video/Internet/Mobile)?
How stable is the base?
How extensible is the base?

So far I will say there seems to be a PORTION of the xen community that is kinda cultish.

It scares me. The founders have become "celebrities" and people are clearly star struck and have drunk the kool aid.

Also, I believe there is a VERY good chance that the stress and difficulty of owning a business, added to the additional stress of legal defense, may end up being too much. Passion only takes you so far. Xen my NOT be around in 2 years.

However they have done some groundbreaking code, which surely some in the future will use as an example to duplicate.

I had to make a choice between IPB and Xenforum. These are the only two real options today. Free boards are NOT a question. They suck. Period. From development, support etc. "Free" has a very high cost. Free is definitely for people who do not value their time and resources.

IPB has a history, and most likely is not going anywhere anytime soon. And it has an almost out of the box, all you need for $500 to own the full license.

Since I heard about this on friday i have poked around, made some posts etc. Can't say I am exactly happy with what is here.

The development community has not really embraced this outside thier own testing. TO be fair, stable release 1.0 has not been released yet, so that is probably wise on their part. Especially from an upgrade/support perspective.

In the end, after much research I finally made a decision, this morning. And I purchased a license for what I feel is going to be best FOR THE FUTURE.

In a competitive marketplace, you must be competitive. And so, there was only one thing that TRULY fit that bill.

So, If you are like I was, just an hour ago; thinking of buying or switching to xenforo, then don't bother wasting another minute of your time on this post.

Just go ahead and do it. I did. Click that shopping cart button and get it. No it does not have every feature you need, but I have seen even in a scaled down version, rocks.

Take a risk if you feel that is what it is. It is what we business people and hobbyist do.

Think about it, if you have the option of a touch screen smart phone, why settle for a flip phone?

I have the privilege of being trained by and affilaited with the #1 marketer in history. If someone were to get coaching from me (at $300 per hour) then I would RECOMMEND they switch and get xenforum as their framework.

For what it is worth, xen will give you a competitive edge in your niche, and that is PRICELESS.

Best to you in all your endeavors.

Remember to Picture Your Success!

Maurice Evans, Business Coach
Certified Guerrilla Marketing Trainer
 
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:::sip sip:::
Seek and ye shall find......
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I agree, was with vbulletin, been loyal, fed up of the slow development, ummed and arred for ages, finally decided to buy a licence on saturday with the intention of just playing about with it for my own test purposes, but by sunday night my site was switched over.
Welcome to XenForo, to you too!
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I agree, was with vbulletin, been loyal, fed up of the slow development, ummed and arred for ages, finally decided to buy a licence on saturday with the intention of just playing about with it for my own test purposes, but by sunday night my site was switched over.

Oh and the best thing of all it only took me about 2 hours to do it, where as with vbulletin I'd have been planning for months.
 
if you don't mind me asking, why did it anger you a bit ?
I thought that he was saying - in a roundabout way - that we were cultish-ly following two developers who have a god-complex.
OR that we blindly follow them like they are gods.

Once I had my second cup of coffee, and read it for the third time, I got what he was saying. See? Coffee makes all the difference......
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BC, I was basically where you were at but I had another issue - my Tech Admin was leaving.

I know others here have heard this but I'm telling it again. I was a vBulletin user and the lady basically rewrote my CMS from scratch announced that for personal reasons she was having to resign. This left me with a quandary. I could keep vBulletin which had become relatively stable due to her doing a truckload of coding behind the scenes - and not be able to update the software - or move to a new platform & start from scratch.

I learned of XenForo and came over to check it out. I was pretty impressed and got a license on the first day it was available. I loaded it to my test bed and played around with it...There's no comparison. While there are some things I still can't do (my front page is WP and looks pretty bad), the forum itself is amazing thanks to XF. And it's not killing me to Admin.

When my Tech Admin left I seriously didn't know what I was going to do or if I was even going to be able to continue. I say this with mo irony whatsoever - XF saved my main board.
 
I thought that he was saying - in a roundabout way - that we were cultish-ly following two developers who have a god-complex.
OR that we blindly follow them like they are gods.
and doesn't this reaction make it a little bit true :) because if you weren't it wouldn't make you angry
anyway lets close this off-topic (and excuse me for opening it in the first place) and stick to the main post.
 
and doesn't this reaction make it a little bit true :) because if you weren't it wouldn't make you angry
anyway lets close this off-topic (and excuse me for opening it in the first place) and stick to the main post.
I don't agree, at all. But I do agree we should stay with the topic. :)
 
We are all beta testers. LIFE is a beta test.
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Yeah but my life didn't cost almost $300.00 and i certainly didn't come with a pre sale and promises of the best thing since sliced bread.. although i am pretty close. ;)

My mother told me i cost as much as a bottle of cheep whiskey and she definitely didn't make me any promises. :p
 
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