I'm trying your demo, but I have questions

[PaulyWalnuts]

I'm running a site on phpbb 3 and hate it! I kinda like what I see from the demo, but I have several questions. But, since I'm not a licensed member I can't ask questions.

I don't like the idea of buying something only to discover it doesn't do what I want. Or how easy it is to do what I want.

I can't test styles which are very important to us. We have a header/banner which we are very fond of. Check The Vape Workshop to see what I mean.

As for sales themselves we are retirees and would desperately love a senior citizens discount. We want to be an educational institute and want to revamp the site, but there is no sense when phpBB sucks so bad. We are non profit. Our only goal is to help people quit smoking cigarettes. That's a cause worthy of a discount!

Our site has issues when searching members or team members, and if someone clicks the "Home" link they get a 404 page not found error.

How am I supposed to learn if your site does what I need if I can't ask questions?

 

[FTL]

Wow, he sounds like a boy genius!

I asked the wife if I could spend $800 and she said she'd think about it. That's not usually a good sign.

Good luck...

I'll probably go with MyBB.

Ah shame, I'd hoped you'd become one of us on the XF Koolaid forever! Don't forget that migrating the forum over could be a big issue between MyBB and phpBB as you're on your own, but do have community support, however good that is. However, with XF it's likely to be fairly painless as professionals will do it for a fee.

Don't get me started on Invision. Always been very expensive and I don't like how they invalidated my license through lack of use.

I'd bought it about 13 years ago from someone who shut down his forum (and before I knew about XF I should add) when I was an admin there. Didn't use it for over a decade, but some time after I'd gone with XF, I reactivated it to see what it was like. It was ok, but the lack of post numbers was a dealbreaker for me and the core forum functionality is noticeably better in XF.

A couple of years later, they changed their rules so that if you don't renew it within two years, you must pay full price again. They must be joking! I wonder if this is even legal as I can't even sell that license now like I could before. Now, as I'll never use the software anyway, I'm not going to try and fight them over it as I'm unlikely to get anywhere. What obnoxious business practices, eh? They've put loads of customers' noses out of joint with that one. They're also pushing everyone to their very expensive cloud versions, too. I mean, you need serious money to run that product, not the modest outlay you have with XF.

Sorry, your model ships link is broken.

Finally, the add-on ecosystem with XF is second to none. Personally, I subscribe to @AndyB's add-ons which are superb value as you get over 500 for just $35 a year and they work very well.

XF2 Addons

XenForo 2.x add-ons

xf2addons.com

 

[jeb35]

Sorry, your model ships link is broken.

I think he was manually typing it and missed the D.

https://modelshipworld.com/

 

[FTL]

Yeah, I noticed the missing d, but simply inserted it before the s, which is also a bad link. I wasn't gonna guess any further than that.

 

[PaulyWalnuts]

could be a big issue between MyBB and phpBB as you're on your own

Yeah, already ran into that. They have a "Merge" package and it says it's successful butt when I try to open a forums it says something about not having any child forums. Waiting on an answer to that one.

 

[FTL]

Hmmm...doesn't sound good. Something like that is a dealbreaker if it can't be fixed.

 

[PaulyWalnuts]

Something like that is a dealbreaker

I emailed the dude that wrote the script. As for purchasing this site she said we can't afford it.

 

[ŽivaAkcija]

still baldrick vs blackadder talk?

 

[PaulyWalnuts]

still baldrick vs blackadder talk?

I have NO idea what you're talking about!

 

[FTL]

I emailed the dude that wrote the script. As for purchasing this site she said we can't afford it.

Sorry, which site? Maybe I missed something.

 

[PaulyWalnuts]

Sorry, which site? Maybe I missed something.

Welcome to my world I was talking to the guy that wrote the app to migrate phpbb to mybb. Haven't heard back yet.

I asked the wife if I could buy XF and she said no. BUT, if, from their home page, you click pricing, it says $60/month billed yearly. @fords8 sent me a link that said it's $165/year. Or something like that. Then $60/year from then on. What I didn't notice is that the big $$$ is for a cloud system.

And what exactly IS cloud hosting? I don't use a cloud at Bluehost... They have a data center near me, they have a dozens across the US, Canada, South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa... They all replicate real time. I haven't been a network engineer since '08, but that sounds like a cloud to me.

 

[fords8]

@fords8 sent me a link that said it's $165/year.

195.00 the 1st year. 60.00 for renewal after that. Cloud hosting is done by Xenforo. Cloud hosting may include importing. You would have to ask about it. You also need to make sure that your forum subject isn't against the TOS.

 

[FTL]

Welcome to my world

I see ford8's replied, but here's my take on it.

It's all cloud hosting, because you're always using someone else's internet connected servers. In the case of Bluehost, you just get a server that you can install stuff on and generally play about with, to various levels of incompetence. Something like this can have XenForo installed on it and it's called a self-hosted solution. You pay the fee and get the software, which is open source, to install, configure and secure on the server. It all gets rather technical and isn't for novices, especially as security is a critical factor. There are some really bad people out there who would love nothing better than to hack into your forum and ruin it.

You can also hire the services of an expert for them to provide the hosting and ongoing support. Some of these experts are members on this forum. I don't think this is going to be a cheap option though. tbh, there's no cheap options with XF, it's just not exorbitantly priced like some other forum software.

The other option is to get XenForo the company to handle all that complicated server stuff for you, including that critical security. They call this XenForo Cloud. It works right out of the box and there's no server access for the customer, ever. It's quite a complete package and I've been on it for about three years now. It's not cheap, but it does offer peace of mind that your forum will just work. Yes, you can still break it with dodgy themes or whatever, but that's another matter. The infrastructure remains solid. You've already gotten a feel for it with the demo.

Rather than me repeating the various prices and options, I'll just link to them here. Any further questions, just ask.

This first one is XenForo Cloud:

Solutions

Tools and services to help you serve your community.

xenforo.com

Self-hosted XenForo licenses

Purchase XenForo software licenses and add-on products for installation on your own infrastructure

xenforo.com

 

[fords8]

His wife won't let him spend 60.00 a month. And it may not matter to her how you explain it about the cost. A free solution maybe the only way he moves from PHPBB.

 

[FTL]

Sure, I was just explaining the different products to him as he wasn't clear on them in his last paragraph.

@PaulyWalnuts I should also clarify that you can pay monthly and that $60 is a monthly charge. You may have taxes added on top depending on where you live. Shame the wife won't let you buy it.

 

[Jja]

I asked the wife if I could buy XF and she said no.

This hurts.

 

[ŽivaAkcija]