Initial feedback + performance question

[AntonyF]

Hi all,

I've only had a brief look around xenForo, and an immediately impressed.

I have been a loyal vBulletin user, but their business plan seems to be to charge you more and give you nothing for it now. So on the four boards I run, I'm not upgrading any to v4.

Let's face it, the internet has moved on since forum software first came out. I was hoping to see vBulletin adapt to the changing demands of users, but they haven't.

Then I browsed xenForo and within minutes saw so many of the things I felt were needed. Activity streams, like system, trophies... things that things forward a bit! Plus I love the visual effects, it feels slick (like the hovers etc.).

So initial impressions .

One issue I'm having with the big forum is searches are getting longer 30 - 45 seconds. And there are slow downs. I've run through many optimisation options but it's not solved everything... and I really don't want to get involved in modifying code to install different searches etc.

So the question: how does xenForo stack up in terms of performance compared to vBulletin?

 

[Paul B]

I can't comment on the comparison issue as I don't use vBulletin.

To get real improvements with search on huge boards though, you need to use Sphinx.

I believe someone has already coded an add-on and Kier/Mike have stated that ultimately Sphinx is something they would like to include as standard.

 

[Jeffin]

Mine's not a big forum AntonyF so I can't say much. On my board I've not had slow searches so far.

 

[Paul B]

Regarding search speeds and comparison with vB, see this post from Walter: http://xenforo.com/community/thread...-vbulletin-forum-with-2-8-million-posts.7003/

It seems that XenForo is at least as good as vB.

 

[Floris]

I've been running it on my server 'out of the box' without optimization and the server load compared to 3.8 has been less. Turned on APC and it got cut in half. And we resulted getting more online users who posted more. The social interaction really provokes people to be positive and come back and post more.

More reasons for the load to go up, but it went down. So I'd say it's ben doing fine.
This is on a 700k posts forum.

 

[AntonyF]

The forum in question that I have in mind is sitting at 3.8m posts, and growing all the time.

 

[Blandt]

The forum in question that I have in mind is sitting at 3.8m posts, and growing all the time.

You need to tweak your SQL server then. Sphinx is highly recommended.
Xenforo just like vB is only limited by the server : Bad server configuration = Bad load and search times

 

[AntonyF]

You need to tweak your SQL server then. Sphinx is highly recommended.
Xenforo just like vB is only limited by the server : Bad server configuration = Bad load and search times

I know what you mean, but I'm still keen for a solution that makes it as easy as possible. For example with Sphinx, it involves editing vBulletin source files. I'm very wary of that, as it means you can't just upgrade easily. I had a heavily modded forum (edited on a source file level) once and it was a nightmare to update.

Now I don't mind installing stuff... but would prefer a sort of "check here to turn on Sphinx search" kind of option - not sure if xenForo does that?

But either way, it sounds like it's going to be at least on a par with vBulletin in terms of performance.

 

[AntonyF]

Also I've been reading more into vBulletin and Sphinx, and it sounds like lots of things won't work after the move, in addition to all the hacking. So am definitley going to avoid that.

So how is xenForo and Sphinx, any easier?

 

[Blandt]

I'm not sure if it's easier .. certainly 3.8 million posts aren't easy to manage

 

[Blandt]

However the MVC architecture makes things a lot less messy