Low tech guy wants to move a big site from vB 4.2.2 to Xenforo but needs some basic help please

[TLBofBL]

Our situation:

Site engineer that has handled upgrades within vB has been unresponsive so I'm taking matters into my own hands. Only the engineer has had server connection and has been the one to set admin access within vB. I am one of several admin on our 4.2.2 (patch 1) site, and I have more ACP access than the other admin, but not everything. I know I cannot see the plug-ins, at best I have a dated list of what we 'think' is installed. I'm also limited in recognizing anything custom coded as opposed to standard install. So within vB I'm limited, but I don't know to what degree.

Host has given me an account to connect to server, and my rudimentary Unix skills are 25+ years behind me. I'm navigating via SSH right now, but am unsure of what to look for where.

I'm assuming I need to assess what our vB install has, and if we wish to carry those over to Xenforo or lose the associated data. I'm also assuming my connection to server will allow me to explore how big our db is and if we have space for a sandbox, and eventually the migration (searching internet for appropriate commands now), and at some point I can do the install. I've downloaded the test script to ensure the server can handle Xenforo, but I'm tentative to even ftp it over (to where?) and run it given my rusty *nix skills. Anyone willing to help out with some extremely basic direction? Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

[Kevin]

Have you considered hiring a server consultant to get you started? It sounds like you've got big challenge in front of you if you're not familiar with the server, not familiar with site configurations, not familiar with vB configurations, and not familiar with how to get around the server to find what you need. I'm not pointing this out as disrespect but rather to highlight what kind of uphill battle you're facing.

There are some guys, like @MattW, that could likely put in a few billable hours to work with you to taken an assessment of what exactly you're working with and what direction you'll need go in.

 

[TLBofBL]

Yes, actually. I intend to contract this out if at all possible. I've emailed @MattW, but gotten no response. I'm putting out some feelers to others as well to gauge expected cost, but I also expect they may need some basic info, which I'm not sure I can even provide at this point.

Edit: Ha...re-read the title. 'Big site' is somewhat subjective, is it not? For reference, we have about 7.7m posts / 516k threads / 333k accounts but only ~50k active today. I know we have and use Blogs. We tried Gallery for awhile, but it disappeared (broke?) in the last 6y while I was away - don't know why, or what broken bits are still cluttering the install. We tried a few other things, that aren't working now - but again, I've left the site in someone else's control for the last 6y and I don't have the reasons of why old stuff broke (was un-installed? or not?), and I have no idea what else may have been tried (and failed). I'm a bit frustrated atm.

 

[MattW]

Yes, actually. I intend to contract this out if at all possible. I've emailed @MattW, but gotten no response. I'm putting out some feelers to others as well to gauge expected cost, but I also expect they may need some basic info, which I'm not sure I can even provide at this point.

Apologies if I've missed the email. Was this via the contact form on my forum?

 

[TLBofBL]

One of our members recommended you highly. Suggested I email admin@mattwservices.co.uk. No worries on not responding, only been a few days and we're all busy.

 

[MattW]

Yeah, that's the correct address. If you PM me your email address on here, I'll search for it over the weekend and shoot a reply back.

 

[Ozzy47]

I would also recommend @MattW.

 

[Claudio]

One of our members recommended you highly. Suggested I email admin@mattwservices.co.uk. No worries on not responding, only been a few days and we're all busy.

That's because none of our customers have an account in your forum. If not, I am sure they would have recommended Todo10 too

 

[Tranced]

One of the other admin reporting in here. One concern I have regards blogs, as I recently struggled to find a replacement for our blogging app. Are there any decent blogging apps for the latest XenForo?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Slavik]

One of the other admin reporting in here. One concern I have regards blogs, as I recently struggled to find a replacement for our blogging app. Are there any decent blogging apps for the latest XenForo?

Thanks for any help.

How used are they, from experience of migrating boards maybe 1% of boards had an active blog section, and even less missed them when they decided to drop them all together following the move to XenForo.

 

[TLBofBL]

For BLOGS, we have about 3750 entries, with 6k comments. This year, averaging about 20 entries and 25 comments per month.

I think I read where they convert to Xenforo threads by default, but we haven't checked out what that means for us. Might be simpler to go to threads we can manage normally, as opposed to an add-on just for BLOGS, but we're new to this aspect.