FromZBwithLove
Member
Greetings. I'm fromZBwithLove. I run a small zetaboards forum with roughly 3000 members of a very niche genre. We're a small but tight community and while activity is low lately I love it. But this post isn't about that forum. I have made the decision to finally make my second community, from scratch, and want to invest in a much better software than zetaboards. I'm not going to move my old community, I'd rather let it live out its days in its current state, with minor changes along the way. I make no profit off of my zetaboards forum and yet spend hours and hours running it every day. It's come to the point where activity is so low (less than 100 posts a day with 3000-3100 members) that it's low risk high reward. I've had my forum for 6 years since invisionfree days, and I will mostly terminate it by the end of 2015. That is okay though, because I'm very proud of what my team there accomplished.
I've read all of the IPB vs Xenforo discussions and have decided I want Xenforo for my new community, which is of a different genre. My fear is that my potential members may not want Xenforo, which is why I have not made my purchase. I've fooled around with the test demo of IPB and a paid version of IPB quite alot, and just made my demo for Xenforo moments ago. My fears mostly relate to the fact that almost all of the 10,000+ member forums (what I consider to be VERY successful, while marginally profitable) seem to be running on IPB. Could somebody point me to some successful Xenforo forums? It's not that I want to copy those forums, which I will not - it's actually the contrare, I want to see a genuine userbase that is pleased with the Xenforo system. I hope that doesn't come off as condescending, but as someone who has done everything for free and out of love I feel that I deserve to make a small profit off of my next forum, and I want to use the right software to attract members. It's much different when you do something with a creative, childlike mind (I made my 6 year old forum as a very young teenager, mind you) than when you have bills and rent and a job and have limited time and resources to dedicate to what you like.
That said, I want to simply know how much MORE am I getting out of my administrative experience from Xenforo compared to Zetaboards, and how much MORE am I getting out of my user experience from Xenforo to zetaboards.
Most if not all of the administrative things are taken care of with a free host so I will have to teach myself about that sort of stuff. I'm excited to make this leap, I just made this post to overcome some last minute nervousness.
And no, I will not discuss my current small forum or my new forum idea - this is because I don't want A) any bias or B) my members to know that I will mostly be terminating my forum. I want them to find out when that decision is actually made.
Edit: I have one more question. It's about the skinning/design options for xenforo. It seems very formulaic and bland. Is this just coincidence? I found the "top xenforo forums" and they all look identical as far as formatting and design goes, with only mild aesthetic changes. Am I able to pay for something truly unique?
Hope you understand!
FZBWL
I've read all of the IPB vs Xenforo discussions and have decided I want Xenforo for my new community, which is of a different genre. My fear is that my potential members may not want Xenforo, which is why I have not made my purchase. I've fooled around with the test demo of IPB and a paid version of IPB quite alot, and just made my demo for Xenforo moments ago. My fears mostly relate to the fact that almost all of the 10,000+ member forums (what I consider to be VERY successful, while marginally profitable) seem to be running on IPB. Could somebody point me to some successful Xenforo forums? It's not that I want to copy those forums, which I will not - it's actually the contrare, I want to see a genuine userbase that is pleased with the Xenforo system. I hope that doesn't come off as condescending, but as someone who has done everything for free and out of love I feel that I deserve to make a small profit off of my next forum, and I want to use the right software to attract members. It's much different when you do something with a creative, childlike mind (I made my 6 year old forum as a very young teenager, mind you) than when you have bills and rent and a job and have limited time and resources to dedicate to what you like.
That said, I want to simply know how much MORE am I getting out of my administrative experience from Xenforo compared to Zetaboards, and how much MORE am I getting out of my user experience from Xenforo to zetaboards.
Most if not all of the administrative things are taken care of with a free host so I will have to teach myself about that sort of stuff. I'm excited to make this leap, I just made this post to overcome some last minute nervousness.
And no, I will not discuss my current small forum or my new forum idea - this is because I don't want A) any bias or B) my members to know that I will mostly be terminating my forum. I want them to find out when that decision is actually made.
Edit: I have one more question. It's about the skinning/design options for xenforo. It seems very formulaic and bland. Is this just coincidence? I found the "top xenforo forums" and they all look identical as far as formatting and design goes, with only mild aesthetic changes. Am I able to pay for something truly unique?
Hope you understand!
FZBWL
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