Moving from phpBB

SgtSpike

Member
I have a smallish video game community (around 2500 page views/day) that I would like to move to XenForo, as I really like the modernized style of the forums compared to vB. Currently, we are running on phpBB, and being overrun with 20 or so new spammers per day regardless of the captcha method used. Very frustrating. The other reason I would like to move away from phpBB is the lack of SEO optimizations.

That said, here are a few questions:

- I have programmed in the ShoutBox chat box into the top of the page of our current phpBB forums, as well as a custom box to show current game server information. Would this be possible to do with XenForo in a smooth manner? Is it easy to create top or side boxes with additional information? What about inclusion of PHP so that the data can be "live"?

- What sort of anti-spam protection does XenForo have? Does it work better than phpBB? Why?

- I've noticed that some buttons on the forums are slow to respond, such as the "Insert/edit image" button. It only displays a simple dialog box, so I am wondering why it takes almost a full second to respond. Is this just the nature of the forums, since it has fancier visuals than other sites?

- And of course, the infamous question... when is a phpBB converter going to be coming? I can't afford to purchase vB AND XenForo, so it is definitely the major reason I am holding off on purchasing.
 
I converted from phpBB via vBulletin.

I have a chat add-on from Darkimmortal: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/taigachat-ajax-shoutbox.7339/
You can see it in action here: http://www.cliptheapex.com/community/chat/

Spam protection is as good as phpBB, if not better: http://xenforo.com/help/spam/

For more information, check the Pre-Sales FAQ: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/pre-sales-faq.4951/
The general FAQ: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/frequently-asked-questions.5183/
And the manual: http://xenforo.com/help/manual/
 
- And of course, the infamous question... when is a phpBB converter going to be coming? I can't afford to purchase vB AND XenForo, so it is definitely the major reason I am holding off on purchasing.

You don't have to do that, get these guys to do the export/import for you. XenFans.com

I did, they quickly and professionally moved my forum from MyBB to XenForo
 
Thanks for the reply Brogan.

I'm looking for something a bit different for the chat. I currently have a chat box at the top of every (EVERY) forum page. It is code I loaded into the header html file for the forum, so no matter what page you go to in my current forum, you'll see the chat box at the top of the page. I am hoping I can still implement this with an XenForo-based forum. In my experience, chat boxes that are on an entirely separate page go rather unused. I would also like to create boxes either on the top or side with custom information in them. I don't care if I have to delve into code to do so, I just want to know if it is possible.

Spam protection looks good. I like the use of reCaptcha - it seems to work well for other websites.

I'll read through those documents you posted.
 
You can do that easily enough with a 5 second template edit.

Adding boxes/templates to the existing templates is also very simple.
Whatever you can do with phpBB, you can do with XenForo, just quicker and easier.
 
Cool, thanks. Guess that answers all my questions but this one - Is responsiveness generally this slow for XenForo forums? It takes about a second after clicking on anthing that brings up a popup before it responds.
 
There is an overlay animation multiplier which can be set per style.
With regards to the editor, that's an external library (TinyMCE) and not part of the XenForo code, in the sense that it wasn't written by the developers, just adapted for use.

There's an online admin demo if you weren't already aware: http://xenforo.com/demo/
 
I've purchased a license, so maybe I'm asking in the wrong place now, but... what is the easiest way to clear out all of the forum contents? I did a test import this morning to see what sort of issues we might come up against, and plan to do the "real" import tonight. In the meantime, I'd like to clear out the tables so it will be "fresh" for the new import. I don't want to screw up the install by just deleting all of the tables without knowing what that might do.

Thoughts?
 
I've purchased a license, so maybe I'm asking in the wrong place now, but... what is the easiest way to clear out all of the forum contents? I did a test import this morning to see what sort of issues we might come up against, and plan to do the "real" import tonight. In the meantime, I'd like to clear out the tables so it will be "fresh" for the new import. I don't want to screw up the install by just deleting all of the tables without knowing what that might do.

Thoughts?

If you want a fresh import, reinstall xenforo and redo the conversion.
 
NOTE: I cannot answer every question you have. Mind you, being on phpBB, have you considered a solution like http://www.phpbb-seo.com?

- I have programmed in the ShoutBox chat box into the top of the page of our current phpBB forums, as well as a custom box to show current game server information. Would this be possible to do with XenForo in a smooth manner? Is it easy to create top or side boxes with additional information? What about inclusion of PHP so that the data can be "live"?

The shoutbox is not a phpBB MOD, is it? If it isn't, then it should be a bit easier to integrate something through any template system, let alone XenForo's.

- What sort of anti-spam protection does XenForo have? Does it work better than phpBB? Why?

XenForo does have a feature which allows someone to label a user as a "bad spammer," which would at least prevent the guy to spam and such. That said, you may also wish to consider the XenUtilities add-on, which also integrates StopForumSpam and other anti-spam databases.

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/8wayrun-com-xenutiles-tools.9754

It also includes a sitemap, which is also good for SEO (one of the few things XenForo doesn't include by default).

- I've noticed that some buttons on the forums are slow to respond, such as the "Insert/edit image" button. It only displays a simple dialog box, so I am wondering why it takes almost a full second to respond. Is this just the nature of the forums, since it has fancier visuals than other sites?

This could just be your connection as well.

- And of course, the infamous question... when is a phpBB converter going to be coming? I can't afford to purchase vB AND XenForo, so it is definitely the major reason I am holding off on purchasing.

vBulletin 3 importer is out, vBulletin 4 importer (by Paul M.) is also out due to the fact that he just had to edit the vBulletin 3 importer. Kier's finishing up IPB as well, so phpBB could very well be next, don't worry.

There's also that "other" way to acquire a vBulletin to do a gateway import, and I'm sure you'd know what I'm talking about, but I don't think it's legal for me to talk about it in here.
 
el canadiano, thanks for the response. I've already purchased a license and managed to find a way to get phpBB properly imported. :) So far, everyone LOVES the new forums. A vast improvement on the administrative side as well. We're excited for the future with xenForo as the foundation!
 
el canadiano, thanks for the response. I've already purchased a license and managed to find a way to get phpBB properly imported. :) So far, everyone LOVES the new forums. A vast improvement on the administrative side as well. We're excited for the future with xenForo as the foundation!
Thats good news, bud, My site moved just over 2 weeks ago from phpbb, best thing we ever did.
 
el canadiano, thanks for the response. I've already purchased a license and managed to find a way to get phpBB properly imported. :) So far, everyone LOVES the new forums. A vast improvement on the administrative side as well. We're excited for the future with xenForo as the foundation!

Good to hear. It's nice to see a strong community response here, in regards to the SMF 2 and the vBulletin 4 importers.
 
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