Moving to Xenforo from thread view forum

[SCTechMan]

In the next 72 hours we'll be moving from a board format that has a high number of old school thread format users. Many of my users have been with me for the better part of two decades and they are very upset about losing the ability to view the forums in thread view. Has anyone else been through that transition and if so could you give me your thoughts on how you sold your users on the new format and how the transition went for you? Thanks!

 

[SCTechMan]

I appreciate the attention but what exactly is happening with this posts getting over 1000 views within two hours? Lol

 

[Amaury]

losing the ability to view the forums in thread view

Can you elaborate a bit on what you mean by this?

But, anyway, yes, we have. It was fairly easy and the transition went pretty smoothly when we moved from vBulletin 4 to XenForo 1.2.

 

[SCTechMan]

Can you elaborate a bit on what you mean by this?

But, anyway, yes, we have. It was fairly easy and the transition went pretty smoothly when we moved from vBulletin 4 to XenForo 1.2.

I should have explained that better. I was curious if anyone could comment on how their users reacted when they went from a forum that offered a threaded view and topic view to only topic view. My users know it's coming and they're not happy.

My question was more about how users adjusted rather than how the forum migration went. Hope that makes a little more sense. Thank you for your response.

 

[melbo]

Maru's too young to know what thread view is... Post a screenshot to help the young ones understand.

I don't have a solution as XF doesn't have any threaded view capabilities and we never used it on vB although my forum goes back 10 years now.

 

[TickTackk]

Something like this?

Look at the name mentioned in the thread...

 

[melbo]

Yep, in all its flat, boring glory.

The first forums were extensions of mail lists and they followed the same format as those mailing lists. vB (at least up to 3.X) had this as an option and it could be user activated. We didn't use it and there is no XF option for it that I know of.

 

[SCTechMan]

Something like this?
View attachment 96786
Look at the name mentioned in the thread...

Lol. I knew everyone would think I was crazy when I asked that question but it really is an issue for me because I've been online so long. I'm not aware of an older forum on the internet today and I helped to work on the very first forum software that was used. Additionally I run a subscription site so unhappy users can be a real issue.

We've (only the staff) been beta testing Xenforo since October and I'm really excited to make the move but very worried about the transition for the users.

 

[melbo]

The pop-out / slide-aspects of XF might make them fall out of their chairs

 

[SCTechMan]

The pop-out / slide-aspects of XF might make them fall out of their chairs

Exactly. Xenforo is amazing in so many ways but for older folks it's like night and day. A young computer engineer told me that everyone knows that the three lines is for a menu and is known by everyone. I just laughed, my people will have no clue what that means. Should be an interesting week for me.

 

[melbo]

Start getting some of your best and most vocal member ready by giving them access to your test site. They'll appreciate the VIP status in testing and provide feedback (which will not be good in the beginning). You need a cadre of senior members to help the others get used to the change. Your change is much more drastic than most

 

[rainmotorsports]

I have the strong urge to stab myself in the throat anytime I have to read something off a site that is threaded. Especially when the thread is filled with pointless questions and responses until I finally find the reply that was what I needed information from. I suppose the world is too quick for some people now lol.

 

[SCTechMan]

I have the strong urge to stab myself in the throat anytime I have to read something off a site that is threaded. Especially when the thread is filled with pointless questions and responses until I finally find the reply that was what I needed information from. I suppose the world is too quick for some people now lol.

What's so crazy about this move for me is my thread view users look at this completely different from you and I and they believe it's topic view that is slower and causes them to "work" more for the info. It's a difficult logic to follow.

There are many reasons we did thread view with the Internet's first message boards and perhaps the biggest was the fact that we thought it would get us more page views, which it did. However the load on the server was so bad I had to move to different host companies every other month or so. Two days from now the world will lose one of the last thread view forums. Lol

 

[Paul B]

Good luck with the change.
I've never been a fan of threaded layout - it's all too chaotic for me.

BTW, you may want to associate your forum user name with your license, so you can access the customer forums and resources.

 

[SCTechMan]

Good luck with the change.
I've never been a fan of threaded layout - it's all too chaotic for me.

BTW, you may want to associate your forum user name with your license, so you can access the customer forums and resources.

My sites are part of a large network that is moving to Xenforo and the network would have all of the licensing info. I'm hoping I can get access to that so I can keep up on the latest with Xen. I would imagine our move to Xenforo will be good for all of us as we bring nearly 200 sites with multiple forums on each and many are 'very' big and active.