The forum is too highly modified to be able to import "everything", so my expectations are relatively low. in fact, part of my expectation is some serious simplification. That said, part of what I will need would be advice on what "equivalent" mods are available. I'll do some research over the next couple of days for existing mods here, too. I have thought about this for a while and I honestly have to say I have been very back and forth on whether to carry on or not. My expectation is to come up with a relatively basic forum as opposed to the very cluttered forum that I have now. This would be part of a total site renovation which is why I am "on the fence" about whether to carry on or not. I have just started a discussion with my forum moderators and members about this. If I do go through with it, it will be a significant effort over all. Other than the forum its self, I can handle the other stuff, but it's sort of an all or nothing thing. The whole site is very outdated.
That said, one "mod" which I have is the old "Blog" thing vB add-on. A few people did some excellent blogs which I would hate to lose such as the one highlighted on the forum home page (Miner's Blog). The attachments are the other "biggie". I haven't looked at the add-ons here yet but I even had a special file written which allows users to search file attachments. That was one thing the old vB lacked which I still think is a serious deficiency.
The price issue isn't a significant issue. The issue is someone who *really* knows vB 3.8.7 and XF. There are so many template edits and such that the person *really* has to know the old vB and XF. At one time I kept a list of changes but after over 13 years, somewhere along the way, I lost it other than one which has a few php file changes I made for reasons I can't remember - Probably a long ago installed mod. I do remember they were just adding a couple "includes" in the php files. I think they were for the sidebar I currently have.
Technically it's probably something I could do myself, but I am so far behind on things, and as I said I'm getting older and just don't want to deal with the learning curve and the nuances (BBCode stuff and all that, for example). I say this because since I imported my old forum from UltimateBB in 2001 I have done all mods and such myself. I'm definitely not an expert and this all started out as a hobby, so I'm not ignorant either. That said I think it would overwhelm me to try this on my own. My field of expertise is business standards - Not IT. I know just enough to be dangerous...
I didn't put in a URL as I don't know the protocol here for putting in URLs and didn't want to break any rules here. It is the Elsmar.com forum. I do expect some to cringe a bit if you look at it, as it definitely isn't what I think many people would recommend. It's something that evolved over the years, a lot of it in response to user requests many of which I did which I shouldn't have. But - That's another story.
I have a dedicated box with what is now IBM in Data Center 5 in Dallas. I went from the old Verio years ago to "The Planet" to Softlayer and now IBM. I run 3 domains on the box, only 1 of which is actually "in use". It is a simple box - No control panel - and I have managed the server myself other than a few migrations from older servers over the years. Actually I did migrations myself but around 2007 I started having professionals do them. It was last migrated to the current box in early 2012, if I remember correctly. There are no other users on the box.
The key here is I am considering the aspect of the different domain and keep the old forum open (Read Only) for a year or so.
