Planning to convert mybb big board

[Bapun Raz]

Well as the title says i own a mybb big board, i like xenforo more now.. So want to convert mybb forum to xenforo.. I want to know is it worth.. Also will i loss traffic as all the thread links will be changed after it.. Also will all attachments, avatars, signatures and other things will be converted..


Thanks in advance

 

[Slavik]

As far as i'm aware there is no direct mybb > XenForo converter.

You would need to convert to vBulletin via impex first and then vBulletin > XenForo.

As long as the import to vbulletin goes fine your attachments, avatars and signatures etc should all remain entact.

However the redirection would be a tricky one, so I will leave someone who has done a double step import to answer that part.

 

[duderuud]

Or let someone write you a custom converter.

 

[Carlos]

Jake Bunce is our resident converter, ask him!

He can help you convert your big board to xenForo!

Also will i loss traffic as all the thread links will be changed after it.. Also will all attachments, avatars, signatures and other things will be converted..

As with any conversion, you will lose traffic, but with xenForo, you get back your traffic and then some more if you do everything right.

Most content can be transferred over.

 

[Jake Bunce]

I can do your import. I personally use vB as a go-between just because I am so familiar with that software. I did a MyBB import a couple months ago for some one else on this forum. I had to work out a few bugs in that ImpEx system. So everything is ready to go if you want me to do your import.

Also will i loss traffic as all the thread links will be changed after it

I can setup redirects. I usually only redirect threads. That is the most important thing. I can do other links too like forums and members, but threads are the most important thing, and with double imports these redirects are kind of a pain to setup.

attachments

Yes. I had to fix the MyBB attachment module in ImpEx during the last import, so that's ready to go now.

avatars

Yes. That's another change I made to the ImpEx system. There was no avatar importer before so I made one, so that's ready to go.

signatures

Yes.

 

[Bapun Raz]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I am currently using Google SEO Plugin of mybb so will the link redirector work after conversion?

 

[Jake Bunce]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I am currently using Google SEO Plugin of mybb so will the link redirector work after conversion?

I am not familiar with that addon. I assume it just changes the URLs to be more friendly? That's not a problem. I can still do the redirects.

 

[Bapun Raz]

Yes, it changes the URLs to more friendly one. So after Google SEO also we can redirect the URLs to more friendly one.. Can you tell me what will be the things which we are going to losse, also we have too many forums to make the scroll less we use forum tabs plugin in mybb, is there any such plugin available in xenforo also?

 

[craigiri]

Bapun, Jake did our import and worked out many problems.

My suggestion to you if to do a trial version a few months before so you can see exactly what is going to happen. That will give you some time to see the results and ask some of your forum members to look also. If the trial import works, then at a later date you can move the real forums.

We took over 2 months in-between just to make certain everything was right. This also allowed me to do some style changes, etc.

 

[Bapun Raz]

craigiri trial version means the demo one here: http://xenforo.com/demo/ ??

 

[craigiri]

No, a trial version - behind a password - of YOUR board. It might only include a subset of posts to make it quicker to do. This way you can leave it active for a few weeks and check out (and fix or style).

I did this and Jake and I first looked at it. Then I brought in my moderators to test it. After that, I brought in dozens of my users to test it.

When we were done, the final "live" move to XF was perfect - not a single problem.

 

[craigiri]

This, of course, means that you have to buy XF as well as perhaps spend some money for getting it set up. But if your board is important to you, it's the right way to do it.

 

[Carlos]

Yes, it changes the URLs to more friendly one. So after Google SEO also we can redirect the URLs to more friendly one.. Can you tell me what will be the things which we are going to losse, also we have too many forums to make the scroll less we use forum tabs plugin in mybb, is there any such plugin available in xenforo also?

If your board is on the root of the domain, I don't think you require a redirection. I did the same for CODForums and it skyrocketed on switchover from vB4 to xenForo. Now I'm doing twice that growth a year ago. It's hovering between 1000, to 400 visits per day. 1000 is max, and 400 is the new average.

The only times that a redirect is necessary on switches is because:

a) Your filefolder is not on root; example here: http://www.everythinghalo.com/forum (all threads are currently redirecting to root)
b) Your prior software required a plugin to have friendly URL's - in this instance, you're going to need to use htaccess, as xenForo does not have that plugin (the one you're using for MyBB) coded in or used as plugin. And even then, xenForo has SEO built into the whole software. "Broken pages" or URL's are handled by xenForo's embedded 404 pages, which is handled by xenforo natively - therefore, your broken pages will come back to your site. Nothing to worry about here.
c) You switched software - which results in URL structure changes, and indexing changes. This is a simple swap of filefolders, and redirection via htaccess. (from old threads to your new forum)

I honestly do not fear your site will regain traffic. In fact, it'll be indexed faster, and soon afterwards, you'll get more.