Questions about xenForo before buying

[Bandalar]

Hello,

I will be creating a forum over the next few days and I'm very interested in xenForo. I was gonna go with VB 4, but having read good things about XF I'm now unsure. I need some more info on XF before I take the plunge:

1. How resistant to spam is xenforo? I know this is something VB is well known for.
2. How good is XF for SEO? This is the most important consideration for me.
3. Is the XF team still active and updating the software?
4. I plan on creating a system where members gain points for various tasks (posting, creating a thread, getting their thread voted up/getting reputation points, etc). They will then be able to redeem points for a gift certificate or something like (doesnt need to be completely automated, can be more like a contact form). Does software like this already exist? And if not, how easy would it be to create?
5. Are there any other advantages/disadvantages versus VB?

Thank you!

 

[Chris D]

1. XenForo is as good as any other software. It is a problem, not due to the software, but because forum spam is just a prevalent problem. To help mitigate it there is built in CAPTCHA (question and answer CAPTCHA is probably most effective) or reCAPTCHA (not as good as it used to be). There's a few add-ons been released recently which adds different CAPTCHA systems such as KeyCAPTCHA and others which are proving quite effective.

2. XF is great for SEO. It has built in friendly URLs, HTML5 microdata and much more with a view to ensuring the most optimised SEO available out of the box. I don't hear of people having to do much to improve SEO in XF.

3. Not at the moment. The next version of XenForo should be version 1.2 but unfortunately it is delayed. I will quote here the post I normally post in threads like this, which may answer some questions.

4. This is built in to XenForo. Have a look at the XenForo manual for "Trophies" and "Trophy Points". You can set criteria for different trophies.

5. vBulletin was its most successful and most popular around version 2.x and 3.x. The lead developers at this time were Kier Darby and Mike Sullivan. They left before vBulletin 4 was released. They began work on XenForo. vBulletin 4 isn't as good as vBulletin 3 and vBulletin 5 (beta) is even worse. XenForo (IMO) is better.

Here's an explanation on what's currently going on at XenForo:

Currently XenForo Ltd is going through a lawsuit which has been filed by Internet Brands (the owners of vBulletin). You will find lots of information about the lawsuit if you search for it. A trial date has been set for January 2013. XenForo is widely expected to win the case if it gets to court and some of the complaints against XenForo have already been dropped.

As a result of this impending lawsuit, the development of the next version of XenForo (XenForo 1.2) has been delayed. We were originally supposed to see a beta in June. It may be unlikely that we see the next version before the lawsuit is over.

In the meantime, you'd be buying an incredibly stable piece of software which performs great and is a pleasure to use and work with. Support tickets are still being dealt with by the community moderators here, Slavik and Jake Bunce. The developers have confirmed that any security updates and urgent bug reports will be resolved.

 

[Pygmalion2008]

Glad to find this thread. I have my Beta of Xenforo set up for migration of my current vBulletin 4 site, and I will NOT be moving into vBulletin 5 under any circumstances. The only thing holding me back was this lawsuit, and Im hoping that Xenforo prevails. Its the best out there by far.

 

[Pygmalion2008]

I have just migrated my GateFans Forums to Xenforo and said goodbye to vBulletin forever. I have been a vBulletin user since version 1.1 , and they peaked out with vB 3x. vBulletin 4 has been okay, but it is so bloated and unmanageable now that I think anybody not familiar with it would be turned off right away. Im turned off with the behaviors of the other brand and even if Xenforo stays at this version it is still a superior product over what they offer. I hope developers will get excited about this and hopefully we can see an end to this silly and petty lawsuit.

http://www.gatefans.net/gforums

 

[hawker]

Welcome to xenforo - I hope they prevail too. vBulletin was good software - but after vBulletin 4 everything has gone down hill rapidly. It makes sense to go after xenforo, people are turning away in droves. phpbb seems to be getting a lot of people back too.

Anyway - on a personal note, your forum looks good, if you haven't looked deeper into spam yet, highly recommend you install this: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/stop-forum-spam.5417/

I got a heap of spam after I switched to xenforo, didn't think I'd ever stop it. Installed this and it's working out great