Since changing to XenForo, members online down 70%

[Paul B]

Do you have some permission errors happening? I get:

I have just resolved that - it was due to a blank index file in the root.

 

[Mouth]

Before the switch, there were about 600 online at once, now 100-200.

Is the time period for measuring online user exactly the same as per your previous system?
/admin.php?options/list/users#_onlineStatusTimeout

 

[Nelson T.]

Yes, same time period. last 15 mins.

 

[Emrah Özdemir]

I run a site where most of the people are over 50.

Only 30% of our members are back online at our site after switching to XenForo.

I tried emailing them that we are back. I posted a notice that we will provide support if they cannot get online. I just changed the Login to a big bright button.

Anyone had this happen after the cross-over? Did the numbers pop back up? What did you do to get people back?

İ also came from vb 5.1.5 and my users number comes down bu friend you should know that you are getting correct results now.
vbulletins results are not stable, different than admincp statistics and they give you total number of bots and members.

 

[Nelson T.]

You have my sympathies for buying version 5. I had a feeling the VB numbers were highly inflated, except that we had pretty high bandwidth at times on the server. That could have been from high program overhead.

The number of daily new enrollments is almost back to where it was. Google analytics reports a similar number of sessions.

 

[dethfire]

My members/guests online count also went down after migrating from vB. I think it's just a difference in how vB and XF measure things.

 

[ehd]

You didn't do anything stupid like over clock.net did and change from having tapatalk to not having tapatalk did you? That's what killed their traffic in a very noticeable way to even the most casual of observers. Even if you hate it you can't drop it in a platform switch if you already had it.

of course you can.

 

[rainmotorsports]

of course you can.

Yes but then you also can't complain about the consequences. Of course you can still complain, there will just be less people around to hear it.

 

[ehd]

Yes but then you also can't complain about the consequences. Of course you can still complain, there will just be less people around to hear it.

If they don't use your forum without tapatalk, you are doing something wrong.

 

[rainmotorsports]

If they don't use your forum without tapatalk, you are doing something wrong.

Some people prefer not to get notifications through email or use bandwidth hungry means to access replies. Just because the site owner hates it doesn't mean the users do. You piss off 30,000 of your active members its going to be a noticeable drop.

 

[Mouth]

I yanked TapaTalk after almost 2 years, and posts and registrations notably increased.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Yer, I had no issues ditching tapatalk. Responsive got a way better response, with my site users now taking 58% with mobile use.

 

[Nelson T.]

Since the number of sessions did not change drastically, it is probably just the metric.

 

[Verringer]

You could attempt an email to your old members who are no longer active, they may have been put off at the sudden change.

You've really broken your default XenForo skin, I hope you created a new style for your edits.. You should use a different style such as Flat Awesome (a great free style).

Spoiler: Broken Stuff

(a member missing off, shouldn't be cut off).

Guessing this is cut off, aswell..

You also have an ad on the very top, I recommend moving all your ads to within your content - it would be less obstructive. And you've moved your login button, which bewilders me.

 

[Nelson T.]

Doesn't look "broken" to me. The ad belongs in the header. That is where the advertiser wants it. Users complained they couldn't find the login button, so I moved it.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

I see they released another Panda update a few days ago... so expect further losses in anything that is stagnant or low quality.

 

[Verringer]

Doesn't look "broken" to me. The ad belongs in the header. That is where the advertiser wants it. Users complained they couldn't find the login button, so I moved it.

There's only a fraction of the ad being displayed, you'd have been better adding another sign up button imo. Really recommend a new theme though, vB5 looks quite nice in comparison to default XenForo. Nevermind, thought you used vB5. You could try the vB5 xF skin though, may be more familiar

 

[MQK8]

I know man, I find XF to be very intuitive, but the old, computer illiterate guys on my site can't even see to logon. It is horrendous. I am 56, not a coder, IT or computer geek, and I took to it right off. I am like WTF is going on here?

I still find Xenforo's way of logging in/signing up kind of left footed. It seems there's a unnecessary step you make people go through. Maybe it's just me. But when someone wants to sign up you have to click again to sign up. I've noticed now there are some new styles that are making it easier by just having a tab drop down where you can either sign up or login without the extra step.

 

[BassMan]

It seems "broken" to me too:




I don't think moving the login button will help. It is ok where it is. Maybe you better add this: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/cta-login.2816/ (I see you are using social login too)

I came from phpBB to XF. It's just increasing. I can say only positive for XF. It is very important to me not to have many add-ons, that me or users really don't use it, although they looks nice, useful etc.

What I did for my users is a [HOW-TO] forum, where I post image, video and text guides. Also all new users get personal conversation after registering with useful links: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/new-user-conversation.3644/

Maybe you have too many forums on forum list. Not sure, you know better whyt you need. Think of combining them if you can, make subforums, but not too many of them (also I recommend not to use dropdown subforums menu if your users are not familiar with the system).

I'm also using different colours for categories on my forum list, but this is just a personal view.

I'm using default XF style, which is great and easy to use in my opinion, but I've customized it myself. Not sure if some complex style if suitable for your users.

Just my thoughts, hope some of them helps.

BassMan

 

[Nelson T.]

Ok, this has degenerated. I didn't ask for a critique of my site. Those who did this are now on ignore. I am here for a serious purpose, not for off-topic chat.

I think the issue here was simply the more accurate way that XF counts members, and that was it. That is all I am going to comment on this. I have other tasks to get down to on the site.
Thanks to those who were helpful.