Specifically, what kind of service does a "ticket" get you and is it free?

[Kilt]

As a technical noob becoming a forum administrator for the first time, I'm looking to migrate to new forum software after months of being shell shocked by endless problems with VB5, most unsolved by our "IT guy". XF looks like it has great features, and I know I can get general help on the support forums here. But I don't know how support tickets work, and I'm most interested in exactly what types/levels of service a ticket gets me for a year with a new XF license, and is it free or charged by the hour?

For example, would a service ticket get me help for these kinds of problems: site crashes due to hacker infiltrating the forum code somehow, members can't log in with some browsers or any browsers, users can't log in on phones, site banner and image not visible (just an empty box) to some users, threads not visible, function buttons don't work (quote, next page), members can't post text in reply boxes, photos won't embed or enlarge, and Martian error messages showing up. Are these kinds of problems valid subjects for support tickets, and would that support be free for the first year of the license and paid updates? Or do I have to hire another third party IT guy?

Thanks, and this pre-sale forum is a great idea, by the way.

 

[Chris D]

Support is included for 12 months with the purchase.

We'll help you sort out verifiable issues with the software itself but, at times, issues you get may not be directly related to the software rather they could be server issues or issues with customisations you've made or issues with a third party add-on. In those cases you may still need your IT guy/your host/support from an add-on developer if the issue is related to an add-on but typically you will have our support all the way until we can clearly demonstrate the issue isn't with the software itself.

 

[Kilt]

Thanks, Chris.

I'm positive that for a long time I would be bare-bones, vanilla XF with no customizations or third party add-ons. I'm sure it will take me months to figure out XF basics and intermediate administration before getting into that stuff, if ever.

So, for example, if a problem arises simply because I've screwed up due to my ignorance and unfamiliarity with XF's rich feature set, your support team might kindly lead me by the nose to the proper procedures?

Finally, I'm thinking of retaining a fully managed web host and migrator who advertises included service, specifically including XF service. I assume that would mean they have to service problems with their server. But, as a general principle, is it likely that their XF service would be duplicative of your XF service? In which case, I'd potentially be paying for the same thing twice.

 

[Chris D]

We always do nose leading where we can. Be that instructing where you need to go for support, what you need to do to reverse issues caused or sometimes logging in and solving them for you (as long as it is a software thing, rather than a server thing).

For the most part a managed host, even an XF centric one, may direct you to us or the forum here if it's more of a XF-related issue just like we'd direct you to them if it's more of a server/config related issue.

So I wouldn't envisage the service overlapping all that much.

We are launching our own managed hosting service in the coming months which may be of interest. This may be a good fit if you're starting from scratch and don't intend to use third party add-ons initially (support for add-ons will be coming later).

More info here:

Announcing XenForo Cloud

Over the past ten years, XenForo has grown its market share consistently, helping all-new communities to spring forth and giving those previously running on other software platforms the opportunity to migrate and take advantage of the stability and rich functionality offered by our platform...

xenforo.com

Prices would start at $60 per month. If that fits your budget then feel free to Contact us and we'll see if you can join our early access testing team.

 

[Kilt]

We are launching our own managed hosting service in the coming months which may be of interest. This may be a good fit if you're starting from scratch and don't intend to use third party add-ons initially (support for add-ons will be coming later).

More info here:

Announcing XenForo Cloud

Over the past ten years, XenForo has grown its market share consistently, helping all-new communities to spring forth and giving those previously running on other software platforms the opportunity to migrate and take advantage of the stability and rich functionality offered by our platform...

xenforo.com

Prices would start at $60 per month. If that fits your budget then feel free to Contact us and we'll see if you can join our early access testing team.

Chris, I already inquired about your announced cloud product via a contact ticket yesterday, asking if the mananged cloud offering price would include a full migration service from VB5. Jon replied that it wouldn't. When I expressed surprise about this, given that everyone coming from a competitive platform -- especially technical noobs -- needs a migration, and that just about all other cloud companies offer a migration "for free", Jon essentially replied that your cloud product was not yet available or details determined.

I might very well be interested in being part of an early access program, especially if that could save some money. If it's the right procedure, I'll submit another contact reply to Jon referencing your suggestion about the early access team.

 

[Chris D]

Jon is correct; we're not yet in a position to be able to offer any form of migration from any other software. This will come in the future.

I thought you might be aiming to start fresh without bringing over any existing data (hence the "starting from scratch" comment). As you want to maintain your VB5 data that's not something we can offer at the moment.

 

[Kilt]

Jon is correct; we're not yet in a position to be able to offer any form of migration from any other software. This will come in the future.

I thought you might be aiming to start fresh without bringing over any existing data (hence the "starting from scratch" comment). As you want to maintain your VB5 data that's not something we can offer at the moment.

Chris, your responsiveness borders on the astonishing and is greatly appreciated.

But one more try, because I very much like the idea of turnkey cloud service from Xenforo itself. Suppose I hire one of the well-known XF experts who post on this forum to do a migration -- even "temporarily" acquiring a XF license to do so -- would that enable me to convert to and participate in the early access cloud program?

I mean, unless you are going to leave all sorts existing XF customers on the table, you will have to make the cloud service available to existing license customers who want to convert to cloud turnkey. But for a potential new customer in my position, spending $160+ on a first-time license, and then soon after converting to $60 per month for cloud, would not be a sensible financial path.

 

[Chris D]

Early access to the Cloud service is only available to brand new customers with no existing data at this time. Any form of migration - from another software or XF itself is something we'll provide further down the line but not at the moment.

 

[Kilt]

Okay, Chris, thanks. Darn it.

You may want to make this clear in the Xenforo Cloud Discussion thread, because Kier answered yes to the question of migration here:

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-cloud-discussion.195087/page-3#post-1520590

It's sort of confusing, and why I contacted Jon about migration in the first place, not being able to post on that forum.

 

[Kier]

Data migration is pretty high on our priority list.