Thinking about switching to Xenforo

rowedf

rowedf

Active member
Can someone help me along with the decision making process :)

I have a Vbulletin account and I've been seeing how they seem to be going down hill. There is hardly any developer support and that scares me. I have a clan/gaming website that is used a lot. When I say a lot I don't mean a huge mega site, but there are on average 35-40 people that frequent the site daily.

A few concerns I have with moving to xenforo is ...

1. How safe is the lasting power of the company? I've heard rumors regarding law suits, etc.
2. Are there 3rd party developers interested in putting out modifications?
3. Are there designers willing to create custom themes? Average Cost, etc ?

Any insight, feedback, opinion will be greatly appreciated. I'd like to make a move very soon, I've narrowed it down to Xenforo or IPS ... just trying to see which is the best option at this time.

Thanks.
 
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rowedf said:
Any insight, feedback, opinion will be greatly appreciated. I'd like to make a move very soon, I've narrowed it down to Xenforo or IPS ... just trying to see which is the best option at this time.
Click to expand...

Buy the licence, you won't regret it. Run through the conversion script on a test installation and allow your current members to access the XenForo install, they'll love it.

I made the jump myself a few months ago and I haven't looked back.
 
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He means install the software and just use it as a testbed to get some feedback from your members.

However, if you're serious about converting you should install the software and then do a series of test imports, refining the process each time to ensure minimum downtime until you come to do it for the final time.
 
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rowedf said:
Thanks for the replies guys. What do you mean to run on a test install? So you're saying run the install once, then redo it a second time ?
Click to expand...

I think what he's implying is setup XenForo as a "beta access" in the sense that let current vB users try it out give suggestions and feedback.

EDIT: And you'll find out quickly Brogan is the king of ninja'n posts, somehow he's looking at 50+ post and responding at the same time :)
 
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I went from vB -> IPB and in a few weeks with be moving to XF - I'm just not getting on with IP.Board much anymore now I've used XF. (Oh, and I've got 4 x XF licenses now and will likely buy more in the coming years!)

IPB is fine if you want all the bells and whistles and ecommerce, etc. - try the demo - but if it's just forums, and your members want something quick and easy to use, then I'd go with XF. The ACP is a breeze to use too. Have you tried the XF Admin demo?

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
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Russ said:
I think what he's implying is setup XenForo as a "beta access" in the sense that let current vB users try it out give suggestions and feedback.
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Yup.

That's exactly what I meant, give your users a chance to play about and get used to the new platform, modify the board or permissions based on feedback to make the swap to XenForo more inclusive. :)
 
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GeeksChat said:
I went from vB -> IPB and in a few weeks with be moving to XF - I'm just not getting on with IP.Board much anymore now I've used XF. (Oh, and I've got 4 x XF licenses now and will likely buy more in the coming years!)

IPB is fine if you want all the bells and whistles and ecommerce, etc.
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I definitely want to be able to have the bells and whistles, but I don't need them right now, if XF has plans to have those types of bells and whistles, I can wait.
 
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rowedf said:
I definitely want to be able to have the bells and whistles, but I don't need them right now, if XF has plans to have those types of bells and whistles, I can wait.
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The upcoming 1.1 release added a lot of those types of bells and whistles as you put it. And it will get even better. In my opinion go for it, you will never regret it. Also regarding the support if you would ever run into issues, it is first rate here.
 
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Switched our forums over from vb3.7 to xenforo yesterday, the most time consuming bit was adding smilies as I could not get the script working that someone posted here.

Feedback has been great, and thats quite something as we have a lot of silver surfers on our site, personally I see xenforo winning their case but even if they dont xen is going to last you a fair few years as it's far ahead of everyone else with 1.1.

For points 2/3 just have a look around here, there is just about everything your ever need and plp are more than willing to help out, you dont need lots of silly add-ons that bloat your site out.

/2cents
 
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Mark3121 said:
Switched our forums over from vb3.7 to xenforo yesterday, the most time consuming bit was adding smilies as I could not get the script working that someone posted here.

Feedback has been great, and thats quite something as we have a lot of silver surfers on our site, personally I see xenforo winning their case but even if they dont xen is going to last you a fair few years as it's far ahead of everyone else with 1.1.

For points 2/3 just have a look around here, there is just about everything your ever need and plp are more than willing to help out, you dont need lots of silly add-ons that bloat your site out.

/2cents
Click to expand...

Do you mind linking to you site?
 
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Ok, I'm pretty sure I'll be buying a license tonight or tomorrow morning. Here are my current forums www.shadowops.org

Here is the site I'm working on as well www.shadowops.org/site I can't post in the graphic or style section so can someone give me some thoughts on how difficult or how expensive it would be to create a Xenforo style matching either one of those sites I linked ? Even a hybrid between the two would work. It wasn't that long ago that I paid for a custom Vbulletin them and my members are going to complain that we just shelled out a few hundred dollars for the current them and we are just bailing on it.

I'm really excited to get moving with Xenforo, but the forums at least looking close to what we have now is pretty important.
 
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Nice theme. I'm sure there will be people here who can help you migrate it to XF.

Once you've bought your license, just associate your forum user account with your license (in the Customers section) and you'll be able to access more of the XF community forums and get things moving better ... (y)

Good luck, and keep us posted with your progress.

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
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I would love to hear more about the working joomla bridge. I've read some things on the is it Jfusion I think? I got a little confused and wasn't sure how it all worked. If I can get my custom component built into Xenforo some day, I won't need to use Joomla at all :) I just have too much time and money into it right now that it makes it hard to pay for someone to develop it for Xenforo.
 
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