Your Advice: Recommendations for a Test Site

[Phillip]

I plan to create a test XenForo site for my moderators in the near future and wanted to get any advice on the process. We’re currently running vBulletin 3.6.

Do you recommend that we import our current database first for their testing or should they test and play with a new clean board? My concern is that the test board will be private, only they will have access. And I don’t want e-mails going out to other members as they play or test the XenForo features. Likewise if a mod posts something to Facebook or Twitter, I don’t want that going out publicly yet either.

Obviously, I do plan on doing a test import of our vBulletin database (and more test imports if necessary). I just wanted to gleam from the experience of others in terms of the best ways to help a current moderating team make the switch. We’re planning on only having the test site up for a short amount of time before we go live.

 

[Paul B]

If it's just for your moderators to get used to the new software, then a fresh install will suffice.
You'll just have to build up some content so there are enough threads and posts to work with.
This is how I did it with my site staff.

You can disable the Facebook and Twitter functionality in the ACP.

 

[Phillip]

Thanks Brogan. I'd be interested in hearing from the opinions of others as well.

For those who have already made the switch from vB 3.x, how did your members respond to the transition? What did they like about XenForo? What did they miss from vB 3.x? Would you do anything differently to make it a better transition if you could do it again.