Paid Conversion Service Request

[Vantive]

Hey Everyone.

Since I'm not going to buy a license until I find someone to do the conversion, I guess this is the only place I'm allowed to post.

As mentioned here I have a large PunBB 1.2.17 that I'm thinking about converting to vBulletin.

I need someone who can do the following:

1) Converting Data: I know there is a converter / importer for PunBB but I'm concerned because I don't see a ton of success stories. I just can't move to vBulletin unless I know for sure that Users, Forums, Threads, Posts, and Private Messages will be moved over as well. It would be great if passwords could be copied too, but I understand this could be a problem with the encoding.

2) Preserving Links & Search Engine Rankings: Obviously all my current links to posts (internally and externally) will not work after the conversion. Are there any ways around this? Are they htaccess rules that can be put in place to redirect everything properly? It sure would suck to have every link to forum posts over the past 3 years stop working. Also, with 80% of new visits coming from Search Engines and 10% coming from links to specific posts on my forum I'm VERY concerned about loosing all my built up SEO rankings.

If anybody reading this can, or knows a contractor that can seamlessly handle the above PLEASE PM me and let me know a price range for the full conversion!

Cheers!

[Marco van Herwaarden]

I would really suggest that you try to do this yourself. It will give you a lot more insight knowledge of vB that you will be able to use at later stages.

Importing from another system is always a process that is not garanteed to work the first time. Both vB and the source system might have been updated since the previous converion from this system. Also you might be running a non-standard (ie:modifications) of the source software.

For this reason we always advice to start with a test conversion to iron out any problems that you might encounter. Our licensed customers always have access to our Support system. In case o any questions or problems during the (test) conversion our professional staff can always guide you.

Our import script ImpEx comes with an example 404 redirection script that can be tailored to the specifications of your old software to redirect links to the new vBulletin URL's. This might not work on all source systems.

If you still want to hire someone to perform these tasks for you, then our normalprocedure would be that you can post such a request after purchasing a license.

[Vantive]

Marco, thanks for the reply!

There are a couple chicken / egg problems here:

1) It sounds like the suggestion is to buy a license to test IF an import will work to see if I should buy a license? I need to know for sure in advance that the import will work before I buy a license. This can be accomplished two ways: 1) I get a free trial and attempt the conversion myself or with help. or 2) I get a master vBulletin expert that guarantees they can get the conversion to work.

2) I've seen others here with the same problem regarding posting service requests: They want to find a programmer before they buy the license, but they are told they can't post a request for a programmer until they buy a license.

Hopefully you can see the potential frustration from people who are still trying to see if VB will be a good solution.

I know VB is a great product, and I'd love to go back in time to tell myself to start with it, but I've got too much skin in the game to make a decision without knowing for sure it will work perfectly.

if the import script is not released for your actual forum, even the best vB masters will never guarantee you that an import is possible and will work. This is a process that can be hazardeous, and even more, can be very complicated to do if you have a heavily configured forum.

and there is no way to have contacts with clients that did not buy the script yet, because this site here is directed for license holders, this is a post-purchase website...

though you could go at a freelancer site and ask the same, you may have better access to coders, but take care of the scammers... take your securities... never paid before delivery.

[Vantive]

Ok, thanks. I was directed here, but will try oDesk or RentACoder.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

My original suggestion still stands. The ImpEx script does support many source systems. Most pf these systems are not converted from on a regular basis. Result of this can be that if you use a newer version of the source system then the latest customer converting from that system, there need to be done some updates to our import script. By doing this yourself and if needed contacting our support desk, you will get direct access to the best professionals on vBulletin you can get, and if any updates to the import script are needed to make it work with a newer version of the source system, even the developer of the script will step in and update it for the newer versions. And best of all: this us free, you already pay for support when you purchase a license.

Did you open any sales ticket regarding these questions, or did you post on vB.com?

[Vantive]

Thanks Marco. I only posted here and VB.com (I hope this way more people can have access to the answers instead of making it private).

Independent of the import question, I still have a lingering question about resource (CPU / Load and Memory). I mentioned it at VB.com, but I'm wondering if moving to VB from punBB will require a ton more resources. Should this too be addressed in a sales ticket?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

That question would be best answered in a Pre-Sales thread on vB.com. Unless a user with experience on both systems replies, i doubt however that even the vB.com staff knows the answer as most will never have used PunBB.

[sparting]

I have the same problem need some tech to make a full import of a YaBB 2.1, and import all on this forum: membergroups, polls, reputation, member profiles, links on forum, attachments, avatars, .....
Will be frustating if i purchase the license, and I can't do the import succesfully, and need to learn a manual to do the work. Will be better for me that this work is made for an expert on import, and knows all addons need to do the work: addon to convert interna links in forum, ....

Thank you, if you can tell me some expert tech.

[borbole]

Originally Posted by sparting

I have the same problem need some tech to make a full import of a YaBB 2.1, and import all on this forum: membergroups, polls, reputation, member profiles, links on forum, attachments, avatars, .....
Will be frustating if i purchase the license, and I can't do the import succesfully, and need to learn a manual to do the work. Will be better for me that this work is made for an expert on import, and knows all addons need to do the work: addon to convert interna links in forum, ....

Thank you, if you can tell me some expert tech.

If you can''t do the conversion yourself and want to hire someone to do it for you, then you can post a thread here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/forumdisplay.php?f=30