XenForo to vBulletin4

[New Joe]

I have stuck by vB and vB4 all the way.
I was interested in xenforo and read a lot and even posted a little.
But I knew it was years and years away from what vB had built up, along with all the great modifications we all get on vb org.

So for me, I didn't go with the flow so to speak, kept with vb4 and it's great to read others are now moving back to vb4 after trying xeforo.

[soniceffect]

Originally Posted by New Joe

I have stuck by vB and vB4 all the way.
I was interested in xenforo and read a lot and even posted a little.
But I knew it was years and years away from what vB had built up, along with all the great modifications we all get on vb org.

So for me, I didn't go with the flow so to speak, kept with vb4 and it's great to read others are now moving back to vb4 after trying xeforo.

Its a shame to be honest that its not a reflection on xenforo as a piece of software, but xenforo as a company that is causing people to move back.

[New Joe]

Originally Posted by soniceffect

Its a shame to be honest that its not a reflection on xenforo as a piece of software, but xenforo as a company that is causing people to move back.

I agree.
When the co owner disappeared for months then came back with his long post to why, it was a real low point for the company. Then he never even came back to reply to his post.
The community over there is nothing like the vb community and in all honesty they've lost even more respect the last six month than they had tried to build over the last 3 years.

As vB gets stronger xenforo gets weaker im my eyes, and 4.2.0 is showing stronger signs than ever now.

[8thos]

Originally Posted by Sage Knight

Better late than never. I always wanted to give xF a shot but with a new community, I know for sure my members would complain from the smallest feature to the largest being missing or replaced. xF still has a long way to go and IMO it still needs more 3rd party plugin support. I do think it's something to consider when starting a new community from scratch.

Good luck and thank-you for sharing your experience with us in great detail rather than what people normally do; moan non-stop without any reason or understanding be it about vB or xF.

I actually put the vb4 to xf move to a vote. About 99% of them voted no. Logically, I shouldn't have converted the site at that point but I'm hard-headed and did it anyway. After I moved it over some people said they liked the change and others were like :erm: and left. When some key members left it kinda doomed my site. If the 3rd party support was there I probably wouldn't be in this situation or if I had enough money I would've been able to hire peeps to add the features they missed. I only have so much on my budget though so there's only so much I can do.

--------------- Added [DATE]1337461271[/DATE] at [TIME]1337461271[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by soniceffect

Having just recently moved my site back to vbulletin I gotta say Im quite impressed with the speed and stability of it to be honest. Especially in comparison to how it was when I left as version 4 was released.

xenforo is great, but not enough there. And on top of that the company itself has made me feel uncomfortable about staying on their software, which is a great shame.

There are still a few rough edges on VB4. Things not quite in the right places for my liking, CMS still not quite there. However it is clearly moving forward as apposed to standing still which is what I once saw it as doing. CMS Im sure will come with time, and the other areas are nothing a few tweaks here and there from yourself cannot sort with either modifications or manual playing around on the skins.

I actually got my forum back here the long way by converting to IPB and then over to VB from there. Was gutted when I saw the converter the other day LOL

When's the last time vBulletin has actually touched the CMS and has there been any changes to the Blogs section? Usually they will tell you when read the version updates but because I was gone so long I might miss what is actually new compared to when I left from vb 1.1.5

and lol @ you having to use the ipb convertor. The main reason I wanted to use it is because I wanted to merge one of my xenforo forums with another. Because there is no xenforo to xenforo importer, I would've had to use the ipb convertor. Now instead of merging that other xenforo forum with my main forum I'll just convert it to vB4 since my license was not being used.

--------------- Added [DATE]1337461575[/DATE] at [TIME]1337461575[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by New Joe

I have stuck by vB and vB4 all the way.
I was interested in xenforo and read a lot and even posted a little.
But I knew it was years and years away from what vB had built up, along with all the great modifications we all get on vb org.

So for me, I didn't go with the flow so to speak, kept with vb4 and it's great to read others are now moving back to vb4 after trying xeforo.

Sometimes you gotta try new things. When you use different softwares or try to integrate them with each other you start to really get a feel of how things work and start understanding your own needs and what you want the software to do. In this way you basically learn by experience instead of doing things one way all the time.

--------------- Added [DATE]1337461891[/DATE] at [TIME]1337461891[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by New Joe

I agree.
When the co owner disappeared for months then came back with his long post to why, it was a real low point for the company. Then he never even came back to reply to his post.
The community over there is nothing like the vb community and in all honesty they've lost even more respect the last six month than they had tried to build over the last 3 years.

As vB gets stronger xenforo gets weaker im my eyes, and 4.2.0 is showing stronger signs than ever now.

lol my thread will get locked up now if ya'll start talking about that subject. I stated in the first post why I'm moving my other site over to vB4. Has nothing to do with all the drama over there. I had to switch out my license to start a new site and instead of buying a new xenforo license which I can't afford at the moment, I'm using my unused vB4 license. I was starting to doubt the move too until Andreas posted that xenforo to vb4 import link. That solidified my decision, not the lack of a road map. I don't care about the lack of xenforo updates. The in-fighting amongst the pioneers is a little unsettling but they'll probably get through it eventually.

[8thos]

The best thing about vbulletin is the video game modifications. I tried to get xbox live avatars working in posts for my videogame-related xenforo forum and it didn't work. There still isn't a PSN Leaderboard modificatikn for either software though. So basically what I'm saying is that if you have a videogame forum vbulletin is your best bet. Any other type of forum is good for xenforo like my first forum for instance. I never realized how good I had it on here until I left. I am seriously considering downgrading from vb4 to vb3 out of curiosity but I don't even think that's possible. Is there a xenforo to vb3 addon? My target audience only likes vb3.

[Lynne]

Guys, I've deleted several posts since this is not the place to air personal differences. If you have issues with each other, take them to PM, don't post about them so others have to listen to them.

[Chris8]

Originally Posted by 8thos

I am seriously considering downgrading from vb4 to vb3 out of curiosity but I don't even think that's possible. Is there a xenforo to vb3 addon? My target audience only likes vb3.

Really? That's interesting. What your audience like about vb3 more over vb4? I've never thought users find it better as well. I'm interested to get to know what your users say.

[8thos]

Originally Posted by Chris8

Really? That's interesting. What your audience like about vb3 more over vb4? I've never thought users find it better as well. I'm interested to get to know what your users say.

Because the forum I've been posting on since 2001 is vb3 and most of my friends from there seem to prefer it over vb4 and xenforo. I'll either get vBSEO or just go back to xenforo after encountering this htaccess problem.

[slinky]

After reading your post, it's pretty clear that your users just wanted a casino. It has nothing to do with the function of Xenforo or vBulletin.

I know at least a dozen forum owners who moved from vBulletin to Xenforo and not one of them considered moving back. You're not the only one to find that Xenforo's SEO appears to be far better streamlined (no secret) and overall performance is much faster.

My advice is that anyone who puts up a forum should think about what is most important to them. If basic forum activity is most important as well as performance, I find Xenforo is the better tool and opinions might vary. If there are VB specific items like a Casino or some of the remaining supported mods that are important to your users, then there is no reason to switch away from vBulletin. Pretty simple really.

[8thos]

I've lost interest in running forums so I'm going to delete my new vB4 forum and redirect it to my main site.

I'll still make some vB4 skins for qapla.com though.