vBulletin 4.2 and xenForo 1.2

[findingpeace]

I apologize if these kind of discussions aren't allowed (feel free to close/delete, if not). I just wanted to share my experience between the two softwares.

Like many of you, I'm not very happy with vB5, but I always strive to stay up-to-date on my brand's latest software. So this put me in a weird position, because I don't want to be on vB4 when there is a newer release.

Based on a lot of positive feedback, I decided to purchase a xenForo license to try it out. I always extensively test new updates in subdirectories before ever attempting to go live. So I fooled around with xF, skinned it to look the same, and brought on a dozen trusted users to test with me.

Here are some things we really liked:

1) Built in alerts system. I wish vB5 would copy it - automatically clears out alerts with a simple mouseover. Clean, uses ajax, reminds me of Facebook!

2) Fast and efficient. I know that vBulletin is feature filled, but it can also be overly bloated. The query count was substantially lower with xF, and I would like to see similar performance enhancements with vB5. I have to say, the vbulletin.com forums do seem a lot faster lately.

3) Private messages. I love the conversation view! Very, very cool. This kind of innovation is just plain awesome. Outside the box thinking.

But in the end, we decided to stay with vBulletin 4. Why?

1) Modifications. The mod community here is amazing. I didn't realize how much customization we'd done, until I started trying to copy the functionality of our vB forum on xF. It would take a lot of time and money to port everything over. Beyond that, the built in features of vBulletin blow xF away. I took a lot of these for granted.

2) Stable, sturdy, and reliable. vBulletin 4.2 has never steered us wrong. It is a very solid piece of software that feels like it can weather any storm. I like that it's been around for a long time, and I like that it's built off of vB3. Sort of feels like a well-aged wine, or something

3) vBulletin.org - This site is actually one of my biggest reasons for sticking around. I enjoy the community, the stupid drama, and the familiar faces. I like knowing that Lynne is always here to answer my weirdly specific questions (thank you). I owe a large part of our forum's success to vB.org

4) My test users didn't like xF. Tech people always say: "everyone will resist change, but they're just being stubborn." Well I think this is a load of BS. If a software is truly better, more intuitive, and transitioned in an ideal way, then people will welcome the change. Project implementation is what I do for a living, and I would never force something on my company just because I thought it was better. There are 3,000 members, and 1 of me. I know the people I asked to test are not stubborn old curmudgeons. They simply didn't like the feel of it, although they were very polite so as to not hurt my feelings. They admitted it was sleeker, but said they didn't care about sleek. Fair enough.

5) vBCMS. Say what you will about vB4's content management system, but it's the second most important part of our website. It's what attracts 70% of our Google traffic and 95% of our FB traffic. With a little tweaking, it doesn't have to be quite so ugly It really is filled with a ton of cool features, and integrates perfectly with our forum. The xF Resource Manager didn't quite work for our needs.

6) Zero risk. I have never known anybody who left a vBulletin 3 or 4 forum because of the software. I cannot say the same of the many xF transition threads that I followed. Nobody is going to leave or avoid a vBulletin forum because of the software, because it's the universal standard, so sticking with vB alleviates any risk of losing a valuable or potential member. I hope that the vB5 developers realize what an incredible market advantage this is. I wish they hadn't changed the entire look & feel of vB5 - you already have an entire world of people who know & trust your software. Even though most forum users don't know what "vBulletin" is, they absolutely recognize it when they use it. "Oh, this reminds me of all those other forums I use! Great, I'll sign up now!" What I'm saying is, play that to your benefit.

7) vBulletin feels like home. I know this sounds sappy, but it's true. Whenever I visit a forum, I can tell immediately if it's running vBulletin, and I immediately like it more than other forums. Maybe this is just because vB was one of the first forums out there, so that's what I'm accustomed to. But I also just think it's the most intuitive forum software I've ever used. I love the ugly Admin CP with an unordered list of 10,000,000 options. I love knowing that 700 people are signing on every morning to something they recognize & trust. And I love that I feel some kind of strange connection to a forum software - I practically felt like I was cheating on vB when I installed xF. Anyway, that's creepy. Bottom line: vB reminds me of a big, worn-in family couch as opposed to a sleek & modern chair. And personally, I'd go for the couch any day.

I'm posting this because I'd like to stay with vBulletin, and I hope that maybe my thoughts about what I like from both vBulletin 4 and xF 1.2 could be combined into some sort of coherent suggestion for a better vB5 Keep it cozy, that's what makes a forum home to me.