Moving to XenForo... coming soon!

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The time has come to start talking about the transition from vBulletin to XenForo that I mentioned some time ago, so I thought I might as well make it an open discussion.

My aim is to transfer as much of what we've currently got on vBulletin to XenForo, however certain mods available for that platform are not the same as for vBulletin, so various things will work and/or appear different on XenForo than they are now.

A few things worth mentioning specifically:

1) Reputation does not exist in XenForo. The default system that XenForo uses is "Likes", which is more or less identical to the Likes system via the Like button that I've implemented here some time ago, so we're going to import all the current Likes.

Initially I thought that XenForo not having reputation was really a deal breaker and I wanted to transfer reputation one way or another... however, since implementing Likes, I can't remember the last time that I actually repped anyone. Using the Like button is simply easier, more visible and intuitive. So instead of going to the trouble of trying to replace XenForo's Likes system, I've decided to adopt it instead. The two systems really can't coexist since people are going to use one or the other predominantly, and I believe that Likes have become predominantly used shortly after their implementation.

This means that your currently reputation will be lost, however all your likes will remain. Is anyone going to desperately miss reputation?

2) User albums are not integrated with XenForo as they are with vBulletin, so we'll export all of the pics to a gallery addon for XenForo. This should prove an even better solution since a dedicated addon should offer even more options than the basic user albums we have now.

3) We're going to be dropping social groups as they've never really taken off. Their content will be either merged with existing forums or transferred to proper forums.

4) I expect I'll be adding the arcade back on XenForo, though I won't be importing any of the current scores as the mod for it that we'll be using on XF will be different. I might be reinstating the most popular games there if it makes sense, but otherwise we'll just start the arcade anew from scratch.

5) Blogs have been somewhat used, but recently their usage has more or less dropped to a halt, so I don't feel that there's much of a need for a separate blog add-on any more. Still, if it's easy to convert the existing entries to one of the XF blog add-ons, we'll do that. The alternative would be putting them all in a kind of "blog forum".

6) XenForo uses private conversations - essentially threads - instead of the clunky unconnected private messages system of vBulletin. Those of you still with us since BoM's UBB.classic times (before we switched over to vBulletin) will remember how it worked. It's a far more efficient and user-friendly system, so this is definitely a change for the better. Your vB private messages will import, though unconnected.

This is a basic outline of the more important changes that I'm looking at at the moment, but as additional issues pop up I'll be updating this thread.

I'd like to get some discussion going on this, so any questions and comments on the above and the entire transition plan are very welcome. I'm really excited about finally moving to XenForo as it is without a doubt the most promising forum software currently on the market. One of our hosted sites, RPG Codex, has been using it for a couple of years now and I've observed first-hand all the good things that it can do for a community, so I'm sure that you'll all love it once we get it going here.

 

Sometimes people go album diving, sure, but the idea is that you can easily make albums & upload pictures and screenshots and have it all under the same forum account, as well as easily integrate pics into forum posts. The biggest benefit is obviously that it's local, requires no additional signup and that all the members can comment on the pics directly.

Actually, the biggest benefit is probably that pics are always accessible and never deleted, which is not the case with many external image hosting sites.

Similar thing - it's local so you're competing against other known forum members and comparing achievements. Plus you have full control over what's in the arcade.

Not that few people read them, I think not commenting on them is more of a problem as that gives the writers the impression that nobody's reading them, which isn't necessarily the case. Of course the content can also be a problem - everyone reading them isn't always really interested in them, plus the integration with the forums is poor so that's a contributing factor as well. I doubt it's much different on XF but we'll see.

The chat app supports XF so it could look the same there. Most people have apparently turned it off though as they never appear on the chat list so it's not really used much, but it's still useful for quick 1:1 convos when needed. But since the forums are moving in the direction of instant notifications and refreshing more and more, I expect chat will only be used less and less. XF is already half-way there with various instant notifications which make the whole forum environment much more interactive. The other option would be implementing a shoutbox like on the Codex... but I'm not really a fan of that as I expect we'd just be moving Whatnots there.

 

Technically, they can't, as reputation won't be there in XF. Just a counter of Likes. Basically, negative feedback is not possible.

There's a new, different or better way of doing most things every so often... but hardly everyone uses it. I've never even tried Dropbox yet because I have no real need for it, though I have it available. I'm sure a lot of people are in the same boat.

I've played them a lot over the years, just not much recently. The problem with the arcade is more the lack of new games there than anything else. I'd aim to correct that in XF, naturally.

The counter is there for every entry, as well as a list of recent visitors.

It's just buggy as hell, unfortunately. But pretty much all other chat apps are too, only most others are far more bloated as well.

 

Enlighten me what I need Dropbox for when I've got a web server of my own?

Uh... we had an IRC channel for more than 10 years. Nobody came there any more for the last 5 or so. IRC is an outdated service that very few people still use at this point. Most modern users have never even heard of it, let alone used it and there's no easy way to properly integrate it with the board member database. And if you want to make it easily accessible on every page like the current chat app, you need a java client as well.

Not yet (there was this thread a few years ago), or do you mean forum features only? I'm going to have my hands full redoing everything on the new platform for a while after the move. XF comes with many new features not present in vB by default.

Though the primary reason we need to move is so that catbert can start working on the new site design and integrate everything properly with XF's member database. So there'll be plenty of changes around here soon.

 

Coming from the man with the highest rep of all... I think that's reason enough to do it!

 

The only thing I ever use rep for is as a memory aid regarding things that I have said or that I have responded to. Often the rep comes in response to a point that I may want to raise again, and it's an easy way to find without bothering to do a search. It only covers the last 10 times, though, so it has become less than effective for me. Plus, it has been a while since much rep has been given anywhere, so let's pretend it's the unnamed guy in the red shirt and let it die.

 

Umm, you only need to agree to the disclaimer for the MUG group to view it, the other ones are all open: http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/group.php?do=grouplist&sort=lastpost&order=desc

What are you having trouble with exactly? The instructions on how to join the MUG are linked in the group's description.

 

He said and left me wondering about the far more...

That's why I'll likely replace it with something a bit different, but if it's not used much I have no really big plans to go to great lengths to make it more widely adopted. It is an appendage to the forum and/or site and if people prefer to use forums than chat, so be it. The option is there, but in the era of instant gratification when nobody is willing to sit in front of an inactive chatroom for more than a few seconds, it's unlikely that chat would have even a moderate following unless we had hundreds of active forum users who could provide at least some activity in the chatroom around the clock.

Still use actively or just have an IRC channel with a dozen idling nicknames and a discussion every two days? Of course IRC still has a function in certain specific environments (especially around team-based games), but on a site like SP - not really much. IRC is outdated whether you like it or not. There are dozens of replacements for it and most of them far better suited for integration with forum software than IRC - which is pretty much the definition of how something becomes outdated. Especially since the core chat experience is essentially identical in all of them. FTP is a bad analogy because it hasn't been superseded by dozens of more modern and more widely used communication platforms performing the same function.

Java or whatever else, makes little difference, really. I'll probably add a chatroom page to the forum listing once we're on XF and we'll see if that'll be any more active. But I'd still rather do it without having to rely on an external IRC server to run the channel on.

"Why don't I have my forum username here?" is something I've heard a million times in the old IRC chatroom.

There'll be time for that after the switch. XF will come with a boatload of new features already so we'll need to get used to all that for starters.

 

That's on the to-do after the move.