Board Upgrades - Everyone PLEASE Read and Comment

JayC

JayC

T6P.Com/TB.com Administrator/Webmaster
Staff member
Joined
May 27, 2001
I know a lot of people here arent happy with the move to VB4. Much like Windows XP being phased out and people being more or less forced to Windows 7, that's essentially the situation we were in with the board before. Products get to a certain point in their lifecycle where they are no longer supported. VB3 wasnt there quite yet but it was close and the board needed a facelift anyway.

What most people dont know is that vBulletin was bought a while back by Internet Brands.. a big company that has a rather large forum portfolio. When that happened, a lot of the original team left the company and vBulletin development moved to the US. vBulletin prior to that was developed in England. The team that developed VB4 is missing some key people from the original VB development team.

This brings you up to date. I do expect at some point VB4 will become more usable. This is essentially a first gen product for the new development team even tho its labeled VB4. The things is, Im not really sure I want to wait for it to get to that point. You guys show up here, use the board and it just works. Thats because there is a lot of stuff that goes on you dont see that keeps this board humming along. And truthfully, my patience is wearing thin with all the complaining. I understand people dont see the amount of maintenance/upgrading we do, all they care about is that it works when they show up. Thats all well and good but dont forget WHY its working when you show up.

That brings me to where I am now and why I asked people to come into this thread. I am seriously considering moving us to a completely new platform and I wanted to get some feedback from you guys before we do this. In all honestly, its probably going to happen whether people want it or not but Im still interested in feedback because maybe there is a reason not to move that Im missing.

The platform I am looking at is called Xenforo and its developed by several of the original VB coders. It seems very polished and has some really interesting features. It integrated tightly with Facebook and seems to be a more social kind of forum, which I think in this day and age is a good thing. Here is a link to a demo board that I set up. It will remain active for 3 days.

XenForo Demo | XenForo

Anyone who would like to play around with it, please do so. Im really interested in the feedback. I think this is going to be the platform that everyone starts moving to.
 
About the only thing I would be concerned about when moving would be all the board "wisdom" that is contained in the history. I would assume that it would import into the new software, but wanted to mention it.

BTW, to the entire TB.com team, your efforts are appreciated!!

Thanks,

Bob
 
TurboBob said:
About the only thing I would be concerned about when moving would be all the board "wisdom" that is contained in the history. I would assume that it would import into the new software, but wanted to mention it.

BTW, to the entire TB.com team, your efforts are appreciated!!

Thanks,

Bob
Click to expand...

Oh for sure.. all the content will be imported. Im not sure about photos but the posts, userbase, etc will all come over.
 
I have a local forum that switched to Xenforo many months ago. I have no issues with it, but it does take a little while to get used to. The PM's are changed to "conversations" and there is no limit on them. Navigating through the user uptions is much different. Clicking on the thread title automatically takes you to the first unread post (nice feature). Replying to and quoting posts is much better. The new posts (whats new) search shows everything that is unread, not just what's unread in the past few hours. I haven't used the search function because they deleted all the old content recently. But I can promise that the complaining will start all over again and it may even be worse than the recent change. After a couple month's when everyone got used to it, the complaining stopped.

Since the search has been fixed here, I no longer have any complaints or issues. If you want us to be more understanding of what goes on behind the scenes, explain it to us.
 
MeanMike said:
I have a local forum that switched to Xenforo many months ago. I have no issues with it, but it does take a little while to get used to. The PM's are changed to "conversations" and there is no limit on them. Navigating through the user uptions is much different. Clicking on the thread title automatically takes you to the first unread post (nice feature). Replying to and quoting posts is much better. The new posts (whats new) search shows everything that is unread, not just what's unread in the past few hours. I haven't used the search function because they deleted all the old content recently. But I can promise that the complaining will start all over again and it may even be worse than the recent change. After a couple month's when everyone got used to it, the complaining stopped.

Since the search has been fixed here, I no longer have any complaints or issues. If you want us to be more understanding of what goes on behind the scenes, explain it to us.
Click to expand...

Xenforo is actually bringing out a "large forum" search feature which is exactly what this board needs. There are just so many pieces of software tied together here that all have to work right. There is VBSEO, which you need for search engine optimization.. Xenforo has that built in. There is Sphinx, which is a standalone search product. Xenforo will have THAT built in too. There are so many little hacks and tricks done here to try to keep things humming along.

BTW, the search feature being "fixed" was because I switched it back to the default VB search which adds an incredible amount of overhead to the server. Last night is was switched back to Sphinx so Im fully expecting the complaints to start up again.

I just think Xenforo is a step in the right direction. Yes its different but its more or less the same. I think even in it's infancy its more polished than VB4.
 
Jay....First off, thanks for the work you are doing. And the rest of the folks in the background support as well

Im all for change and have no issues with it and can be patient for a bit but the search function has to work right as its a big use item for me.

That being said, will the old posts, archives and history be fully searchable with the new setup?

The latest change unfortunately has the search function not working as advertised which im sure you ae fully aware of.

As far as monetary fees for membership typically the sites that have a fee just give you a colored/fancy font name and you can post a little larger picture or video or something like that.
 
No gay facebook crap. :p

As long as it loads at reasonable speed and you can search and Haterade bites the dust it's all good. :cool:
 
turbo nasty said:
Jay....First off, thanks for the work you are doing. And the rest of the folks in the background support as well

Im all for change and have no issues with it and can be patient for a bit but the search function has to work right as its a big use item for me.

That being said, will the old posts, archives and history be fully searchable with the new setup?

The latest change unfortunately has the search function not working as advertised which im sure you ae fully aware of.

As far as monetary fees for membership typically the sites that have a fee just give you a colored/fancy font name and you can post a little larger picture or video or something like that.
Click to expand...

I think there is some confusion on the search issue so let me clarify.

When we bought the board, the search engine was broken big time mainly because the server was running on like a P3 server with 512MB of RAM. It was laughable how ****ty the specs were on that server. We moved the board to The Planet in Dallas and hosted it there for a while on a better server and the search engine worked okay there. We moved to WiredTree in Chicago which is where we are now and the search engine again worked okay. The problem is, tho, this forum has so much content that the default search engine just hammers the server while its searching. Thats why searches had to be time limited. Searches send the load through the roof.

To try to combat this and keep the search function working while keeping everyone happy, we switched to a standalone search program called Sphinx that integrates with VB. The initial roll out of Sphinx has some issues. Almost as soon as we deployed it, they pushed a fix, then another fix.. I didnt actually install Sphinx here and the documentation was spotty at best so I was a little leery of upgrading it on my own in a live environment. So in the meantime, I switched the search back to the built in one and rebuilt the index and it worked like it should, just adding a huge load to the server. Now Sphinx has been updated and re-implemented. Whether its working right or not, I dont know. Its only been out to you guys a few hours so I guess we'll see as the day goes forward.
 
salvageV6 said:
No gay facebook crap. :p

As long as it loads at reasonable speed and you can search and Haterade bites the dust it's all good. :cool:
Click to expand...

Im cold on Facebook too but sadly we're in the minority.

Haterade isnt going anywhere. Ad revenue is actually back to a point its keeping our heads above water so Im not touching the ad setup either way.
 
The search function is big for me also. I use it a lot. I very rarely have a question that can't be answered by a search. Not having the search function pull results from recent posts makes the classifieds almost useless. Searching from Google using site:turbobuick.com doens't always pull everything and you can't search by forum.

Here is the local forum I was refering to. Tennesspeed.net Sadly because of the admin team, 90% of the members left. Then the owner did a complete reset and got rid of all the old content. There are only a handfull of members now and there a plenty of days where thereare no new posts. It's had to compare that to the huge membership and vast quantity of old posts here. After I got used the changes from xenforo, I realized all the changes actually made things better and I like it more than the old vb version.

I don't use facebook either and honestly I don't even notice the facebook functions of the xenforo based forum.
 
MeanMike said:
The search function is big for me also. I use it a lot. I very rarely have a question that can't be answered by a search. Not having the search function pull results from recent posts makes the classifieds almost useless. Searching from Google using site:turbobuick.com doens't always pull everything and you can't search by forum.

Here is the local forum I was refering to. Tennesspeed.net Sadly because of the admin team, 90% of the members left. Then the owner did a complete reset and got rid of all the old content. There are only a handfull of members now and there a plenty of days where thereare no new posts. It's had to compare that to the huge membership and vast quantity of old posts here. After I got used the changes from xenforo, I realized all the changes actually made things better and I like it more than the old vb version.
Click to expand...

We're not going to lose anything except maybe pictures and they wont be lost per say, just may not import. Userbase, content, etc will all move over.

I really believe this is the right move. I honestly feel like VB is on the decline and people are going to start jumping ship. There are a lot of very unhappy people with vBulletin right now. I think Xenforo is the next big thing in forums. Even though its new, I like it better than phpBB and IPboard. I think VB and Xenforo are the only two platforms worthy of consideration at this point.
 
Thanks for the good input, keep it coming!

What we don't need in this thread is complaints, so please put those in another thread!

This stuff comes straight out of the pocket, I still want as much input from the community as we can get...

Jay spends TONS of time on this stuff, so all his hard work is truly appreciated!
 
If it makes anyone feel any better, I run a small cycling forum that Im also switching to Xenforo. I didnt even bother to solicit input there :D
 
do what ever you feel is best.

we all think we know what is good for everyone else,
but in the long run, you (Jay & Shane) have the say so, and are footing the bill for all of us to
enjoy this site, your knowledge and experience on what makes this place run are what counts. not
the amount of crying some do.
I feel its good you listen and ask for input, but in the grand scheme of operations...
do what makes economic and operational sense!
we will all adapt.
besides the old adage "you can't please all the people all the time"
still applies.

Thanks for listening!

Lee
 
I have no experience with the new forum format like MeanMike does, but his discription sounds "not terrible". I think the complaints have pretty much subsided lately. The two minor complaints I registered were corrected withing the last few weeks (snow flakes are gone!)

But trust me, there are those of us that have been with the board since day-one and do REALLY appreciate your efforts along with Shane!!! Your efforts are appreceated by the vast majority!!

Mike is right though, the complaining will probably start all over again unfortunately. It's human nature, and with SO MANY new young folks joining the member rolls, who don't understand the history of the board, the background work involved, and likely don't really care, it will be loud and long I'm sure. Takes a thick skin Jay, to sluff off all the winers.

Now that the board seems stable and smooth, my feelings are a bit mixed on whether to port over, and having no experience with the new board format I can't offer any useful advice, other than to Hang in there!!

As for the tight integration with social networking, it's of no concern to me. I don't belong to any social network stuff and don't see the need. Any communications that I need to accomplish are done quite well by cell or e-mail.

Keep up the good work!!!!
 
Seems like a no brainer to me - SEO integration, better search, a very inexpensive license, and what looks to be a very easily modded skin/template.

I'm sure there will be complaints - it's never easy when you change software - but given that it's from ex-VB programmers, it looks to me like it can be made pretty seamless, and look very similar to what every one is used to.

I think I am definitely getting my money's worth, and I couldn't have done my current build without the archives here. :D

I use the Google "site:turbobuick.com" search anyway..
 
Jay thanks for the detailed explanations on the problems this site is having. It's good to hear your trying your best to give us a site that works great and fast. The Xenforo looks like it will be just fine from what I have seen on other forums. Keep up the great work!
 
TurboDave said:
I have no experience with the new forum format like MeanMike does, but his discription sounds "not terrible". I think the complaints have pretty much subsided lately. The two minor complaints I registered were corrected withing the last few weeks (snow flakes are gone!)

But trust me, there are those of us that have been with the board since day-one and do REALLY appreciate your efforts along with Shane!!! Your efforts are appreceated by the vast majority!!

Mike is right though, the complaining will probably start all over again unfortunately. It's human nature, and with SO MANY new young folks joining the member rolls, who don't understand the history of the board, the background work involved, and likely don't really care, it will be loud and long I'm sure. Takes a thick skin Jay, to sluff off all the winers.

Now that the board seems stable and smooth, my feelings are a bit mixed on whether to port over, and having no experience with the new board format I can't offer any useful advice, other than to Hang in there!!

As for the tight integration with social networking, it's of no concern to me. I don't belong to any social network stuff and don't see the need. Any communications that I need to accomplish are done quite well by cell or e-mail.

Keep up the good work!!!!
Click to expand...

Well.. things are still broken. You guys just dont see it. For example, notice there is no mobile app yet? Another VB product that doesnt work like they advertise. We bought it, I compiled an Android version for testing and it works like crap. Come to find out, everyone is having the same issue with the VB app.

My feelings are more based on that I think Jelsoft (The makers of VB) are on the decline. Things arent getting fixed and users are basically being given the middle finger. My desire to move to something different is not only short term but long term as well.
 
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