The Beginning of the End...

[MJ DeMarco]

Today I started preparing for the idea of moving this forum over to a new software platform. It will be a cold-day in hell before I give vBulletin any more smack as the software sucks, and their new software isn't any better.

In order to do that, I had to disable vbSEO which is another dying company, if it isn't dead already (as indicated by the co-founder's disgruntled email.)

http://admin-talk.com/threads/dear-vbulletin-forum-community-vbseo-is-suspending-operations.43684/

Upon disabling vbSEO, I'm hoping the forum improves in speed although I'm not sure what it will do to our SE rankings.

Also with the disabling, our LIKES system was disabled as well. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do there and I'm saddened it is gone.

In the meantime, I installed a different likes system -- the likes/thanks buttons are at the bottom of the page. Also, if you click the Quick Links menu, this system aggregates some of the great liked/thanks posts so you can see the hot topics.

The take away here?

Some great Commandment of Control issues! I continue to be held hostage by vBulletin's shitty software until I can find a better alternative. Xenforo seems to be worth a shot but I'm not sold on that either. Anyhow, look for the switch to happen toward the end of summer/beginning of the fall.

Also, vbSEO seems to have 1 foot in the grave which doesn't surprise me. When you hitch your wagon to another company's horse (in this case vBulletin) you'll always be working from behind with your face in the horses' a$$. Same goes if your company is reliant on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Happy trails.

PS: There is also a DISLIKE button now ... however, that's ONLY available to INSIDERS.

 

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[FionaS]

I am not a big fan of vBulletin, so I'm glad to hear you're switching. Hope you can find a nice alternative. I used to work for the official Zetaboards support site, but that seems like it may be dying too... Very customizable though, may be worth a look. There just isn't a lot of great forum software out there. Especially if you are looking to keep your current data.

 

[LeungJan]

Funny I was thinking about this the other day, thinking how vbulletin was so old and crappy and there must be a better solution, possibly build a new forum software.. Need in the market? Lots of work though..

 

[theag]

disabling vbSEO

It seems like ALL permalinks are now gone, which means that EVERY visitor from search engines will get an error when clicking any link there. That really sucks, I would reverse this.

See here: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/sh...m-with-The-Fastlane-Forum?p=289829#post289829

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

It seems like ALL permalinks are now gone, which means that EVERY visitor from search engines will get an error when clicking any link there. That really sucks, I would reverse this.

See here: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/forum-news-updates-faqs/show...829#post289829

Yup, I noticed it immediately ... I had to reactivate VBSEO and am now stuck using it until I can get the 301 redirects figured out.

 

[GuestUser8117]

Lol. You scared me, I thought you were closing the forum...F-o-r-e-v-e-r.

 

[Sir Ingenious]

Ah, gotcha! Thanks for letting us know.

Since you're switching into a new different platform - a different forum server, are you interested in getting any design work (a little or big) done... free of charge? Feel free to let me know anytime!

 

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[FastNAwesome]

Also with the disabling, our LIKES system was disabled as well. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do there and I'm saddened it is gone.

It should be feasible to transfer old likes to the new system if that's what you want. This is just a guess, without insight into your database, but here goes:

Each recorded LIKE in current system has at least 3 parameters: user id, post id and timestamp.

Now assuming that user and post id's stay the same, it should be fairly easy to write a script that fills in the new system with all existing LIKEs.


Btw. One thing I like very much on this forum, which I haven't seen elsewhere is the quote button which appears when you select post text.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Bump due to 2nd try. (vbSEO had to be disabled as it was using 80% of my servers' CPU.)

 

[Rawr]

Viva revolucion! Speed reset for everyone!

 

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[Clayton]

Forums feel wayyy faster now

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

With the forum software, what are some of your pain points? What is causing you the most trouble?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

With the forum software, what are some of your pain points? What is causing you the most trouble?

The software is bloated.
The software is slow.
The software is stuck in 1999.
The software is cumbersome.
The software is impossible to modify and customize.
The software sucks.

I'd go on, but you probably get the point.

 

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[Milkanic]

Have you looked at lightweight, easy to modify forums such as http://punbb.informer.com/ or http://djangobb.org/?

The problem with these monolithic platforms with plugins (magento, wordpress, vBulletin) is they quickly become spaghetti coded nightmares.

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

So you want a quick loading, customizable forum?

As for stuck in 1999, I'm not sure as to what you mean. I was 8 years old then lol...

What are some of the forums you use (aside from this one) that have certain features you like. What software they are using, etc..

spaghetti coded nightmares.

That is also a pain. Aside from labeling everything in the webpage code I don't know how to solve this, most languages I've coded in have this problem. It becomes a pain to do large scale programs.

Then again my languages are limited to java(Some jscript, C++, and C#), html, VB2005, and some Mandarin. God I'm outdated.

 

[exige]

Aside from labeling everything in the webpage code I don't know how to solve this, most languages I've coded in have this problem. It becomes a pain to do large scale programs.

Architecture. Its not the language, its the lack of proper architecture, component-based design, etc. Its not throwing design patterns at it, all the design patterns in the world won't help you if you're not a good software craftsman. The Pragmatic Programmer is a good starting place.

Pat Flynn at Smart Passive Income is using Vanilla forums on his NicheSiteDuel website, curious how its working out for him, I think he's got a fair number of users on it.

 

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[TopChef]

I asked a friend who has a forum which software he would use. He said that he used VBulletin and had similar problems, so he migrated to XenForo. He likes it a lot as it is easily customizable, fast, and not expensive. He said he also likes Invision Power Board for the same reasons. He used a third party to migrate the data from VB to XenForo and said it wasn't too bad.


http://xenforo.com/

http://www.invisionpower.com

Hope this helps!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

http://xenforo.com/

That is what I intend on using. Been snooping around the product for a few weeks.