I was once thinking, but why can't we help Post4VPS with a switch from MyBB to Xenforo, well my opinion is that MyBB is a bit old-fashioned, Xenforo has a very nice design and I want to help Post4VPS to switch to Xenforo. But I'm curious what you think of it and if they can do the same in terms of plugins, I think the overview also shines better. They already have a number of themes that have been in use for years but a real major update has not been released since 2015, but maybe it would be nice if we can help @Dynamo with some nice new ideas for Post4VPS, of course I am available to do things to be able to fix and upgrade certain things which might be nice. What do you think, will we continue to use MyBB or will we help Post4VPS invest in XenForo, the more people help with this, the better it is for the Admins to add new things. For people who agree to Xenforo, with a few dollars we can help certain people, I am willing to give a few tens of dollars for Post4VPS for this. I hope you also have many great ideas.

Mybb had good things .. Xenforo too...
As you said it had awesome desings for free too... But mybb had only paid themes good... Others not that much...

mybb works fine here. would be fixing a working horse.
even though uogarding to xenforo to make the forum look more modern and move with the time i can see the change.
i'd be down for it.

MyBB is fine for the situation and it is still in active development.Well I've tried Xenforo in your forum and the highlight of it is the mobile theme.And don'tvforget this forum is now having a responsive theme with complete alert system that similars in Xenforo.

I didn't quite know the two forums,but from my local testing for myBB,their admin panel looks a bit messy and complicated (while PhpBB just a kind of mess,vanilla being too simple,smf looks fine and Discuz looks too complicated) but the admins have been familiar with that and the members all learned how to use the forum too.If we make a move that means all members might need time to learn the usage again.

And from the basic requirement,we need:
- a forum system
- a points system (NOT Trophy points.You've experienced that)
- monthly post counter and custom fields(eg.VPS Holder of)
now we have these features.If you would like a move let's try to apply these features in your forum first with plugins(making thoughts come true first and try to keep the forum for some time to make it stable)

Sorry if the words offended someone.

In short words,I am down for this.

Thank you for the offer to help the Forum with a new-look script @Pacific Spirit.  I agree however with @perry and @mzltest we're OK with the old work horse MyBB for now. It has a few quirks and little idiosyncrascies - it's not perfect, but for our purpose it is working OK.

Most important consideration against using Xenforo for me is that Xenforo is a paid script.  And quite expensive at US$160 for a single license and for continuing support of the script @55 every year.  Xenforo is really intended for wealthy users.

I tried Xenforo out a few months ago when Gigarocket was looking at it, and my impression is that Xenforo is more intended for blue chip corporations who want a snazzy looking discussion Forum for their elite clients and are willing to pay for it.  For that purpose it is brilliant.  But for our "free" and budget level voluntary efforts, MyBB is still the better script to use.  @Dynamon particular but also @TrK and @perry are experts on the Admin side of using and supporting MyBB and coding it for our objectives.  It's the script I'm also quite familiar and experienced with.  It works for us.

For post4vps objective of writing posts for getting a VPS in return according to a list of rules, and administration of the rules for quality posts, Xenforo for me isn't really the right script to use.  MyBB for me has a better layout for separating Forum and discussions (like with XenForo it feels as though the discussions are running into one another). MyBB is also easy to moderate and administrate.  If we were to spend any money on scripts then vBulletin would be the better script to use for our particular application of posts for hosting.  Although it is much more complicated and time-consuming to figure out vBulletin, and to install, maintain and use, the script is very dynamic to use at the same time. Its structure is definitely more appropriate for posts for hosting compared with XenForo. vBulletin is quite expensive at US$250 but maybe cheaper than XenForo in the long run as the license payment is a once-off fee with a life time support included in the fee.

Short answer to your suggestion of XenForo is that I tried it out.  I don't think it is worth the high price for it and that for our particular objective of post4vps forum, MyBB is more functionally viable.  I don't think XenForo has been designed for purposes like ours - like it's been designed more for a nice looking community forum that impresses.  Also, we've got a wealth of Admin and Staff experience in using MyBB and it is working well for our simple needs.  It also serves our community principle of supporting open-source project related developments rather than paying for scripts.  Like there is a certain amount of pride involved to work with scripts that have been developed by an open-source community on a project basis rather than paying for a script.

(04-05-2021, 09:46 PM)deanhills Wrote: Thank you for the offer to help the Forum with a new-look script @Pacific Spirit.  I agree however with @perry and @mzltest we're OK with the old work horse MyBB for now. It has a few quirks and little idiosyncrascies - it's not perfect, but for our purpose it is working OK.

Most important consideration against using Xenforo for me is that Xenforo is a paid script.  And quite expensive at US$160 for a single license and for continuing support of the script @55 every year.  Xenforo is really intended for wealthy users.

I tried Xenforo out a few months ago when Gigarocket was looking at it, and my impression is that Xenforo is more intended for blue chip corporations who want a snazzy looking discussion Forum for their elite clients and are willing to pay for it.  For that purpose it is brilliant.  But for our "free" and budget level voluntary efforts, MyBB is still the better script to use.  @Dynamon particular but also @TrK and @perry are experts on the Admin side of using and supporting MyBB and coding it for our objectives.  It's the script I'm also quite familiar and experienced with.  It works for us.

For post4vps objective of writing posts for getting a VPS in return according to a list of rules, and administration of the rules for quality posts, Xenforo for me isn't really the right script to use.  MyBB for me has a better layout for separating Forum and discussions (like with XenForo it feels as though the discussions are running into one another). MyBB is also easy to moderate and administrate.  If we were to spend any money on scripts then vBulletin would be the better script to use for our particular application of posts for hosting.  Although it is much more complicated and time-consuming to figure out vBulletin, and to install, maintain and use, the script is very dynamic to use at the same time. Its structure is definitely more appropriate for posts for hosting compared with XenForo. vBulletin is quite expensive at US$250 but maybe cheaper than XenForo in the long run as the license payment is a once-off fee with a life time support included in the fee.

Short answer to your suggestion of XenForo is that I tried it out.  I don't think it is worth the high price for it and that for our particular objective of post4vps forum, MyBB is more functionally viable.  I don't think XenForo has been designed for purposes like ours - like it's been designed more for a nice looking community forum that impresses.  Also, we've got a wealth of Admin and Staff experience in using MyBB and it is working well for our simple needs.  It also serves our community principle of supporting open-source project related developments rather than paying for scripts.  Like there is a certain amount of pride involved to work with scripts that have been developed by an open-source community on a project basis rather than paying for a script.

We ran into some of these issues when you and I demoed FlaskBB too, the features provided are cool, but there was not anything justifiably groundbreaking that would urge the transition to a new software. I have also used vBulletin in the past and while it is a solid and stable script, you have to pay per upgrade and themes and plugins are not free. I was a Technical Moderator for a forum in 2012-2015 and we were constantly getting nickel and dimed for quality of life improvements for the forums.

As a jr dev, I know if it's not broken don't try to fix it. And every migration will give you bugs, seamless migration is a myth. MyBB is enough for this type of conversion, no need for another platform I guess.

(04-06-2021, 01:32 PM)tbelldesignco Wrote: We ran into some of these issues when you and I demoed FlaskBB too, the features provided are cool, but there was not anything justifiably groundbreaking that would urge the transition to a new software. I have also used vBulletin in the past and while it is a solid and stable script, you have to pay per upgrade and themes and plugins are not free. I was a Technical Moderator for a forum in 2012-2015 and we were constantly getting nickel and dimed for quality of life improvements for the forums.

Great to learn about your vBulletin experience.   I took the pricing from the vbulletin site, but of course now understand that if plugins come at an additional charge how that may make it a costly script to run. No mention was made about additional charges for plugins in their sales pitch - they probably take it for granted that those interested to buy the script know how the pricing works.  So yes, it's then not the kind of Forum script one would use for voluntary efforts like post4vps.  It also is tough on resources in every respect.  Takes a lot of manpower to run and specialist knowledge to set up.   Hence why I admire any tech who has been actively involved with vbulletin and made it work.

(04-06-2021, 09:43 PM)deanhills Wrote: Great to learn about your vBulletin experience.   I took the pricing from the vbulletin site, but of course now understand that if plugins come at an additional charge how that may make it a costly script to run. No mention was made about additional charges for plugins in their sales pitch - they probably take it for granted that those interested to buy the script know how the pricing works.  So yes, it's then not the kind of Forum script one would use for voluntary efforts like post4vps.  It also is tough on resources in every respect.  Takes a lot of manpower to run and specialist knowledge to set up.   Hence why I admire any tech who has been actively involved with vbulletin and made it work.

Indeed, it is a great script once you are in it and learn how to use it. I honestly think its Admin and Mod CPs are very intuitive once you get in and have a change to play with them, however, I much preferred vBulletin 4.x to the upgrade to 5.x. They changed the system completely and pushed forums to have more of a social feed and it was such a pain to disable because you had to turn off the endpoints in multiple places or you would find yourself chasing your tail in their support forums or google trying to find a solution. Theme development from what my memory serves was also rather brutal because you had to code a lot in XML and then use JSON, CSS and JS to marry everything together and even with paid themes it was a lot of cookie cutter and patch work solutions when I last was using that platform and trying to develop on it.

My vote also goes on "no" because mybb running here is perfect. I believe there is a need of adding a new responsive theme. Giving a new Look to P4V for me that would be the thing that should be done because i believe the theme hasn't been updated for a long time.
Shifting to Xenforo, Wil not only bring problems, The migrations causes many problems because the database of P4V i'm sure would be so big importing them would be a real headache and it would be a new challenge for staff members here, Since they are using MYBB here for years they would be pretty used to it and fixing any problem won't be a problem for them.
My vote just goes for a theme change!