View Poll Results: Site Upgrade : Members choice, which forum software ?

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  • Xenforo

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Thread: Site Upgrade : Members Choice

  1. #1
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    Default Site Upgrade : Members Choice

    We are currently running VBulletin version 4 and while its been great for the numerous years we have used it, everything comes to an end at some stage. We use a number of third party addons which are now no longer supported (and some are broken) and VBulletin have advised on their latest versions of VB3 and VB4 :

    These are likely to be the final versions in the 3.x & 4.x series, updated for PHP 7 Compatability.
    In a nutshell, its at end of life and the above means that VBulletin will be concentrating on VBulletin 5 and not much else. If for example, we changed web hosts and went on to a new server in 12 months, PHP 8 (this is not released, I am talking the future) will have probably been released. As VBulletin has stated that is the last version/s, they would not work on a server with PHP 8. Basically, what I am saying is that to keep using VBulletin 4 in to the future would involve having to use old and outdated version of PHP and MYSQL.

    This is exactly what happened when we moved to our current host, the VBulletin 4 version for PHP 7 had not been released and I was forced to get our host to downgrade our version of PHP so the forum would work. VBulletin only grudgingly released the version for PHP7 after people complained it was a deliberate ploy to force them on to VBulletin 5.

    This leaves us with 2 options :

    or


    VBulletin was originally owned by Jelsoft, who sold the business to Internet Brands in 2007. Since then, VBulletin has to a degree gone down hill with all the major developers leaving and 2 of the major guys who left then started Xenforo. A very messy legal battle then commenced with Internet Brands attempting to sue those 2 developers and Xenforo. The law action was not settled until 2013.

    To upgrade to VBulletin 5 is $250USD. To buy a Xenforo licence is $140.

    However money isn't the deciding factor, I have decided to go with what the membership decides as ultimately they are the ones that use the place and financially keep the door open. Either option involves a bit of work, also we would be changing to https which is something that Google is forcing on any website that has a login button. So either way, there will be a lot of work.

    I realise many don't know a great deal about either, so for examples :

    - This links shows some of the bigger forums. I would encourage people to have a look at some and more importantly click on some threads and see what things look like.

    - This link is to the actual VBulletin support forums which use VB5, however it is a link to the showcase forum where people post their sites. Look for sites using VBulletin 5.

    I don't have a date of when we are doing this, but it is something that needs to be done this year preferably in the first half. We may lose a lot of search rankings out of either option as we change to https. I am not considering any other forum software as simply the support isn't there. Forums are in decline thanks to social media, and it is important to only look at options that have a reasonable level of support.



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    Default

    What's the xenforo mobile app like ?
    I wouldn't miss Tapatalk....

    Oh, don't forget to back up first....

    Sent from my BLA-L29 using Tapatalk

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    To those of us on 'puters, on the surface Xenforo sites don't seem too different. I'd be looking at life expectancy. If vBulletin is slowly being deprecated, then Xenforo looks to be a no brainer. The costs are negligible, however, what are the ongoing maintenance and development costs likely to be? On the surface, Xenforo gets my vote, but I have NO experience supporting ANY web platform.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    I'd be happy either way so I won't vote unless you put undecided or go with the flow as a choice.
    Cheers, Tiny
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    Admin, I, like Tiny, don't have a preference for either, so saying that, its my view that you guys should pick what is best and dare I say easier for yourselves, I'm sure whatever choice is made we can adjust to if need be.
    Cheers
    Ted (Al)

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    Some nice website layouts on the Xenforo examples, but I guess it depends how graphically-complex you want a site to appear... probably best to keep it fairly basic as we've been used to using.

    It may also be prudent to stick with VBulletin.... the devil you know, etc.

    Like others have suggested, it's you who has the expertise in this area (I don't) and you will be the one to implement and maintain whichever format is chosen, so on that basis, I would recommend which one you personally feel will deliver what Austech wants and needs and will give you the least grief managing it.

    Sorry mate... not a lot of help, I know.

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    I also don't have a preference, but do have some questions of you.

    1. What provides you the better maintenance options to administer the forum better?
    2. Which one has options to transfer the current forum content seamlessly over and be readable as we know it, or will you be required to create an archive area?
    Become a Premium Member and support the Austech Forum

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    If it is the same lot of work for both versions the I would go with the one that costs less.
    The Xenforo example forums load fast and look great.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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    VBulletin 5 got off to a stinker of a start and doesn't seem to have been able to recover its reputation.

    I couldnt even find any examples of bigger forums (such as in our size) to post up which is why I just gave the vbulletin forum show case to look at. I even checked through the Bigforums listing and most of them that are listed as VBulletin are now Xenforo.

    Xplorer, there is a forum converter so its case of importing all our data in to Xenforo. VBulletin does seem to be going down the gurgler.........forum software sales would be shit these days given how big social media is.

    Personally I would like to do nothing, as it is something I specialise in But https is something that is being forced as Google are labeling any site with logins and no https as "unsafe sites"....despite 20 years of no problem with it. There are quite a few reports of Vbulletin sites severely losing their search engine rankings when changing over, from what I have read Google doesnt see the a url the same, even if the only difference is http and https. So we could get smashed down the search engine rankings, I also have to look at the complicated system we had to employ when a Vbulletin SEO addon reguarly overloaded the server.

    And then coverting VBulletin to Xenforo......realistically I am going to look at paying someone to do it all. I cant sit in front of computers for long periods of time and strong pain killers dont help having a clear mind when doing something like this. Of course we are safe as long as everything is backed up, and our host can reinstall backups etc, its more the point of how long it would take me because this sort of stuff is not something I do every day. I am sure you don't want a "Come back later" sign on the forum for 7 days

    So when I have some money together, I will start getting something organised. If anyone knows anyone capable of doing the job , I am happy to hear from them (by email please).

    I am happy that most would prefer the Xenforo option, VBulletin has been great over the years and I cant fault them......but I am really starting to wonder if they now have a long time future as VB5 has been rubbished by so many people and there was a lot of disaster stories when it first came out and many sites changed over. There are still many sites happy to continue using VB4 and even 3, but I can no longer spend the time (or probably have the expertise) to safely run software thats old and outdated.

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    Quote Originally Posted by admin View Post
    But https is something that is being forced as Google are labeling any site with logins and no https as "unsafe sites"....
    'kin' Google. They will eventually make Micro$oft look quite benevolent.

    Looks like Xenforo is the way to go.
    If Australia is a democracy why, then, is voting compulsory?

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  • #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Guiseppe View Post
    'kin' Google. They will eventually make Micro$oft look quite benevolent.
    I do personally use a lot of their products, but dont disagree.

    They simply take action against you and you have zero recourse. You pretty much cant contact them either.

    They are absolute Nazi's on Youtube. I got a strike for offensive content on the below video ( I am NOT joking) :


    After an ongoing saga that went on for days trying to contact them, I appealed (the appeal process basically states that if you appeal you had better be sure you are right or else.....) and they took the strike off me, but didnt bother to actually reply to me.

    After that win, they sent me a notice that they were disabling all monetization tools from my account.......with no stated reason, just that they were doing it

    I noticed Rick posted that Google Custom search is now not working on here.......I havent touched it and all it is is Google code embedded....hmmm............

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    Xenforo or watever, thats what the dorks over on ocau are using, its quite fast & clean
    https://www.facebook.com/philquad68

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    i don't know enough about either so go with what you consider is the best option

  • #14
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    Go with anything that's against Nazi's and dictatorship. I had enough of Google this week, had enough of governments or other sticking their business in our lives. Even if it cost a little most of us can contribute a little.

  • #15
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    I have upgraded us to the final VB4 version, and will have to change us over to HTTPS very shortly rather than wait until we move over to Xenforo.

    As well as Google carrying on, Paypal are as well so if I dont do it by the end of this month, we have zero income as they will block our Paypal integration.

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    Due to above (Google and Paypal forcing it) I am currently switching us to https. Any problems , post them here, but probably give it a while if not urgent as I sort out any hiccups.

  • #17
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    Its going to be fun finding all the links I have manually added that are http

  • #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by admin View Post
    Its going to be fun finding all the links I have manually added that are http
    Cool, don't worry, if you miss any someone will let you know; not me of course. lol.

    I can see why the need to go https though, even my browser is warning on every page that some content is blocked, but I'm still auto logged in & seeing everything ATM I think.


    Unblock and allow insecure content

    If you are browsing on an encrypted connection (, Opera checks to ensure that all parts of the site are encrypted. If Opera detects that any live elements of the page, for example scripts, plugins, or frames, are being served by an open connection (, it will block the insecure content. This means parts of the page may not display properly.
    Opera advises against allowing insecure content to load into an encrypted connection. The best way to protect your sensitive information is to interact only with secure content. When Opera detects insecure content and blocks it, a warning will appear in the right side of the combined address and search bar.
    If you do not care about the security of your connection with the site, you can click the warning to show an Unblock button. This button will allow the blocked content to be loaded onto the page, and the security badge will change to show an open padlock, reminding you that you've allowed insecure content to display on an encrypted connection.
    Last edited by Tiny; 11-04-18 at 07:10 PM.
    Cheers, Tiny
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    This is the problem, I get the same with Chrome (and no doubt all browsers show the same)....for example images with postimage.org are not https which is why its going to be extremely hard.

    At least your message is nicer than Chromes which tells people not to use credit cards on this site because it could be stolen by attackers !

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    Default Problem(s) with Austech Web page?

    FIRST, is this the correct place to report these issues?

    ISSUE #1) I just tried to logon to austech and I get an vbulletin message that says . . .

    "Invalid redirect url (http://www.austech.info/?tabid=2)"

    My logon name and password are removed from above, but yet if I click on "new posts" page actually does redirect to "new posts" and "cmangle" now appears above where it should be!


    ISSUE #2) "Post Image" no longer appears at the end of any thread or in advance posting (which means i can't post the screen shot of the vbulletin message above), and if I click on any image, there's no redirect to the web page postimage.org, and the picture/image does NOT appear, but I do get an error message that says . . .

    "This site cannot be reached" . . . "postimg.org's server IP address could not be found"

    BTW, I tried logging on from two different machines user different browsers, Opera, QupZilla and Internet Explorer and the same results!

    Any input on my issues from anyone?

    Thanks chris
    Last edited by cmangle; 12-04-18 at 08:54 AM.

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