Moving forums to XenForo

[Tynan]

It's been suggested that we move the forums to XenForo and off of SMF.

I'm open to the idea. The software does seem a bit more modern, and it has features that allow content management. For example, this is how the StarBound forums do their mod listing.

So a few things:

1. What do you guys think? Good idea?

2. Can anyone help or offer advice on how to move over properly? The simplest thing seems to be to install XenForo alongside SMF, freeze these forums, and let discussions migrate over. However, it would be great if we could import some of the content too. I just don't know how that's possible.

[Cala13er]

I think the Starbound forums are absolutely horrendous. I think if RimWorld forums looked like starbounds from the start, I would never of joined it.

Especially their mod listing.

[Darkfirephoenix]

I do like our forum atm better.... The ability to sort however is nice... I can't decide...

[Pirx Danford]

I very much like the fresh take on forums that discourse is offering.
http://www.discourse.org/

Two forums that are using it:
http://discourse.stonehearth.net/
and
http://forum.kingdomcomerpg.com/

[Vas]

I think the Starbound forums are absolutely horrendous. I think if RimWorld forums looked like starbounds from the start, I would never of joined it.

Especially their mod listing.

Can you explain why the XenForo system is so bad?  I absolutely love it.  I get notifications when a mod is updated, I don't  have to check each day to see if a mod was updated or not.  I get friendly little notifications in the top corner for everything I subscribe to notifications for.

Private message chats are very easy, and can include multiple people.

The system is smooth and efficient with handling large numbers of people.

The resource system is especially my favorite, as I mentioned before how it tells you when a user updates.  It also allows you to rate mods, each time it's updated even so you can rate each update.  You can review the mod, and discuss the mod right in the mod page.  One of my mods as an example.

So tell me, where is the system "horrendous" at?  Aside from the cost of it.

What is horrendous, is SMF 2.0's new PM system which is absolutely terrible.  All your messages are displayed on the same screen, you can't individually open a single PM to read it.  Not like it used to be.  I use SMF myself on my own site, but I absolutely love XenForo's system much better.  Even though SMF is easier to mod, it's losing out to newer age forums and no one is really making mods for it anymore and they aren't making it any better.  It's all just security updates really.

I very much like the fresh take on forums that discourse is offering.
http://www.discourse.org/

Well, that certainly is a minimalistic forum.    It doesn't offer much in the way of making things easier for a modding community. You still gotta edit your own post every day and try to keep up with your change logs and everything, deleting older versions of your mod all the time.  With XenForo, you can leave older versions of your mod there for people who want to download a previous version and you don't even need to do anything to do that.



For those wondering, I am the one who suggested it.  I would like to see the forum upgraded to a nicer system, but I also would like the move to be as smooth as possible (which is hard considering how completely different both forums are).

I also want Tynan to make sure he likes the system before hand because again, it is $140 for the forum software alone, +$60 to get the resource manager.  Life time licenses and such though.

From what I saw, people make themes for it, but each theme costs between $30-$40 too which is odd so you could make your own if you knew how.  There is a built in editor to help with this.

For those interested, I set up this demo; http://7eb11e3d3b9a0d4f.demo-xenforo.com/130/index.php (Demo expires May 4th)

[Tynan]

You can change how the SMF PMs work so they go on individual pages.

The money isn't a big issue; $200 is a small business expense.

[Celthric Aysen]

im kinda used to XenForo, so for me its a good idea, it has alot of good features, but please don't do what starbound did with the modding community, its horrible. but other then that it should be good, its like upgrading from windows xp to windows 7, people didn't like it first but they git used to, so... yeah sure why not?

[Tynan]

What did they do with the modding community, exactly?

[Celthric Aysen]

This
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/
it looks like crap and shouldn't even exist,
i would like to keep my mods in my own proper thread,and not with this bullcrap thank you very much. (god the reasons why i left the starbound forums)

[longbyte1]

Although I like XenForo for its features and CMS, the layout is as bland as nutrient paste, especially when you browse more than one XenForo-powered website, like Bukkit and Spigotcraft. The only real difference are the colors, and that's about it.

I'd just prefer a seamless migration to vBulletin. It has a lot of admin plugins, including antispam and blogs and such, and from what I've heard, there are a great number of things that you can customize. Or you can move to phpBB, but it may not have a lot of features. (The Build and Shoot community has used phpBB since its conception, and it grew to about 32,000 by the end of 2013. Today, it's almost doubled to 61,000.)

[kidak]

I like the demo I check this on my phone a lot and it looks nice on my phone so I am cool with the change.

[Vas]

This
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/
it looks like crap and shouldn't even exist,
i would like to keep my mods in my own proper thread,and not with this bullcrap thank you very much. (god the reasons why i left the starbound forums)

You do realize, threads still exist.  Right?  I love the resources system.  Much more organized than random threads in a board.  Displays better information and all the other reasons I listed before.

Take for example, my first mod:
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/music-station.871/ - is the mod info page where you can download, rate, review, and there are buttons to see previous versions of the mod and discuss it.
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/music-station.62522/ is the discussion link, it takes you to a THREAD.  A forum topic.  Where you can discuss the mod like normal.
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?forums/musical-instruments.124/ - this is the forum where my mod was posted automatically when I had uploaded it to the resource manager.

If you want to discuss mods in a thread like post manner, just click discussion on each mod.  I still can't see how that whole system is bad, you'll have to explain that one to me.  As a modder, I found this system very easy for me and made it much nicer uploading my mods and updating my mods.  It also allows me to leave an older version of my mod up in case someone has an issue with a newer version, they can simply go back to a different version.

[Celthric Aysen]

This
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/
it looks like crap and shouldn't even exist,
i would like to keep my mods in my own proper thread,and not with this bullcrap thank you very much. (god the reasons why i left the starbound forums)

You do realize, threads still exist.  Right?  I love the resources system.  Much more organized than random threads in a board.  Displays better information and all the other reasons I listed before.

Take for example, my first mod:
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/music-station.871/ - is the mod info page where you can download, rate, review, and there are buttons to see previous versions of the mod and discuss it.
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/music-station.62522/ is the discussion link, it takes you to a THREAD.  A forum topic.  Where you can discuss the mod like normal.
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?forums/musical-instruments.124/ - this is the forum where my mod was posted automatically when I had uploaded it to the resource manager.

If you want to discuss mods in a thread like post manner, just click discussion on each mod.  I still can't see how that whole system is bad, you'll have to explain that one to me.  As a modder, I found this system very easy for me and made it much nicer uploading my mods and updating my mods.  It also allows me to leave an older version of my mod up in case someone has an issue with a newer version, they can simply go back to a different version.

God...
Im about to puke.
I mean no disrespect Vas,
But i strongly Dislike the way they handle mods, its freaking confusing!
and Ugly!

[longbyte1]

The money isn't a big issue; $200 is a small business expense.

Please... no ads!

[Neone]

I like SMF

And for me having two forums alongside (one with old stuff and one for new stuff) is worst idea ever. It might be a killer for community.