Packer Forum has been on vBulletin for a very long time and it was a tough decision to move this site away from a system that we ALL have grown so fond of. I have touched on the obvious reason to switch which usually resulted in me talking about some of the cool features of the new platform, which I will get into later on in this articles. But the main reason we are switching is to secure this site with a platform that is going to be viable for the next 5-10 years. (new CBA new forum software, lol)
vBulletin was once a great company that provided excellent customer service and products. Heck, I even recommended vBulletin to a few members on this site. I guess you could call me a "fanboy" of sort who blindly followed said company for years. But when the next best thing presented itself, I had to AT LEAST evaluate the software and see what it had to offer. Quite frankly, I was blown away. This software is awesome! Here's why:
Upgrading does not require people to reset their passwords. One of the MOST annoying problems with upgrading to a new forum software is requiring your members to reset their password via their email address. Some members will no longer have a working email address and it is a massive headache on both sides to get everyone back on track.
Facebook integration is ACTUALLY Facebook integration. XenForo makes it easy for new members to register with their Facebook account with a few clicks. And existing members can hook up their Facebook account to their existing accounts.
XenForo is FAAAASSSSTTT!!!! Without getting to much into the technical details, XenForo has about 65% less queries then the most current version of vBulletin. And when you run a number of sites on one server, you need those sites to be AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.
News Feeds on Things You Want! Now you can build a news feed based off the people you follow. (used to be "friends in vBulletin) Before we had friends and that was just cool to tag people as your friend but you never really got anything out of it. Now you can view a specific news feed JUST of the people you follow and get right to the important content!
Conversations > Private Messages Conversation are basically a private thread between 2 or more people. XenForo adds some cool function to be able to bring outside parties INTO conversation and you will not have a cluttered inbox when I conversation gets 20+ replies. Makes sense right???
Cool Bells & Whistles Are.... Cool! This might be something a few of us take for granted, but a sweet text editor when posting a thread/post and have it work across all browsers was a big problem for vBulletin. (well until recently, but it is still bad) XenForo takes care of that problem. And for you search engine techies, XenForo takes care of all that for us! More sliding widgets and popups menus that make using this software a breeze.
That is about all I got for right now, but here are a couple things you guys should check out on your own and to improve your experience:
That is all I got for right now. You can post some replies if you have questions about the new software or if you have suggestions, I am all ears!
vBulletin was once a great company that provided excellent customer service and products. Heck, I even recommended vBulletin to a few members on this site. I guess you could call me a "fanboy" of sort who blindly followed said company for years. But when the next best thing presented itself, I had to AT LEAST evaluate the software and see what it had to offer. Quite frankly, I was blown away. This software is awesome! Here's why:
Upgrading does not require people to reset their passwords. One of the MOST annoying problems with upgrading to a new forum software is requiring your members to reset their password via their email address. Some members will no longer have a working email address and it is a massive headache on both sides to get everyone back on track.
Facebook integration is ACTUALLY Facebook integration. XenForo makes it easy for new members to register with their Facebook account with a few clicks. And existing members can hook up their Facebook account to their existing accounts.
XenForo is FAAAASSSSTTT!!!! Without getting to much into the technical details, XenForo has about 65% less queries then the most current version of vBulletin. And when you run a number of sites on one server, you need those sites to be AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.
News Feeds on Things You Want! Now you can build a news feed based off the people you follow. (used to be "friends in vBulletin) Before we had friends and that was just cool to tag people as your friend but you never really got anything out of it. Now you can view a specific news feed JUST of the people you follow and get right to the important content!
Conversations > Private Messages Conversation are basically a private thread between 2 or more people. XenForo adds some cool function to be able to bring outside parties INTO conversation and you will not have a cluttered inbox when I conversation gets 20+ replies. Makes sense right???
Cool Bells & Whistles Are.... Cool! This might be something a few of us take for granted, but a sweet text editor when posting a thread/post and have it work across all browsers was a big problem for vBulletin. (well until recently, but it is still bad) XenForo takes care of that problem. And for you search engine techies, XenForo takes care of all that for us! More sliding widgets and popups menus that make using this software a breeze.
That is about all I got for right now, but here are a couple things you guys should check out on your own and to improve your experience:
- Update Your Avatar to Utilize New Features (click here)
- Update Your Signature (click here)
- Update Your Privacy Settings (click here)
- Connect Your Facebook Account (click here)
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That is all I got for right now. You can post some replies if you have questions about the new software or if you have suggestions, I am all ears!