Have the administrators considered upgrading to Xenforo?

[Redwell]

Just wondering. This vBulletin layout is pretty, but XenForo offers a lot more functionality with little extra work. I see your contact is expiring this year, so this might be something to consider.

[Yoda]

Yeah, I took notice of XenForo when it was first announced, because it was developed by the same people who made vBulletin (what we're using now) back in it's hey day. It's interesting you mention functionality and aesthetics, because my impression is usually the other way: vBulletin is more fully-featured (as is to be expected for a product that's been around longer), but XenForo is better-designed. I do think this site is unusually pretty, but that's because it looks nothing like the vBulletin base installation now.

And that ties into the really important point: this copy of vBulletin is customized to the hilt. All the content areas you see are tied into it, and all the favorite movies, quizzes, lists, etc., are customized features integrated with the forum, so any switch in software would mean a major downgrade in features, followed by a ton of work to get even a handful of them rewritten.

By contract expiring, I assume you mean the copyright notice in the footer; that's actually just an automatically generated year. We have an owned license which we can use indefinitely.

Appreciate the suggestion, though. It's still a leap we may take someday, though it'd have to be at a point where XenForo is offering some pretty substantial improvements that we can't otherwise get.

[Fabulous]

This is the best forum I've been a part of in every category.

[Redwell]

Yeah, I took notice of XenForo when it was first announced, because it was developed by the same people who made vBulletin (what we're using now) back in it's hey day. It's interesting you mention functionality and aesthetics, because my impression is usually the other way: vBulletin is more fully-featured (as is to be expected for a product that's been around longer), but XenForo is better-designed. I do think this site is unusually pretty, but that's because it looks nothing like the vBulletin base installation now.

And that ties into the really important point: this copy of vBulletin is customized to the hilt. All the content areas you see are tied into it, and all the favorite movies, quizzes, lists, etc., are customized features integrated with the forum, so any switch in software would mean a major downgrade in features, followed by a ton of work to get even a handful of them rewritten.

By contract expiring, I assume you mean the copyright notice in the footer; that's actually just an automatically generated year. We have an owned license which we can use indefinitely.

Appreciate the suggestion, though. It's still a leap we may take someday, though it'd have to be at a point where XenForo is offering some pretty substantial improvements that we can't otherwise get.
Very insightful post. The main differences that I've noticed here are small tbh. The limitations of the mobile version of the text editor, tiny avatars, slim support for embedding media (only YouTube), and small things that probably only I care about as a mobile user lol.

MovieForums is easily the best designed vBulletin that I've ever seen, but my time with a custom XenForo built in the past year has spoiled me immensely. The responsiveness on mobile is insane.

That said, I agree that the labor that has been spent here outweighs those benefits at the present.

[Yoda]

Hmm, are you getting the mobile version of the site, or the full version, when you use your phone? Either way, any objection to me sending you a message and picking your brain a bit about it? There might be some low hanging fruit regarding the mobile responsiveness you mention.

[Redwell]

Hmm, are you getting the mobile version of the site, or the full version, when you use your phone? Either way, any objection to me sending you a message and picking your brain a bit about it? There might be some low hanging fruit regarding the mobile responsiveness you mention.
Sure, hit my PMs.

I'm getting the mobile version, but I feel like it sacrifices some functionality. I'm no expert, but I could show you the XenForo I'm talking about. I'm also in touch with the people who built it.

[Citizen Rules]

Please don't mess with perfection! This site looks far better than most any other site! Most sites are clogged up with superfluous do-dads and crap running down the sides of the page. Worst of all are sites that relay on frames where the top bar follows you around as you scroll down the page. That reduces the 'real estate' of the area being viewed.

MoFo is perfect as it is! Oh please, don't radically change it.

[Yoda]

Sure, hit my PMs.

I'm getting the mobile version, but I feel like it sacrifices some functionality. I'm no expert, but I could show you the XenForo I'm talking about. I'm also in touch with the people who built it.
Cool, will do.

Please don't mess with perfection! This site looks far better than most any other site! Most sites are clogged up with superfluous do-dads and crap running down the sides of the page. Worst of all are sites that relay on frames where the top bar follows you around as you scroll down the page. That reduces the 'real estate' of the area being viewed.

MoFo is perfect as it is! Oh please, don't radically change it.
No radical changes coming. And I share your frustration with those fixed position headers...with the exception of tablet-optimized versions of sites. The MoFo version of that (which, admittedly, should have been released a long time ago) will probably have something of the sort, though it won't be on the desktop version and I promise to keep it small. :)

[The Rodent]

I was here when the changeover happened from the old layout to this one.


The old one was a basic forum in aesthetic... this thing though is totally different. Some major work went into MoFo a couple years back.


Best site on the web by a long way and still being tweaked with and improved as the days go on :D


Yods, didn't you guys actually buy out a purpose made server a while back?

[Yoda]

I started leasing a dedicated server (meaning the only things on it are my own sites) a few months before the redesign, yeah. Hasn't crashed in over two years, and what little downtime there's been has been me fiddling with settings carelessly. :D