Heartland Owners Forum is moving to a new platform soon!

[jbeletti]

Hello Heartland Owners Forum members,

This forum has been running on a forum software platform called vBulletin (vB) since October 2004. In that time, we've upgraded to the various versions of vBulletin until v4.x reached it's end-of-life. We held off moving to vB5 as it was a marked departure that at the time, I didn't feel we (users, admins and mods) were ready for. Since then, enter, Xenforo.

Xenforo in our opinion represents the best-fit for our requirements. We've spun-up a new webhost and we've been running Xenforo on it for a few months. Recently, we did a test import of all of our vBulletin users, posts, attachments etc. The import was a success!

What should be the same?

• The layout / organization of the content (forums, sub-forums) should remain largely unchanged
• Usernames and account data should be retained
• Passwords (which are encrypted and not known to forum operators) - we're unsure but hopeful the encrypted table can be imported but we're unsure today. Worst case, a process will be identified for users to get into their accounts
• Heartland Owners Manuals and Heartland Owners Userguides (HOM and HOG) will be retained and we hope to have them added shortly after cut-over

What will change?

• The look (colors) will be a bit different
• We are deprecating (not bringing back) some features, most of which were custom coded
• For Chapter Leaders, the Event Creator tool will be absent. We will be developing a template within Xenforo to use for event creation. It will be different but should be very functional and adequate
• Other stuff that we don't know yet - sorry

What is the timing of the cut-over to Xenforo?

• It's my goal to be cut-over to it within the next 30 days (April 15 latest)

Questions?

• Ask away - we'll do our best to answer.

 

[Dahillbilly]

Change is normally good, time will tell

 

[jbeletti]

Change is normally good, time will tell

Agree!

The current forum has served us well for going on 17 years. I'm hopeful Xenforo will serve us well for at least that same amount of time.

 

[LBR]

Hello Heartland Owners Forum members,

This forum has been running on a forum software platform called vBulletin (vB) since October 2004. In that time, we've upgraded to the various versions of vBulletin until v4.x reached it's end-of-life. We held off moving to vB5 as it was a marked departure that at the time, I didn't feel we (users, admins and mods) were ready for. Since then, enter, Xenforo.

Xenforo in our opinion represents the best-fit for our requirements. We've spun-up a new webhost and we've been running Xenforo on it for a few months. Recently, we did a test import of all of our vBulletin users, posts, attachments etc. The import was a success!

What should be the same?

• The layout / organization of the content (forums, sub-forums) should remain largely unchanged
• Usernames and account data should be retained
• Passwords (which are encrypted and not known to forum operators) - we're unsure but hopeful the encrypted table can be imported but we're unsure today. Worst case, a process will be identified for users to get into their accounts
• Heartland Owners Manuals and Heartland Owners Userguides (HOM and HOG) will be retained and we hope to have them added shortly after cut-over

What will change?

• The look (colors) will be a bit different
• We are deprecating (not bringing back) some features, most of which were custom coded
• For Chapter Leaders, the Event Creator tool will be absent. We will be developing a template within Xenforo to use for event creation. It will be different but should be very functional and adequate
• Other stuff that we don't know yet - sorry

What is the timing of the cut-over to Xenforo?

• It's my goal to be cut-over to it within the next 30 days (April 15 latest)

Questions?

• Ask away - we'll do our best to answer.

There will be a few minor bumps in the road after migrating to Xenforo from VBulletin as expected. I manage a few UTV sites for the Toronto based VerticalScope who has been migrating several hundred of their holdings since 2018/2019. The web version is very powerful for all Admins/Moderators who use mobile devices for their chores.

The biggest stumbling block has been educating members who don't wish to cope with "change" very well..lol. Maneuvering within the new platform is definitely different, but once accepted, members like it better than VBulletin....my 2¢ worth.

 

[jbeletti]

There will be a few minor bumps in the road after migrating to Xenforo from VBulletin as expected. I manage a few UTV sites for the Toronto based VerticalScope who has been migrating several hundred of their holdings since 2018/2019. The web version is very powerful for all Admins/Moderators who use mobile devices for their chores.

The biggest stumbling block has been educating members who don't wish to cope with "change" very well..lol. Maneuvering within the new platform is definitely different, but once accepted, members like it better than VBulletin....my 2¢ worth.

Thank you for your 2¢. It was worth $1 or more to me

I agree that user acceptance will be the biggest hurdle (it's different, I don't like it, why did you change etc.). We'll do our best to educate, train and assist users (once we learn it ourselves). I'm encouraged to hear you say that the move to Xenforo is the right move over vBulletin.

 

[jayc]

Do you think that this might be the reason that I must continually have to sign into the forum? My password is saved, so all I must do is click on the sign-in button. I have gotten used to it now.

 

[jbeletti]

Do you think that this might be the reason that I must continually have to sign into the forum? My password is saved, so all I must do is click on the sign-in button. I have gotten used to it now.

Jay - I don't think so. I think you are having a browser cache issue. Let's work on this at Fredericksburg. I'll have you try on my computer and in various browers and see what happens.

 

[jayc]

Sounds good Jim!