After an arduous switchover, the site is up and running on XenForo. The Caf has bid farewell to vBulletin after nearly 10 years and I'm very excited about this new platform for the site.
XenForo is a modern, slick forum that will make using the site more enjoyable for everyone. Yes, no doubt there will be some teething problems as everyone gets to grips with the various differences compared to vBulletin, but I'm sure that will pass quickly enough.
A few things to note about the new setup:
If you have any issues or questions about the new site, please post in here or start a conversation with me.
Happy XenForoing!
XenForo is a modern, slick forum that will make using the site more enjoyable for everyone. Yes, no doubt there will be some teething problems as everyone gets to grips with the various differences compared to vBulletin, but I'm sure that will pass quickly enough.
A few things to note about the new setup:
- The Blog, Podcast and Wiki are no more. These sections have stagnated for quite a while and weren't adding any real value to the site. I am going to look into brining the Wiki content back in some format but it's not a priority.
- Search is currently disabled as we setup a separate search server, there wasn't time before the migration. It should be up and running in the next few days.
- Private Messages are now called Conversations and behave very much like threads, with each message in the conversation appearing in chronological order. A limitation of the vBulletin import is that the existing conversations aren't threaded, but all future conversations you participate in, will be.
- For Newbies, the reputation points system now uses 'Likes'. Admins and Moderators will now like specific posts and once you reach 10 likes, you will be promoted. Existing reputation points have been converted to likes, with each positive reputation award equaling 1 like.
- Profile statuses - this is a feature I disabled in vBulletin but have decided to enable in on XenForo and see how it goes. You can post a status for your profile, much like a Tweet, and people can comment on it. Go to your profile page to see it.
- Again on avatars - the default XenForo style makes extensive use of avatars, but the no avatar policy hasn't changed on this site. This red themed, redcafe style, has been modified to remove avatars from all templates but I may have missed a few. So if you see a little grey box with a question mark in it, that's a placeholder avatar. Please let me know if you come across one of these so I can remove it.
- XenForo has a powerful 'Alerts' feature that will inform you when other users quote you, reply to topics you're watching and more. This is definitely one of the best new features.
- For those select few who had avatars, I'm afraid they are no more, sorry! I may look at allowing certain users to have them in the future, but it's not a priority atm.
- There are still various tweaks I need to make so the odd feature here and there may appear / disappear
If you have any issues or questions about the new site, please post in here or start a conversation with me.
Happy XenForoing!
