lilHonda Migrating to Xenforo on 7/14/17 @ midnight

Tiedgen

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
On Friday, July 14th from midnight to 3:00 AM (EST), I will be migrating the lilHonda forums from vBulletin to Xenforo. I expect the outage to last at least an hour, but possibly more. Once the migration is complete, I will reopen the lilHonda forums. In the coming weeks and months, you'll likely notice small changes as we work out the bugs.


Why?



vBulletin is on its last legs and has no future; and has trended this way since the company was sold. The version we are currently on (v4) is many years old and has been End of Lifed (no more updates following 4.2.5). vB5 is not an option and most forum administrators have already opted for the only logical replacement: Xenforo.


Xenforo is in active development, and has a pretty strong community behind it. It's also somewhat similar to vBulletin in behavior/feel. In fact, two of the lead developers used to work for vBulletin before it was sold to Internet Brands.


I'm sure the migration will be traumatic for some, but rest assured, it will be worth it! :)


  • All existing forums, threads, posts, PMs, profile posts, user galleries, usergroups, users, permissions, and likes/thanks will be imported.
  • One large difference will be the location of the forums. The new software will reside at the root (lilhonda.com), no longer lilhonda.com/webboard. However, URL redirection scripts will be in place to redirect users coming from google search results or personal bookmarks; this should cut down on almost all of the 404 errors. After a few weeks of indexing the new location, google will slowly update their search results. However, I do suggest that users update any bookmarked threads and/or posts they may have to reflect the new forum path, because eventually, the old software will be uninstalled and completely removed from the server.

New features that were not present in the previous software (vBulletin):
  • Increased security and password hashing
  • Facebook / Twitter / Google account linking & integration. If you are a new user, you can sign up by using any of those methods. If you had a profile already, you can now link your social media account to your profile to allow for sharing of content across various platforms.
  • New content type called "Resources" - The XenForo Resource Manager is an add-on that allows you to manage resources such as files and tutorials or other article-like content along side your normal forum. The aim is allow content such as files to be listed with a focus on the initial content rather than discussion surrounding it.
  • New content type called "Media Gallery" - The XenForo Media Gallery is an add-on that allows you to create galleries of images and videos in your forum, organized into admin-defined categories or user-created albums.
  • Users can be alerted by putting the @ symbol in front of their username.
  • Threads can be tagged for keywords, and liked.
  • New platform agnostic styling & responsive design: vBulletin was/is not mobile friendly at all, xenforo was designed to work with any device from your phone to your tablet to your desktop
  • Stability & scalability. You should notice speed & other performance increases.
  • Private messages are now "conversations" (essentially private threads replacing your PMs). Messages and replies will be threaded, allowing you to refer to earlier ones easily, eliminating the need for inboxes & sent message folders.
  • More video media embedding is now supported. Youtube, Dailymotion, etc.
  • If you have previously read a thread, clicking on its title will take you to the first unread post.
  • We can now run the latest and greatest PHP 7.1.x (you should notice a significant increase in speed while browsing the forums)
  • And much much more.

I'm sure some of you will have questions and concerns regarding the upcoming migration, please feel free to submit them in this thread. I'll try to do my best to answer/address them.


Thanks,
Ben Tiedgen
lilHonda Owner
 
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scooter

Well-Known Member
First question - I mostly use Tapatalk to access the site from my iPhone. Does anything need to be done for the Tapatalk app to be able to connect?
 
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kirrbby

Well-Known Member
Ya I'm a little worried too I spose. Main thing for me is I don't want to lose the pics ive posted in the past.. Will they still be there? Where I left them?
 

Tiedgen

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
First question - I mostly use Tapatalk to access the site from my iPhone. Does anything need to be done for the Tapatalk app to be able to connect?

I should have addressed this in the initial announcement, but once the the migration is complete to the fully-responsive Xenforo platform, I will uninstall Tapatalk, and it WILL NOT be reinstalled for use with the new forums. From a forum owner's perspective, it is no longer advisable to use the Tapatalk plugin. Here are just a few reasons why (Please see this post: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/tapatalk-yes-or-no.66772/page-5) :


  • Xenforo is already fully responsive, and was designed for mobile, mostly eliminating the need for a separate application
  • Large security and privacy concerns with content posted using the TT application; this member and forum info resides on TT servers, as well as lilhonda
  • TT attempts to store attachments on their servers, not lilHonda
  • TT shows ads to users, and as a forum owner, I have absolutely no control over the monetization settings
  • TT does not show content from our other addons like the media gallery, resource manager, and premium memberships/vendors
  • TT does not show any custom styles or functionality, which means the highly customized site does not stand out from others
  • TT policy updates steadily move towards less control for webmasters and more control and benefits for Tapatalk.
  • Inconsistent user registration: Tapatalk ID or redirect to your native registration form? Custom question & answer challenge is not respected on Tapatalk's registration method
  • I have very little control of usergroup permissions
  • PUSH notifications for Xenforo can be implemented using other software

Until another mobile application solution comes along that addresses most of these concerns, I don't see us ever going back to a mobile app like Tapatalk. I would encourage users to give the new fully-responsive layout a chance before throwing in the towel. The Xenforo responsive layout is very intuitive and very fast

Thanks,
Ben
 
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Tiedgen

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Ya I'm a little worried too I spose. Main thing for me is I don't want to lose the pics ive posted in the past.. Will they still be there? Where I left them?

Not to worry, everything will be migrated over to the new platform, including all images, attachments, and member galleries.
 

kirrbby

Well-Known Member
Not to worry, everything will be migrated over to the new platform, including all images, attachments, and member galleries.

Including the pictures that were posted thru Tapatalk?

That is the only time I use Tapatalk is when I plan to add pics. They make it easy to post large, nice, pictures.
That is honestly the only use I have for Tapatalk, and the only reason I'll miss Tapatalk on this site...unless the new setup makes the same large, nice, pics easy to post.
 

Tiedgen

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Including the pictures that were posted thru Tapatalk?

That is the only time I use Tapatalk is when I plan to add pics. They make it easy to post large, nice, pictures.
That is honestly the only use I have for Tapatalk, and the only reason I'll miss Tapatalk on this site...unless the new setup makes the same large, nice, pics easy to post.


Yes, including the pictures that were posted using Tapatalk.. When you post using the Tapatalk app, the images are uploaded to an amazon cloud service that Tapatalk uses, and then links to in the post (no different than if you posted pictures using photobucket or a CDN). These links will transfer over without issue. However, if that service should ever fail or the product be discontinued, these images would disappear from the forum, leaving us with a lot of broken links. And I would have no recourse to restore them, because they were not hosted via our lilHonda server.. Again, just one of many concerns I have about continuing to use Tapatalk with Xenforo. Here is an example of one of those links (one of yours kirrbby): https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161115/a0bb61450e6bf23e7572c38f8b435e83.jpg

To the 2nd part of your question.. Yes, the new software makes it extremely easy to post large pictures or thumbnails from the website, regardless of screen size. This can be done with two to three taps of the index finger. Here are some screenshots (taken from my Nexus 6P Android device), and a teaser of the new responsive design:

lilHonda_xenforo_quickreply_1.pnglilHonda_xenforo_quickreply_2.pnglilHonda_xenforo_quickreply_3.png


Attaching these three images via vBulletin from my desktop computer took 10x longer than it would have taken to upload the same three images from my smartphone using the the new responsive lilHonda website.


Thanks,
Ben
 

kirrbby

Well-Known Member
Thanks Ben. That all sounds good. I do still worry about my pics tho, knowing that I have to count on TT.

Over on PM, one of the members had a problem with Photobucket, who changed their terms and asked him to pay $400. Of course he did not...and lost all of the pics in his threads. Sounds like TT could do that to me just as easily.
 

Tiedgen

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Thanks Ben. That all sounds good. I do still worry about my pics tho, knowing that I have to count on TT.

Over on PM, one of the members had a problem with Photobucket, who changed their terms and asked him to pay $400. Of course he did not...and lost all of the pics in his threads. Sounds like TT could do that to me just as easily.

That is certainly a valid concern. Best advice I can offer is to be certain to back up all media, and on multiple devices, if you can. In fact, once the new lilhonda site is live, I would suggest uploading your images into the media gallery under member galleries.

However, please remember that Tapatalk has grown significantly since it was first introduced, and with thousands of communities still using their services, I think it will be around for years to come. Of course, it never hurts to have a backup!
 

69ST

Well-Known Member
However, please remember that Tapatalk has grown significantly since it was first introduced, and with thousands of communities still using their services, I think it will be around for years to come. Of course, it never hurts to have a backup!

IDK, there's been a disturbing trend over the last few years...away from people owning their own work(!). Photobucket is just the latest poster child for corporate grade school playground pusher of the year...following in the (in)famous footsteps of Adobe, Microsoft, Godaddy, et al. All this "cloud based simplicity" starts off cheap, then it's pay up or lose your work. :spy:Psssst...hey, kid, first taste is free...come back and see me anytime you want more.

If you don't have your work (photos, spreadsheets, etc) on a physical storage device, you don't own it. PB has been around for years, too and they got big enough, apparently, to play extortion hardball. FYI, this didn't begin overnight...there were warning signs as far back as 3-4 years ago, at least. The terms were clearly spelled out in the "EULA"...all 4,887,015,943,002 pages of it. What, doesn't everyone read them all carefully?!:19: With (reportedly) 10M users 75% could tell them :fuck: and they still rake in a cool $billion gain. IMO, 128GB thumb drives are cheap and hold a lot of 10mp photos, which are easily 10X too big for all but the biggest desktop monitors.
 

red69

Well-Known Member
I never did like having someone else hold something I own, which includes tools and pictures. All my pics are on a backup drive of some sort and are accessible by me anytime I want. That's probably the safest way to keep what you own.
 

Travas2

New Member
And always keep backups of your backups, in a different location of course! Drives seem to take a crap at the worst possible times!
 

Tiedgen

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
lilHonda Logo v2

Since we're on the topic, I thought I'd throw this out there.. Here's a copy of the new lilHonda logo that I'm currently working on. It still needs some work and I'm not exactly on board with the color scheme, but any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

lilhonda_logo_v3_brown_bg.png

(click to see higher resolution)
 

kirrbby

Well-Known Member
Do you REALLY want to know? You may regret asking. There are a lot of opinions around here.

I have to say I don't particularly like it. It just isn't extraordinary to me.
 

Tiedgen

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
I agree about the colors. Do something else.

Not liking the beige...

I'm in agreement concerning the colors.. Here is a screenshot with logo and background on my local server, using the new Xenforo software and style. This is a lighter brown background than the attached image above. Determining the website color scheme will greatly influence the final logo. I prefer lighter styles for use during the day, but prefer darker ones (if available) at night. Much easier on the eyes, especially on a smartphone screen.

LH_Homepage_Screenshot_03.jpg


Here is a lighter blue/red example..

lilhonda_logo_v2_bluered.jpg


And a darker example..

lilhonda_logo_v2_dark.jpg
 
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