Regretting a platform switch

[Shawn Gossman]

Have any of you ever switched your forum platform/software only to regret it afterwards?

If so, what was your platform and what did you switch it to?

Why did you switch in the first place? What made your regret it?

What was the final action? Did you switch back or deal with the new platform?

 

[Cedric]

To be honest, I was fed up with XenForo’s attitud, lack of development, empty promises, etc which pushed me back to my former favorite — Invision. I didn’t really enjoy the IPB4 era, so my switch from IPB to XenForo in 2013 made sense at the time; XF was thriving back then. But since Invision released v5, it’s been so promising I just couldn’t ignore it. That made the migration decision a lot easier. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t question myself at first, but I haven’t looked back or had any regrets since.

 

[Tracy]

If I could get the equivalent to XenAddon's offerings from Invision... I'd have kicked Xenforo to the curb a while ago even with the wishy-washy answers to length of self-hosting from Invision. But even with Pages, I cannot duplicate what I have without investing upwards of $10K+. And for a hobby site that brings in zero money that is a non-starter.
So I struggle onward on a script that is currently being developed either by incompetents or liars.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

So I struggle onward on a script that is currently being developed either by incompetents or liars.

For a guy who sure hates XF staff, you do seem to depend on them. If they went belly under and shut down, you'd be kind of screwed.

Not saying this to piss you off.

But I just think you should cut your losses on feature and move on to a different software if you can't stand them that much.

Are your members on your forum for you or those features? They might understand if you need to move to another platform losing a few features in the process.

 

[Shortie]

I can't say I have ever switched a platform that I have used for my forums and then regretted it later. For the most part, I made changes from free software to new free software, for example, I went from phpBB to MyBB when that was released, and from MyBB I went to vBulletin. When Xenforo was released, I moved to Xenforo and have never looked back.

 

[Tracy]

For a guy who sure hates XF staff, you do seem to depend on them. If they went belly under and shut down, you'd be kind of screwed.

Not really. I can get by on the current script I have and have plenty of time to look for alternatives. Hell, I know of several sites that are still on the 1.x line of Xenforo. You don't have to have the "latest and greatest".
Where I would be screwed is if XenAddons shut down. If they did, then I'd definitely be looking at other options more closely.
I've honestly contemplated going to a more static style platform, but there is no one offering that does it all sadly.

And it's not all staff that I dislike. What I dislike is the path the current person(s) in charge have led them down isn't one that I see as beneficial to them. Their lack of communications to their license holders. Their inability to keep even a modicum of what they promise as to timeline and their inability to simply say that they blew it because XXXX or YYYY came up and had caused issues.

And I have a feeling it's not an "if" for them, but a "when". I have conversations with numerous admins that have been in the forum world for years via another discussion medium. And several of them that are also XF license holders are beginning to question the path that XF has been going down and if it starting to replicate vBulletins path.

But I just think you should cut your losses on feature and move on to a different software if you can't stand them that much.

That's like saying that if you disagree with Trump you should leave the Republican party. Kind of a stupid position to take actually. The only way to get change is to try to be vocal about it. As I have stated, Xenforo is a great script. It's just that the current XF leadership is repeatedly shooting themselves in the crank with their actions that are even now beginning to have some of their stoutest cheerleaders starting to question the path/actions being taken and how the license holders seem to be ignored on requests for features.
It is also well known that the "suggestion" area on the XF site is more a pablum for the users. But with high voted suggestions having been out there for going on a decade and still being ignored folks are also starting to realize that it's not worth the waste of time to even make suggestions.