ISPreview Site Status Update – New Discussion Forum

Over the last week we’ve replaced ISPreview’s discussion forum system (previously based off vBulletin’s software) with a new one, which is now more closely integrated into the website’s design.

The old vB system was no longer being properly supported and the natural upgrade path for that software was not to our suiting for all sorts of reasons. Instead we’ve long planned to adopt XenForo, although until now finding the time has been difficult (other R&D took priority). Thankfully we have finally allocated the necessary resources and the process only took about six weeks to prep, test and migrate. Thanks to Kits and Timeless for their help.

The new software is quite different from the last one and went live a week ago, although since then I’ve been making tweaks in order to get the best performance out of it. Anybody who uses our public discussion forums may find various new features that didn’t exist before and the new forum is also much more mobile friendly than the old one.

I’ve also changed the default forum style a fair bit so as to simplify things and thus to make it as familiar as possible for users of the old forum. All existing member data has naturally been migrated across to the new system, so nothing has changed on that side.

One key change is that ‘Private Messages’ on the forum have now been replaced by ‘Conversations’. If you ever want to delete a convo then you do so by simply ‘leaving’ the conversation (i.e. there’s no delete button, which is a bit confusing for first time users of XF). Likewise, if you need to edit your profile then just click your username / icon in the top navigation bar on any forum page and a drop-down list will appear with all the options.

Obviously this update only applies to those who use our forum software, while these days most visitors prefer the ease of access afforded by news comments. However forums are useful for when you want to discuss your own topic or experience, instead of merely reacting to one created by ISPreview.