XF is still a small player in the forum software market; vBulletin is by far the largest by a substantial margin. The demise of vBulletin has been predicted by the wishful thinkers for the last few yrs and given the recent problems over at XF, don't get your hopes up. The version of XF used here at DP is heavily modded and not the 'out-of-the-box' version of XF ....
I think vB started declining after Kier left. Scott and Mike had already gone. Once the core developers were pushed out, that was it for vB as far as I was concerned.
v Bulletin was developed before the birth of DP. So if DP switched to XenForo then why should VBulletin loose his business. Warriorforum and other big discussion board is still using vBulletin so I don't think vBulletin gonna loose their customers.
Hmm...webmaster forum...webmaster wanna be's come here "to learn". They are influenced by what this site uses. Sees it isn't Vbulletin, looks at Xenforo...buys Xenforo instead of Vbulletin. Or maybe never heard of Vbulletin and only sees this site is on Xenforo...checks it out, buys it. There could be other scenarios as well...... I mean, how many people actually come here? TONS! A few hundred thousand uniques a day? Maybe a million uniques a day? Just because "warriorforum" (whoever that is) is on vb, doesn't mean they have influencing power on future webmasters/future forum owners. I can see dp influencing a number of people. Enough to make a dent in sales? Unlikely...but say its about 10 sales a month (reasonable but likely would be higher), that's around 20 grand a year. Enough to hire 2 more of their terrible Chinese/Indian coders (maybe 3? lol).
yeah i really dont see VB going anywhere soon.. But that being said, i can see XF growing! Theres lots of forum scripts avaliable and i have certainly tried most of the top contenders (not xf yet).. I have been lucky enough OR UNLUCKY for those who have had experienced to have had forums with 100ks visitors Personally VB was only used because it was so solid! I found it leaps ahead of free forum scripts at the time.. but this was when VB was about the only paid script worth having! If nothing else XF is just another forum script to make VB pull the socks up and vice verse From the front end, i have to say I LIKE XF! And would certainly give it a go if i was looking for a new script.. I dont think this or any other forum really influences choices, its normaly COST v FEATURES v STABLITY
Why would vbulletin die off because DP owner Shawn moved to another forum software that he had his eye on for well over a year? It's a personal preference in using a forum software and also the price comes into play as well. What if vbulletin is working on another secret upgrade that will blow xenforo software out of this world?
xenforo is not bad for a forums software, but vbulletin have a good taste of Big forums style and xenforo just like phpbb and mybb formated. (just make me shocked alot about what happen to DP)
Yes, I think it will make the difference after seeing DP is using XenForo, many would think of using this software. G!
It is very risky to migrate to xenforo for an established site without knowing how the court will decide in the xenforo case. I actually bought a xenforo license about a year ago but I am not using it until there is light at the end of the tunnel for xenforo.
If you're buying platforms cause someone else is using/not using them, then you have a big problem. I have started using XF last year with my admin forum. VERY pleased with it. I do have some VBs too, but I am more pleased with XF. Happy to see Digital Point are on XF, it looks more 'user friendly' and made me want to post more, but I don't base my buying on the fact x or y use or not use the script. Test the things, see which platform works for you and move on. The script is just a part of a successful forum
After using DP with XF, I feel quite weird when I browse other IM forum which are using VB. Although forum like WF or IMT have their unique VB theme, which makes me feel quite good.
That was certainly not the reason. First of all I wanted to check if the script suits my demands. Then I ran a test migration with all of my database content to see if the transition would work smoothly. In general a migration should be well planned in advance, otherwise the whole process could easily turn out in a disaster.