If you're visiting CoG for the first time today, or since this posting...yeah, it looks a little different. About that...
If you saw my CoGCast from last month, you know that there are significant changes coming to CoG. One of those is the version of vBulletin we are...were using. It's dated. It has security flaws. And the forum has had issues just staying online even during weeks when no one was really browsing the site.
The thing is, vBulletin has gone up in pricing the last few years. And the current version, vBulletin 5 (we were on 3.8), is dramatically different, and dramatically more expensive than vB3 ever was. It also doesn't have the greatest of reputations. Most of the additional features you may have been accustomed to were dated and buggy, and had no comparable version on vB5. And we were going to have to do something about all the security flaws at some point. In comes xenForo.
Long story short, xenForo is a forum script developed by one of the lead developers who originally made vB3 the solid and long last product it ended up being. I purchased it a couple of years ago for another project I ended up putting on hold for a while. And truthfully, it's a solid product. I'd argue more solid than vB5. (And more modern than the updated version of vB3 they also offer with the purchase of vB5.) And significantly less expensive in both the short and long term. Really, I've just been putting this off. As much work as I've put into the old version of the forums, it's not enough to justify hanging on to them. It's time for a change. Actually, if you give it a chance, xenForo is kinda awesome.
We're currently using the default skin, as I've not recreated our old one for xF just yet. I'll get around to that. You can switch to the skin I'm working on and watch the changes as they go. We have no add-ons, save for a Resource Manager, at the moment. Much needs to be updated, and you'll no doubt notice those quirks if you browse the forum any. I'll try to restore the more popular aspects of the forum, as best I can. But hopefully we can start working on some content for the site, and drive our membership up with that.
As other forum administrators are fond of saying, "Content is King". And, well, content-wise we've been more like a really lazy court jester. I believe we'll get there. In time.
If you missed my short CoGCast from last month, it's here and on the home page. I look somber, don't I? Peace. Chicken Grease. Della Reese. I'll see ya 'round the forums.
If you saw my CoGCast from last month, you know that there are significant changes coming to CoG. One of those is the version of vBulletin we are...were using. It's dated. It has security flaws. And the forum has had issues just staying online even during weeks when no one was really browsing the site.
The thing is, vBulletin has gone up in pricing the last few years. And the current version, vBulletin 5 (we were on 3.8), is dramatically different, and dramatically more expensive than vB3 ever was. It also doesn't have the greatest of reputations. Most of the additional features you may have been accustomed to were dated and buggy, and had no comparable version on vB5. And we were going to have to do something about all the security flaws at some point. In comes xenForo.
Long story short, xenForo is a forum script developed by one of the lead developers who originally made vB3 the solid and long last product it ended up being. I purchased it a couple of years ago for another project I ended up putting on hold for a while. And truthfully, it's a solid product. I'd argue more solid than vB5. (And more modern than the updated version of vB3 they also offer with the purchase of vB5.) And significantly less expensive in both the short and long term. Really, I've just been putting this off. As much work as I've put into the old version of the forums, it's not enough to justify hanging on to them. It's time for a change. Actually, if you give it a chance, xenForo is kinda awesome.
We're currently using the default skin, as I've not recreated our old one for xF just yet. I'll get around to that. You can switch to the skin I'm working on and watch the changes as they go. We have no add-ons, save for a Resource Manager, at the moment. Much needs to be updated, and you'll no doubt notice those quirks if you browse the forum any. I'll try to restore the more popular aspects of the forum, as best I can. But hopefully we can start working on some content for the site, and drive our membership up with that.
As other forum administrators are fond of saying, "Content is King". And, well, content-wise we've been more like a really lazy court jester. I believe we'll get there. In time.
If you missed my short CoGCast from last month, it's here and on the home page. I look somber, don't I? Peace. Chicken Grease. Della Reese. I'll see ya 'round the forums.