Why did khv change to xenforo anyway?

When you stop calling me unsexy B|

Isn't It Too Pretty?! doesn't have a release date y- ****. You all heard nothing.

 

I just got an idea for Isn't It Sexy?
Let's make that happen.

 

Security is important and functionality is important. With XF, we're not choosing between them. If we're really going to limit it like that: vB is functional and has ****** security. XF is functional and secure. Which would you choose?

Incorrect.

http://kh-vids.net/threads/welcome-to-the-new-kh-vids.143335/
This is in lieu of the crappy mobile skin we had with vB. I browse on my phone a lot and I'm sure many others here do. The responsive design is incredibly important.

SEO refers to search engine optimization. Basically, XF is more friendly to sites like Google -- which means we're listed higher in search results on Google. That means more traffic & activity on the site.

No, they're not. vB urls looked something like this:

Code:

http://kh-vids.net/showthread.php?=1234
http://kh-vids.net/index.php?=kh2custcences

Whereas XF URLs...

Code:

http://kh-vids.net/threads/why-did-khv-change-to-xenforo-anyway.145534/
http://kh-vids.net/pages/kh2cutscenes

This is again good for search engines and I like that the topic title is in the link -- it lets me know what thread someone is linking to without having to click it.

That's right, you do need support from the KH-Vids staff. And where would we go if we're unsure how to do something? If there's a bug we find with the software? If we want to implement a new feature? Xenforo support.

Yes you absolutely do. You know those lovely add-ons we have sprinkled through the site? The ones we pay to have developed? We couldn't do that without the development community.

While keeping the passwords of our users safe is important to us, I was more referring to XF's resistance to hacking. If you remember, we were hacked several times while on vB, and during one of those times we lost a month's worth of data (posts, users, everything). I would like to avoid that in the future, but vB has easily exploitable security bugs that they don't see worthy of patching apparently.

New features and such are announced on xenforo.com. When we update our version on KHV (there's usually a delay while we check for add-on compatibility), we do update you when we update our XF version and when we install new add-ons and update existing ones. Some of these features you may not notice or utilize but plenty of others do.

Better development team > better software > better user experience. So yeah. It does affect you.

Broken images are, more often than not, caused by an issue with how the user hotlinks. Not the software. XF is no more susceptible than vB to it.

Nobody else has reported this issue, it sounds like a problem with your computer or browser. We don't use flash on this site for anything but the image uploader, and YouTube embeds but that'd still be an issue on YT's end, not ours. Flash shouldn't be used on modern websites anymore anyway.

No. If someone reports getting an error on KHV, or the site not responding, or anything like that, XF logs all errors so I can research what's causing it and fix it.

Yeah, we can. But creating styles doesn't take just a couple days, they're projects that span several months. Our staff team is composed of people who go to school or have jobs or both. If I could financially survive for the rest of my life by just working on KHV all day that'd be awesome but I have life obligations and bills to pay? As a frame of reference, KHV8 was started in early June of 2013 and wasn't completed until the following December, working on and off over those months. I'm working on something now that will make it vastly easier to churn out new styles and have multiple styles but more isn't always better.

And that's what I just gave you. If you're dissatisfied with the list after my explanations, let me know and I can continue to talk about the many advantages of XF over vB, but many of them are technical and, as just displayed, things that probably won't make sense to most users. What it comes down to, when you ignore technical aspects, is the experience. On my end, it is vastly easier to support, update, and new things to KHV now that we've updated to XF. I find browsing more engaging (alerts) and easier, particularly when on my phone. I encourage people to go to a vB4 site, post around, then come back here and see which you like better. I hadn't used vB4 in a while and I did this, I couldn't believe how slow and clunky it felt in comparison.

We usually do try to have them out every December, but I've started a big project related to it that could potentially make it either much faster to finish or make it take longer.

At the end of the day... posting is pretty much no different and that's everyone's primary interaction with the site. We're not going to be moving back to vBulletin ever so it would probably be easiest to remain open to xenforo if you still have legitimate problems with it. We also do have a Feedback & Assistance forum, I try to reply to nearly every thread within it, so if there's something that can improve your experience on the site then we can work on it in there. But just saying "I don't like it" without giving any constructive feedback doesn't give me anything to work off of. I hope that you guys appreciate the hard work that the staff puts into the site and making our users comfortable is a huge part of that; we try to put a lot of care & attention into the suggestions forum for that reason. It might take a while for us to get things out the door and some things just might not be possible but we do put an immense amount of effort into it.

 

I still visit SEGA Forum regularly and Final Fantasy Shrine Forums every now and them, both of which have vBulletin 4 (4.1.11 and 4.2.0, respectively), and the loading speed and everything is okay, but I can definitely see a difference between vBulletin 4 and XenForo, XenForo being better.

 

Oh is that what it's like? You wanna sass me young lady? YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO SASS ME? ARRIGHT THAS IT RUDEBOY MODE ON.

If the mods like it, and the majority of members like it, too bad so sad. We don't always get what we want in this life. Besides, half of the stuff you named can be changed or avoided. Don't like the rich text editor? Enter the code yourself. No chance for screw-ups then. Don't like alerts? Get rid of 'em! The option's there for the minority of people who want it. Don't like likes? ...I mean neither do I but staff's workin' on it. What's the big deal about posts per page? One of our admins has carpal tunnel, you can deal with the extra clicks. What would you need members in a section for that you can't figure out from members in a thread? If you need to change your birthday, the offer is open. The look of the site is a matter of stylistic preference and can't possibly be rendered to satisfy everyone. You wanna keep changing the layout until every last member on the website is happy with it?

Pretty much the only legitimate complaint in this whole spiel is the loss of site history, which could've at least used a warning. Almost everything else has been addressed or is pretty much inaddressible. The rest might've been legitimate if they hadn't been delivered in such a petty, sarcastic, and aggressive way. In fact the way you phrased it all made it seem offensive to people who do enjoy the changes, as if they're the ignorant ones. Maybe there's such a thing as personal preference.

You may not see the benefits as an end user, but they're... Actually no, you know what! Why don't you see the benefits? I do! Significantly fewer random crashes. Pages don't take a lifetime to load. Complaints and questions are addressed faster than ever. Tons of stuff is flying through the suggestions section, where before it moved at a snail's pace. We get more features, more events, more responses, faster than ever because the mods have less work to do. I've noticed all of that in the year I've been back. If you don't see the benefit as an end user, pay attention.

God damn. Tired of the whiners around here.

 

It's not so much about load time, that's usually determined more by the server. With XF though you're loading less pages to do the same things a lot of the times -- it's much more efficient about how it presents information/features. This makes the experience seem "faster" to the user. There are other things that go into it of course (like caching, loading javascript, loading stylesheets, etc.), and XF outpaces vB in those regards as well.

 

DON'T YOU LIKE THAT POST MISTY YOU'RE AS GUILTY AS SHE IS

THIS IS A HORRIBLE WAY TO ENTER A THREAD, GROGGY OR NOT

YOU DON'T SAY THAT TO YOUR MEMBERS THEY ARE YOUR PRESHUS BABBUS >:C

 

nova your administrative aspirations are showing. cover that up yo its embarrassing

 

Like the overlays, for example, right?

 

Egad!!! Posts don't count in a section? Call the mayor.

Also old khv was broken as hell. The move wasn't even an option, it more or less had to be done. Although I am an avid fan of the way older versions of khv looked, security takes top priority. That and playing as riku

 

To be frank, forum users in general are not prone to change, which I find odd considering most of them are liberal, it's so bloody hypocritical.
When I was on staff and when the team made decisions that affected the site on a large scale, we were pretty attentive to detail and knew what we were getting ourselves into, planning months in advance and debating it. Misty, out of anyone, proclaimed before the rest of us that people won't like the change, she said they never do on here for as long as she's been on the site (which I do kind of believe too).
She was bang on the money and the outcry was bloody annoying considering how long we'd been working on trying to implement it all and make sure it ran smoothly, which was mainly up to Misty admittedly. So I think she knows from experience that she won't change people who are still hating Xenforo, years after its implementation. It's a resignation which isn't always healthy, but it's what happens after consistent results.
So take it easy on her, is all I'm saying, and the rest of staff. Not that you're on their back, or I'm aiming this at you particularly, really it should be at everyone who reads, but I'm rambling on someone and it's your post, by chance. Most gracious apologies.

I can also verify that Xenforo changes, after the initial switch, helped staff be quicker and more efficient in the work they had. Which meant more events that could be produced regularly and generally just made working less of a struggle.

Meanwhile, the site's alive, and there's **** to be done.

 

It's mostly because I was cranky this morning, I check khv when I wake up & found this thread and more stuff about the rp mod. Now I feel like it's my duty to clear up misinformation about xf lol. also i am stubborn

I don't think it's a necessarily bad outlook to have though. As Ross said I've learned through experience that no matter what we do as a staff or I do individually (on here and in life) people are going to hate. I put a lot of thought into my decisions though, I'm not an impulsive person (unless I'm purchasing **** off amazon in which case watch out my bank account), and I'm confident in the XenForo software and moving towards it. I think most people have warmed up to it since the initial shock & adjustment, others will continue to dislike it and there's nothing I can do about that. I can just keep trying to provide a better experience for the people who do.

Besides expelling negative energy though, when you guys complain I can sometimes glean useful information off it about what exactly it is that you're reacting to.

 

Hey man, that shit takes effort

Of course not, this website is observing a fractional part of their lives. If people changed that much that often I'd be worried. Either way, are you one to talk? You used to be such a sweet, contemplative lad, now you just seem bored with it all. Better no change than a bad one.

It's not strictly that people don't like the change. As long as staff continues to believe that and act in accordance with that belief, things will never change. I've been around for some time now, and moreover I'm nosy; I get into business that doesn't even concern me. I've been privy to a lot of disagreements between members and staff, and from what I've seen most of the bad blood stems from lack of trust and transparency—on both sides. Neither knows the other's thought process, and what do we know about human nature? That's right, you think better of yourself and worse of everyone else. So you knew about these wide, sweeping changes months in advance. Why didn't we hear about it? What was so difficult about at least giving people a heads-up, so they could save anything they wanted that might be lost? Of course, if you don't think it matters, then you won't do it. But that resignation should never be accepted, much less praised or defended; it is poisonous to oneself and others. That's why I'm trying to say that it does matter. These little gestures go a long way towards revealing not only one's intentions, but one's thought processes, and that is what will stem the tide of outcry. Open dialogue is something this website sorely needs, no matter how much effort it takes.

I appreciate the disclaimer :v While I do believe Misty got off on the wrong foot, I'm sure we can all tell which was the more sincere of criticisms.

Omg no bb when you're cranky you have a cold drink & come back later

Let the other admins handle it, that's why you hired them right /brick'd

I don't believe that for a second, and I wish you wouldn't either. Half of the problems in this world exist because people don't believe in their power to change things. You're a sweet girl who can find just the right words, I know it because I've seen it. Anyway, even if you have to concede that some people will never be satisfied, baiting them will do no good. It just culminates in shit like this. I can't imagine Jiku's words left you feeling any better.

 

I'm aware, and I never said it didn't. However if someone truly enjoys it, they can wait for the mod to happen. Like I don't see how someone could have fun with something, then complain about it. *shrugs*

 

I think the biggest problem most people had was "Oh yeah were changing everything to this new system without any heads up as to what is changing and everything you remember is mostly gone so now you've gotta get used to something new"

People don't like change, especially when that change is sudden.

 

It wasn't the staff's fault, if people didn't **** with the site then the change wouldn't have been so "quick"

 

You're being so embarrassing right now.

I do enter the code myself. I changed the alerts settings. I passionately hate likes and I appreciate that they're working on it. Good on them. I care because I fucking well do, it was at one point an option I had and I liked that option. It, surprisingly enough, made it more convenient for me in some way. God fucking forbid I like something and want it back. Are you actually kidding me? You mean you don't want to see who's online in a given section without systematically going through every thread only to have your results out of date by the time you finished? You're being willfully contrary, there's no advantage to this system over the other, the other was objectively more information, more visible, more quickly and was thereby more convenient and better. So suck a dick. The birthday thing is part of an old running joke that people could see evidence of if user notes still existed. Ha, guess you'll never get it. Yes, I actually would, but I'd take any actual alternative as a start.

No, all my fucking complaints are legit. Everything I mentioned has caused me annoyance and a worse browsing experience in some way. That's what happened and that's where I'm coming from, so don't be a prick about it. I don't care if I offend people. You say as you deny my personal preference's legitimacy.

Because you see something doesn't mean someone else does. I'm not going to go searching for success and failure on the site, I'm going to look at what's in front of me and judge my experience based on what I actually do. I'm not going to go to the suggestions board where the things I cared about are all called impossible simple as that. I don't notice a difference in load times, honestly, it never bothered me before and it doesn't bother me now. Random crashes? Never as constant an inconvenience as anything I currently see but hey that's just me. But in the end I don't see any positives from anything you've mentioned and I don't see a reason to go looking for them.

So, yeah.

 

I must have missed the part where I said it was the staff's fault.

 

I must have missed the part where I said you were one of the people to blame the staff. People have, I was just clarifying.

 

Fair call. I assumed it was aimed at me since I was the only one quoted.