We are moving to a new server and data center. This will likely require a couple of hours downtime. We've scheduled it for the evening of October 9th, and we'll start about 9PM CST.
Thanks for your patience and understanding as work to upgrade our infrastructure.
Watch this post for updates.
Forum software? Yes. We'll still be running Invision.
However, now that you mention it, at some point in the future we may consider converting to vBulletin. I'm converting a smaller site next week. We'll see how it goes before any further consideration here. While it's a pretty seamless conversion, it would require everyone to have a new password emailed to them after the conversion. The encoded passwords in the database are unable to be converted.
In my opinion the Invision admin control panel is hands down easier to navigate. However, the vBulletin web interface for members is more intuitive, and better organized.
The biggest differences are in the background. While some prefer the clean, commented, object oriented code of Invision, vBulletin is much more robust. It handles large sites with ease, while IPB requires some work arounds. vBulletin also has better community support, and third party add-ons. Finally, vB does a much better job of delivering clean URLs to search engines, with little duplication. It's no coincidence that most large forums run vB. They're also got large because the run it.
IPB has version 3.0 due out in beta within weeks. It's pretty much an all new code base, so I'll reserve judgment until I see it. However, all things being equal, I would much rather run vBulletin.
We won't make any changes to the forum software without a lot of discussion, and input from all team members. There is no need to change, and odds are it may not happen at all. I probably shouldn't have even discussed it here without having some private discussions first. It just seemed appropriate to mention in response to Digerati's question.
Forums like this were setup using Invision because at the time it was free, was good looking with its default skin, and performed well. vBulletin is not free, the learning curve is a little steeper on the admin side. But I have often regretted not using it from the start, as it's simply better forum software. The conversions are not without issues, and do take some time. Stay tuned…
BTW, I just noticed that WTT does not comply with Internet site standards - at least that is what IE8b2 is telling me. Note that IE8 is the "supposedly" the first IE in several versions to comply with the standards.
The problem I noted was drop down menus did not work properly. Selecting compatibility view resolved the issue.
There are no immediate changes planned. Just a new home for the site, which will require a little downtime. Unless you catch it offline, you won't even likely know it has moved.
