When is it worth upgrading?

**Colleen** · Dec 30th, 2007, 8:27 pm

I currently run a forum using SMF, the forum is just 7 months old, has 775 members, 20,000 posts and 1,130 threads.

I honestly did not expect it to do this well. I have not advertised ANYWHERE. :sshocked:

I had a few articles written and submitted them to a few places and answered some questions on a few advice sites back around May, so the traffic is all natural and the forum is growing rapidly. There are also many active members.

For months I was rarely there, so I've taken on a Global Moderator who the members know better than they know me. :scheesy:

I would like to upgrade to vBulletin mainly cause I like it better but don't know if I wanna invest much into it at this point as it's not really making anything back right now...

Anyone have experience using SMF for a forum with over 1,000 members? I am wondering if it's any good for it or if I should invest in vBulletin?

In all 7 months I've only been spammed once. You have to be logged in to read and post, that could be why.

I guess I just like all the features and plugins for vBulletin, just not sure I should invest in it when I'm not technically having problems with SMF as it is...:sundecided:

I might sell it down the road, would a vbulletin forum be more attractive to potential buyers? What would you do?

**Cyberbite** · Dec 30th, 2007, 8:54 pm

I've used SMF, phpbb, invision powerboard and some others in the past, but after using vbulletin I will never go back.

**Autumn** · Dec 30th, 2007, 10:09 pm

If the members are happy enough and it sounds like they are, why upgrade? If you decide to monetise it later, then consider it, but I am of the opinion if it aint broke, don't fix it

**Steve** · Dec 30th, 2007, 11:00 pm

yea i say wait til you have real issues with SMF. if its working fine and the members like it, dont change it. let it keep the momentum it has.

*Sammie* · Dec 31st, 2007, 1:16 am

members dont like change, so i would leave it if it aint broke, and apart from the normal updates, then thats all i would do.

**zxpro168** · Dec 31st, 2007, 3:26 am

I think it depends on the price at which you would like to sell the site at. Sites worth a few hundred dollars would attract a lot of interest from newbies. If you buy a VB license, you will be passing the cost onto them and could actually make the site less attractive.

Whereas for sites costing thousands of dollars, experienced / professional webmasters are more likely to be interested. At that level, a VB board would probably be much more attractive since these buyers are likely to running a number of VB boards already.

**Zap** · Dec 31st, 2007, 7:57 am

I try to go by the rule that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
But, that doesn't work for many things. This could be one of those things.
It may be a case of "it ain't broke now, but it will be broke in a year at present growth rates". If that's the case, then don't wait until it's broke to fix it. Why deal with the hassles of a broken forum if you know ahead of time it will be broken?

I think you should try to talk to other SMF webmasters who have forums that are 2 or 3 times your size. If they all say it's fine, don't worry about it, then great... continue on, as is. If you can't find any webmasters of SMF forums that are 2 or 3 times your size, then that probably means there aren't any and upgrading would probably be a good idea.

The other reason to upgrade is, as you mentioned, the plugins and features that you like about vBulletin.

You could also always poll your users about it. You could point them to an example of a vBulletin forum (unrelated topic, of course) to see if they like the look of it.

**Colleen** · Dec 31st, 2007, 8:21 am

The main thing to me is the admin area, it's tiny compared to vbulletin, also searching, moving and deleting things is nothing like it is with vbulletin... but yeah, the members are used to it and for some, it's their first time even using the internet, so it took some getting used to for them to even learn how to use the forum. I'll probably wait and if I experience problems in the future, might consider switching then, thanks for the feedback everyone.

**Stax** · Jan 2nd, 2008, 9:38 am

Just remember that it's safer to switch now while there aren't as many members...if you switch later on down the road after your userbase doubles, that's double the pissed of users (possibly), and also possibly double the negative publicity from them...(word-of-mouth works both ways)

I'm with cyberbite though, i started using vb almost 4 years ago, and have never used anything since...so I'm a tad biased

Don't fix what ain't broke

If it ain't VB, it's broke! lol

**WikicyloN** · Jan 2nd, 2008, 9:47 am

are you talking about us?

**Colleen** · Jan 2nd, 2008, 1:33 pm

Originally Posted by Stax

Just remember that it's safer to switch now while there aren't as many members...if you switch later on down the road after your userbase doubles, that's double the pissed of users (possibly), and also possibly double the negative publicity from them...(word-of-mouth works both ways)

I'm with cyberbite though, i started using vb almost 4 years ago, and have never used anything since...so I'm a tad biased

If it ain't VB, it's broke! lol

They won't be mad, I am a God to them, they go on about me all the time for making a place like it cause none existed, lol.

I may upgrade eventually if the admin starts to annoy me enough.

Kalina added 105 Minutes and 2 Seconds later...

BTW, when will it get some PR? I'm having a tough time getting advertisers as is, even though it's active and has decent traffic, but it's a very niche subject.. I think some PR would help since so many believe it means something.... I could sure use some... I thought I'd get some naturally.

**Stax** · Jan 2nd, 2008, 5:26 pm

now I'm all curious...what niche is it?

do you have a lot of backlinks for the PR?

**Julian G** · Jan 3rd, 2008, 12:14 am

If you change, you may scare them off. Because they may feel uncomfortable with the change. But maybe ask the community what they want.

**Autumn** · Jan 3rd, 2008, 12:43 am

Hmm 7 months old and active but no PR yet, that sounds weird.

**Cyberbite** · Jan 3rd, 2008, 4:24 am

Originally Posted by Kalina

The main thing to me is the admin area, it's tiny compared to vbulletin, also searching, moving and deleting things is nothing like it is with vbulletin... but yeah, the members are used to it and for some, it's their first time even using the internet, so it took some getting used to for them to even learn how to use the forum. I'll probably wait and if I experience problems in the future, might consider switching then, thanks for the feedback everyone.

If the software isn't doing what you need it to do, to do your job efficiently, then it is broke. A lot of us maintain dozens to hundreds of sites, if there is something that would make your life easier then why not. One site I maintain, it's a college alumni site, the users are just gracious that I keep the site up and going for them. I am in the middle of totally changing the site to make it easier for them and me to maintain, they are just happy that they have the site in the first place. And they will adjust. User's aren't as stupid as some people make them out to be. If they've figured out how to get around SMF, it's not that far a leap to figure out how to get around vbulletin.