Ancient Vbulletin 3 forum looking for a new forum script!

StickyMark

I am helping an old guy with a forum which has been stuck on VB3.8.5 for, well who knows how many years!

A few questions if I may, as someone suggested Vanilla to me...

1. Is there any reasonably easy way to convert from VB to Vanilla?
2. If I get stuck, are there any people who could handle the migration for us? If so, any idea of cost?

Thanks muchly

markspence

1. I saw that the vanilla porter is capable of exporting VB 3. It worked for me for another version. You should probably make a back up of your database and try it.
2. Sorry I'm busy enough with my own non-vanilla stuff.

pitkmi

I did a migration from vb4 (with a bunch of legacy 3 stuff) to Vanilla in 2019 (migration, customization). It was not a smooth experience, but I did a complete redesign at the same time and spun stuff like gallery and downloads sections into categories. How easy it will be will depend quite a lot on what their vBulletin looks like. If it's a... uh... vanilla vBulletin, Porter should work pretty nicely for you. If there's a lot of custom stuff. it'll be a little (or a lot) more involved.

1. Depends on how customized your vB is. If it's pretty much standard, Porter should do the job easily. More custom forums, mean a little more custom approach. Another thing that may come up is the amount of access you have on the old site and how different the new site is from the old one.
2. I'm a little hesitant to make any time commitments, since I'm moving house soon and do have a day job, but I can try troubleshooting any questions you come across.

With that in mind, I have a couple of questions:

1. What does the old site look like, and how much access do you have to the forum control panels, database and server?
2. What will the new forum look like, hosting-wise?
3. What should the new forum look like feature-wise? Is is just a straight up Vanilla out of the box, something a little more custom, or are you trying to make it work pretty much like the old vB3.8 forum?
4. Have you managed to get a Vanilla forum up and running somewhere already or is this your first time setting one up?