I need help to move proboards database to SMF. I mean, alot of help!

[bikenut]

   Forum is at FZ07.org [nofollow]
Hi guys. First off, I really like Proboards/Forums.net and I do not want you to think that I am unhappy with them at all because they have been great. But, due to my 11 month old forum growing rapidly, the pageviews are adding up to a $75.00 per month charge and growing and that just does not fit into my Forum's budget when there are so many other lower priced ways to go.

    I have been a paying for their White Label service called Forums.net [nofollow] for well over 6 months now and have access to the full Database download .
    My problem is that I am not techie or experienced in writing code at all. I work 70 hours a week but have plans to scale that down and focus more on forum revenue and make this my job. I love forums, I love SEO and promoting my forum and attracting new members. I have the bug and want to learn, but also do not want to screw up my forum and lose my members in the process.

    I am looking for someone who can take my database and convert it to either SMF.

    I'm not rich and my forums revenue is limited right now but I can pay or pay as we go. I am open to ideas here. I would also promote you if you wish, on the forums and on here. I am sure that I am not the only guy on forums.net [nofollow] who is looking to make a change but not technical enough to do it. I'm sure you would get more customers after this.

    Again, for guys like me, Proboards and Forums.net [nofollow] is great. They are so fast to answer my questions and to help me fix issues. I honestly planned on staying on their $50 per month plan and had no Idea that my forum would grow so fast.

    If interested please either send me a message here or send me an email at removed

    Everyone is also welcome to comment below with ideas. but please, don't slam proboards. They are really great people and have been very kind to me.

Thank you for reading this!
     

[margarett]

Hi and welcome

I'll reply in a more proper way later as I'm using the phone now.

The conversion is one part of your problem, which I'm very interested in helping you with

How big is your forum as of now? Eg: total users and posts, pageviews, online users, etc
75 bucks a month is enough for a very decent dedicated server so not only you should consider forum alternatives but, if your forum is big enough, you also need to investigate hosting solutions.

About the conversion itself: there is no converter yet, because we could never get our hands on a database from PB. This means that it has to be developed, which takes some time. Can you export your database, keep your forum running while I work on the converter and then export it again when necessary, or is it a "one time" possibility?

[margarett]

BTW, I removed your email address, unless you have a desire for spam

[bikenut]

Thank you! Yes, I think I can download the database more than once.

We have 32,021 posts, 1700 members and 2,209 threads.  Not sure if I would need a dedicated server yet, but am looking for the right hosting options. Cheap/fast

I would imagine that the database would have everything except for the Passwords and uploaded attachments/images.

I'm heading on a motorcycle roadtrip this AM and coming home Friday. I really want to do this. I could send you a Database this weekend.

Thanks for deleting my email! What was I thinking?

[margarett]

How many users are online at the same time? (Eg, maximum and average)

[bikenut]

It really varies, but usually between 30-50.

Of course it drops down late at night, but there is always someone on because we have members in other countries too.

[margarett]

Then I'm sorry my friend, but you are being robbed

75 bucks per month for that kind of activity? Yes, you need to get out of PB quickly

That amount of money is enough for a Dedicated Server which can handle 50x your current load... Unless I'm missing something (unlikely) you can get yourself a year on a good shared hosting for 2 months of your current cost

Please PM me a link to your forum. When you can, get yourself that database export, zip and password protect it (use a strong password), upload that zip to some online file transfer (eg, Dropbox or similar) and PM me the link and password. Then I need some time to work on the converter.

[bikenut]

I will on Friday, maybe sooner. I need alot of help though, advise on how to set up hosting, how to set up the forum with same or better features that I have now and some good SEO advice and help.
that's why I offered to pay.

And when we do this, I bet that a ton of Proboards/Forums.net people will be very interested in SMF all of a sudden.

The good thing about forums.net [nofollow] is that they will login and make changes for me and fix my mistakes. The bad thing is that that doesn't teach me much...

This will force me to learn.

Oh yeah, I also have another forum on Forums.net [nofollow] that is almost as busy but the six month point wont be until September for that one.

Sending you a Pm to the forum now, will send you Database when I get home later this week.

[Kindred]

Well, in general, we cna help you with setting up and configuring the forum part...
we can even assist you on figuring out how to activate or install various extra features...

You will, however, have to sign up for your own host and domain.
Any of the hosts who are listed here: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?board=4.0 are considered "good" hosts by our community.

[bikenut]

A few questions

How responsive/Mobile friendly is SMF? I know there is a new version in the works, but I have great ranking right now and cant afford to lose it.
Also, does SMF have the following options? Likes, autoembed youtube, autoembed pic links, SEO Friendly URL's?

[Kindred]

SMF 2.0.x is not responsive, out of the box...  there are some responsive-sort themes...
We have released a mod that makes the Curve theme (default) to be somewhat responsive.
However, many mods will break what responsiveness we were able to add.

There is a mod for autoemebed youtube
images require an img BBC tag.
SEO friendly URLs are bogus and serve no useful purpose, when it comes to Search engines (they just don't care)
but there are a few mods that make the URLs "pretty" (however, they are known to cause issues with other mods, on occasion)

[margarett]

How responsive/Mobile friendly is SMF? I know there is a new version in the works, but I have great ranking right now and cant afford to lose it.

Just to complement what Kindred said
Your concerns with ranking shouldn't really be whether or not SMF is responsive or not. Your current forum is *NOT* responsive, I just checked it.
What should be of concern, regarding ranking, is the fact that your URLs will change and, as such, your pages will need to be re-indexed by search engines.
Anyway, that is true whether you choose SMF or any other forum software... It should be possible (maybe, not exactly sure) to build a script to try to redirect old URLs to new ones.

Also, does SMF have the following options? Likes, autoembed youtube, autoembed pic links, SEO Friendly URL's?

Pretty URLs and SEO are NOT related. Read this http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=427913.0
The other things can actually be performed with MODs, yes.

[bikenut]

Your concerns with ranking shouldn't really be whether or not SMF is responsive or not. Your current forum is *NOT* responsive, I just checked it.

No, but Google does consider it Mobile Friendly, and really that's what I'm mostly concerned about.

Losing Ranking does have me nervous though. My competitors will love that. Damn..

[Night09]

Losing Ranking does have me nervous though. My competitors will love that. Damn..

When its done resubmit a sitemap to google so they know there is intentional updates rather than just letting the spiders go crazy looking all over again.