Migrating A Large Forum To Vanilla
In previous posts we have discussed the implications and process of moving or changing from an existing forum platform over to Vanilla Forums. This post deals specifically with implications for large, mature forums.
There are many reasons a large forum will regularly consider making a platform switch, among them: monthly hosting costs, scaling issues, load times, bugs, design and functionality stagnation, manageability and general loss of members to social networks.
Like any other existing forum there are concerns that give pause not to do it, in this case more pronounced. Many of these forums have millions of SEO links that need to be preserved. They have thousands of members and hundreds of moderators who are reasonably happy with the way things are. And they have programmed exacting functions and features that are unique to their site and overall user experience.
At Vanilla we’ve worked very hard to address these concerns and built our migration system and processes to provide the necessary solutions. We have a 301-redirect system as part of our custom imports that preserve all of the SEO links. We are aware of the psychology involved in making the switch from an old way of doing things to a new way of doing things and can work with a forum owner to both prepare member communication prior to the switch and work with their members post-switch to address any concerns or questions. We work with forum owners to help create a user experience that meshes the best of the old and best options of the new. And we have a project team at the ready that provide custom work to match or enhance the functions and features of the previous site that made the member experience unique.
We’ve also worked very hard to provide the best hosting platform for large communities. Our scaling model allows us to handle rapid increases in load in a snap. It also allows us to provide transparent utility-based pricing for our largest customers. To give an example, a large customer running a forum that has 20 million page views a month pays $3,949.00 per month under our Large Community pricing plan and this monthly bill is increased/decreased based on a transparent CPM (cost-per-thousand pv’s) model. To talk to a Large Community specialist, get more information on our pricing plan and/or discuss your unique situation, you can contact us directly at 855-836-7867 or contact us here.
Because we host only our software we are always able to optimize and re-optimize the hosting environment and the software to provide the best possible service. We have exposure to sites across all of our hosting customers and self-hosted forum owners that help to educate us on many different use cases and scenarios.
While other hosted products exist in the market, those that are comparable in product breadth, flexibility and hosting environment cost several multiples more for the same service. And those don’t have an open-source community of over 500,000 sites also programming on the platform. Therefore if you are looking for all the benefits of a premier hosting and software platform for your existing large forum, with all of the opportunities that go with that, and are also looking for the best value for dollar spent, then you should definitely explore the possibilities with us of making a move.
We are big believers in the importance of forums in conversation and social marketing. We think they should be given their due and we are working to create solutions to help them both differentiate themselves from and integrate with the more general social networks. We believe the best days for forums are yet to come and want to play an important role in getting us there.
