Forum performance hitting new lows

[Marancil]

For a time there, maybe before January, forums were kinda working decent.

However in the last few weeks the performance has declined to new lows. I do not know if you are changing things server side and prepping for an overhaul, but it is painfully slow.

[DavidmeetHal]

It's beyond slow, sometimes it just doesn't load up at all. Right now, the forum site is a mess.

[Cordovan]

We have some short term work to do to improve the forums, but the reality is we are living in an in-between state for the next few months as we work to bring entirely new forums to the game.

[TearMaker]

We have some short term work to do to improve the forums, but the reality is we are living in an in-between state for the next few months as we work to bring entirely new forums to the game.

I know it is sometimes difficult to share but if options and environments haven't yet been agreed could you please share some options with the community that have to use them on a daily basis?

I know you have to police the content but my goal would be to get many more folks on the forums than we have now and to do that you have to make it a comfortable experience using both desktop and mobile interfaces.

Can you possibly let us in on some of the choices or are they all a done deal?

[Marancil]

Can you possibly let us in on some of the choices or are they all a done deal?

Keep to vBulletin and keep the forum history, would be my take. Yes, I have built and upgraded forums.

Stay away, far away, from discourse and similar modern platforms that are very hard to navigate and get a grip on. A mess.

InvisionBoard could work.

[TearMaker]

Well it is going to be a very strange place if we have to try and reapply for our original forum names and there is only a none quotable archive of the current forums. Post counts gone will no doubt upset a few but that doesn't really bother me.

A slicker mobile offering would be great because this versions mobile version is very very poor indeed.

[Cordovan]

I know it is sometimes difficult to share but if options and environments haven't yet been agreed could you please share some options with the community that have to use them on a daily basis?

I know you have to police the content but my goal would be to get many more folks on the forums than we have now and to do that you have to make it a comfortable experience using both desktop and mobile interfaces.

Can you possibly let us in on some of the choices or are they all a done deal?

It is likely we will be migrating to the platform Daybreak uses for its other studios for efficiency and other reasons, which means we will be moving to a modern version of Xenforo as a base.

[Marancil]

Xenforo can be ok...

[Harvain]

It is likely we will be migrating to the platform Daybreak uses for its other studios for efficiency and other reasons, which means we will be moving to a modern version of Xenforo as a base.

Well just doing a quick search of some Sites using Xenforo, it'll get the job done & seems more Mobile Friendly than the current LOTRO Forums.

Anyone can try out a 7 Day Demo of a Xenforo Site through this: https://xenforo.com/demo/

I just messed around with it for a little bit before needing to go check on a family dog.

I wouldn't say Xenforo is anything to write home about & throw a lot of praise for first impressions from several Sites I looked at so it'll mostly come down to how much the SSG LOTRO Team with likely a small amount of folks doing said work will put into having Xenforo as it's Website to have an "Appealing" looking Website for the New LOTRO Forums and then ensuring a good Forum selection.

Make sure you do your testing for Phones & ensure that looks good as pointed out in this Thread. The LOTRO.com Website is "good" for Mobile just in my opinion and using an iPhone 7 Plus, so not among the most Modern & Large Phone but if that kind of Quality can be reached, that'll be a positive.