Moving from Forumotion: Need Host & License advice

[Kaynil]

Well, it seems like I might have the opportunity, yet my head is clouded with doubts, but I will try to explain.

Basically a dear friend of mine, has offered that we team up together to help each other out. I have small forum half-english, half-spanish (you can see it through my signature). My friend has a small online store, which right now is limited to a Facebook page, and I have a small hangout forums that I suppose many of you know by now. My friend offered me to pay for the hosting, however I don't want to make her unnecessarily put over 40 dollars a year on it. I offered to arrange the license, and try to pay for a good one if affordable.

So I need your advice as it is my first time ever going out of my zone of comfort and most likely putting money on my project. You can advice for my host dilemma or my software license dilemma. Any pearl of wisdom you have to share is welcome. Just read a bit where I am coming from before you reply. Thanks in advance!

HOST
I checked several sites looking for good packages, and I have no clue which ones are good deals and which ones just sounds like good things but miss crucial stuff. My first candidate is: https://empirehostings.com/
It offers several packages. Considering my forum is small and so the website, is hatchling enough? Or do you think their baby offer includinga free .info domain and 10GB is better for starters?
If any of you have been using this host, I kindly request your opinions on it.
Do you know of better alternatives? Feel free to en-light me.

FORUM LICENSE
Moving software is a big a deal, the forum is really inactive at the moment and I 'kill' it by moving it, even though most of the staff has confirmed will be by my side no matter what I decide. I said before and I repeat it, if I move my community away from FM , I want to be able to justify the bother (specially if we have to reset) by getting a good upgrade, which means getting a forum with more modules for them and things they like.
So here I go with my dilemmas...

1. Database crawlers.
I've heard you CAN pass your database to some free license forums (water under the bridge, though) but I also heard that it can mess with other functions and have errors you wouldn't if you started over... I want to own the database, and if I moved to a free license, I would like to be able to convert the database for a paid license. Would bringing a crawled DB mess with this goal?

2. Free Against Paid License.
I have just realised how expensive licenses are... in the other hand I feel kind of guilty for my users if I make them move and I don't give them enough incentives to register and have fun.
Is it worth to pay for a Xenforo or IPBoard license over MyBB and phpBB free licenses?
Even though I have some idea from their sites, I'd like to hear from you what are the improvements that made it worth the pay?
Any of you knows if either has a good arcade system (like vB and phpBB)?
Which ones have some sort of arcade module where the scores are kept within the members and trophies issued?
Which ones allow virtual currency and a shop module?

Thank you very much.
I really hope you can give me any advice in regards this medium-small forum and medium-small website.

 

[StripesAndFins]

For Hosting, I would say use Hostgator. I use them, and they are very good, but expensive. If you are looking for something cheaper, I would say HawkHost. FP uses them as do many other members on here.

For a forum License, I would say if you are going to go with free, use MyBB. It is easy to mods and themes, and they have an arcade system like you are looking for. If you are going to go with paid, I can't really comment, but I like the look of XenForo and the admin CP seems pretty simple and easy to use and customize.

Good luck.

 

[Mr.Paine]

https://empirehostings.com/ is a great host i have been with them for 4 months now and not a problem.
The Hatchling package is more then enough for a forum for a while. you can use forumpromotion20 coupon code to get 20% off. sshadow is great he helps you as much as he can. I just find him a great guy.

I would go with mybb because its easy to install theme and mods. Also its free.

 

[D]

HOST
I checked several sites looking for good packages, and I have no clue which ones are good deals and which ones just sounds like good things but miss crucial stuff. My first candidate is: https://empirehostings.com/
It offers several packages. Considering my forum is small and so the website, is hatchling enough? Or do you think their baby offer includinga free .info domain and 10GB is better for starters?
If any of you have been using this host, I kindly request your opinions on it.
Do you know of better alternatives? Feel free to en-light me.

Looking at your forum I don't think you would need anything more than Empire Hostings Hatchling package, I have not personally used Empire Hostings but I know a few people here have so I will leave them to comment on that.

I myself use http://www.hawkhost.com to host all of my websites and so does Forum Promotion which I believe is still hosted on the smallest package available and without any trouble.

FORUM LICENSE
Moving software is a big a deal, the forum is really inactive at the moment and I 'kill' it by moving it, even though most of the staff has confirmed will be by my side no matter what I decide. I said before and I repeat it, if I move my community away from FM , I want to be able to justify the bother (specially if we have to reset) by getting a good upgrade, which means getting a forum with more modules for them and things they like.
So here I go with my dilemmas...

When and if you switch give your members new features to play with, hold contests and the like. Moving away from your roots does not have to be a bad thing, just give them reason to like the switch.

1. Database crawlers.
I've heard you CAN pass your database to some free license forums (water under the bridge, though) but I also heard that it can mess with other functions and have errors you wouldn't if you started over... I want to own the database, and if I moved to a free license, I would like to be able to convert the database for a paid license. Would bringing a crawled DB mess with this goal?

Yes you can move your forum off forumotion using a crawler but it is a tedious process if your not very technical, though you can try as many times as you want and nothing will break. You can convert free forums such as phpbb and mybb to IPB and vBulletin but xenForo requires you to use a 3rd party to convert for you as the only available converters at this moment are for IPB, VB3, VB4 and punbb. There are various ways around this though.

A Crawled database will not change anything, I have successfully converted a few crawled database's from phpbb to mybb and to IPB without any issues.

2. Free Against Paid License.
I have just realised how expensive licenses are... in the other hand I feel kind of guilty for my users if I make them move and I don't give them enough incentives to register and have fun.
Is it worth to pay for a Xenforo or IPBoard license over MyBB and phpBB free licenses?
Even though I have some idea from their sites, I'd like to hear from you what are the improvements that made it worth the pay?
Any of you knows if either has a good arcade system (like vB and phpBB)?
Which ones have some sort of arcade module where the scores are kept within the members and trophies issued?
Which ones allow virtual currency and a shop module?

phpBB, MyBB and IPB all have the plug-ins that you need but currently xenForo does not have an arcade system available.

 

[Kaynil]

Thank you very much to all of you that have taken the time to answer my questions.

I personally take trust in hawk host as I've seen forums of good reputation have been using it. At the same time it gives me tranquillity to hear a positive feed back about empire-hosting.

I really want to get things moving as soon as we move with a contest and the 'oooh-shinny' factor, as well as new content.

Thanks to your input I have been able to simplify the problem. I will be going to a small package as it shall be enough for both of our mini projects. I will also will be getting a free licensed software, most likely MyBB, but I'll check other threads for opinion and other communities so I can make up my mind, it is a minor thing for now)

Right now my concern is whether I'll start from Zero or attempt to move our database...
I would really like to get away with our database as it is not only statistics but memories and old friends; but I don't want to pay a very high price or put in risk my friends for it.

Since using a crawler is 'grey area' what could be the consequences for 'getting caught'?

Once again, Thank you guys for your opinions and advice as it helps me a lot with the matter.

 

[Austin01]

Almost none of the free forum softwares have taken action against any moved forums. The most a few did is ask the creator of the converters to take them down for their specific software, nothing else that I know of. So your in the clear. Most likely, they won't notice.

 

[PoBoy]

I'd like to chime in on the hosting part and also recommend HawkHost as I've used them before. Currently I use MDDHosting on the shared side of my web hosts and they're also excellent. Do yourself a favor and research on your own though at webhostingtalk.com and you'll also find some great exclusive deals there like 2 months free/10% off for life, etc.

 

[Kaynil]

Thank you PoBoy, I've been finding some threads on Google directing me to that website. It has been useful to give myself an idea.
Hawkhost will probably the one we will be getting, if not empirehosting.

Almost none of the free forum softwares have taken action against any moved forums. The most a few did is ask the creator of the converters to take them down for their specific software, nothing else that I know of. So your in the clear. Most likely, they won't notice.

Austin01, do you by any chance know any of these cases where they have? As small as it is, I would like to know, what we are facing.

And by taking them down for the software, do you mean that FM most likely would ask me to take the FM copy down? or to ask the new place I am to take my boards down? D:

 

[Austin01]

Proboards has asked or it to be removed. That's the most that's happened from one of the providers. Forumotion, from what I can assume, stopped their outgoing domain transfers due to people leaving an taking the domains with them. That's all.

You will not be getting in any trouble, in the years I have been doing this I haven't seen one board shut down or anyone getting into issues. In fact, I just converted 2 forumotion forums today.

 

[Kaynil]

That is interesting, it brings me more tranquility.

It is also good to know you have done that yourself, I am very afraid to screw things but it seems it is not as difficult. I just need to research more in what is the best to use for the transfer.

I kindly thank everyone for taken their time to answer my doubts and provide useful points of views. When the time comes for the move I'd like to open a thread if I get stuck, so before I get into trouble, is that okay? Or are we not allowed to discuss the procedure at FP?

That aside, I guess for now my doubts have been settled.