I want to blow it up...

[greenchicken]

I have a good sized forum of 25,000 members and about 3/4 million posts since april 2006


When I first installed Vbulletin, I was a n00b and installed it to something like www.mysite.com/forum/myforum

I want to install my forums to the root of my domain instead,(www.mysite.com/) but I also have hundreds of thousands of links in google...
should I do this or not?

could I redirect those hundreds of thousands of links with .htaccess without penalty or would I be making a big mistake?

Next question

I want to take my forums back to 100% out of the box default and start over when I buy the new version.. I also have VBSEO installed (I am running 3.73)
what do I do? Just Uninstall all of the mods, remove all the files from the website, upload all the 4.0 files and run the install script?

[Shamil.]

Yes you can, just use a 301 redirect in htaccess.

Yes, you can do exactly that - don't use ImpEx to clean the database, it messes up the thread ids.

[greenchicken]

also, is there a way to reset the database to default? basically nothing but the tables that would be used for a non modded vbulletin.

[Shamil.]

also, is there a way to reset the database to default? basically nothing but the tables that would be used for a non modded vbulletin.

With your vBulletin data in it?

I believe there is a mod on vb.org that allows you to compare a stock vB db with your vB <- for 3.8 only currently.

[nforums]

I have a good sized forum of 25,000 members and about 3/4 million posts since april 2006


When I first installed Vbulletin, I was a n00b and installed it to something like www.mysite.com/forum/myforum

I want to install my forums to the root of my domain instead,(www.mysite.com/) but I also have hundreds of thousands of links in google...
should I do this or not?

could I redirect those hundreds of thousands of links with .htaccess without penalty or would I be making a big mistake?

Next question

I want to take my forums back to 100% out of the box default and start over when I buy the new version.. I also have VBSEO installed (I am running 3.73)
what do I do? Just Uninstall all of the mods, remove all the files from the website, upload all the 4.0 files and run the install script?

Run the upgrade script, not the install script

[Brandon_R]

Yes you can redirect all threads but only if it contains the same thread id. If you use impex the thread id's will change because some will delete.

[dilbert]

The mod is here: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=209890
It's a simple one file mod, you upload it and run it - i works pretty good.
In the admincp > Maintenance > Diagnostics you can run Suspect File Versions to help locate files that should not be there.
Check the Plug in Manager as well as the Scheduled Task Manager to ensure there aren't any leftovers there either.
As has been suggested, clear out all of your current mods - they often uninstall correctly and remove database fields they added.
Then run this compare utility prior to upgrading to vB4.
As others have said, don't install a new vB and import your old data - it will wreak havoc with links.

With your vBulletin data in it?

I believe there is a mod on vb.org that allows you to compare a stock vB db with your vB <- for 3.8 only currently.