It's simple...the change to IPB didn't work. The forum pretty much died. There are other reasons too, but that was part of it. To many people IPB is clunky and AdminExtra's implementation seemed even more clunky than it is by default. IPB just frustrates some people because you're forever clicking in the wrong place! Their UI needs redesigning from the ground up. XF isn't perfect in that regard either but it's massively better. I guess with Ryan being on board that probably made moving away a bit tricky too, given that he's now IPB staff.
Personally, I reckon AdX has found its home, it has been an interesting and educating journey. Starting out with vB, moving to IPB and then landing at XF has been a rocky ride, but I feel things are now smoothing out, XF won't suit everyone (I am at home with SMF), but it works for us here
SMF is bloody awful and even more clunky than IPB. You can't even do a proper "Today's Posts/New Posts" search on it, and last time I brought that one up I got a lecture from a certain Richard North about how sh!t vBulletin was.....
Nope, I've always got on with SMF, running two sites, but my requirements are pretty basic. I do have to disagree with that statement, on my sites it works just fine. I'm not surprised, I know Richard North personally and would not give any credit to any opinion he serves, if he said the sky was blue I would seek a second and third opinion
