ssslippy

What you should run is xcache which in tests has proven faster then eaccelerate for your opcache. This will cache the php scripts into your ram. These needs to be run on every front end machine. Then you run memcache for the cache system in IPB itself. This cache can be shared across multiple servers and is designed this way, memcache can scale to any size. However 25,000 active users at once is quite a bit of traffic. Your talking about requiring multiple database servers at least a primary and slave server. Your front end is going to take the brunt of the work and will require good load balancing and I would recommend maximizing your server resources with xcache, memcached, and running sphinx. I would also get away from apache and switch to nginx with php-fpm. I only run a forum that caps out at 2k users but the speed difference is amazing and the server load is quite noticeable. Overall I think your client also needs to understand his up front costs of running at least 10-15 servers even if optimized. I personally would start with 2 front end and one database server and work from there.

I am for parsing code on profiles. It confuses people when they can use a smiley one place and not in another.

This does not cut it, the whole ability to "soft" delete things and them staying in the forum is a HUGE thing. An unapproved post does not work for me as what happens if you are also approving posts? Your just putting posts back into the cue. This cancels the whole point of moderation. The trash is a semi good idea and being able to move a post to a forum you can not see is a great thing but as an administrator I have no clue where this post comes from.

Both vbulletin and IPB can handle these fine. I do recommend a cache system like xcache or memcache depending on your setup. However it really comes down to how many people are on at once not how many posts. Their search system is comparable to vbulletins and works pretty much the same however they have native sphinx support. They use a very similar template system just like vbulletin's template system. I would say IPB takes more work to skin overall due to the increased amount of CSS.

BY default gzip does not gzip css and js. You must tell the server to.

My guild uses this to give users access to different usergroups. We have over 1k active members and people constantly need group changes. If I had to do a change in the admin cp or give a user the ability to add anyone to a any group would cause havoc.

I think what needs to be done is the lifetime/perpetual license holders should not have to give up their license to get this service. They should be able to retain their license while if they wish they can pay a $25/6 month fee on TOP of their current license without having to downgrade. The fact is license holders are being forced out of their license for a service they want and would most likely pay for if they did not have to lose their current license status. Find a way to allow someone like me who has a perpetual license to KEEP my perpetual and still pay $25/6 months and things would be fine.

Swekey is a low cost solution to developers to allow for a USB authenticator for their software. Website is www.swekey.com. Support for this would make an admin account impossible to break via brute force and some other methods.