Hi all,

I have recently purchased a domain name, which will have on it a forum about the local music scene in my area. I have tried a numerous amount of forum software, but none I have liked enough to continue with.

So I have recently been thinkin about purchasing v bulletin, but it is a lot of money for a youth such as myself, so I wanted to know a few questions beforehand.

1) If I bought the owned license, how many times can I use this? I mean how many number of websites can I use this forum software on? is it as many as I want? or is it just that one?

2) This question is for the people who have used vbulletin before, just wanted general feedback, was you impressed by it? and is it worth the money and so on?

1) You can only use the owned licence on ONE domain name. If you want to use it on another, you have to buy another licence.

2) vBulletin is superb, especially with vBSEO.

Have you tried PHPBB3? Joy to use, very easy, massive support for it and best of all its free. If you have tried it what didn't you like about it?

So far as money, when I was young I approached my parents to pay for stuff. I explained to them why my cause of worthy of their investment and quite often I worked it off in washing up or gardening duties. If you feel you must use VB ask your parents. Tell them what you are doing. Mention future career prospects and throw in a concession. You might get lucky and find funding there.

I personally dislike VB the most of all forum software I have tried. Last time I looked the admin panel was ugly, the forum itself I find dull and uninspiring. I prefer phpbb3 the most because it is free and for 0 pounds, 0 pence it is fantastic value for money. My second favorite is what you are looking at now. Invision is pretty sweet. The control panel is a tad expansive but its really solid platform to work from.

I tend to have an instant dislike for sites running phpBB, the reason being is that I have seen so many hacked installations of it that I don't think of it as a professional option for a forum anymore, it seems unsecure and I have rarely seen it being put to good use, the only relatively large sites I have seen using it tend to be of the warez variety.

vBulletin to me seems like the professional choice and though I hate the ugly look of the admin panel, it seems to be able to do everything you would want it to, my only complaint would be that it's support for RSS feeds is quite limited, though that may have changed in the new version, I haven't checked.

Well, this is the age old question is it not. I remember not to long ago we were going through just this topic when starting up TWS. I personally love IPB, for many reasons. Sp, I am voting for IPB. I am aware there are more mods available for VB, but IPB is still in my opinion a better choice. There are many reasons for my choice, so I will list a few.

1. IPB is much faster then VB.
2. IPB has cleaner code then VB.
3. IPB is much easier to mod then VB.
4. IPB is easier to skin then VB.
5. IPB's admin area has much more power then VB's.

Granted there are many features and pros to VB as well. For example, VB has a much better built in infraction system then IPB. IPB seems to have grown very fast in the short time it has been on the market. It has managed to become equal to that of VB, which had a 4 year head start. Not bad, huh? I envision IPB will pass VB in no time at the current rate VB is moving.

What about Vanilla?

Super clean and minimalistic.

http://getvanilla.com/

Vanilla is more a forum for people like us.. I don't think it's very suitable for noobs..

I use Vanilla for one of my clients. I installed it for their meeting so they can create a thread and post the agenda and relating documents instead of sending x numbers of email that have 40Mb of documents in them

I think Vanilla is awesome for small communities. If you are going for something big, I would go with IPB as well

I wouldn't say it's only good for small communities. freelanceSwitch forums for example, http://forums.freelanceswitch.com/ uses Vanilla and I wouldn't really call it a small community.

I think vanilla is great when you want something simple, clean and light-weight... big or small.

Yeah, there's a lot more junk packed into a ipb install, and if that's what you're after then by all means, ipb it is.

Different forum applications will work better with different audiences.

Ok,

Thanks for everyones reply, it is much appreciated.

V Bulletin was always my first choice for paid forum software, mainly because its the most popular one that people used and talked about! with great mods and so on. But the more and more I look at IPB the more I am thinkin about going for that.

So a few questions to people who have used it before then:
- Do they have mods for the forum? are they free or do you have to pay?
- What the service like with them.

I am going to go onto there website and try a demo and see wt its like, because I definately prefer the looks of IPB So if this goes well they could be in for a sale
And most importantly it is cheaper than v bulletin, so thats 1-0 to IPB!

Ben (benbramz) and Jacob are the ones to ask about IPB stuff.

I have just tested out the IPB forum software as a demo, and I have fallen in love with it!

If I found out a little bit more information, what I said about in the above post, and I am satisfied and can get the funds together, I am going to get this! (:

Thanks for your help
Craig

Jacob will probably have some great advice for you when he sees this thread.

We have paid for some mods. I don't know if some have been no cost...
I know Jacob takes mods and reworks them all!

Like with any software some mods are free and others need to be brought. It really depends on what you want the mod to do and who created it.

Well I don't know what mods there are to be honest, but I was just wondering incase in the future I may need some, do you have a link to a mod site for IPB?

Plenty of links here

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=IPB+mods&...lient=firefox-a

IPB is GREAT! I'm sure you'll fall in love with it. The admin interface takes just a little getting used to, but after that you will love the power you have!

Question 1: Do they have mods for the forum, are they free or do you have to pay?

Well, there are loads of resources and pre-built mods that are completly free, actually there are thousands of them. Here are a few great sites...

http://resources.invisionpower.com/
http://invisionmodding.com/
http://mods.invisionize.com/

Those sites will help you. What I like to do as Linda stated is find a pre-built mod and edit it/tweak it to do what I want it to do. It's a great way to learn! But now I am just building mods by myself and loving it! IPB has a great component system, that just lets you plug your mods right into IPB's core with very little work.

Question 2: What is the service like with them?

I guess you mean like the support? Well, for most of the free ones there is not any support. However, if you know of a good web design and development forum you could post up the code and they could help you figure out why it's not working. (Hint, hint! TWS! )



I knew you would! IPB is really the best option!



Hope I helped, if you have any other questions please reply to this thread and let me know. Although, I would recommend sending me a PM and letting me know you have replied other wise you might have to wait!

Thanks,
Jacob

Thanks for everyones help about this subject it has been a fantastic help in my decision.

So with this is mind I bought IPB the other day, From my little look at it (which isn't detailed, because I have had a mad booze filled weekend ) it looks fantastic, the admin section looks soo good and allow you to do anything.

I haven't tried to edit anything as yet, but quick question, how do you edit the files? look of the forum? where are the files that you can edit? after a quick browse there are soo many folders I got confused. Or can you only edit it in the admin area via the controls there?

Thanks everyone again!
Craig

Haha....now you know how we felt when we started. It's a little confusing as is VB....soooo amny files and no idea where anything is located. I guess by "edit" you are talking about creating your own design. I personally find it easiest to edit the design in the "Look and Feel Tab" of the ACP. Although, you can edit it manually. Karinne would be the best person to ask on this topic, after all she is the designer!

Why thank you Jacob!

Actually ... I go through the "Look and Feel" tab in the ACP as well

Everything is there. Alltough... to tell you the truth, we haven't made "many" changes to the actually "design" if you get my meaning. Not for this version anyways