Interest in using vBulletin rather phpbb?

[bctrainers]

While vBulletin costs money and phpBB is free, it is where much (read: all) of us have originated from. I've made this poll to gauge interest in whether PayPal donations or something equivalent should be put up so that we could use vBulletin rather phpBB.

Original thread regarding this: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34

[ImAnOgre]

I'd be willing to toss a couple of bucks wraithy's way. Hell, I was willing to dish out the cash for the forum to begin with.

How much does it cost?

[bctrainers]

vBulletin's price tag is 195$ USD.

On an unrelated note, Invision Board is comparable to vBulletin. It however costs 149$ USD.

[RandBlade]

Is that one-off or annual? Does it come with free upgrades or do you have to buy them?

ATM I'd be more curious how much the simple running costs of this site are for eg bandwidth etc

[Wraith]

It's one-off, you can get upgrade for free for a certain period of time if any come out, then you have to pay again.

If we're serious about this though, I think it'd be better to shoot for the $285 "suite", which comes with a bunch of blogging tools as well, and would let us do a lot to integrate things seamlessly. It looks like they have tools to import the database from phpBB, so we would be able to keep all the posts & members we have here whenever we do it, if we ever do.

Damn you BC, before I was completely happy with phpBB & Wordpress. Now you have me drooling over some of the vBulletin features...

[Steely Glint]

Can't you duplicate most of the functionality of vBulletin with mods for phpbb?

[Wraith]

Can't you duplicate most of the functionality of vBulletin with mods for phpbb?

Yes. The mod library for phpbb isn't all that well developed, but I can write our own code for anything else it doesn't cover.

[Steely Glint]

The only features I really miss are quick reply and user editable custom titles.

[Wraith]

The only features I really miss are quick reply and user editable custom titles.

Quick replies are there, just not all the styles support it. I can add that pretty easily. I don't think custom titles would be too hard either.

[Hazir]

So, Wraith, would it cost you anything to set up a paypal account on which you can recieve money? We could go with this format untill the funds are available. It would be good I think to have a 'donate' link and some sort of score board.

[Wraith]

No, it wouldn't cost anything significant to do that if we wanted to.

[DecoyMilk]

I'm more than willing to donate cashola.

I think anything that will significantly improve the blog is money well spent: Especially if it is supposed to be the main focal point of this website

[Hazir]

No, it wouldn't cost anything significant to do that if we wanted to.

I would be willing to donate.

[littlelolligagged]

I'm happy to donate to it, but I don't actually care one way or the other.

[Illusions]

I'd be nice for me to know as well before I devote a lot of time to getting phpBB styles working if we're going to end up using vBulletin... :ugeek:

[GGT]

ILLUSIONS! Yes, I shouted. A little birdie told me that you were instrumental in the making of this forum. I had no idea, whilst fawning all over others.

THANK YOU for all the time and effort you've put in here.

[Hazir]

I don't really care either way; but I presume the vBulletin is better and easier to maintain ?

[Tempus Vernum]

I don't really care either way; but I presume the vBulletin is better and easier to maintain ?

I think it might also be easier to create addon's for.

For example it might be much easier to integrate vBulletin with the blog than it would be to integrate phpBB. But I'm not positive on that, phpBB might've got better since the last time I used it.

[Hazir]

I think it might also be easier to create addon's for.

For example it might be much easier to integrate vBulletin with the blog than it would be to integrate phpBB. But I'm not positive on that, phpBB might've got better since the last time I used it.

IC, thanks for the answer. Let me put it this way; I'll go with whatever the techies here prefer. My vote for vBulletin can be interpreted as a willingness to donate.

[Wraith]

I don't really care either way; but I presume the vBulletin is better and easier to maintain ?

I think it might also be easier to create addon's for.

For example it might be much easier to integrate vBulletin with the blog than it would be to integrate phpBB. But I'm not positive on that, phpBB might've got better since the last time I used it.

If we spring for the publishing suite, everything can be totally integrated fairly seamlessly and easily. The publishing suite seems designed to support exactly what we're trying to do here.

This should work from now on.

[Lor]

By the sound of it, you all seem to know what the way forward is - vB. Seems like your also getting a better package (Not of the man variety) with vB.

[RandBlade]

I think it might also be easier to create addon's for.

For example it might be much easier to integrate vBulletin with the blog than it would be to integrate phpBB. But I'm not positive on that, phpBB might've got better since the last time I used it.

IC, thanks for the answer. Let me put it this way; I'll go with whatever the techies here prefer. My vote for vBulletin can be interpreted as a willingness to donate.

I concur.

I'm not voting as to be frank I don't care so much. I've used phpbb forums and vB forums and I've never seen such a difference. So my first reaction would be to stick with php, use donations for the running costs, but if Illusions/Wraith/TV etc think there'll be advantages to vB then I too would be happy to make a donation.

[Flixy]

IC, thanks for the answer. Let me put it this way; I'll go with whatever the techies here prefer. My vote for vBulletin can be interpreted as a willingness to donate.

Same here. I don't really care much myself, whichever is easiest to set up and integrate with the blog is okay with me, and if that is vBulletin I wil donate.

[oldmunchkin]

I would be happy to donate whatever is in my PP account. I don't think it's much, but maybe $25. Whatever is decided is actually fine with me. The sticky part might be, if I'm going to donate, someone is going to have to tell me how to go about it. :lol: :P

Stupid question, will we have the smilie? It so often fits me!

[Flixy]

I would be happy to donate whatever is in my PP account. I don't think it's much, but maybe $25. Whatever is decided is actually fine with me. The sticky part might be, if I'm going to donate, someone is going to have to tell me how to go about it. :lol: :P

Stupid question, will we have the smilie? It so often fits me!

If you give me all your bank info and login codes and credit card numbers etc., I can surely help you out

[LittleFuzzy]

As Rand said, I've used both systems and from the user-perspective, they seem pretty much interchangable.

[CedarPointer]

In my opinion, phpBB is like this: . Even if we can't get vB, there are other free forums systems that are far better (Simple Machines/SMF is my personal favorite).

[Wraith]

I'm one of the guys who voted for phpBB, but I'm certainly not married to it, and the more I look at vBulletin the more I'm sold on it, and vBulletin seems to be winning in the poll. Before opening a paypal account to try to collect funds for this, would it be possible to collect pledges in this thread? Refunding the cash would a pain in the ass if we can't get close enough to the cost to make the purchase, so I think it'd be better to make sure that we actually will reach the goal before we collect anything.

[DecoyMilk]

I'm one of the guys who voted for phpBB, but I'm certainly not married to it, and the more I look at vBulletin the more I'm sold on it, and vBulletin seems to be winning in the poll. Before opening a paypal account to try to collect funds for this, would it be possible to collect pledges in this thread? Refunding the cash would a pain in the ass if we can't get close enough to the cost to make the purchase, so I think it'd be better to make sure that we actually will reach the goal before we collect anything.

I think Hazir has a pledge thread open already

[Being]

I'm assuming that public polls are not easily possible with phpBB and am therefore voting for vBulletin.