Voting for BotM - June 2006

[The Chief]

Here is the official voting thread for our first BotM here at vb.org, hope you all vote in this one :D

Here are the results of the nomination thread. Thanks for all your nominations everybody :D

+ vBHackers.com (11 nominations)
+ PhotoSharingForum.com (3 nominations)
+ vbseo.com (6 nominations)
+ vbulletin.org (3 nominations)
+ mustangevolution.com (3 nominations)
+ yourpsp.com (2 nominations)
+ myetalk.com (2 nominations)
+ ChristianForums.com (2 nominations)
------------------------------------
+ mmoccforum.com (single nomination)
+ sevencityforums.com (single nomination)
+ gfxgamers.net (single nomination)
+ insanemustangs.com (single nomination)
+ youthwar.com (single nomination)
+ sitepoint.com (single nomination)
+ stuff-talk.com (single nomination)
+ habbomeadowforum.com (single nomination)
+ digitalet.net (single nomination)
+ blamforums.com (single nomination)
+ irishleagueforums.net (single nomination)
+ partyvibe.com (single nomination)

[Lee]

I cast my vote for vBHackers!

[Roms]

vBHackers.com

[rogersnm]

vBHackers.com :)

[niels999]

I voted vBhackers :)

[Deaths]

vBhackers.com gets my vote ;)

[rogersnm]

Come on vbh!

[Logikos]

I have to say vBH also. :)

[evilpowerdrill]

vbhackers.com :)

[Madmax4321]

vBHackers.com :)

[TyleR]

unsurprisingly, vBHackers.com :)

[Ike013]

lol, everybody loves vBHackers.com :)

[niels999]

Although I voted vBh, PhotoSharingForum.com is also a very nice place. Looks like a forum with a high potention. I will certainly visit it in a while.

[hotwheels]

I put in a vote for mustangevolution.............

[rogersnm]

aww, you should have gone for vbh :p

[The Chief]

Thanks for all your votes so far, keep them coming :D

[akanevsky]

vBHackers.com

[derekivey]

vBHackers.com

[Gio~Logist]

vBHackers.com

[chimaira]

vbseo.com

[Basscat]

Board of the Month
vBHackers.com is proud to announce that we have been nominated to become Board of the Month July. Show your support and vote vBHackers.com for Board of the Month! If you have an active Licensed vBulletin.org account, you can make your selection here: Board of the Month July Competition!

How can the average webmaster(like myself) who does not have a hacking forum with licensed vb members compete against a site like that? Then to top it off, they make that announcement.

This is not fair to the majority of the members here.

Perhaps this contest should be renamed Loaded Board of The Month.

Just my $.02

[Logikos]

This competition is for vBulletin forum owners and admins alike to vote on a vBulletin forum for board of the month. vBHackers.com just happens to have a member base of vBulletin forum owners. I'm sure vBHackers.com has read the competition rules to ensure they were not breaking any.

Just my $.02

[Roms]

How can the average webmaster(like myself) who does not have a hacking forum with licensed vb members compete against a site like that? Then to top it off, they make that announcement.

This is not fair to the majority of the members here.

Perhaps this contest should be renamed Loaded Board of The Month.

Just my $.02

Why is it not fair? It's a website just like any other (no affiliation w/ VB), I'm not a member of it and I looked over my choices and chose the one I thought was best on the list. We are all webmasters/Admins here and would love to see our site get BOTM, but it's just not going to happen. If people are more familiar with a certain board that board is more likely to do better, those are the facts.

Just my $2.75 plus taxes and fees. :p

[TruthElixirX]

How can the average webmaster(like myself) who does not have a hacking forum with licensed vb members compete against a site like that? Then to top it off, they make that announcement.

This is not fair to the majority of the members here.

Perhaps this contest should be renamed Loaded Board of The Month.

Just my $.02
vB SEO has the same amount of power, as does vb.org. Thats three with a vbulletin audience. I don't see what the problem is. Quit hating on vbhackers.

[Floris]

Voted for PhotoSharingForum.com

[Coast to Coast]

I voted for VBSEO.com -

I just have to ask why Vbulletin.org is even on the list... This is Vbulletin.org and thus it only makes sense to keep the system fair by not allowing Vbulletin.org to compete.

Just my 2 cents.

[Daniel]

vBHackers here

[Basscat]

This competition is for vBulletin forum owners and admins alike to vote on a vBulletin forum for board of the month. vBHackers.com just happens to have a member base of vBulletin forum owners. I'm sure vBHackers.com has read the competition rules to ensure they were not breaking any.

Just my $.02

I never said vBHackers was breaking any rules nor am I trying to bash them. I am stating how unfair this current contest is.

I did receive a spam mail they sent out for members to check out the poll and a couple of other things. This went out to members who selected NOT to receive email from administrators in their usercp. I have mine set to NOT receive them for a reason.
Hey, Basscat

As most of us know already vBulletin has released the 3.6 update with many many new features and tweaks. But of course I wanted to ask the vBulletin community if you are currently happy with 3.5 and do you plan on upgrading anytime soon? I would appreciate it if you would check out this poll and vote and add your comments.

Show Off Your Forum
Do you have one, two, three, four, or more forum? Well why not show them off in our vB Showcase forum for others to see and to request a review of your site. We would really like to see what you are working with.

Need Help Growing Your Forum?

Well then you need to visit our Growing Your vB Forum section. There we have members with all types of forums from big and small to help each other out with growing our forums. From how to I get more visitors to what type of SEO do I need to be doing. Drop on by and read a few threads and ask a few questions.

Look forward to seeing you soon,

Rex


Did I leave out the announcement on the forums at vBHackers about the poll? Like I said before...How can the average webmaster compete?

Perhaps vb.org should send out an email and put an announcement across all of its forums.

The current group of boards in the contest is based on membership loyalty.

How fair is this to the webmaster who does not have a membership based on licensed vb owners. Wake up and smell the coffee.

There is no way the average webmaster will be able to compete against this.

Yep....this contest is a LBotM contest. No thanks!

Ever noticed how all of the members here who have "coder" or "advanced coder" for a user title, voted for vbhackers?

Come on....This contest is not fair!

Perhaps you should break your contest down into catagories of boards. This way the average webmaster is not competing against boards with a large licensed vb member base.

[Shaved]

vBhackers.com gets my vote.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

This is the first time we organize a Board of the Month contest. To get a good start we used the ruleset of the vBulletin.com BOTM as starting point of our own. Where these rules seem to work pretty good on vBulletin.com, they don't work to our full expectations on this site.

We are already since the start of this BOTM round monitoring how things are going and prepairing small changes to make things more fair.

All the feeback we can get to improve this process are always welcomed, but please don't use this thread for starting an argument. If you have a concern or suggestion that is not mentioned before, please post it and it will be used in our evaluation of BOTM round 1.

Our 2 BOTM Leaders have voluntered to help with the organisations of this BOTM and put considerable effort in it. For them this is also a new experience, but they are devoted to make this a good competition that is run fair. Consider this first one as a General Try-out for them to learn things they can improve.

[rogersnm]

prepairing small changes to make things more fair.

what do you mean, if a good board like vbh is winning then you'll be unfair to them and make it harder.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Roger,

With all respect, i asked not to use this thread to start discussions. If you have some usefull input that has not been mentioned before, please post it once, but don't use this for discussion.

Also why do you think that if things are changed to make a competition more fair, that it would become unfair? I really don't understand your logic. If you want you explain it to me in PM. Then you can also explain where you saw me saying that: A) any board is not a good board, B) That we would be unfair to any board & C) That we would make it harder for anyone.

[kira]

Well, I definitely support vbhackers as well, but in fairness I do have to mention that over at the vb.com BOTM contest, the abovementioned message ...

vBHackers.com is proud to announce that we have been nominated to become Board of the Month July. Show your support and vote vBHackers.com for Board of the Month! If you have an active Licensed vBulletin.org account, you can make your selection here: Board of the Month July Competition!

... would have gotten the board disqualified from participating further. See the rules here, in particular (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108202):

3. A board could be disqualified or lose votes when:
- the owner or any other person rallies for votes.... anywhere. Here is an example of rallying.

"Hey! Our board is nominated for vB BotM at vbulletin.com. Go over there and vote for us and show your support!"

What is in red, which is rallying, is not allowed. The rest of the above example is fine. You may also comment on any "features" from your board in the actual voting thread in order to "sell" your board if you'd like to.

(sorry, I couldn't make it red ... read "green" for red, I guess!) Whether this rule is in effect here at vb.org, I dunno. But since it was mentioned that you're using the vb.com rules as a starting point, I figured this might be one of 'em.

I got no dog in this race now, though. Whoever wins, congratulations!

[rogersnm]

Personally i think thats a bit of dum a rule. (knowing my luck i'll probably get banned for that seeing as everyone seems to be in a **** mood)

[Logikos]

I never said vBHackers was breaking any rules nor am I trying to bash them. I am stating how unfair this current contest is.

I did receive a spam mail they sent out for members to check out the poll and a couple of other things. This went out to members who selected NOT to receive email from administrators in their usercp. I have mine set to NOT receive them for a reason.


Did I leave out the announcement on the forums at vBHackers about the poll? Like I said before...How can the average webmaster compete?

Perhaps vb.org should send out an email and put an announcement across all of its forums.

The current group of boards in the contest is based on membership loyalty.

How fair is this to the webmaster who does not have a membership based on licensed vb owners. Wake up and smell the coffee.

There is no way the average webmaster will be able to compete against this.

Yep....this contest is a LBotM contest. No thanks!

Ever noticed how all of the members here who have "coder" or "advanced coder" for a user title, voted for vbhackers?

Come on....This contest is not fair!

Perhaps you should break your contest down into catagories of boards. This way the average webmaster is not competing against boards with a large licensed vb member base.

There are 3 boards in the compitetion that have a memberbase of licensed vBulletin users. vbseo.com which has 25,837, vBulletin.org which has 133,742, and vBHackers.com which has 7,452. Look at those numbers. I didn't find it quite fair that vBulletin.org was in the comeptetion because they are basicly running the poll and hosting it at there site, so they get ALL the exposure. vBHackers.com set up a small message in there header for members only, there was even an option to close the message and not show it again.

If you don't want to see the message, then hit the little button on the right of the message that says [x] Close This Announcment, and it will never show back up again. If you have checked the option to not receive emails from admins, then I would suggest writing to them and letting them know so they can see into why the emails are being sent.

I'm acually quite suprised that vBHackers.com is in the lead, as both vBseo and vBorg have a much larger database of members then they do and vB.org is getting most of the exposure. Nobody is forcing anyone to pick vBHackers, the members here can pick w/e they want. If any other site was winning, you would never hear me complaining

[kira]

I ended up going with photosharingforum.com for my vote. Nice clean style, solid content, plus a great integration throughout the rest of the site. Well done, folks!

[hotwheels]

Well, I definitely support vbhackers as well, but in fairness I do have to mention that over at the vb.com BOTM contest, the abovementioned message ...



... would have gotten the board disqualified from participating further. See the rules here, in particular (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108202):



(sorry, I couldn't make it red ... read "green" for red, I guess!) Whether this rule is in effect here at vb.org, I dunno. But since it was mentioned that you're using the vb.com rules as a starting point, I figured this might be one of 'em.

I got no dog in this race now, though. Whoever wins, congratulations!
great point.......I noticed that today too.

[TruthElixirX]

Well, I definitely support vbhackers as well, but in fairness I do have to mention that over at the vb.com BOTM contest, the abovementioned message ...



... would have gotten the board disqualified from participating further. See the rules here, in particular (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108202):



(sorry, I couldn't make it red ... read "green" for red, I guess!) Whether this rule is in effect here at vb.org, I dunno. But since it was mentioned that you're using the vb.com rules as a starting point, I figured this might be one of 'em.

I got no dog in this race now, though. Whoever wins, congratulations!

Vb.org's rules are based of off .com's. Still no rules being broke here. Next contest, maybe, but not now.

[The Chief]

Thanks for all your votes people, please try to visit all the boards in the poll and judge your votes on what you see. :)

[Developer]

vBhackers.com ....

[Gio~Logist]

I never said vBHackers was breaking any rules nor am I trying to bash them. I am stating how unfair this current contest is.

I did receive a spam mail they sent out for members to check out the poll and a couple of other things. This went out to members who selected NOT to receive email from administrators in their usercp. I have mine set to NOT receive them for a reason.


Did I leave out the announcement on the forums at vBHackers about the poll? Like I said before...How can the average webmaster compete?

Perhaps vb.org should send out an email and put an announcement across all of its forums.

The current group of boards in the contest is based on membership loyalty.

How fair is this to the webmaster who does not have a membership based on licensed vb owners. Wake up and smell the coffee.

There is no way the average webmaster will be able to compete against this.

Yep....this contest is a LBotM contest. No thanks!

Ever noticed how all of the members here who have "coder" or "advanced coder" for a user title, voted for vbhackers?

Come on....This contest is not fair!

Perhaps you should break your contest down into catagories of boards. This way the average webmaster is not competing against boards with a large licensed vb member base.

I'm sorry, last time i checked, you can't force someone to click something. By asking them to go over to the poll and check it out because vbh is in it, all that's being done is directing them to the thread. Their decision and such is completely up to them. How can the average webmaster compete? Take a look at the members that the other sites have and compare them to vbh, that's how. And the email you got was an update not spam. It's also nothing that should be discussed here.

Am i missing something here, did anyone pay money or receive money for being in this contest? Last time i checked, it was done for fun.

[Lizard King]

Voted for vbseo.com

[Smiry Kin's]

I don't think paid sites should be in the vote, sorry but my option.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Do you mean paid (ie pay to enter the site) or commercial?

[The Chief]

Do you mean paid (ie pay to enter the site) or commercial?
He probably meant commercial, even though I can't see why they couldn't enter?

[amykhar]

Just about every site is commercial. They use ad banners to make money, or they sell or support a commercial product.

[Lizard King]

I think it shall be open vote so anyone can check the voters :)
Also from the next month the guidelines shall be prepared so noone can complain about anything.

[Ziki]

vb.org definately

[Ntfu2]

Everyone just breathe, this is just a fun little contest and our first one mind you. Changes will be made after the first month to accomodate everyone and try to make everything even more fair and equal :)

The important thing is that no one has lost an eye or anything....yet :D

[hotwheels]

Just about every site is commercial. They use ad banners to make money, or they sell or support a commercial product.Mine isn't......I don't have banner's, google adsense or anything........

However, i am glad that this is starting to work BoTM.....I think it is a great idea and will go over big. Just take's sometime to get the bug's worked out......

[BamaStangGuy]

If it uses vBulletin and complies with vBulletins terms and conditions there is absolutely no reason at all it should not be allowed to enter.

[johnrizz]

vbulletin.org
Even though vBhackers.com been very helpful, vbulletin.org has help me the most so therefore you guys get my respect.:bunny:

[sab2000sab]

I voted for PhotoSharingForum.com!

[joeychgo]

Just about every site is commercial. They use ad banners to make money, or they sell or support a commercial product.


How do you define that? VBSEO sells a product, so yes, its commercial, but the others have what - advertisements? That doesnt make them commercial.

[noppid]

vbhackers. Good Luck.

I'm off to "make money". :)

[Ike013]

How do you define that? VBSEO sells a product, so yes, its commercial, but the others have what - advertisements? That doesnt make them commercial.
Think you first need to know the purposes of the owners of the board to be able to say it is commercial or not.

[hotwheels]

well my vote still went to mustangevolution............Mustangs rule, hehehehe

[sezmar]

Yep Yep! It's got to be VBHackers.com

Ah! Why is vbulletin.org even on it? That to me ain't right!

[TruthElixirX]

Ah! Why is vbulletin.org even on it? That to me ain't right!
Stop with the "X board shouldn't be on there!" crap. All the boards met the rules for this contest. Get.Over.It.

[Logikos]

Any vBulletin powered site should have the right to be apart of the contest, regardless what the site content is.

[The Chief]

Any vBulletin powered site should have the right to be apart of the contest, regardless what the site content is.
We limit ourselves to anything except Sexually explicit or violent content, which I think is reasonable ;)

[Logikos]

I agree with you on that one.

[Smiry Kin's]

commercial, well for one, there not allowed to be posted on vb.org.. so i dont think its right to include them in the voting..

well thats my opinion, it obviously wont change anything..

[niels999]

We limit ourselves to anything except Sexually explicit or violent content, which I think is reasonable ;)
Dude, you seriously don't know how sexy LiveWire is :banana: I think vBh should be removed :knockedout:

[melefire]

vBHackers all the way

[TruthElixirX]

Dude, you seriously don't know how sexy LiveWire is :banana: I think vBh should be removed :knockedout:
vBH isn't ran by livewire anymore, or wasn't last time I checked. ;)

[Logikos]

I'm no longer the owner, I'm still an admin there.

[Zachariah]

mustangevolution.com :)

[niels999]

vBH isn't ran by livewire anymore, or wasn't last time I checked. ;)
But he is stil being sexy there ;)

[hotwheels]

mustangevolution.com :)
I like the way you think.......... :D

[Zachariah]

I like the way you think.......... :D

Good ole Red, White, and Blue. :rambo:

[Snake]

vB.org gets my vote! :D

[joshll]

come on vBhackers!! :D

[FASherman]

Had to go with vBSEO. While I am impressed with vbHackers, the net of it is its still a copycat of VB.Org. All the style and graphics work is lipstick on a bulldog when the concept isn't original. Even the content isn't original. There's a large number of mods there that have also been released here.

If BotM becomes nothing more than a popularity contest with admins sending out emails as a voting drive, the whole idea can be tossed on the rubbish heap now.

No promoting of any kind should be tolerated and based on that alone, vbHackers should be disqualified - especially if the rules are based on VB.Com which does have a rule prohibiting promotions.

Of course, I don't expect that to happen. VB.Org doesn't have that kind of credibility any more. Users are leaving left and right. Webmasters promoting votes for their site are at least driving traffic here and that, I'm betting, is more important than integrity.

[GaryP]

I voted for vB.org, although I liked the look of photosharingforum I just didn't think it had enough content yet.

[michaelbenson]

Easy. vBSEO.
Great support, great community, great product. What more could you ask for?

[ab420]

vBulletin.org all the way! I would be lost without this site!

[Marco van Herwaarden]

If BotM becomes nothing more than a popularity contest with admins sending out emails as a voting drive, the whole idea can be tossed on the rubbish heap now.
As mentioned before, we will use an updated set of rules for the next round where we will try to make it more a contest with equal chances.

No promoting of any kind should be tolerated and based on that alone, vbHackers should be disqualified - especially if the rules are based on VB.Com which does have a rule prohibiting promotions.
None of our current rules are broken by any of the submitted sites as far as i know, so i see no reason to disqualify anyone.

We have said that we based our rules on the ones at vb.com, we are not using their version, so we can not disqualify someone based on the rules of another site.

[smacklan]

We have said that we based our rules on the ones at vb.com, we are not using their version, so we can not disqualify someone based on the rules of another site.
whats the difference? not that it matters to me, mind you, just seems to me that you are contradicting yourself with that answer.

[rex_b]

Had to go with vBSEO. While I am impressed with vbHackers, the net of it is its still a copycat of VB.Org. All the style and graphics work is lipstick on a bulldog when the concept isn't original. Even the content isn't original. There's a large number of mods there that have also been released here.

If BotM becomes nothing more than a popularity contest with admins sending out emails as a voting drive, the whole idea can be tossed on the rubbish heap now.

No promoting of any kind should be tolerated and based on that alone, vbHackers should be disqualified - especially if the rules are based on VB.Com which does have a rule prohibiting promotions.

Of course, I don't expect that to happen. VB.Org doesn't have that kind of credibility any more. Users are leaving left and right. Webmasters promoting votes for their site are at least driving traffic here and that, I'm betting, is more important than integrity.

While your entitled to your opinion I find your post be both falsely based on assumptions and wrong.

Every site on this list has done exactly what the rules have asked for.

And saying vBH is nothing but a copy of .org is a flat out lie. Why don't we just call vBulletin a copy of UBB with lipstick?

[FASherman]

And saying vBH is nothing but a copy of .org is a flat out lie.

No, its an opinion. When you make the mistake of using words like "lie" and "liar" with Texans, we tend to react in an inhospitable way.

So, you're saying your concept isn't original, your content isn't original but because you've got a nice style a pretty graphics, you aren't a VB.Org copy? :cross-eyed:

If we should ignore content and originally for appearance, you're basically asking to be the Brittany Spears of websites. :D

[TECK]

vBHackers.com gets my vote. It looks/feels like the old vB.org, before everything got bad.
Easy to navigate, you find your hacks righaway.
All they need is a 'Help me finish' forum like in the old times...

[Paul M]

Easy to navigate, you find your hacks righaway.I find that statement quite interesting - as far as i can see, they use exactly the same system as here - a single forum with thread prefixes (in fact, they don't seperate 3.5 and 3.6). From a quick look even the thread prefixes look the same.

[FASherman]

I find that statement quite interesting - as far as i can see, they use exactly the same system as here - a single forum with thread prefixes (in fact, they don't seperate 3.5 and 3.6). From a quick look even the thread prefixes look the same.
We must both be lying. :confused:

Maybe its just me, but BotM should be more than just looks. Otherwise, its just a style contest. Originality, content, additional features - all of these should be a factor.

[Paul M]

We must both be lying. :confused: My interest is not really about that particular argument, rather that someone thinks that the system there is wonderful, easy to navigate and finds things easily, and at the same time implying that the system here is bad, when infact they are identical (with the exception that vb.org seperates out 3.5 and 3.6 mods). Most curious.

[TECK]

Let's keep this thread on track. :)
I opened a new one, related to the above matter:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=119756

[FASherman]

Its very much on topic. Why does a copycat board with duplicated content deserve top honors be cause of a glitzy style and graphics? How we evaluate is exactly the point.

[Logikos]

You have failed to understand that any community based around the vBulletin code and modifications will have very similar content. No content from this site or any other site has been copied without the sole permission of the original authors. vBHackers.com will never take and release someone else's content, ever! I even created a custom hack for staff members to prevent such a thing from happing.

If you are upset because you see the same hacks and content being published on vBHackers.com as here, then I suggest you take it up with the authors them selfs, not a site that allows them the choice to post there content there or not. From the first day I created that site, the number one rule was never allow someone to release someone elses work there without there permission, any users that broke that rule have been permanently banned from ever posting on our site. No exceptions!

[Marco van Herwaarden]

@All

This is a voting thread, you voice your opinion by the vote you make. Discussions like some people seem to want to have in this thread, don't belong in a contest vote.

Please don't use this thread for having disputes.

[Blaine0002]

SEO for me, i didnt vote vbhackers because I think all hacks should be localized into vb.org

[amykhar]

Marco just asked that you drop the debate. VBHackers is a site that has a right to be voted on like any other site. If you think it doesn't deserve to win, don't vote for it. End of problem.

This is not the place for a squabble about where hacks should or shouldn't be posted.

[Blaine0002]

Marco just asked that you drop the debate. VBHackers is a site that has a right to be voted on like any other site. If you think it doesn't deserve to win, don't vote for it. End of problem.

This is not the place for a squabble about where hacks should or shouldn't be posted.

No offense, and im not trying to make any enemies here, just saying, that the ones who call it a big argument, actually make it an argument. Were having a simple conversation on why I did not vote for the website.

[rogersnm]

Thanks, for deleting all my posts but i think thats my point!

[niels999]

Well well :) Today the 29. Tomorrow the last voting day :)

[Ntfu2]

Last day to get your votes before next months refined Board of the month!

[SaN-DeeP]

vbulletin.org

[TECK]

No offense, and im not trying to make any enemies here, just saying, that the ones who call it a big argument, actually make it an argument. Were having a simple conversation on why I did not vote for the website.
As the mods said, this is a voting thread for the best board of the month.
Not an argument place. Do like I did, start a new thread, if you want to deploy extra comments, related to specific matters.

Regards,

Floren

[niels999]

Wtf :| This poll will close on 02. Jul 2006 at 01:38 Why till 2 Jul? I thought it was only this month?

[Logikos]

For me it's This poll will close on 07-01-2006 at 09:38 PM

Timezone is most likely the case. ;)

[niels999]

Oooh lol :) Ok then. Looked strange for me.

[The Chief]

Poll closed, winners will be announced shortly :)