vBulletin Blog customization

[srawrats1138]

The last few days I have spent countless hours searching these forums for vBulletin Blog mods. There are very little and the only mods I could find are not what I need

A better blog home page
The current blog home page is too cluttered and my users would get information overload. I don't need the Random Featured Blog table. I don't want the Recent Comments table either. I also don't need the blog stats. The only thing I really want or need is a list of the most recent blog entries, a list of categories, and a simple search field for the blog.


A more independent admin blog
Currently, only admins and mods are allowed to post blogs. Is it possible to put a link in the nav bar to my (main admin) blog on the forum? A majority of users are coming just for my blog, and I want a quick link to it.


I would love any help or suggestions.

Note:
I have tried vBadvanced and . . . . . .I think it sucks. It is too complicated and not intuitive. I have little php code knowledge but if I don't find a mod I guess I am going to have to bite the bullet and start an in depth php education. :mad::eek:

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Not sure if stating that all existing modifications "suck" is a good motivation to coders to help you.

[Fixture]

I agree with OP about need for simple blog. Sometimes you don't need all of the MySpace/Facebook social touchy-feely junk. You just want a blog to update the visitors to interesting posts from the admin and mods which links to the Vbulletin area for posts and comments.

The Vbulletin blog just doesn't do it for me yet. It seems targeted at the members to create a blog and that is not what we are after.

Here's an idea, "Simple PHP Blog" is open source. Why doesn't Jelsoft take a look at that one? They are currently suffering from a lack of leadership but the software is solid.

Simple PHP Blog is what I want for Vbulletin admin blog leading to the forums. It's not that complicated and can be configured very simply. The only part it lacks is a bridge to Vbulletin or a combined admin interface. It also suffers from spammy comments but if you use Vbulletin with captcha for the comment system, then life is good.

I have played around with Wordpress but the code is not built to be easily simplified to fit the look and feel of Vbulletin styles. It also suffers from the too much social linking disease. You will get people randomly coming from other unrelated blogs and leaving "OMG Ponies! See my site here!" type crap with pingbacks ad nauseum. Don't want it, don't need it.

Jelsoft, we want to give you more money! You just have to earn it.