What do you wish you had known about vBulletin when you first got started?

[GeorgeKao]

Hello Everyone,

First of all, thanks to all those who are active in helping others out here! You are building good karma :)

I'm looking into vBulletin vs other options such as Ning.com ...and Wordpress forums (haven't begun researching those possibilities yet)

* Is there anything you wish you'd known when you were first researching forum software?

* What Wordpress forum plugin would you recommend as good alternative to vBulletin?

And now some specific questions about vBulletin:

* Can it be easily configured to have different types of Member sorting... ideally sorting members by how active they have been for a particular month ... or how many compliments they've received? (can people give "thumbs up" to each other and help with their member ranking?)

* If I install vBulletin on www.DomainA.com and in the future, need to switch to www.DomainB.com is the transition easy? Will the forum permalinks still work?

Thanks for any insights you can offer...

[DivisionByZero]

* Is there anything you wish you'd known when you were first researching forum software?
Nope

* What Wordpress forum plugin would you recommend as good alternative to vBulletin?
Nothing. Most wordpress plugins are garbage and insecure

And now some specific questions about vBulletin:

* Can it be easily configured to have different types of Member sorting... ideally sorting members by how active they have been for a particular month ... or how many compliments they've received? (can people give "thumbs up" to each other and help with their member ranking?)
Absolutely.

* If I install vBulletin on www.DomainA.com (http://www.DomainA.com) and in the future, need to switch to www.DomainB.com (http://www.DomainB.com) is the transition easy? Will the forum permalinks still work?
Yes.

[TheLastSuperman]

When I first started in all of this... I had no clue how important backups are! My advice to you is either find a host that offers "automatic" backups preferably hourly OR simply get into the routine and normal habit of backing up from the get go ;).

[Chris8]

Hello Everyone,

First of all, thanks to all those who are active in helping others out here! You are building good karma :)


Great, I need some good karma. :)


I'm looking into vBulletin vs other options such as Ning.com ...and Wordpress forums (haven't begun researching those possibilities yet)

If you're seriously thinking about some serious forum forget about them. Vbulletin (especially versions 3.8 and maybe 4.2) is the best, all other scripts are like toys by real thing. Though there is this Xenforo alternative which looks like it has promising future but has not as much features as vBulletin yet.


* Is there anything you wish you'd known when you were first researching forum software?

Perhaps I would like I discovered vBulletin quicker. I played before with phpBB, SMF and IPB and vBulletin 3 was superior to all of them but I did not know that time this and that it's really worth of its not low price.



* What Wordpress forum plugin would you recommend as good alternative to vBulletin?


No idea. I don't think any WP plugin may be alternative to such powerful software as vBulletin.


And now some specific questions about vBulletin:


* Can it be easily configured to have different types of Member sorting... ideally sorting members by how active they have been for a particular month ... or how many compliments they've received? (can people give "thumbs up" to each other and help with their member ranking?)


Yes, there are many various modifications that you can use for this purpose.


* If I install vBulletin on www.DomainA.com and in the future, need to switch to www.DomainB.com is the transition easy? Will the forum permalinks still work?


Not easy but also not impossible, you need to rewrite all link instances in the files and database too. Permalinks? I think yes.


So, if you're planning some huge project vBulletin is for you, if you're just in need some small board or something simple e.g. some support board to your existing website where customers may post issues you may look into cheaper alternatives like Xenforo or some free solutions like phpBB or SMF. But vB is better anyway.