Why vB and not InvisonBoard [Archive]

msimplay

02-19-2003, 05:51 PM

Just try for urself
i did a thourough test of the major Bulletin Boards
eg Yabb, ikonboard, invision board, phpbb and of course Vbulletin

If u chek them out feature for feature u'll see Vbulletin comes out on top
Although they have hacks, Vbulletin comes with most features that u would want as standard
I personally installed only two hacks, A welcome panel and Vbarcade

chek yabb its the one that has least features altho easy to use, and has good Support, it just can;t compete with what can be done with Vb
eg the hacks i installed on it eg Usercp, Alert on Pms, add smilies, and Add attachments are standard on Vb, Also its in pearl Slower then php, The standard version has no Database support

now lets see Ikonboard good board But again no user cp and the Support is abysmal no Attachments, am sure it has hacks but who wants the hassle, another Problem i had was the install
it created Some files that belonged to no one so i had to get in contact with my Hosting Provider to get rid of those Files cuz i wasn't allowed to delete them i had no permissions.
The Boards in perl Can become slow

So that would leave Invision board as the closest competitor
well lets match them up, They think that its an upgrade to Vbulletin, i don;t think so, if u chek the features standard ones
Firstly it has no file attach, and as for the support i couldn;t even find that, i didn;t find any hacks database like Vborg
and some of the standard features like adding smilies is just Slightly Better on Vb , and the user Cp is definitly is

So the Final Note Altho those other boards Are Excellent in their own right i really think the Choice is clear Vbulletin is the best, the support is excellent, with the continual development, and u don't really need to improve upon it , but the changes u can add are major things like Portalisation and cosmetics and Virtual arcade, I think its clear why those are free and this has a Minor fee, but as they say u Get what u pay for

msimplay

02-19-2003, 05:57 PM

amykhar

02-19-2003, 06:00 PM

To me, the main difference is in the control panel and how much more intuitive and easy vbulletin is to configure and maintain than some of the others. I have been working with some people setting up their sites and customizing their forums and I don't think you could pay me to switch.

Amy

msimplay

02-19-2003, 07:29 PM

Originally posted by amykhar
To me, the main difference is in the control panel and how much more intuitive and easy vbulletin is to configure and maintain than some of the others. I have been working with some people setting up their sites and customizing their forums and I don't think you could pay me to switch.

Amy
u just feel it straight away the overall quality

Asso

03-03-2003, 01:51 PM

it' vBulletin! :)

...and it's great!

the code is simply perfect

laureno

03-13-2003, 02:00 AM

filburt1 what's wrong with linux?? windows xp was a step ahead but they went too far with the "activation" i'd still take linux over windows anyday, and i know my husband would too, not because it's free, it's also more stable, vbulletin is like windows (cept for the crashing :-P) and i think people are crazy to pay $160 (?99) for ANY scripting, programs are ok (photoshop/dreamweaver/psp/etc.etc) but $160 for a year of updates, you're all crazy!! - i'm only here to look at the hacks so don't bother asking me "why did you come to a vb board..." ;)

laureno

03-13-2003, 02:03 AM

just re-read the whole thing - msimplay "minor fee"?? says $160 on vbulletin.com

Zachery

03-13-2003, 02:05 AM

its only 160 to buy the license then 30 a year to keep access to the updates, which is not bad

laureno

03-13-2003, 02:10 AM

DrkFusion

03-13-2003, 02:21 AM

To get someone to develop a forum for you, may I assure is most likly 10x the price of a full owned liscense.

Anyways, I have been analysing the age gorups, type of site, dedication of many of the members both here and at the official site.

vBulletin targets more long-term based, mature, dedicated audience it seems, well the majority of the time. vBulletin is made to give a proffesional look, at the same time give you all and more of the features you get/don't get else where.

Most of all the 'legit' boards are all dedicated, and have proffesional appeal to them. Then there are all the pirated boards where you see the difference. For them, freeboards are made in majority, these sites are temporary, don't want to invest into there site to make it grow, but just want to start a site for the heck of it.

I can go on, but I know in general many get this point, though it may not be the main point.

Now to convince, I am a phpBB user, well was, and when I got the power of vB under my belt, the possibilities were endless, the coding is secure, and clean, I am able to make all possible modifications I need, when I want to and when I need to. The Template System is geniously coded, if you see other board software, they are individual files, and are usually needed to be downloaded to be edited, vB packages this all in a nice template system, which I love. I am hooked on vB, love the hacks, love the support, love vB.org and plan to dedicate a nice amount of time here.

Also if you are not sure what you want, test, and even if you want start off with a free board, there are plenty converters available, and I have seen many sites that start off with free board and convert to vB.

OK enough typing for me :p

msimplay

03-13-2003, 02:42 AM

Originally posted by laureno
yeah but for $160 you could get someone else to make you your own script and teach you how to write it or just learn php for $0 and still have one at the end of the day, i just think $160 for a forum is way overpriced thats all :) i guess it's all to do with how much time you have on your hands/how fast you want your forum

its up2 u at the end of the day , when it comes down to it Vbulletin is simply the best forum software there is, as for learning and making your be my guest, and having custom software made,

if u've got the time please me by guest develop your software, but it would take a long to to be as good as Vbulletin, u have got to remember it has a team of developers behinds it, that get paid to do a job, also this being forum software has been through many phases of updates , infact it gets updated all the time, the other major factor is the support if u have a problem with the software u will have someone thereto help u, and also u have to remember this forum software has been made with much research as it has come along , through its varios stages eg vbulletin 1.0x 2.x and soon to be 3.x

and if it is about the money then be my guest use a free board
and believe me when i say Vbulletin is the best, i have tried them all,

but in all fairness u shouldnt be comparing a free board with a payboard,
and if u are persuading us to turn away from vbulletin, it wont work so easily since vbulletin has many happy customers, me being one of them, unless however u can show me something substantially better, its not happening.

also i dont use linux, like the other 98.8% i use Windows xp,
i dont mind the software its just not supported as much as windows eg with software, games etc , as for stability i dont have many problems with Xp, but really i'm not on a server so rock solid platform isn;t needed, i'd rather have the accessability

waddawadda

03-13-2003, 04:29 AM

well, i think that all coding should be free, but the creators should be recognized. phpbb is free, and it is great, and easy to customize. i just "bought" vb 2.3 and i dunno, i haven't really tried to mess with the aestetics yet, but i know they templates on phpbb were easy to update. why am i here you ask, well, i dunno, they are both great forums, and both accessible ;-).

filburt1

03-13-2003, 10:17 AM

Don't be ridiculous. If all coding were free every software company in existance would be bankrupt.

Disturbed

03-13-2003, 11:03 AM

lol seriously

i'm kinda sick of all those "why is vb expensive, why do you take all this money" crap, i dont think it should be even discussed but if you really wanna discuss it why not go to the vb.com forums ;p

msimplay

03-13-2003, 01:12 PM

Ok my final note
u may find that on a general level all forums are the same
but its only when u delve deeper
can u realise how good a forum is

eg does a forum get slow if it handles more then say 1000 members at once ?

laureno

03-13-2003, 10:27 PM

not ALL coding should be free but they could at least lower the price! and deffinatly on vbulletin its a php script for god sake not a peice of software. you can buy windows xp pro here for that much!! and i use xp too it's good for games but still i like linux, com'on who could resist tux over 4 crappy little boxes of color?? :) ...oh and the stability side of course :D - like i said though xp was a big step but the activation was going too far so no more money for mr bad microsoft guy from me :P and likewise vbulletin wont be getting my $160 - disturbed, valid point however i chose to answer a post on THIS forum, still you get a cookie *hands a cookie* (don't worry it's not one of those spyware ones :D ) - waddawadda need i ask where you "bought" vbulletin?? ;)

msimplay

03-13-2003, 11:37 PM

well put it this way
Vbulletin is software
i mean u pay for galleries
Skins,
styles
memberships
come on if u think about it 160 a one off payment one that u'll never have to make again

and to keep updated to whatever new version comes out only
30 pounds a years isn;t bad

i mean what other software lets u have upgrades like that
eg if u buy linux or Windows u have to pay for each one

Disturbed

03-16-2003, 01:41 PM

03-14-03 at 12:27 AM laureno said this in Post #21 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=365864#post365864)
waddawadda need i ask where you "bought" vbulletin?? ;)

err vb.com :P

you do realize i cant post (in most forums) or download hacks if imma not a valid customer :)

btw vB is really cheap compared to uBB

filburt1

03-16-2003, 02:13 PM

"Disturbed" is showing up as licensed. Don't jump to conclusions.

Spitfireisgod

03-17-2003, 01:04 AM

heres a simple way to solve it...

if you want a crap 1 month board with 6 members, go with phpBB...

or if you want a site with about 500 members and up for a long time (2 years) then go with vB, and if you dont have the money, get a job or become admin at a friend's site :-0

oh yeah, about UBB, i used to run one, but in the long term, they break down since CGI is nowhere as fast/server easy as PHP/MySql, and they are like 200 bucks :-0!!!

DrkFusion

03-17-2003, 02:16 AM

To elaborate on Spirtfireisgods message.

If you are looking for a long-term solution, vB is what you are looking for.

Linkooseven

03-22-2003, 01:06 PM

Well, I hope the $85 license only has to pay $30 a year after that to keep getting updates lol. When I do get vBulletin, it'll be the cheap license.

vB does look good. My site uses phpBB2 right now, good script, but vB seems to be the best.

I hated invision board though..

DrkFusion

03-23-2003, 01:00 AM

I believe if you buy the 85$ liscense, you do not pay 30$ every year, but pay 85$ every year, to renew the use of the liscense. 160$ Is to own the liscense, and 30$ here after to get access to the members area and support.

colicab-d

03-24-2003, 10:24 PM

yeah get the $160 owned license.

as for getting someone to make your own forum software then yeah you could but chances are it be less feature packed than vb, youve got 1 person for support and it may look poop, plus the money you spent on that would have got you vb and youd be kicking yourself in the end :P

Jethro

03-27-2003, 05:47 AM

02-05-03 at 08:05 PM Davey said this in Post #2 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=350647#post350647)

Much more secure than any other.

- Matter of opinion but will agree with you

You can actually *get* support when errors occur :).

- Hasn't been our expierance, exactly no questions answered in 6 months, as opposed to some of the opposition who have answers (which are correct) within an hour of asking.

The staff are friendly.

- Very true

Creating template sets are easier.

- Again a matter of opinion.

The list goes on.......

- as do the benefits/disadvantages of other software

Hope this is convincing enough :).

Dave.

This is a "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" question, l don't like phpBB but some people swear it's the best software.

Backing up a couple of people here, the coding in vBulletin is woeful compared to the layout of some of the other software.

Just my $0.01c worth.

msimplay

03-27-2003, 07:32 AM

Today at 07:47 AM Jethro said this in Post #30 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=373931#post373931)

This is a "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" question, l don't like phpBB but some people swear it's the best software.

Backing up a couple of people here, the coding in vBulletin is woeful compared to the layout of some of the other software.

Just my $0.01c worth.

lol @Phpbb best software they obviosly can't have used anything better else they wouldn't be saying that :D

LOL VBulletins coding is among the best if not the best there is
if u have ever noticed Vbulletin has always been ahead of its time with each release

fiendz

03-31-2003, 04:28 PM

uhh funny everyone ran around mentioning phpbb and invision board. VB is the best **probably** however it is an opinion. and i think it www.xmbforum.com is where everyone should be headed if they want a free forum script which in my opinion rivals and betters vb in certain aspects. jmo

Holidazed

03-31-2003, 05:07 PM

Well, I was leaning toward phpBB, mostly because it integrates with phpNuke very well. However, now that I know that vbb does this as well, I am going to buy my licence. Much slicker interface and quick beyond belief (compared to a perl-based messageboard). Less of a learning curve. Have you even looked at Ikonboard. My god that is slow. Forums and sub-forums (I have never seen subforums as an option of any messageboard) and UBB? Give me a break. I have been running ubb for about 3 years now and although it is real easy to modify, it is still perl script and a pain in the butt to backup (takes forever). I am chomping at the bit to get into a database driven site.

filburt1

03-31-2003, 05:51 PM

Today at 01:28 PM fiendz said this in Post #32 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=375996#post375996)
uhh funny everyone ran around mentioning phpbb and invision board. VB is the best **probably** however it is an opinion. and i think it www.xmbforum.com is where everyone should be headed if they want a free forum script which in my opinion rivals and betters vb in certain aspects. jmo

XMB is notoriously, among other things, insecure. From what I've heard Invision Board is the best for people who can't afford vB.

msimplay

03-31-2003, 06:28 PM

i tried xmb some of the bbcode weird pretty weirdly
i did like its look
but for me, ease of use in bbcode is a must

fiendz

03-31-2003, 08:21 PM

yea well as far as being "notoriously" insecure...sorry to let you know..but every board is. its just a matter of whos taken the time to find out. any scripting is exploitable INCLUDING vb. im cool with you supporting vb because you use it but dont knock others on false pretenses. as far as xmb being insecure ive had no problems using the newest one which has no security holes **FOUND YET** but even if before my board was never hacked. see heres the deal if someone wants your boards/site down...all they have to do is take the time and they can do it no matter who your host is/what theyre running or what forum script you used. ive actually seen with my own eyes more vb boards get dropped but thats simply because theyre used by more sites i frequent. so as far as it being secure or not..most people using forums in general arent running sites dealing with sensitive information and so forth. so just dont ++++ the wrong person with the right knowledge off and security will never be any trouble no matter what script youre using.

on another note i have to admit using both i do like vb's control panel better simply because its laid out better in the frames. but for $160 they can keep their look and ill keep my xmb ;D

filburt1

03-31-2003, 08:40 PM

If you start to get an attitude you can be three clicks away from a banning. I'm reitering what I've heard, including from actual hosts.

vB 2.3.0 has specific measure designed to stop all XSS vulnerabilities, BTW.

Spitfireisgod

04-03-2003, 02:04 AM

03-31-03 at 10:21 PM fiendz said this in Post #36 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=376082#post376082)
yea well as far as being "notoriously" insecure...sorry to let you know..but every board is. its just a matter of whos taken the time to find out. any scripting is exploitable INCLUDING vb. im cool with you supporting vb because you use it but dont knock others on false pretenses. as far as xmb being insecure ive had no problems using the newest one which has no security holes **FOUND YET** but even if before my board was never hacked. see heres the deal if someone wants your boards/site down...all they have to do is take the time and they can do it no matter who your host is/what theyre running or what forum script you used. ive actually seen with my own eyes more vb boards get dropped but thats simply because theyre used by more sites i frequent. so as far as it being secure or not..most people using forums in general arent running sites dealing with sensitive information and so forth. so just dont ++++ the wrong person with the right knowledge off and security will never be any trouble no matter what script youre using.

on another note i have to admit using both i do like vb's control panel better simply because its laid out better in the frames. but for $160 they can keep their look and ill keep my xmb ;D

someone has sand in their ++++++

DrkFusion

04-05-2003, 07:13 PM

03-31-03 at 05:21 PM fiendz said this in Post #36 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=376082#post376082)
yea well as far as being "notoriously" insecure...sorry to let you know..but every board is. its just a matter of whos taken the time to find out. any scripting is exploitable INCLUDING vb. im cool with you supporting vb because you use it but dont knock others on false pretenses. as far as xmb being insecure ive had no problems using the newest one which has no security holes **FOUND YET** but even if before my board was never hacked. see heres the deal if someone wants your boards/site down...all they have to do is take the time and they can do it no matter who your host is/what theyre running or what forum script you used. ive actually seen with my own eyes more vb boards get dropped but thats simply because theyre used by more sites i frequent. so as far as it being secure or not..most people using forums in general arent running sites dealing with sensitive information and so forth. so just dont ++++ the wrong person with the right knowledge off and security will never be any trouble no matter what script youre using.

on another note i have to admit using both i do like vb's control panel better simply because its laid out better in the frames. but for $160 they can keep their look and ill keep my xmb ;D

Actually XMB is much more insecure than other freeboards, PhpBB is faster than other free boards, but configuration and functionality it looses out. InvisionBoard over all is one of the faster, and has easy configuration utilities, but cobranding for ALL free boards is really poor. Template management for ALL free boards.

There are many things other boards don't have. These are not biased, because I use all of these scripts currently, including XMB, PhpBB, InvisionBoard, vBulletin, and UBB. I use them on a regular basis and I like them all. Even with discussions with the developers of the other boards they are able to highlight there software's strength, but when they highlight the weakness, its Template Management, Co-Branding, Management, Forum Management. Everything of which vBulletin has mastered in its 2.XX Releases, and with vB3.X on its way this innovative script is just going to get better. With this other boards will get better too, overall to me and to other vB is winner.

Also here is a lesson to ALL of you who ask which is better, which is not. You will always indefinetly get a biased answer. Most of the time users who use freeboards say that freeboard is good, because they have not used any other, because I am sure if they had 160$ or 85$ they would of tried vBulletin. I suggest not to rely on these sort of questions on users of only one board, but going to a third-party site, that does not dedicate its topic to a certain software would be the best option. One site in particular is:

? WebHostingTalk (http://www.webhostingtalk.com)

These forums have alot of members who own hosting companies, and based on their experiences, and configurations they can advise you on which one is better, or which one will run oh which configuration etc.

fiendz

04-08-2003, 05:31 PM

filburt as far as banning me thats childish...sorry i stated my opinion. and about 2.3.0 not being vulnerable to xss thats great...too bad 2 boards of sites i visit got dropped using 2.3.0 :X ... like i said no board is immune from exploitation

filburt1

04-08-2003, 05:49 PM

I didn't say immune. It's childish to use profanity to trash a piece of software in general.

"Got dropped?" Do you mean hacked? If so then you should try to ask the administrators to contact vBulletin devs to get the problem fixed. Of course every script is insecure at some point but as a general rule free boards which are developed by unpaid unprofessional (i.e., no professional training) developers are bound to have more problems.

Webdork

04-09-2003, 03:57 AM

XMB is terrible! The worst thing about it is all the infighting amongst the development team. I ran it for about a year, then switched to phpBB.

PhpBB is nice and cosmetically I like the look - but once I hit 25,000 members and around 100,000 posts the board starting timing out and having major problems - posts disapearing etc. ie as soon as the db got over about 50Mb it ++++s itself.

I now have to have auto prune running to kill dead threads over 90 days. Im still running phpBB and am still a fan, but if I had to start again i would indeed use VBulletin.

I run VBulletin on several other sites and the performance is noticable better and much more stable at higher levels of traffic - and this is on identical boxes.

The number of hacks for VBulletin and the size of the developer community makes it well worth spending the $$$ - but only if you are running a serious site.

Id still recommend people start off on one of the free boards, get their feet wet so to speak - and then Upgrade to Vbulletin when performance requires it.

Just my 2 cents.

fiendz

04-09-2003, 04:43 AM

i didnt use profanity to trash the board all i said is dont ++++ the wrong people off and it wont matter and when i say dropped i dont mean dropped. hacked in my opinion of the word would mean downing the boards or effecting its performance when i say dropped i mean completely gone as in the sql info was retrieved from the script and the sql db totally wiped out which technically is getting "hacked" but i prefer to use "dropped" to better specify what actually happened.

ub3x

04-16-2003, 06:22 PM

to me....

this all sounds like..

umm...

This all sounds like high-end Corporate Propaganda, that umm... only a group of people who have alot of money would support.. I think you are all, uhh, really under-estimating the Open Source... community, and think that just because a group of developers aren't being paid for something, that they're not going to care about the quality of their work.

But umm, yeah, Invision is up there with VBulletin, but unfortuantenly lacks a few of the key components that make VB the best forum software out there.

I'm not sure about the quality of the code out there, VB3's design doesn't look too good right now, and it all just seems sort of cluttered.

But yeah, If invision were a commercial board, I would take VBulletin over it. if I were to ever run out of money, I would either ask someone to buy me VBulletin, or else I would go with Invision.

Those are my 2 cents. Please don't flame me.

Kevorkian

05-02-2003, 06:47 AM

02-05-03 at 12:05 PM Davey said this in Post #2 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=350647#post350647)

The staff are friendly.

:D lol

vb is the best ;)

Brad

05-02-2003, 07:49 AM

04-16-03 at 03:22 PM ub3x said this in Post #44 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=383031#post383031)
to me....

this all sounds like..

umm...

This all sounds like high-end Corporate Propaganda, that umm... only a group of people who have alot of money would support.. I think you are all, uhh, really under-estimating the Open Source... community, and think that just because a group of developers aren't being paid for something, that they're not going to care about the quality of their work.

But umm, yeah, Invision is up there with VBulletin, but unfortuantenly lacks a few of the key components that make VB the best forum software out there.

I'm not sure about the quality of the code out there, VB3's design doesn't look too good right now, and it all just seems sort of cluttered.

Mike, I respect your optioins but I fell I sould calrify a few things.

Of course we respect the open source community, I for one am I big fan, however. The dev's of vBulletin are paid for their work and that insures us support and stable code, I for one have never seen a team of dev's fix bugs as quickly as the vB team do.

As for vB 3's design, it is a beta, this has been stated many times. vB 3 will get a new, better looking design before the finals are out.

Personally ive had the chance to use the vB 3 mod cp (not admin cp, Im not a beta tester) at vBulletintemplates.com, and I must say from what ive seen the vB 3 cp will be one of the best so far in the world of forum scripts. I wont go into details because im sure the dev's wouldent like that so you all are just going to have to wait ;).

GaleForce

05-04-2003, 05:34 AM

Here is all I have to say;

You get what you pay for. You want more, you pay more. You want less, you pay less (or nothing).

FASherman

05-13-2003, 12:35 AM

The answer is simple. There is no compelling reason to choose VB over Invision board. VB is better at something, Invision at others. Neither has a clear feature advantage. Thats a straight comparision ov VB2 to IBF1.1.2

The outcome is similar when you compare VB3 to IBF1.2

The one thing to consider, especially since you're on this site, is which has the greater user base and thus the greater experience in modifying the code. VB wins that one hands down.

So, are you going to run out-of-the-box or are you going to customize. For $160 investment into programming help for IBF you still won't come close to the code mods available to VB.

CharlieS

06-07-2003, 05:46 PM

I?m a current IPB user and am considering switching to vB but?

You can actually *get* support when errors occur .

The staff are friendly.

From my experience at the IPB forums this is completely and utterly untrue. The reason I have considered switching is because I heard it has better features. But I haven?t found that to be true yet :(

Firstly it has no file attach
Not true ? 1.2 even allows you to make large images automatically appear as thumbnails

and as for the support i couldn;t even find that
http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showforum=73

if you want a crap 1 month board with 6 members, go with phpBB...

or if you want a site with about 500 members and up for a long time (2 years) then go with vB, and if you dont have the money, get a job or become admin at a friend's site :-0

There are some very successful phpBB and IPB boards (such as neowin.net). People won?t flock to your site because you?re using a slightly better script. People flock because of community - and in my opinion there is no such thing as instant community, so I don?t really like the vB slogan.

It is very true that there are some ?fly by night? users of phpBB and IPB.

PhpBB is faster than other free boards
Hmm? I?ve found IPB to be faster but I will check that out, haven?t been to the phpbb website in a while.

But umm, yeah, Invision is up there with VBulletin, but unfortuantenly lacks a few of the key components that make VB the best forum software out there.
Such as? I agree there are some things missing. The main three are threaded view, collapsible categories (not sure what they are called, but that?s what they look like), and Similar Threads. The only one of interest to me is collapsible categories (similar threads seems to bring up either irrelevant threads or old dead threads), and it isn?t worth an entire vB license just for that.

The answer is simple. There is no compelling reason to choose VB over Invision board. VB is better at something, Invision at others. Neither has a clear feature advantage. Thats a straight comparision ov VB2 to IBF1.1.2
Agreed.

So, are you going to run out-of-the-box or are you going to customize. For $160 investment into programming help for IBF you still won't come close to the code mods available to VB.
Semi-true. For $160 you are buying access to a few more hacks. But IBPlanet.com is more active then you think.

because I am sure if they had 160$ or 85$ they would of tried vBulletin
Please do not characterize all freeboard users as cheapskates or poor people. Not only is it incorrect, it is rude. I could afford vB, and I?m looking into it, but so far it seems my money is best spent elsewhere.

I like all of the features in 1.2 of Invision, and thought ?maybe it?s time to see what vB is doing?. It seems the features are comparable, and in my opinion, IPB is much better in some areas (such as search engine friendliness and topic ?multi-moderation?). There just isn?t a compelling reason to buy vB for me.

Jethro

06-07-2003, 06:54 PM

Heck we use both. Invision has some features vB doesn't and the reverse is true. Agreeing with CharlieS here, the major drawback on invision is lack of collapsible catagories, but l think this is a vBulletin hack and not a standard feature. Haven't looked that closely at vB 3, so maybe a new feature or something. One of our guys is completely in love with vB 3, while another one wont move from invision and is actually counting down the days to 1.2.

We are still looking at whether invision is indeed faster. Results so far indicate that people using dial up get a real speed advantage, but no noticable difference with ADSL :dunno: Once again l'm being told vB3 really ups the speed.

vBulletin is a lot easier to skin, invision puts everything in multiple CSS files which is painful to skin. Then again we only have the two skins so far, maybe with some more expierance on invision it becomes easier.

Charlie l find the support at vBulletin.com tremendous :) Asked a question yesterday about a bug some one stated was in the software, and got a response within 15 minutes, that's gotta rock imho. The support at invision is equally as good, and it's always nice to have one of the admins step in if you get into some real problems with your board :) For your $30 per year at vb.com you get a ticket system with faster response time, which comes in real useful. The support team at vB really know their stuff. I believe there's a similar paid service at Invision but haven't checked it out.

This might be a personal opinion, but l believe there is a better range of hacks here than at ibplanet (member there as well). Of course the hack list grows steadily day by day at both sites. (One of these days l'll think up something vb.org doesn't have, so far everytime l think of something it's already been done and posted up).

We have a couple of php gurus onboard (actually three now l think) so generally they will code up anything that's not available.

I haven't done any hacks for vB so can't comment on how easy this is, hacking invision is a breeze though. If a techno lamer like myself can do it, anyone can.

Decision on either software, it's up to personal preference. I like both :) Though must admit the smilies put me off invision for a while, but once you get used to them they are fine. Actually our graphics admin has created something like 50 or so for invision, she gets a kick out of making them and sharing them :)

There you go, view from some one who uses both. Naturally it turned out to be make your own decision :lol: Both are fine, l guess one thing to make a decision on is if you aren't a real graphics and CSS guru, then vBulletin is a much better option for skinning, which is simple and quick to do. We have something like seven style sets for vBulletin and 2 for invision. Actually thinking about that, you could always grab some one else's skin at invision, there's a heck of a lot of them available for free.

Charles l'm actually working on the collapsible category thing, and will post the hack at ibplanet when it works. This will probably be a day after some one else does it :lol:

HTH

Curll

06-07-2003, 10:28 PM

Does anyone else think that vBulletin has become a status symbol of sorts? It seems to me most boards that want to look "professional" use the software. Am I crazy?

- RiZ

filburt1

06-07-2003, 10:31 PM

It's definitely one reason people buy it because it shows that they are indeed dedicated towards their site such that they're spending money on it.

Andrus

06-09-2003, 09:50 AM

It's easy for me... In the past 7 years I have gone through UBB, Ikonboard, PHPBB and VBulletin board systems, and all of the problems with stability and flexibility stopped when I started using VB in 2001 for my high traffic sites. I hear Invision boards are pretty good, but I am not about to fix what ain't broke. :)

sheepdog

06-30-2003, 07:10 AM

Had to jump in on this.. I have gone through board hell in the last year...

Here is what I have noticed..

Yabb/UBB...
just does to seem to have a lot of functions I wanted. So I never installed them. If I need mroe than 5 patches to get what I want, its too much. Things can get buggy.

Ikonboard...
While it seemed nice, it just was not going to work for me for various reasons. Corrupting the DB on instal is not a good way to start though. I did like it though for the 2 weeks I ran it.

PHPbb..
I liked., I really did . Worked great.
However, it was VERY taxing on ther server. Its a very inneficient forum. It brought down the server too many times.. Which is why I now run Invision. Like someone else said, once the database hit around 50 megs, things started happening.. If you run a small site, this is the board for you, really. Just watch your resources. As soon as you start to grow, skip straight to VB. Really.

Invision.
Great prog... Kinda Dropped my resources compared to PHPbb (75% bandwidth, 15% cpu approx). Too bad it has loads of small problems. I could probably fix them, but frankly, I do not want to spend anymore time on it. It will hold me through untill I can get a copy of VB going. I think its troubles are holding back my site at this point.

VB...
I only got to test it out, it was not my board. But its less resource intensive, more stable, and just plain works like it should. I have seen some massive sites running it with no trouble.

I also tried some other less known ones, but most were more like a Beta than a release.

I too hate the thought of shelling out that kind of money, but after the problems I have had, if it works like I know it will, its worth it. Its a drag having to constantly fix databases, and errors all the time. Frankly, in the end I think I will be kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

Smoothie

06-30-2003, 07:28 AM

I have installed IPB 1.2, and let me tell ya, it seems pretty slick.

insanctus

06-30-2003, 04:21 PM

Bottom line at the end of the day.

Vbulletin is the best and the best support.

Sure they are costly (one time fee) but worth it. They are a company who wish to make money hence the word of their valued customers means more to them then if this was some weekend procject they do between a full time job.

I seen some saying "scripts should be free" well then so should any program since it was just "writen by someone".

Like many have already said. If you want a real "community" then buy vb or lease it for a year and see how you like it.

As for people talking good about it just becuase they "put out the money" that is foolish seeing as they have nothing to gain by posting they like it. They had serious sites and wanted a serious board.

Lacrosse Boy

08-04-2003, 05:37 PM

03-12-03 at 11:21 PM Keptic said this in Post #15 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=365268#post365268)
To get someone to develop a forum for you, may I assure is most likly 10x the price of a full owned liscense.

Anyways, I have been analysing the age gorups, type of site, dedication of many of the members both here and at the official site.

vBulletin targets more long-term based, mature, dedicated audience it seems, well the majority of the time. vBulletin is made to give a proffesional look, at the same time give you all and more of the features you get/don't get else where.

Most of all the 'legit' boards are all dedicated, and have proffesional appeal to them. Then there are all the pirated boards where you see the difference. For them, freeboards are made in majority, these sites are temporary, don't want to invest into there site to make it grow, but just want to start a site for the heck of it.

I can go on, but I know in general many get this point, though it may not be the main point.

Now to convince, I am a phpBB user, well was, and when I got the power of vB under my belt, the possibilities were endless, the coding is secure, and clean, I am able to make all possible modifications I need, when I want to and when I need to. The Template System is geniously coded, if you see other board software, they are individual files, and are usually needed to be downloaded to be edited, vB packages this all in a nice template system, which I love. I am hooked on vB, love the hacks, love the support, love vB.org and plan to dedicate a nice amount of time here.

Also if you are not sure what you want, test, and even if you want start off with a free board, there are plenty converters available, and I have seen many sites that start off with free board and convert to vB.

OK enough typing for me :p

I fully agree. Although I am not a PHPBB user (Ikonboard is my free board of choice) I'd have to say that so many of the boards that are setup with an Ikonboard forum are just made by someone saying "OH! A free board! Let's see what I can do!," while paying for vB seems to make people dedicated to having their sites work.

Not that Ikonboard is bad, far from it, I like it very much. It's just that vBulletin's all around the net have a community presence of some sort. I never have seen an empty one that just sat there dead. $160 is too much to pay for that.

I converted from Ikonboard to Invision (someone sweet-talked me and I regret it) to vBulletin when I got the coffers up, and we are debuting vBulletin as the new "Today's Music Forum" and are completely changing the concept of our site.

I, like all other vBulletin owners, am commiteed and dedicated to making my site work. Plus, I love the "customability!"

msimplay

08-06-2003, 04:01 PM

06-30-03 at 09:28 AM Smoothie said this in Post #55 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=414110#post414110)
I have installed IPB 1.2, and let me tell ya, it seems pretty slick.

yeh i agree 1.2 version of Invision is excellent

http://sensations.wambam.net for my invision side :P
i would say its better then the standard vb 2.3 but i can't find my hacks on it

plus i think it needs more standard bbcode like vb3 has standard left align right align and has features that resize images

gooldman

08-22-2003, 12:09 AM

:surprised:

RandyP3

10-03-2003, 01:34 PM

phpBB: phpBB was the first ever board that I ever chatted in, which lead to my first board I admin-ed [on a subdomain] and from there, the experience just grew. The hacks took me several days to complete, the instructions weren't really clear, but thats not all. For the schemes, they are not really customiable, and a lot of graphics to do with. They do not have collasable categories/forums and that proved a hindrance because of the activities in my forum. The permission settings can go konky sometimes and ordinary members could see my admin's forum from time to time.

ETA: You have to change templates in the file itself, so it doesn't really serve its purpose. :D

Ratings: 6 half/ten

Ikonboard: Collapsable forums were a plus, but besides that, there wasn't much to modify and the feeling just wasn't there for me.

*Shrug* I only used Ikon for 2 - 4 days, so.. Yeah.

Ratings: six/ten

Invision: I've tried both invisions [on the free server, and on my own] and the only thing I dont like was how the header couldn't be modified - There was always the image that couldn't be removed. The hacks were relatively okay, and I could get some good support, but some people were hostile and I stopped using invision after a few months.

Ratings: 8/10

vB: What I am using now. Definitely customiable, great support for both the board and hacks, and the best of the lot. Modification of the templates were easy enough, and with some help, I installed the hacks pretty easily.

Ratings: 9 half/10

CdaKnight

12-09-2003, 01:43 AM

or be like Invision Power Board and PMS when you change classes in a DIV tag. (Which caused several functions to be "not authorized")

BeachFreeTrader

12-09-2003, 12:21 PM

yeah but for $160 you could get someone else to make you your own script and teach you how to write it or just learn php for $0 and still have one at the end of the day, i just think $160 for a forum is way overpriced thats all :) i guess it's all to do with how much time you have on your hands/how fast you want your forumI was a software developper for 17 years (dBase II, dBase III, clipper, FoxPro, Visual FoxPro ) who now I quit and I strongly disagree with you.

If you build a 1 room house you will have to pay the materials and labor for every room. If you buy a 10 room house every room will be cheaper since you pay once the architect, the engineer, etc, but every room will stil cost you a lot since you must still pay the materials and labor. If you build a 1000 room house the same logic applies: Lower cost, but every room has a very important cost

In software, the price of every program that you sell is almost zero, you may download it from a server, so in many cases the guy that builds a 1000 room palace may get all the market, since making that palace is expensive but the cost of every aditional palace sold is very small, so if one company spends thousand of hours developping great software there are good chances that it would end dominating the market, since they would be able to sell thousands of programs to cover the cost, and every new customer will pay to better and already good program, and customers will lost interest in competing software that is not as good. So in software you actually get the result of thousands of hours of skilled and very expensive labour for almost nothing. This is more or less what happened with Windows, Excel and Word.

I am here in order to choose and purchase bulletin board software. My customer told me that I could program it, I know that would be the best for my personal finances. I say no, it is useless, you should choose a ready made product, debugged, a program that is thousands of hours of labor of many people, a program that is tested, a program thas was used by millions so the features in it represents the needs of those millions users, a program that will go on growing and bettering and you will pay almost nothing for the skilled and expensive labor that is necesary for those improvements.

Anyway learning php has a cost, since time is valuable, and I doubt a single guy can make something as big as vBulletin alone. I tried to do that with accounting software in my Latin American country, and I lost a lot of money (even tough I was not by myself). I just do not want other people to make my mistakes. There is an enormous market for custom made software, I lived from that all my life and lost that money trying to make "off the shelf software". I think one should develop off the shelf software (like vBulletin) ONLY if one has a strong possibility of being the market leader, because the market leader will take all.

If you want a quiet life I suggest forgetting about trying to make "mass software" (I do not know what name to give to software that SHOULD NOT BE CUSTOM MADE, software that solves the problems of millions of persons without needing code changes as vBulletin is) and do only custom software. I just want other people not to repeat my mistakes.

I am here also looking for the market leader, I think vBulletin is it. Probably I will recommend my customer to buy it.

sheepdog

12-11-2003, 03:42 AM

Well I have now had my VB board online for a month or so.. Basically its all I expected. A few things were not as I liked, but most was easily fixed.

I still think $160 is a bit much, but it really is teh most stable forum I have run yet, and is a worthy investment. If your site is worth that kind of investment.

If yoru running on a budget server, you probably do not have the need for Vb (server load, and member count), but if your like me, running a dedicated server, with loads of hits and such, then yes, it is very well worth the investment, as its capable of the traffic that type of sever can handle.

Would I buy VB again.. definately.

Baugh

12-11-2003, 10:51 PM

chek yabb its the one that has least features altho easy to use, and has good Support, it just can;t compete with what can be done with Vb
eg the hacks i installed on it eg Usercp, Alert on Pms, add smilies, and Add attachments are standard on Vb, Also its in pearl Slower then php, The standard version has no Database support

Hey, I wrote that hack for YaBB. :D
YaBB was great for my smaller community, and to give me a chance to write a lot of my own custom hacks and contribute to the community.

But now I'm reaching the quarter-million mark for number of posts, and flatfile just won't cut it. So here I am, a perl man converted to vB. And I must say, I'm impressed.

- Dave Baughman

Michigan Morels

01-02-2004, 05:56 PM

You can actually *get* support when errors occur :). ...
Dave.
Speaking of support. Does anyone know if there is a mirror site for vB forums. I haven't been able to get their site to come up for the past two days.

Frank

MindTrix

01-02-2004, 06:06 PM

Its a common problem Michigan which has numerous threads on this site :)

It is a result of vB blocking IP's due to recent Ddos attacks.

Email support@vbulletin.com stating your problem and you IP and they should help you get access once again.

Goodluck.

Michigan Morels

01-02-2004, 08:46 PM

Thanks MindTrix,
I appreciate it.

Frank

MindTrix

01-02-2004, 09:43 PM

No problem mate, goodluck.

Osterling

06-03-2004, 07:07 AM

Alright...

I read the first 2 pages, and I just felt an urge to write my own thoughts.

Now I been using vBulletin for about 6 months or so (give and take a month) and frankly before hand I was with the group of people who felt $160 was too much to ask, and I didn't see all the hype over vBulletin.

Though... when I got vBulletin and tried it out, I finally saw why vBulletin is truly worth $160. I have used YaBB and phpBB in my past, but truly was blown away by vBulletin.

The only way to really understand why vBulletin is worthy of the $160 is to use it yourself. So before you say vBulletin isn't that great... I'd say at least try it out, because I know I am hooked on vBulletin.

Well that was my 2cents, hope I didn't bore anyone :ermm:

msimplay

06-03-2004, 07:14 AM

i know what ya mean about being hooked on vbulletin once you used it you don't wanna use anything else

msimplay

06-03-2004, 07:18 AM

Hey, I wrote that hack for YaBB. :D
YaBB was great for my smaller community, and to give me a chance to write a lot of my own custom hacks and contribute to the community.

But now I'm reaching the quarter-million mark for number of posts, and flatfile just won't cut it. So here I am, a perl man converted to vB. And I must say, I'm impressed.

- Dave Baughman
nice to see ya here hehe
i used to love yabb and still do since it was my first board but yabb just don't cut it anymore

master811

06-04-2004, 12:58 AM

Ok, to put it simply, what does vBulletin have in terms of features compared to IPB v2, and I'm not talking about support.

msimplay

06-04-2004, 05:56 AM

Ok, to put it simply, what does vBulletin have in terms of features compared to IPB v2, and I'm not talking about support.
the main feature for me is the easiest skinning that vbulletin provides

but other features i'll check out on my localhost and draw up a comparison chart for you

master811

06-10-2004, 07:57 PM

Can anyone tell me what the main differences are between vBulletin and IPB v2?

Zachery

06-11-2004, 12:45 AM

IPB version 2 is not final yet.

master811

06-11-2004, 10:33 AM

I realise that, but 99% of the features are there already. Its only really bug testing at the moment.

Brad

06-11-2004, 11:10 AM

I've played with 2.0 and I like vB3 much more. I've seen nothing compare to a vb3 admin cp at this point. Perrmissions work much better in a vB then a ipb imo, I am running a ipb atm on one of my communitys. We've ran into so many problems with it we are going to have to convert it to vB3.

AlexanderT

06-11-2004, 12:37 PM

Actually I think a lot of it is crappily coded aestetically (it also uses a lot of deprecated stuff) but it seems to be efficiently coded. To use a vB.com's member's analogy: "why do you pay for Windows when you can use Linux for free?"
Agreed. I recently purchased ExpressionEngine by pMachine and was surprised how clean their code looks like compared to vB3 ;)

Revan

06-12-2004, 07:59 PM

http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showforum=73

I can see this is old, because what I recently heard is that iB cut all support to members who didnt shell out for their software :P

Ron1n

06-16-2004, 01:00 PM

To use a vB.com's member's analogy: "why do you pay for Windows when you can use Linux for free?"

Smart, computer savy users use linux because it is much more secure. It may be harder to use, but there are more options than in Windows. Windows is more for the dumb user, are you saying that I should get Invision PowerBoard instead of vBulletin because vBullletin is crappy, unstable, unsecure, and extreemly slow?

msimplay

06-16-2004, 02:40 PM

i've never known vbulletin to be unstable or unsecure or even slow
altho IPB is faster

NWN

09-04-2005, 04:49 PM

Here reason Vb is better then IPB The main reason, since IPB went p2u like VB is IPB price is insane it's 185 to own it and it only gives you a yr support, they have no option as of yet to pay 30 a yr or more for support, True they have intergated gallry & Bloging system now, But those both cost 50 & 60 each. Right there is over 350 in a investment for IPB.

Also Linux is okie but, Linux like mac has no real game support, sure it is getting better games, but at the rate it's going most people will stick with windows.

& linux won't really be that great after 2007

MRGTB

09-05-2005, 04:20 AM

Ok. I have to admit that I'm already pretty much sold on vB. I've been surfing around the forums and the different member's web sites and can see endless possibilities to create my dream site.

However, I would apprecaite if someone could point out some clear advantages by using vB instead of InvisionBoard, phpBB etc.

THANKS!

Take a look at the vBGallery and the vBadvaced Portal installed on my site compared to the pretty basic gallery and half hearted portal system you get with Invision (no comparison). Not to mention all the cool hacks on vB.Org and vBadvanced to make it even more cooler like I have done with my site. Click the link below and take a look for yourself (the proof is in the pudding so to speak)! :D

Oh, and YES! I am an "ex-invision" user by the way. Need I say anymore. :alien:

bigcurt

09-05-2005, 05:15 AM

Does anyone else know this thread is a year old 0_o

~Curt

master811

09-05-2005, 11:22 AM

Marco van Herwaarden

09-05-2005, 12:01 PM

With a leased license you pay for the right to use vBulletin for 1 year, including 1 year of support and updates.

With an owned license you pay for the lifetimes right to use vBulletin, and it comes with 1 year of support and updates. If you want to update to a new version that is released after your first year of included Upgrades, you can purchase a new year of updates at any time (for the renewal you will pay $30).

It doesn't make any sense to allow you to use the software on a leased license after your license expires, since you paid for 1 year of use.

FASherman

09-05-2005, 12:36 PM

& linux won't really be that great after 2007
Yeah...

That explains why IBM has invested $1.5 Billion a year into Linux and will continue to do so. There's more to computing than running game servers.

Quillz

09-10-2005, 04:44 AM