What is vbulletin going to do about huddler
 

I have a thread over at vbulletin.com about huddler, but I wanted to start one here.

With huddler offering so many features with their software, how does vbulletin hope to compete?

Over the past few months I have been seeing several large communities that have migrated to huddler.

People these days want more then "just" a forum.

Is there a demo out yet? I tried looking on huddler.com and couldn't find one, or any real information on the product.

--------------- Added [DATE]1337099407[/DATE] at [TIME]1337099407[/TIME] ---------------

I tried visiting http://demo.huddler.com/ and its restricted.

--------------- Added [DATE]1337099594[/DATE] at [TIME]1337099594[/TIME] ---------------

I think this forum uses the software. http://www.epicski.com/f/

Have no idea about what you are talking about.

Huddler is a new community software on the market. It offers a lot of built in features - reviews with rating system, forum, articles outside the forum, profiles,,,.

From what I understand, huddler works off of a revenue sharing program. The huddler has people that will help with the SEO, marketing, hosting and advertising.

One site that I visit that is ran with huddler - http://www.backyardchickens.com/

* I am not associated with backyard chickens in any shape form or fashion.

How is my community supposed to be able to offer services like this - http://www.backyardchickens.com/prod...chicken-breeds

I would love to have a review section on my forum, but finding something for vbulletin is rather difficult.

With huddler, its all built in.

it looks like an old style vb 2.0 http://www.huddler.com/platform/ i don't think they'll be selling the product.

The back left image is when the EpicSki.com community was using vbulletin, and the front image is when they changed to Huddler.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/21/hud...e-communities/

One of the reasons why I brought this topic up, is because the huddler communities are ranking higher and higher in the search engines in searches that I do.

When I started looking for information on chickens, backyard chickens came showing up search after search. Even though there are vbulletin powered forums with lots of good inforamtion on chickens, huddler powered communities kept showing up.

And then there is the wide range of information. The sites are not just forums, or blogs. Its forum, blog, ratings, reviews, being able to sort information, picture galleries,,,,.

thanks for the info. WOW 5 million in funding..that's alot, i guess vb found a competitor :)

My question is how does one go about getting this software as I see no pricing or download options on huddler.com

From what I understand, you can not buy the software.

Your community is ported to huddler, hosted on their servers and the revenue is shared between the site owner and huddler.

I am going to guess the revenue sharing takes care of the hosting fees.

From that point it's not your own only community, I would never touch anything that I have no absolute control over it.
BTW since we are talking about this subject how do you find SocialEngine?

I like the looks of SocialEngine.

I guess you are talking about SocialEngine.net?

I would have to agree. If I could not host the script on my own server and had to rely on the creator and share profit I would not be interested.

Unless the server is in your home, or you have a bill of sale for the server, its not "yours".

I understand the reluctance. But the truth of the matter is, if/when huddler changes its business strategy, vbulletin is in for a heck of a run.

There are a lot of people out there that do not want to worry about updating the software, do not want to worry about hosting issues, do not have to worry about advertising, or marketing.

Forum owners should focus on the community and the content, and not software or hosting issues.

If a little known company can offer so many features in their software, I have to ask what was jelsofts problem, and what is the problem with internet brands? Why cant vbulletin have some of the built in features that huddler has?

When I opened my first forum in 2006, I had this vision of what I wanted it to be like. 6 years later, and I have yet to be able to achieve that dream. I guess I could learn how to code and write something myself, but that would mean less time for the community and content creation.

Building the community and the content should come first. The software should be the least of my worries.

As it has stood for the past decade, vbulletin has pretty much stayed the same.

How is vbulletin hoping to compete as new forum software comes online?

If Huddler got popular IB would just buy them.

i became popular and they refuse to buy me... tsss

lmao :) ^^

When they have been around as long as vBulletin has, then, and only then, they might become some sort of threat to vb. New forum softwares come and go.

I did not like the style of showthread on the chicken site .... otherwise the software seems to be very promising.

I wonder if the staff at VB enjoy the kind of perks that the folks at Huddler enjoy?

You consider those perks? What kind of companies have you worked for? ;)

If a small company that hit the market a couple of years ago offer so many features in their software, why can vbulletin offer similar features?

competition is good :up:

Facebook should just launch a forum platform and become the undisputed king of all time.

From what I read you pretty much have to give up your rights to your forum and "partner" with huddler. They sell advertising on your site and take a cut of that. I've read comments from people who couldn't stand all the advertising on huddler forums and left.

I wouldn't want to give up control of my forum no matter how many extra they will throw in. There's always a catch- Huddler isn't providing all those services out of the goodness of their hearts.

Good video here I watched it last year, I mean the concept is savvy imo for those forum owners who can't do for themselves however if you have a large forum that is already well ranked, is it worth it to give up so much revenue from ads and such? That's the main question for many because some want what they have already worked hard for! Now from my understanding, they won't go doing this for just any forum, you must also have a forum that benefits their network per say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNgtlO9Ixt0

Huddler is a great option to vB, but you lose almost all control over the forum and leave it in their hands. From our standpoint of writing or own mods / hacks / etc, it is very limiting, but they offer marketing and other things ... it really depends on the individual forum.

I had the same opinion like you when I seen that most (if not all) available forums for Facebook were working like this. No access to data, nothing to own. That's why I decided to develope my own forum software for Facebook which is 100% owned by the webmaster and is install on his server. Even if I got very good feedback from the people that I gave to test it, I must accept as true the fact that in now days (especially for Facebook) webmasters want to have a one click install scripts.

The same most probably happens here. If I understood well is a service where you're register and have a site ready to work for you. No installations, nothing. When it funded? It's for laught or for cry. I've a more featured "portal" staying in my HD. And I'm saying more featured as in addition it has Classifieds, Helpdesk etc.

So the problem is not to develope something good, but to know the marketing tips to promote it. And of course to have money to spend for promoting (most likely rubbishes for gold).

Pitty...

Chris

PS: Both scripts that mentioned above are stand alone PHP Scripts and not vB addons.

Huddler already is popular, just most don't show that they're using it.

My favorite place to go to and visit is this one: http://www.overclock.net

They used to use vBulletin, but on a site that big and all the frequent updates that needed to be done via vBulletin....... They switched to Huddler and have posted about how much of a better software it is.

Sadly, it is still limited -- But out of the box, a much better product