vbportal and modified ekko theme
 

ok, I think its time to face the critics and get some feedback on my site.

www.new-version.org.uk

It's using vbportal 2.2 and vbb2.3.0. The main style is the ekko theme but i have altered some of the gifs to give it a bit of difference. There is a "lite" version of the theme selectable for registered members as i still feel for dial up users.

Having looked at some responses to other posts in here, i guess the number of server queries will be mentioned but i don't feel that is an issue when you consider that the server can handle it and that the portal is the one thing that is causing the majority of these. (i know other portals can do similar for less and maybe i will have to start a test board from scratch to try one out).

However, for the moment, this is how it looks.

It's not that your server can't handle it, it's just that it loads slow with all the extra queries things like vBPortal and some hacks can add. I went through your forumhome and postbit and they are above normal, which isn't good. And vBPortal is just more on top of the counts already there.

And the site doesn't have much individuality if it's using a bought skin, even if you have edited it the shell still remains.

vBPortal can add 100 queries or more on your homepage if you're not careful and enable all the options.

i've just set up a test board to build up a vbhome which would do exactly the same thing as i need. Thats a bit more hard work to set up than vbportal although with the template adjustments required to get what you want. At the moment i have the footer and header set ok on the vbhome but need to put in the html for the boxes. However, its at 21 queries with the info displayed which is better then over 100 with vbvportal.

4 months ago i was using phpbb and had hacks published there and was very used to that. I havent got my head round vbb fully yet so the bought skin was a quick way out. The way i saw it was to develop it as time went on.

You're at 80 now with the vBPortal your using, adding un-necessary load.

I can see the benefit of vbhome(lite) from looking at my test board and i will be moving over to that once i finish coding the portal. (test board is still at 21 queries on the portal which is a massive improvement

Wow I love the style and everything you have done with it except for the vBPortal part.. vBPortal looks ugly i think you should use vBHome instead..

vBHome and vBIndex look decent. :)

I have vbhome on my test board ( www.new-version.org.uk/test )and will be moving it across in the next 48 hours if all goes to plan.

I can see now why you recommend VBhome in place of vbportal.

OK, i have now dumped vbportal and moved over to vbhome. Thanks for the recommendation.

Enjoy the faster speed. :)

Excellent job! I like the modifications you did you to the ekko skin as well.