There is another portal for vB! It is called MKPortal
 

Hello,
I rarely post here, I read often and try not to install too many hacks that would cause issue when the time comes to upgrade vB which lately there has been a few (thank goodness for vB's security checking). I do want to help here but cannot offer coding help so I will try and help users here by letting them know about a portal CMS package for vB for those interested. I promise, this is in no way intended as SPAM or free advertising, I think my posts at vB sites will show I do not spam.

There is another portal for vB! It is called MKPortal.

This is CP owner of the forum Computer Paradise which this GREAT Portal CMS was installed on. I've used Xoops, phpnuke, YaPP, myIBFportal, ttcms, LPS, Mambo, and vBadvanced so I think I know the user end of portals. I am neither a staff member at mkportal nor affiliated other than being the official first vB board with the portal CMS.

I think this mK portal should be re-branded as a "Complete CMS Package". This portal has much to offer and much more than some of the leading portals out there that are pay as you play. This portal is a complete package that offers everything a Content Management Software should offer, from Topic Categories, Reviews, to Image Gallery, to Quotes, and Downloads, etc. as well as easy skin integration with your vB forum package. It has it all with ease of use by click and adding html, php, etc. modules that offer permissions and flexibility to move and turn on or off.

Needless to say, I am the happy owner of a new MKPortal and not looking back.

Stop by and see it in action. I have some modules inactive for guests and some not seen due to permissions, but I think you will be pleased with what is in place.
Computer Paradise

*I did not mean to spam any site; I just thought I would share this new software for others out there. I did not make the portal so please do not ask me coding questions or put me down for suggesting it. All I ask is you take a look for yourselves and make your own judgments. It is a fairly new product so, like anything I am sure it has issues that some may not like. I am sure there are also things many of you will like!

already know about this m8 but hate to pop your bubble but the CMS as u call it is horrible.I can see a lot of work has gone into it but i like to think VB stands for quality whereas MKPortal is just to invisionary to me.It deffo has some nice features and if a decent front end was made i would use it but as it is - its just to ugly to even comtemplate using.

It's an ok portal, but its no vba cmps ;)

and its a bit messy as well

I beg to differ and i think Mkportal is soo much better than other portals available for vbulletin. it's also complete...imagine having a gallery, a blog, shoutbox, toplist and many other blocks and modules that already comes from the out of the box install. i also have vbadvanced installed but there's not much module that comes with it. i also find installing vbadvanced very frustrating. i remember posting a number of times there to ask for support coz my templates looked screwed. and u have to pay for the gallery or the directory to install them. i think people should check and install to see how the end product looked like. I have a test board and it's not yet complete but compare to my vbadvanced site, it is SOOOO Much better. GO check My MkPortal-Vbulletin test board and maybe you'll realize why i prefer it over other portals.

regards,
afterglow

im not saying it aint got any decent features - im just saying it looks crap to be honest which it does.It needs a complete make-over american style :)
You tell me that portal dont look like invision boards to you - the features are good but the whole style needs serious work to be considered as a front end for many vb boards.

I think it's way too complex looking. Also, like every single portal I've ever seen for vB, all it does is redundantly display forum information, thereby slowing the user's entry into the forum itself.

mmm...what do you mean by complete make-over american style? since i'm not an american and neither were all of my friends who are vb forum owners, what i can say is any portal must have a universal appeal and who are you to suggest that portals must be "americanized"?. is this some kind of racial superiority complex? that all things american are well-above all things? mkportal was created by an italian so that must be the reason why you are soo prejudice. you must realize that there are also many vb users in Asia who prefer a more relax and great looking front end for their portal including me. what looks crap to you maybe decent to us. users decide what they want to use according to their preference so your comments about mkportal looking like crap is an INSULT to hundreds who have already installed this portal. your comments are totally uncalled for and is biased in my opinion. i would be interested to see how your portal looks like to see what you mean by the word "decent". may i see your vb board please?

and just to let you know that i'm also a vbportal user. i bought a license for it but after a lot of frustration installing it, i just gave up. the front end of it looks ugly to me too. then i tried vbadvanced but it is much too complicated. you have to hack the forum to install it and you also have to manage it inside the vbulletin admin panel. now that's where the difference starts.. with mkportal, you don't have to modify a single vbulletin file nor the db so you can upgrade anytime without worrying about any modification you have done. you need to modify only a single file if you want the forum to display inside the portal. with vbadvanced however, you can't upgrade to a newer vbulletin version without ruining your site. you have to reinstall everytime you install a new vb version.

but don't get me wrong, i like vbadvanced when i first installed it but i find it too complicated to manage especially when you want to create a block or install a module. you have to do several steps to get it done whilst at mkportal, adding a module or creating a block is a very simple process. you don't have to go to your vb admin panel to do it, everything is manageable right from inside the mkportal admin panel.

and yep, the main mkportal uses invisionboard coz that's where they made the portal for but too many requests have been sent and so the developer decided to create a version to integrate it also with SimpleMachine, phpBB, Oxygen and yes, vBulletin as per CP's request. actually, CP was the first to use the MKPortal for vbulletin and now the live example of the MKPortal-vBulletin integration.

well, this is just my opinion as an end user who tried all the available portals and can really opine on which has given me what i really want and not what people say i should...

my two cents.

Afterglow

Clean & Simplicity. That describe vbadvanced.

Also the vbaGallery is much more advanced [better then photopost in my opinion] than that portal's built-in gallery.

I am amazed at all the negative comments. "It looks like crap" sorry but I do not remember vbadvanced coming with it's own skin system. I am tellin you from personal use of Xoops, phpnuke, YaPP, vBadvanced, and mkportal that it is a far more easier to use and more functional board than vBadvanced. It seems the supporters of vBadvanced stand back and judge without trying the product. I can understand protecting what you use, but why judge before testing?

Our users won't install it to judge it, so why should we? Sorry, but that's the mentality.

vBAdvanced doesn't need it's own skin system - It was designed to fully integrate with vB using the same styles to save people the hassle of having to redesign a skin manually and to also provide a uniform look between the CMS and Forum.

This is just to nuke-ish for me. All these portals look the same to me aswell......

Its werid, now a days a lot of the sites you visit have basicly the same layout because they use some sort of CMS or portal system. No one strives to set new standards anymore...

Oh, I think somebody will...;)

sorry about the americanized word - was a piss take line tbh - the american makeover was a sort of pun to how americans do makeovers big style as opposed to everyone else.But the portal is not for me,and filburts words about sum up this crap portal for me

also i did install this a few months back,it stayed for a day while i messed with it then i deleted the lot,simply because of the way the whole layout is.

a bit differnt... www.sprnch.com using vbindex

yep used that program never liked that much but u done a good job on it netherless m8

Nice site u got there m8

lasto please be polite :)

hmm ? i aint said anything m8 unles su wrote vbindex then if so

is one of the best portals ive used - would reccomend to everyone :)

I too had those same thoughts when I read that post. I too am not American.



To add on to some of the comments already posted, I guess it really depends on what level you are at and what features you really need.
For me, I don't need most of the features in any portal, and most portals don't have the features I need.

So I coded my own. I think that's the best way, in that YOU suit YOUR requirements. Of course I can understand not even can do this, and in that case, these portals *may come in handy, but I would still recommend everyone to try to customize their site.

Like Brad mentioned, too many sites looking the same these days.

vBindex all the way. My site's homepage has run off vBindex since vBulletin 2, it does everything I need and more.

im english myself so wheres the racism in my post - i explained above that by american i meant over the top.

I don't find racism in anything. I merely find it inappropriate and even insensitive to mention it that way, both to americans and everyone else non-american.

I'll stop here since we are supposed to be discussing Portals.

yep but seeing as it was mentioned it deserves a reply,but it seems people are quick to jump on this racism bandwagon way to easy these days.I do understand that on certain boards people come from all walks of life but when a simple comment like that can be taken out of context to make it seem like soemthing else then its a sad day indeed.

here is my post a few of you are claiming is racist or even implying :

now wheres the inappropriate and even insensitive text ?

I agree with cinq, although I'll try to do so without angering anyone. :P

The features are good, but as he said the style is very invision-looking.

lasto - at least that last quote is constructive criticism, the author could clean it up abit, to make it appeal to us more. People want their site to be consistant, if the home page looks completely different, well, it's not as good.

I used to use phpnuke, it was good, and so is this, but I'd much prefer vBadvanced or vBindex with vBulletin. It just -fits.

What I find odd is on mk's site all the examples for every forum type all have it within mk accept vB, which instead points to this dudes site. Are you and mk one in the same and trying to promote your portal in 3rd party hoping to get users to use it?

It does pick up the styles if you want it to so it does not look so Invisionized *shudder
http://www.cpfools.com/forum/index.php?styleid=10
http://www.cpfools.com/forum/index.php?styleid=20
http://www.cpfools.com/forum/index.php?styleid=19
http://www.cpfools.com/forum/index.php?styleid=31

*hXc_Radio, there is no conspiracy here. I am the first beta vB site for them. I live in CA, meo lives in Rome... a bit of a walk if you ask me...JFK was no an alien, and no one is watching you to steel your tator tots..

I like vBadvanced CMPS, it's so neat and not cluttered like this MKPortal.

C_P we thank you for telling us about the portal.

But it seems you are spamming this portal on every site you visit.

Most people using vBulletin (portalnamehere) are fairly set in their ways. and unless it does everything their current portal does, 1000x less intensively, and has more better features. They most likely won't be switching soon, and even if it did, they still might not switch because of prefrence.

You are fighting a hard uphill war.

I think sharing the information is fine.
Let users decide.
It's not like he gets a commission for each install for MKPortal (could be wrong though) ;)

When I first got on VB, I too harped about how good it was on several boards I visited not using it. I don't consider it spamming, I merely considered it sharing the information on how to help those sites improve.

Nothing wrong, imho.

But posting about a product on various sites is considered spam right? I mean .. be it for free ipods, porn sites or free software ..

If you had a website/script/product/whatever related to vBulletin, you'd post at boards using vb or have some discussion on vb, no ? ;)

No no I do agree sharing is fine I am just expressing my views :)

It seems like a big push and abit spammy esp when the messages are very closely related.

Thanks for the reply but your general acusation of me "spamming on every site you visit" is mistated and not fact. I posted avout the portal on vB sites as well as my own. I guess since it does not have the backing of vB staff and the two letters vB int the portal name it does not get endorsed?
cinq, thank you for your reply, but it seems this new portal does not have a place with vB since the staff at vB are not part of it.
*Word to the wise for anyone in future, DO not not post about anything that vB staff does not approve of or is not part of.

Feel free to delete this thread as it was meant to be helpfull, but since vB staff feels it is spam.. remove this.
I'm done.

the vB staff only approves of vbulletin, they don't support any hacks, so your words don't make sense.

vbadvanced is not endorsed by vbulletin either ;)

As eva01 says, we do not officaly endorse any third party scripts.

The fact that i work with Brian and with vBa is a long standing fact that started way before I was invovled with jelsoft.

I did not say specificly it is spam, I just said it was spammy.

I did not mean to attack you specificly C_P just inform you

Says it all. I never said vB "officially endosed" any of those portals. I said what I said and it seems there are people here that would rather be negative about a new offering rather than looking into and accepting and offering constructive critisism. The portal may not be perfect but it is a new offering out there and as I said, I've used many and like this new one.
You all can continue your negative comments about this portal if you wish or remove this thread. As I said, I am done about this. Find your own portals, I will not offer up mkportal to anyone looking for one in the future, at least not on these vB sites. Thanks for opening my eyes on this, I guess I should have listened to meo who told e not to bother with telling people about this portal as it would not be accepted by vB crowd.

it is... in fact indirectly! i could sense it with vb staff jumping in defense of vbadvanced.

just based this from what i read.

afterglow

As Zachery as already explained he was a staff member at vBadvanced before he was a staff member at Jelsoft. If you were to browse the Jelsoft staff's postings at vBulletin.com you'd see that all of them, including Zachery, make it very clear that not only is there no Jelsoft supported hack but in fact installing any portal that modifies any of the vBulletin code or tables, including vBadvanced CMPS, nullifies your ability to get official support. :rolleyes:

yet they still give support for most cases with hacked forums, just not with issues directly caused by the hack, so that is good of them.

Critisism gose both ways, I pointed out what I did'nt like about it. Others did to, some even said they liked it. The problem with these scripts is that everyone has seen everything they do many times.

There is no more 'wow' factor, when that gose away people start pointing out what they don't like more often then what they do.

I am not the type of person to use your basic CMS or portal. This is why I have had to write my own script for content managment. I could never find one that could suit my needs, it looks like you have, good for you, your one of the few :)