vBulletin.org
 

I am trying to do research on php based CMS/Portal systems and bulletin boards for a social site. I like to take into consideration the available mods and plugins for each solution.

The problem I have here is that I cannot view screen shots or ask developers questions about their mods until after I have purchased vBulletin!

Due to this restriction it makes it very diffigult for me to do my research and consider vBulletin as a solution. Seems like the vBulletin community is buy first then figure out if it's the right solution later.

Another hurdle is locating mods, if they where somehow categorized or atleast grouped by type or something like the Joomla extentions are it would save lots of time. Trying to locate mods and learn more about them on this board is a good example why putting all your site content in to a threaded discussion format is a bad idea.

I understand there are some very bright minds that contribute to vBulletin but the implementation of how you make your content available here stinks.

Actually, at the top of each mods forum (they are broken up by versions) is a Prefix sorting dropdown with several categories so you may refine your search.