Thinking of switching from IPB to vBulletin
 

Hi,

I run a charity forum (UK based) and have since 2004 been an IPB user to power our forums. In the last 3 or 4 years their level of customer service as declined, and their refusal to help those of us in the EU comply with the cookie law (stupid law I know) as been the final straw, so I am looking to switch our forum software to a new provider.

I posted on www.vbulletin.com earlier and a user suggested I post on here to see if some of the additional features I am looking for would be available as mods?

As anyone used IPB recently and can offer a comparison of the two platforms?

Also, this is a list of features we use with IPB, are these available for vBulletin?

• Easy access to Skin and CSS Customisation to match our main website brand#
• Built in chat software
• Blogs
• User status updates to show on forum homepage
• We use a mod for ibProArcade games, is there an equivalent mod for vBulletin with lots of games, or use of existing games
• A mod to allow us to import threads and users into vBulletin from IPB
• Ability to set different usergroups all with different permissions to access different forums
• RSS feed so we can automatically pull in stories from our main Drupal site

In addition to those forum features, I wonder if the following are available for vBulletin which would tip my move over to vBulletin.

• We use Drupal for our main website, I want users to only have to use one login, is there the ability to link vBulletin to Drupal so that users only have one login, either with Drupal which can be used for VBulletin, or for vBulletin which users can use on Drupal?
• In order to comply with the new EU law, can vBulletin provide a simple list of cookies the standard forum software uses, and what each does? This will allow me to ensure my website can be made legal in my country.
• Fast support (within 24 hours) whilst we pay for a license to use vBulletin

Bound to be more features we use, that I need to check will work, but off top of my head the above are what I can think of. Is the Admin panel easy to use and understand after moving from IPB?

Thanks, Ashley.

To be honest, the lack of bug fixing was my main reason for moving from IPB. I would say the biggest difference is the modification community. VB has far far more you can do with it. There are settings for almost everything and the permissions system is a lot more detailed. I personally find it a lot better software than IPB which is why I just chose to move to vbulletin from xenforo rather than going back to IPB. And I had used all 3 before.

• Easy access to Skin and CSS Customisation to match our main website brand# - YES
• Built in chat software - NO HOWEVER THERE ARE MODIFICATION ABOUT FOR CHAT
• Blogs - YES IF YOU PURCHASE SUITE
• User status updates to show on forum homepage - I USE DBTECHS STATUS AND MOODS FOR THIS MYSELF
• We use a mod for ibProArcade games, is there an equivalent mod for vBulletin with lots of games, or use of existing games - THERE ARE 3 THAT I KNOW OF, SO YES
• A mod to allow us to import threads and users into vBulletin from IPB - YOU CAN USE IMPEX FOR THIS. I HAVE JUST DONE THIS MYSELF AS HAD TO USE IPB AS A STOPGAP.
• Ability to set different usergroups all with different permissions to access different forums - IN A WAY THAT YOU CAN ONLY DREAM OF IN COMPARISON TO IPB
• RSS feed so we can automatically pull in stories from our main Drupal site - YES

• We use Drupal for our main website, I want users to only have to use one login, is there the ability to link vBulletin to Drupal so that users only have one login, either with Drupal which can be used for VBulletin, or for vBulletin which users can use on Drupal? - I DONT KNOW, WILL LEAVE THIS ANSWER TO SOMEONE ELSE
• In order to comply with the new EU law, can vBulletin provide a simple list of cookies the standard forum software uses, and what each does? This will allow me to ensure my website can be made legal in my country. - NOT SOMETHING VBULLETIN PROVIDES AS FAR AS I KNOW.
• Fast support (within 24 hours) whilst we pay for a license to use vBulletin - CAN HONESTLY SAY I HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH THE SUPPORT TEAM AND THEY ARE GENERALLY VERY QUICK

I'll be honest and say its not as easy to find your way around no, and there is a lot of it. However if you have set up all the above on your own site, you will find your way around it in no time. In fact I would think you will likely be glad of all the options it provides.

Thanks Sonic, given me a bit of confidence there that a move to vBulletin might be worth the time and effort in getting it up and running.

If anyone know of a mod that allows users to share a login with vBulletin and Drupal I would be sold :)

Thanks. Ashley.

is this what you were looking for? http://drupal.org/project/drupalvb