What do you think about Vbulletin vs Xenforo?

[katie hunter]

Ok : )

What i really love to see VB5 to improve upon is adding social features with feeds like similar to "Twitter" discover feature. ex http://i.imgur.com/HesyR1M.jpg you would see your friends or followers feeds when they share pic, videos etc. I think that is a very unique approach VB can have beside focusing on a CMS feature .

I also think the layout of the forum needs to be renovated, it doesn't look good in term of default design. Sleek designs now days have an auto scroll under the header like IGN http://www.ign.com/ or my site or discourse actually.

Also improving the SEO features and sitemap. Google has been changing lately a lot and solid seo features helps improve the site rank and traffic and prevent duplicate content (this needs a thread on its own).

I am following Discourse and I hope VB learn few of their features. They do listen to improvements which is what i like https://meta.discourse.org/t/will-po...184/25?u=katie

There are a lot of simple ideas which VB can learn from Twitter, Google+ and FB, i think the new innovative approach should work on social interaction and feeds.

I also think VB profile needs to be more simple with a style, make use of interactive design http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/member/868-wayne-luke compare to something like this may be ? http://www.nihonomaru.com/profile/rina-touin.1/about , http://www.nihonomaru.com/profile/rina-touin.1/wall

[Barcham]

I guess it all depends on what kind of board you are running. Personally, I have no need for anything other than the bulletin board itself. I don't need Articles or CMS at all and have no need for any connection to Facebook or other social network site. In fact, Facebook would ban the content of my board right off the bat as it is only targeted at adults. Not everyone is hooked on social networking.

I would much prefer a package that can be expanded upon to meet the specific needs of an online community. Those who only require a board can get only a board. Those who want or who require more, can purchase the modules they require at an extra charge. I find that everyone is trying to bring out a software package that is everything to everyone. It's similar to the anti-virus market where the products have now become so bloated and complex that they cause more problems than they solve.

[vbresults]

Is Katie even an active xF customer?

[katie hunter]

Originally Posted by vbresults

I hope you exercise the same judgment on this thread as you did to my thread recently. It was very unfair for you to lock it.

It was unlocked later today, so no harm was done, at least here on VB they review moderation actions and not become bold about it =)

Originally Posted by vbresults

Is Katie even an active xF customer?

I was active in the past but i am not a customer, meaning i never bought XF because i never liked their admin system compare to VB, i still want to see what it will become in 2 years from now but judging the way their staff acts, i wouldn't want to invest and put money on something where later i know i will be mistreated badly and see hypocrite comments and excuses by their staff.

I also never seen them wanting to improve and the moment i criticized their use of redactor http://imperavi.com/redactor/ over CKeditor http://ckeditor.com/ as their editor of choice, i was neglected and to me they didn't appear to listen to improvements which i suggested, they have a certain path that they want to follow. They never wanted to bring anything new to the market of forums, what they want to do is use the shortest shortcut to get to the level of VB. They have no vision, no new social features, and that is why i said they just want to be "just another forum software wanna be" for the sake of business $$. They don't have a vision of bringing something new and exciting to the forum market.

Just look at how mature Discourse http://www.discourse.org/ forum is and that should be something everyone should look at when it comes to customer's requests but then it is an open source forum and not paid, still they pay attention to advises and actually address them right away. There is a sense of community discussing each and every feature they add to it. Discussing features over there and carrying conversation is very mature, which is something i liked.

Community wise, you will be criticized if you ever disagree with certain features XF releases like the redactor, all i saw was comments that praises them, but criticize them and it is another story. You will almost hear this very often "You don't like it, don't use it" then your suggestions will render useless and you will feel that you are wasting your time.

[TheLastSuperman]

^ Well I just thought it ran off topic and on a tangent and should be closed it had nothing to do with you being the thread starter or me trying to be unfair. Katie is correct it was later unlocked by Paul as he did not see the need to lock it, and some of you think he's too harsh or blunt he's actually more fair than most on here to be perfectly honest with you all. I try my best to do my job here sometimes I may "over-moderate" but I'm not slapping anyone in the face when I do it and I try my best to always pm members letting them know why I did what I did unless I post before closing a thread stating why etc - common courtesy imo .

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by katie hunter

Ok : )

What i really love to see VB5 to improve upon is adding social features with feeds like similar to "Twitter" discover feature. ex http://i.imgur.com/HesyR1M.jpg you would see your friends or followers feeds when they share pic, videos etc. I think that is a very unique approach VB can have beside focusing on a CMS feature .

I also think the layout of the forum needs to be renovated, it doesn't look good in term of default design. Sleek designs now days have an auto scroll under the header like IGN http://www.ign.com/ or my site or discourse actually.

Also improving the SEO features and sitemap. Google has been changing lately a lot and solid seo features helps improve the site rank and traffic and prevent duplicate content (this needs a thread on its own).

I am following Discourse and I hope VB learn few of their features. They do listen to improvements which is what i like https://meta.discourse.org/t/will-po...184/25?u=katie

There are a lot of simple ideas which VB can learn from Twitter, Google+ and FB, i think the new innovative approach should work on social interaction and feeds.

I also think VB profile needs to be more simple with a style, make use of interactive design http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/member/868-wayne-luke compare to something like this may be ? http://www.nihonomaru.com/profile/rina-touin.1/about , http://www.nihonomaru.com/profile/rina-touin.1/wall

Awesome example of how posts in threads like this should be!

[katie hunter]

Originally Posted by Barcham

I guess it all depends on what kind of board you are running. Personally, I have no need for anything other than the bulletin board itself. I don't need Articles or CMS at all and have no need for any connection to Facebook or other social network site. In fact, Facebook would ban the content of my board right off the bat as it is only targeted at adults. Not everyone is hooked on social networking.

I would much prefer a package that can be expanded upon to meet the specific needs of an online community. Those who only require a board can get only a board. Those who want or who require more, can purchase the modules they require at an extra charge. I find that everyone is trying to bring out a software package that is everything to everyone. It's similar to the anti-virus market where the products have now become so bloated and complex that they cause more problems than they solve.

What i meant is social features like for ex Twitter's to be on VB with a unique style, like the way Feeds display on Twitter, to have that feature on VB. Not to connect VB with FB etc. features =) that is what i mean, something new that connect members better and make sharing news, pic, videos etc even more exciting and better.

A forum after all is about community, sharing and the friends you make. So what if you tighten the concept of sharing even more to make it special with better new features that were never before seen in a forum market ? Then, if VB took this approach, it would be the first ever to look more unique. I certainly see something like this would make VB5 more appealing to many. People love new ideas, not repetitive ideas done differently.

[ozzy47]

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

Awesome example of how posts in threads like this should be!

Ditto.

[XiTCLUB]

I am using VB from 4 years, and as i am Web Developer i have developed some Free vBulletin Templates to help the community. I found vBulletin a very easy to use and powerful PHP Application and Smarty template engine is also a very good friend of PHP.
But i am really disappointed with what VB have done with VB5, i have never thought of Upgrading from VB4 to VB5.
And for XF i have not seen its admin panel yet, but as i am an active member at Digitalpoint Forums where Shawn is doing a great job. The Frontend of XF is very clean and light weight, and the Notification area is really cool. VB5 should come up with something like that

[katie hunter]

If we are going to try and make sure that design and creativity shape a better world, then we need to talk about it : )

http://vimeo.com/70851927