Top 10 best tips mods when setting up a new vBulletin v4.x Publ.&Mob-suite?

[SweDev]

Hi All :-)
I'm a newbie vB here but not to forums. Have runned several forums over the years on different software (like phpBB etc). But this time I think I'm going to buy, today actually, the vBulletin 4.x + Publishing + Mobile suite, since I think it's the most suited and has the most updated functionality (mobile access is a must for one) for my current and upcoming needs. I'm going to set this up on a Mac OSX Server w Lion (OSX 10.7.1) on our webhotel.

Some Q:s;
- Latest version?
- Any in-built update features or is it manually every time?
- Top 10 tips / mods or "must have's"?
- Setting up vB to charge members for payment / month or /year?
- Creating an private access forum w sub forums and private blogs, articles, pages etc? (Setting up a private developers forum)
- Any e-commerse available (even from 3rd party)?
- Best practice w connecting vBulletin w Facebook, Twitter & YouTube?

Happy for any tips, pointers, links, experiences that you wanna share to help me set this up quickly this week - THANKS!

[SweDev]

Anyone? Come on, I thought this was an active vB forum with a lot of expertise... ;-)

[BirdOPrey5]

Latest version as of today is for release is 4.1.5 (a couple of patches have been applied to it already.)

Updates are manual, not built in, but fairly automated once you download the upgrade.

Top 10 mods- hard to say, depends on your forum, You can go to the VB 4.x Add Ons forum and sort by # of Installs and/or Ratings.

Very easy to setup a subscription- you can charge by the day, week, month, year, whatever. Easy integration with paypal.

No idea on e-commerce options

Facebook integration is built in, you just enable whatever parts you want to use in the settings. There is no Twitter integration by default but you can add a Tweet button via mods. YouTube videos can be embedded on a page but other than that there is no other YouTube integration.

[SweDev]

@BirdOPrey5
Thanks for many good answers and some tips!

@Everyone
Keep'em coming... :up:

[BSMedia]

vBulletin.com would be a better place to ask, this place is more for modification orientated stuff and isn't quite as active as the .com imo.

[bremereric]

Here a couple of mods I did on my site and thought they were pretty good and straight forward...keycaptcha...human verification...I did the members who visited today...the paypal donate...I installed a mod that cuts off human verification after 50 posts..the mass e-mail mod and the automated you got mail mod...still have more tagged for later install.

[TheLastSuperman]

Backup regularly, in fact find out if your host does backups and if not start from day one and never stop, run backups frequently .

[insaneoz]

Hands down, probably vbsocial notifications! absolutely love that mod and the people behind it