Best profile enhancement (myspace type software) & Blog

[Alfa1]

Different boards will have different requirements for profile enhancements. Therefore I think it would be handy if we have one thread which lists all the possibilities. Paid and free. I have searched vb.com vb.org and several other places to find one list but could not find this.

So far I have found the following possibilities:

SocialEngine (Paid)
At first glance this seems the most advanced solution. SocialEngine promises a forum integration tutorial for vb coming in early 2008. Since SocialEngine is so complex, I wonder how well a do it yourself integration will be, but the news is certainly exciting.

Zoints Local (free)
About Me, My Discussions, My Links, Instant Chat, My Photos My Interests, My Communities, My Network, Quick Comments, Ratings, My Blog, RSS Feeds, Social Actions and many more. drag and drop, style sharing, friends, connects profiles to other websites trough the Zoints network and lets your members search these.

Myspace profile (free)
although I couldn't get it to work properly it has css options, video, buddies, photopost/vba gallery intergration is possible, zodiac sign, vbjournal intergration, additional profile fields.

vS-Interactive Profiles (free)
Myspace-Style "Friend Requests", user ratings and comments, zodiacs, friendster-style profile field highlights, custom xss-proof css, support for avatars, Zodiac Sign
This is currently unsupported.

phpfox (paid)
Guestbook, Friends & Favorites, Personal Details block, Recent Visitors, Blogs, Gallery, Groups list, Contact Panel, Report User, Member Details

E friends (paid)
photo albums, member voting system, upload multimedia content, Write a testimonial, blog, articles, member rating system and much more.

vBlog (paid)
Still to be released. A alpha version of the blog part has been released and is running on vbulletin.com. The profile enhancement & social networking part has to be coded. It's hard to say if it's going to be good or not. Upside is that it is not a third party add on. Downside is that it seems the blog seems pretty basic so far.

NuSpace (paid)
Also unreleased. Not much can be said on this. For features see here

phpRaven (paid)
Unreleased. For features see here.

vbClubs
Unreleased. For features see here.

I am not certain if vbspace is still available. I understand that the vbspace thread has gone down due to flaming. Please keep this thread clean.

Blog programs:

vbdiary & vbblog (free)
This is not Jelsofts vblog, but a free add-on. Interesting hack, but has a major error in it that needs to be fixed.

vBlogetin (paid)
A very nice and extensive blog written for vbulletin. Definitely worth looking into.

Wordpress/Vbulletin Bridge (free)
A bridge for Wordpress that shares vbulletin members with wordpress members.

vbulletin Blog (Paid)
A fully supported blog for vbulletin. So far it's pretty basic, but this will likely evolve.

If you have others to add to this list, please post here. If you have experience with any of these programs please list the pro's and con's

[ArchieMB]

is it possible to use the joovili profiles in vb?

[da420]

My favorite of the ones listed is vS-Interactive Profiles. It's nice, simple, clean looking, and well supported.

[Alfa1]

vs-profiles seems well intergrated, but very basic in features.

I have added Joovili, because it was listed as having vbulletin intergration, in another thread here. I have contacted Joovili, requested more information on their vbulletin intergration and alerted them to this thread.
Edit: there is no supported intergration. I have asked Joovili to consider creating one.

I have also contacted phpfox about their intergration and they replied that they do have a working intergration hack, although they know of members that have problems with this. So it seems like a possibility for those with good knowledge of php/vbulletin, but not for noobs. The hack seems like a bridge and makes these modifications to vbulletin: http://www.phpfox.com/guide/plugins/...letin/install/
If anyone has experience with this intergration, please post your experience.

Many people find Zoints local not suited because it makes your site automaticly to other sites. This is also one of the reasons, why I am searching for other options.

The myspace profile rewrite is the one I am currently using, but am very unhappy about as it once bundled many other hacks which are no longer active. Without them much is lost. And besides that I'd like more functionality and had a hard time to get it running right. Which it still doesn't.

[Nordinho]

I'm using vs-interactive profiles and modified quite some things, but the result is pretty much what you see on myspace etc. For example member1 member2 member3

So I think you can do almost everything with vbulletin and an affordable (and well supported) hack. But I think the convenience Zoints gives to users is unmatched (drag and drop blocks). But Zoints has other disadvantages so I won't use that.

If someone ever release a Zoint a like hack for ones forum only, with no backlinks etc. I would definately use that. But till then I'll settle with what I have now

[Alfa1]

Thanks for posting that. It seems vs-interactive profiles can do more than I thought, although I am missing some features I'd like to see. Is there an intergration with blog, photopost, etc, etc?

I have emailed vs-profiles to see what hacks/add ons there are for this. Please fill me in if you know. I have no access to their forum.

I have updated the 1st post of this topic to contain the functions of the various software.

[Alfa1]

Also, do not forget to vote on this poll about wether or not vbulletin should add profile enhancement.

[Chicago_VLNU_4s]

I think the myspace one is the best option to go. It's power is limitless.. just look at my profile for instance. I've coded everything myself (aside the defaults and comments and friends bit) so IMHO, I think the myspace one is the best...and it's free!!

http://www.offthaave.com/forums/4 CORNER HUSTLA

[Shazz]

Originally Posted by Chicago_VLNU_4s

I think the myspace one is the best option to go. It's power is limitless.. just look at my profile for instance. I've coded everything myself (aside the defaults and comments and friends bit) so IMHO, I think the myspace one is the best...and it's free!!

http://www.offthaave.com/forums/4 CORNER HUSTLA

Looks nice

[Alfa1]

I use the myspace hack myself and do think that it's a big step forward from vb's profiles.

The downsides of the Myspace profile hack:

1. It's nice for those members with good html/CSS knowledge, but for boards that have few such members it's not very handy IMHO.
2. One needs to install a lot of additional hacks.
3. Not all these hacks are updated. Some are still in beta phase. Many are meant for vb 3.5.
4. vBjournal is not compatible with recent mySQL or PHP versions.
5. Many interesting hacks have been dropped from the myspace profile hack.

Chicago_VLNU_4s must have older versions of php and mySQL to have this working.