Need advice VB vs. other software

[shortbus1662]

I currently own around 10 ubbthreads licenses. They are going in a different direction with their product and I am not happy with it. I believe in the beginning I should have used VB, however that is spilled milk...

Now, I am at a crossroads. I have to either buy VB, keep threads, or switch to something like fusionbb, which is new. I like fusionbb because I know one of the guys who owns it, and it's going the direction I'd like to see, plus, he installed all the mods/hacks on my current sites.

My question is really, what cost am I looking at?

I have a heavily hacked forum, and all of the forums I have, are networked together because they use the same database. However, not all of them are on the same server. This has caused a slight problem regarding images being stored locally, but I am not too concerned about that.

What I am concerned about, is the cost of reimplementing all of these hacks/mods back into my forums if I switch to VB. Add that to the cost of the licenses, and it's a TON of money.

The one thing I do like, is that the hacks all already exist. That is the big attraction to VB over Fusion, which isn't even in Beta yet. I'm not knowledgeable enough to implement them on my own, and if I'm looking at 60 bucks an hour for a mod, times let's say 10 mods, times 10 sites, then that answers the question.

Any advice would be appreciated. This is a business site, and my decision is pretty critical as my entire site runs off threads.

[Colin F]

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

I currently own around 10 ubbthreads licenses. They are going in a different direction with their product and I am not happy with it. I believe in the beginning I should have used VB, however that is spilled milk...

Now, I am at a crossroads. I have to either buy VB, keep threads, or switch to something like fusionbb, which is new. I like fusionbb because I know one of the guys who owns it, and it's going the direction I'd like to see, plus, he installed all the mods/hacks on my current sites.

My question is really, what cost am I looking at?

I have a heavily hacked forum, and all of the forums I have, are networked together because they use the same database. However, not all of them are on the same server. This has caused a slight problem regarding images being stored locally, but I am not too concerned about that.

What I am concerned about, is the cost of reimplementing all of these hacks/mods back into my forums if I switch to VB. Add that to the cost of the licenses, and it's a TON of money.

The one thing I do like, is that the hacks all already exist. That is the big attraction to VB over Fusion, which isn't even in Beta yet. I'm not knowledgeable enough to implement them on my own, and if I'm looking at 60 bucks an hour for a mod, times let's say 10 mods, times 10 sites, then that answers the question.

Any advice would be appreciated. This is a business site, and my decision is pretty critical as my entire site runs off threads.

Hi, and welcome to vBulletin.org

Just some random thoughts I had while reading your thread:

• vBulletin has five full time developers. Developing vBulletin is their job. Additionally, they have around over eight support people. Support Tickets are generally answered within an hour.
  
  I'm not sure how that would compare against your friends forum
• vBulletin in its latest version has tons of features. A lot of the features you would be installing on another forum software are standard features in vBulletin, meaning no problems with installing the modifications or updating the software.
  
  If you still need any additional modifications, we have vBulletin.org, where you can either find the modification you're looking for (if it's already been made), post a modification request and hope someone makes it, or post a service request, which means you are willing to pay for the modification.
• If you buy all 10 licenses together, you'll only pay US$ 730. If you buy 11 licenses together, the cost will only be US$ 737
• vBulletin has hardly any security leaks. The only two holes I can remember were fixed within 24 hours and the patch posted.
  
  This is probably an important point for you, as you mention that you're running a business site
• I don't know about others, but US$ 60 an hour seems like a lot to me for installing modifications

I hope that helped you out, if you have any other questions, or questions I didn't answer yet, feel free to ask

Oh yes and because I'm interested, what kind of modifications are you planning to install?

[Reeve of shinra]

1. What modifications do you have installed and are they installed to all of the sites or just some?

2. Can you tell us more about the database intergration?
> Are all the sites sharing posts / threads?
> Are they sharing user authentication?

The majority of the modifications already released here on vb.org come with installers and a text file where you simply find a peice of text in the php file and replace it or add something above or below it. Its simple enough that if you dont know php at all, you can install it as long as you follow the directions carefully.

[shortbus1662]

thank you for the replies.

I use the forums to power my home page, kind of like a portal. There is a links database that shows up on all of the forums. The posts/replies show up on all the forums. The users login/pass works on all of the forums. The "live chat" is integrated with the user/pass.

There are custom "pal" boxes that show up on the side bar, like google ads, phpadsnew banners, html links, and other boxes with html that I can edit really quickly. I can specify where I want the box to appear ie Middle, left, right, and order.

I have photopost and reviewpost integrated, which I think integrates with VB already so that isn't an issue. I have a usermap that integrates with the login/pass. I don't know if that's on VB or not.

I have games, but that's already on VB I know. Subforums.

I have contest software from UBI DOG (event-handler.com I think) which is integrated, that would be a big one.

I have a forum specific meta data and descriptions mod, which is imperative.

User webs from webumake which vb already has. Also an "articles section". I did have articles software that I used (same as trackpads) but there was no integration so we stopped using it. That could be an issue (helpful) I guess.

How do the search engine mods work? Does it add the slashes like this / ?
That is a big thing for me. A BIG THING, because I have over 40,000 pages indexed, mostly forum pages.

I think that's pretty much it, in terms of mods/hacks that I have that I'm not sure will work if I move to VB.

What I want:

I want to be able to transfer all of my threads stuff over.

I want to have a site that is controlled 75% by VB. All of the content pages would be controlled by vb. I suck at html, etc. so that is basically the only way I can change the pages of my site--via the forum software or wysiwyg.

I want to have user email integrated. So when a user is logged into the forums they can check their email without logging into it seperately.

I want total integration.

Are these all possible with VB? If so, what kind of cost am I looking at for all of it?

The total integration is only for my site basically. The other sites just run the forums although there are 3 other sites on my server that use the IIP (portal software for threads) to control their pages.

If someone can answer these questions and let me know what cost I'd be looking at for all of this, etc. I would be VERY GRATEFUL.

Also, thank you very much for the previous responses. I didn't realize I could get the licenses that cheap. I totalled it up and was looking at a lot more than that even with the discounts for multiple. Still confused on that.

Thanks!

--Aaron

[shortbus1662]

also, when I try to click on an attachment in these forums, it won't let me. What do I have to do to be able to see those? It would be quite helpful in my decision making, as I can see the screenshots...

And is there a mod that let's you reply directly to a user, or can you only reply using the very bottom reply button?

Thanks.

[Colin F]

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

also, when I try to click on an attachment in these forums, it won't let me. What do I have to do to be able to see those? It would be quite helpful in my decision making, as I can see the screenshots...

And is there a mod that let's you reply directly to a user, or can you only reply using the very bottom reply button?

Thanks.

I'll try to answer your questions as soon as I have time, just wanted to say that we have a system set up here that only allows licensed members to download attachments. Unfortunatelly, this also includes screenshots, so you can't see any of those either.

[shortbus1662]

Colin,

Thank you for the quick response. I look forward to hearing your response when you have time, and any other responses.

I looked again at the prices list and see now the "leased license" option, which explains the cost question. Is there an option to upgrade from leased to owned before the year is up at a discount?

[Colin F]

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

Colin,

Thank you for the quick response. I look forward to hearing your response when you have time, and any other responses.

I looked again at the prices list and see now the "leased license" option, which explains the cost question. Is there an option to upgrade from leased to owned before the year is up at a discount?

The only option you have is upgrading from leased to owned within 30 days, at a price of US$ 85 (adding another US$ 85 from the original purchase that's a bit more expensive.)

Then again, I've got to say that I think it would make sense to buy owned licenses in your case.

[Colin F]

thank you for the replies.

I use the forums to power my home page, kind of like a portal. There is a links database that shows up on all of the forums. The posts/replies show up on all the forums. The users login/pass works on all of the forums. The "live chat" is integrated with the user/pass.
[/QUOTE] There is a link database modification available (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=60403).

I don't really understand why you have seperated your forums though, as that sounds like one big forum with a lot of subforums (maybe different styles...)
There are a few chat modules available that can be integrated.

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

There are custom "pal" boxes that show up on the side bar, like google ads, phpadsnew banners, html links, and other boxes with html that I can edit really quickly. I can specify where I want the box to appear ie Middle, left, right, and order.

You can add a sidebar simply by editing the templates

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

I have photopost and reviewpost integrated, which I think integrates with VB already so that isn't an issue. I have a usermap that integrates with the login/pass. I don't know if that's on VB or not.

As far as I know both can easily be integrated into vBulletin

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

I have games, but that's already on VB I know. Subforums.

We have the v3Arcade, which should fit your needs. I'm not sure what the Subforums comment means...

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

I have contest software from UBI DOG (event-handler.com I think) which is integrated, that would be a big one.

I don't know of any contest software currently available, but maybe someone can correct me

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

I have a forum specific meta data and descriptions mod, which is imperative.

Not sure about this one, but I'm sure something like this could be easily implemented, even if only through template conditionals.

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

User webs from webumake which vb already has. Also an "articles section". I did have articles software that I used (same as trackpads) but there was no integration so we stopped using it. That could be an issue (helpful) I guess.

There is an article addon available. I'm not sure what you mean by user webs.

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

How do the search engine mods work? Does it add the slashes like this / ?
That is a big thing for me. A BIG THING, because I have over 40,000 pages indexed, mostly forum pages.

Can you explain this a bit better?
The vBulletin search engine works off a searchindex, or (currently in a testing phase) using mysql fulltext searching.

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

I think that's pretty much it, in terms of mods/hacks that I have that I'm not sure will work if I move to VB.

What I want:

I want to be able to transfer all of my threads stuff over.

There is an official importer for ubbthreads: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showp...2&postcount=12

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

I want to have a site that is controlled 75% by VB. All of the content pages would be controlled by vb. I suck at html, etc. so that is basically the only way I can change the pages of my site--via the forum software or wysiwyg.

vBadvanced CMPS might be interesting for you, along with the article mod and photopost or whatever else you want.

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

I want to have user email integrated. So when a user is logged into the forums they can check their email without logging into it seperately.

I know there is a Hivemail integration, but I've never worked with it.

Originally Posted by shortbus1662

I want total integration.

Are these all possible with VB? If so, what kind of cost am I looking at for all of it?

The total integration is only for my site basically. The other sites just run the forums although there are 3 other sites on my server that use the IIP (portal software for threads) to control their pages.

If someone can answer these questions and let me know what cost I'd be looking at for all of this, etc. I would be VERY GRATEFUL.

Also, thank you very much for the previous responses. I didn't realize I could get the licenses that cheap. I totalled it up and was looking at a lot more than that even with the discounts for multiple. Still confused on that.

Thanks!

--Aaron

Hope I answered your questions more or less. I can't really estimate the cost, but I'm sure it will quite some work...

[shortbus1662]

Colin,

Thank you very much. You have been very helpful.

Let me better explain my forums.

I started a nursing forum, then offered other webmasters the ability to connect to my database. This way posts can be seen on all the websites. This was helpful to get the signups going faster, and to get more participation.

Now, I can offer it to other nursing sites like mine: www.ultimatenurse.com and they can instantly have a forum with lots of users/posts in it, and it benefits me by expanding my network.

I think what I would like to do is to lease one license, and have someone do the work for me on another domain or something, until it is how I want it, and then I can import and switch.

Can you recommend someone to do all of this for me? Thanks.