Vbulletin first impressions

[Sharg]

Ok,
so I’ve finally launched my site, so I can tell what I think of VB.

I'm coming from UBB. I was reluctant to use mysql dynamic databases, because of my ignorance. I decided to give VB a try, since everyone seemed to migrate to real database bulletin boards.

I opened an account on a new host, and I had to import my 1193 members and my 16159 messages from ubb.
All went really well, all was converted properly (even the smilies and closed topics !!). The installation of the script was really as easy as it is said. I know nothing about PHP and mysql, yet I was able to do the installation without a problem (no more Chmod !).

My conclusion is that I do really not regret the switch. I'm really very happy about this script. Almost all the hacks that I had in my UBB are by default in VB.

I can even say that the script is better than I thought:
I’ve read about template before buying the script, but I thought there was only like 4 or 5 templates: for the forum display, for the messages... i didn't thought there was so many, to let you customize EVERY aspect of the board !!
This is really genius, because you can spend time to do customizations, and you can upgrade and keep your customization !! How cool.

I've only observed some minor bugs (latest version beta):
-The Logged in user function is very weird. It says a number of member on the board, and don't show that amount of members (and I know they are not invisible), sometime it works correctly, but its completely random. Example: sometime it says 4 members are on the board, where it shows Only me and another guy ?!

-If I put a long description on a forum, it gets cut.

- Cookies work fine, but I don't think they respect the expire length set in the admin...

These are minor bugs as you can see.
My hope for the future, is that Vbulletin stays up to date, and work with its users to incorporate rapidly hacks in the official version. What I really didn't liked with the previous script I was using, is that it took like 5 months to incorporate a little single hack, rejecting 80 % of the hacks every hackers were using.

Vbulletin is only at version 1... and already is stable, flexible, and full of features. Well done !!

Benj


[Edited by Benj on 06-22-2000 at 07:09 AM]

[The_Net_Muppet]

I used to be a 'die hard ubb fan' but have now purchased Vbulletin, it is by far allot better than ubb. John actually seems to listen to what people want installed in his product, that was one of ubb biggest weaknesses.

I just got tired patch after patch of ubb, and open topic being too expensive.

I just hope that John will continue to listen to what people want to have installed on his software, and wish him the best:).

[John]

I'm listening :)

Logged in users: people can choose to be invisible, so they are still counted, but their names are not displayed.

Cookies: the cookies do not time out on the given setting, but all the new posts are changed to old posts if the user does not visit in that time.

Description: limited to 255 chars at the moment, but may change in the future.

John

[SonnetCelestial]

I know you net puppet and yea I see you're a die hard UBB fan. I dunno, I've been doing some thinking. Though UBB is not the enemy I remember once how my entire site was erased because of ubb's insecurity. By law they don't need to offer compensation but I remember how Ted used to proclaim ubb was 100% safe...

I don't know. Perhaps I will wait longer or just try out the free version first.

[The_Net_Muppet]

Hi SonnetCelestial

Dont get me wrong ubb is a *fantastic* product and I would reccomend it to anyone!!, I just wanted something taht I could integrate in to my site with SQL, template, user titles + avators support etc. V bulletin can do this easily:)


You also have to realise that no product is %100 safe ;)

[Edited by the_net_muppet on 06-22-2000 at 11:37 AM]

[SonnetCelestial]

Oh hey Net Muppet! :) I know what you mean. I know you are one of the few people who would say that and support vb. ;) But I really don't know if something can work miracles anymore. See, if recources for cpu really is that much smaller and it can survive on virtual hosting before moving to dedicated then I would buy it. But I still see varied results. *shrugs* I can wait. :)

[Sharg]

Logged in users: people can choose to be invisible, so they are still counted, but their names are not displayed.


Yes John I know.
This is why I tried to login with a different user in a different browser (I use MSIE, I tried Netscape) and I was not able to see both users.

+I'm almost SURE that the users not visible didn't set their invisible option...

Benj

[UserName]

Here's something strange about the 'logged in members' feature. If I have two admins logged in from the same DSL connection (my network shares a single DSL connection) they cannot see each other in the "logged in members" list. I don't know if it's because of the shared IP or something else, but each one can see him/herself, but neither can see the other. Strangeness.

[Martin]

it's not really all that strange. you're both using the same IP, so it only shows the one.