Hello, and a few questions

[Soundwave]

Well, since this is the only place I can ask, here goes. But first let me introduce myself. My name is michel, 21 years old, and since a few months ago I have been put in charge of a website when the previous owner decided to quit. Now this website (forum) uses IpB 1.3.1, and I dont even think its a legal version. From personal experience, I dont like using IpB. I prefer Vb all the way. More userfriendly, better admin panel etc.

The thing is, I never supported the use of IpB for the forums. I just cant work with it. So, I want to buy Vb3 (the latest anyways), but I still have a few questions that I need to have answered before I want to buy it. I know that most of the questions can probably be found somewhere else, but its easier for me if I can have all of them answered at once.


1 - my forums have a good set of posts. About 10.000, and about 400 users (for a small forum thats good). But I want to transfer software, as in, from IpB to Vb. But since I doubt this version of IpB is legal, I want to know if this can be done. It would be pointless for me to first buy an IpB license if I switch to Vb immediatly after.

2 - I know absolutely nothing about customizing and stuff (i'm busy learning to do that stuff though). Is it possible, if someone would make a personal background and buttons and stuff, that I can save it, and only give specific people access to that background then (its good for contests and all).


3 - How long is a "lifelong" license for Vb, and how much does it cost ?


4 - the previous owner of my forums lost the password to the server. I still have access to the admin cp, but thats it. IF I could transfer the data (accounts, posts, sections), would I be needing the server passwords, and if not, would I need to inform them of this switch (you probably cant answer this, but the guys at the server almost NEVER reply to anything).


Thank you for your time

~soundwave~

[ManagerJosh]

Welcome to vBulletin SW :)

Small tidbit, you posted in the Chit-Chat, which is less likely to get attention with your pre-sale question.

Anyhow, hopefully I can be of some assistance.

Well first regardless if it is legal or not, IPB 1.3.1 at one point was free, so it might be a free version.


1 - There is a IPB (1.1 - 1.3) (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=657617&postcount=4) importer available that allows you to convert to vBulletin.

2 - My personal experience that vBulletin has been by far one of the easiest experiences in customizing. But just because it is easy, only makes it more difficult personally.

However, don't let my word or someone else's word be your own sole source for decision. Feel free to create a Admin Demo (http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo) and experience it for yourself.

3 - There are two licenses: A Leased License (@ 85.00) and an Owned License (@ 160.00).

The leased license allows you to run vBulletin for one year. Thereafter you have to take down your board, renew for another leased license, or upgrade to an owned license.

The owned license allows you to run vBulletin for the entire lifetime.

But let's say you move your forum from domaina.com to domainb.com, you can update your URL without the need to purchase an additional license.

Both licenses comes with one year of updates, which allows you to download new versions of vBulletin. At the end of one year for Owned licenses, you will need to renew access to download at $30.00, which can be purchased at any time.

Security fixes are made public, so even if your download access has expired, you can still get the proper patches without needing to renew.

4 - To do an import process, you still will need the MySQL information in order to do an import. One other possible alternative is finding a way to get a complete backup of that database, and transfering everything over to another database, and then do the import process there.

Just on a side question, what sort of passwords did he lose? FTP? Root?

[Brad.loo]

1. You can import from ipb with the impex system, you can download impex from the members area after you buy a license. I would not buy a ipb license, they did not go paid until ipb2.0 AFAIK. ipb 1.3.1 was free when it was released.

2. I am not sure what you are asking here. Can you explain some more? vBulletin supports multiple styles, and you can make it do just about anything you want.

3. $160 for the owned license. You can run your forum forever and support via the forums and the members area never expires. At the end of the year, however, you must pay $30 to re-new you access to vBulletin downloads if you wish to upgrade to the latest version. You are not forced to re-new, and can do so at any time, even years after your download access expires.

4. You will need ftp details of the server to upload the vBulletin files and the mySQL details to install vBulletin. You should also find out if something like phpmyadmin is installed on the server, it helps you manage mySQL.

[Soundwave]

Thanks a lot guys. I really didnt expect such helpfull comments this fast :), this is why I prefer Vb all the way.



I created the admin demo, and it is by FAR much better then IpB1.3.1 (I already knew that, I once worked with Vb2 2 years ago). Vb3 is different though. Dont know if its negative or positive, but anything is better then IpB (yes, I truly despise Ipb).

2. I am not sure what you are asking here. Can you explain some more? vBulletin supports multiple styles, and you can make it do just about anything you want.

Well, lets say I create an opening sidemenu on the homepage, with various buttons (instead of the buttons always being horizontal on top as the custom Vb layout is). I draw a character or make a certain colour also taken in say , the Final fantasy games. Could I use that as a background, but only assign it to the people I want to so that nobody would copy it and use it for their own website (plagerism's a bitch, pardon the french).


Just on a side question, what sort of passwords did he lose? FTP? Root?

Well, I only have access to the admin Cp, and I seem to be a "root admin". Thats all I have access to.

on a sidenote : please excuse my typo's. I'm native dutch so my english isnt exactly flawless

[Brad.loo]

By root he means root access to the server, which you don't have. You need to find out the ftp details, and mySQLs. You also need some way to create and modify a database.

Re 2. Yes it is possible to do this. You could put all these users in a seprate usergroup or secondary usergroup. Then you could code a conditional in that template and check the usergroupid, based on that id you can choose which content to show to the user. No messy hacking, its all done via the templates. :)

[Soundwave]

well.......my forums got hacked and I got deleted. So for now I wont be buying the Vb license >:/. I'm going to have to deal with this first, and hope the people of the server care enough to do something about it.


Thank you for your time. Its to bad this happened =(

[Floris]

Thread moved to pre-sales forum.