Sell me on vB! A few simple questions...

[shibby2]

Hi everyone! Well I think it's time for me to switch to vB. But have a few questions first...

I currently run a phpBB forum with close to 18,000 members and 700,000+ posts total. I 'm sick of waiting for new phpBB features, and it seems to be always have problems lately.

1) Is vB a lot more stable than phpBB? Everyone seems to say that vB is definitely a better solution for large forums like mine. Is that true?

2) My database is currently about 1.4 gigs, will that be a problem for me when converting to vB? I really can't lose ANY posts or members.

3) I've read in a few threads that vB can actually increase traffic to your forum...is that really true? And if so, how and why does it do that? That's really a great selling point if true.

I knwo I have more questions, but that's all I can think of right now. Maybe I'll have some more soon....thanks in advance for any help!

By the way, the support here seems GREAT. I've tried IPB on one of my forums, and it's really no myth at all...their support is the WORST! Days and weeks between responses is NOT acceptable!

[ManagerJosh]

Hi there:

Depends on what your definition of stable is. If by stable meaning it won't crash, so far I don't know of any instances where vBulletin has crashed. It's definitely one of the most stable boards out there, and there's quite a few vBulletins with 1,000,000+ threads and 5,000,000+ posts. (check out http://forums.offtopic.com/ ). vBulletin is not resource intensive and optimized to handle high loads, but like any other forum solution, is limited to your server configuration.

I'm not sure if there's going to be any problems. Probably the worst you'll experience is a timeout and just have to refresh the page. Anything could happen; just be sure to backup your database and you should be fine :)

Historically, vBulletin has always increased traffic to forums, sometimes doubling them in size within months of launching/converting. I've seen a lot of webmasters awing at the size of the community since moving to vBulletin.

Hopefully I've been of some help :)

[Floris]

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in the vBulletin forum software and for contacting vBulletin sales. I am very happy to hear you think your community is mature enough to switch to vBulletin.

I currently run a phpBB forum with close to 18,000 members and 700,000+ posts total. I 'm sick of waiting for new phpBB features, and it seems to be always have problems lately.
Most features on the roadmap for phpBB appear to be default features for quite a while in the currently vBulletin version 3. Hopefully we can offer you what you're looking for. You can import from phpBB to vBulletin using our free vBulletin impex software; Which comes with a free online manual and free professional support.

1) Is vB a lot more stable than phpBB? Everyone seems to say that vB is definitely a better solution for large forums like mine. Is that true?Yes, I believe it is. If you go to a random site like big-boards.com and click on statistics you will notice that the very bigger majority of the big forums appear to run vBulletin. Here is also a thread on our site with forums running 1 million and up to nearly 40 million posts. http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47430

2) My database is currently about 1.4 gigs, will that be a problem for me when converting to vB? I really can't lose ANY posts or members.Nope, we've converted bigger databases. It is always smart to make a backup prior to doing this kind of serious work, that way you can always revert to your latest working version and try again. If you run into any bugs our impex developer can provide support to fix it.

3) I've read in a few threads that vB can actually increase traffic to your forum...is that really true? And if so, how and why does it do that? That's really a great selling point if true.Yes, the features we offer are provoking guests to register and participate in conversations. And the ease of use of the forum and quick registration form also helps. Returning members will notice that posting is going very quick and that browsing the forum and using its features is not boring. We also have our source code optimized for search engines so it is easier to crawl and index your site for sites like google and yahoo, etc. We also have a easy to read and print archive/ which renders real time.

I knwo I have more questions, but that's all I can think of right now. Maybe I'll have some more soon....thanks in advance for any help!

We're looking forward to your purchase and let us know if you require more information.

By the way, the support here seems GREAT. I've tried IPB on one of my forums, and it's really no myth at all...their support is the WORST! Days and weeks between responses is NOT acceptable!Thank you for the kind feedback. Hopefully we can offer you better support.

All the best,

[Martin]

Hopefully we can offer you better support.


Hopefully??? Thanks for the vote of confidence;)

[shibby2]

Well I went ahead and purchased an owned license, thanks to everyone for the help!

As I look around the web more and more for skins, Im realizing there really isnt as many out there as I thought there was. :( Theres a couple nice designs out there, but still nothing that fits into the style I need for more site. :(

I dont mind paying for skins, but it seems like not too many people make them. I really wish I knew how to design my own.

Besides that, it seems like a great product with great features. Cant wait to try it out some more. :)

Thanks!

[ManagerJosh]

You'll get the hang of designing a very nice vBulletin skin. Don't worry about it; it takes a bit of time to get use to, but you'll get there :D

[gamestar]

Hey, maybe you can find what your want here (paid skins):
www.vbstyles.com (http://www.vbstyles.com)
www.vbskins.com (http://www.vbskins.com)
www.vb-skins.com (http://www.vb-skins.com)
www.vbdesigns.de (http://www.vbdesigns.de)

And at the official hacking & mod forum of vb (www.vbulletin.org) (http://www.vbulletin.org%29),
You can find free templates here (for 3.0.x):
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=135

and also:
http://forum.yaxay.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18

[taffy056]

Hi,

There also styles for vBulletin 3.50 at vbulletin.org

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=161


taffy

[southernlady]

shibby2, designing your own isn't as hard as it appears...I know cause I've done it. And I couldn't do a phpbb skin if my life depended on it! Liz

[shibby2]

Thanks everyone! But yea, I've seen all of those sites and skins. :( I dont know what it is, but everything seems to be way too weird with the colors, or very 'techy' with outrageous category tables and such. I'm very old-fashioned when it comes to forums I guess...I like them to be very square-ish, nice clean graphics....nothing outrageous. But the colors must match the rest of my site very well.

Thanks southernlady, maybe it shouldnt be too hard them for me, because I was pretty good at skinning phpBB forums.

If anyone has any more links to skins, feel free to post them! :)