Questions Prior to purchasing vBulletin

[Kentmiller]

Dear VBulletin forum members,


I'm considering purchasing the latest version of Vbulletin, but I have a quite a few questions before buying it. Thanks you so much in advance for your replies.
I've read that Vbulletin offers a Language Manager to easily translate the forum in any language, just so that I don't misunderstand it, since my forum would be completely in Swedish. Would I be able to translate the whole forum to Swedish with this functionality, without tampering directly with the raw script code; for example translating the "post" button to Swedish?
And when a new update is released for the forum, do you know if I had to translate the whole forum again, if I used the update?
Is it possible to use Google Analytics with the Forum to track the traffic?
When designing I use Macromedia Dreamweaver, could I change the appearance of the forum through Dreamweaver?
It's very important that the posts made by users could be indexed by Google, and that actual webpages would be created for each post, does anybody know if this would be possible?
Also, archives of the posts should be able to be indexed, would this be possible?
Does posts ever disappear, or could old posts exist forever in the archives if I wanted to?
What are the requirements for my webhosting to be able to use the Vbulletin script?
Is it a all included package, just install and use, or would I have to download and install another program or script on my server for the Forum to work?
Could I give users of the forum, a special title, for example automatically having settings adjusted to, that when people first register they have the title newbie and then this automatically changes after maybe 20 posts to experienced user, or whatever I make settings for?
Could users reply to posts by their email?
I read that Vbulletin could have both moderators and supermoderators, what's Supermoderators?
Does the package have a wordfilter, so I could censor inappropriate words?

I know this is a heavy bunch of questions :), but I like to educate myself thoroughly whenever buying something as important as this. Once again, I thank you all in advance for your replies.

Sincerely,
Kent Miller

[feldon23]

I've read that Vbulletin offers a Language Manager to easily translate the forum in any language, just so that I don't misunderstand it, since my forum would be completely in Swedish. Would I be able to translate the whole forum to Swedish with this functionality, without tampering directly with the raw script code; for example translating the "post" button to Swedish?
The purpose of the language system is to change the interface to another language. All of the error messages and tags throughout the software can be displayed in different languages for different users.

This does NOT translate people's posts, as there is no software on Earth that does even a passable job at translating people's words between languages. If people really need to do this, I suppose you can provide a Babelfish link. http://babel.altavista.com/

And when a new update is released for the forum, do you know if I had to translate the whole forum again, if I used the update?
If you upgrade the forum software, and new "phrases" are added by the new version, they will be in English until you provide a Swedish translation for them. Language, templates, styles, etc. are not lost when you upgrade the software.

Is it possible to use Google Analytics with the Forum to track the traffic?
You can easily add the Google Analytics code to the header of your forum.

When designing I use Macromedia Dreamweaver, could I change the appearance of the forum through Dreamweaver?
You cannot use Macromedia Dreamweaver to modify the appearance of the forum. vBulletin uses a combination of a CSS control panel and ~160 HTML templates or snippets which are glued together in different combinations on different pages. You will need to use the built-in styles and templates manager with CSS color control panel.

It's very important that the posts made by users could be indexed by Google, and that actual webpages would be created for each post, does anybody know if this would be possible?
Your forum, posts, etc. will be indexed by Google once Google finds your site and provided you allow Guests to read the forum. Google has no trouble reading and indexing the stock vBulletin software. However some people insist on "search engine optimization" with paid add-ons like vBSEO which makes your website appear as an HTML site instead of the PHP application that it is. Note that vbSEO is not supported software and, if you have trouble with your forum, the first thing you will be asked to do is switch off vBSEO.

Also, archives of the posts should be able to be indexed, would this be possible?
vBulletin doesn't really have an Archive per-se, the way one would think. It has a printable version of each thread, which some of the more primitive search engines are better able to index. But Google has no problem indexing the "full" forum pages.

Does posts ever disappear, or could old posts exist forever in the archives if I wanted to?
vBulletin does not have an Archive of old posts. You can move posts to other forums. And it's easy to set certain forums to filter posts from the last 2 months, 3 months, 1 year, etc. But the other posts aren't gone, just hidden.

What are the requirements for my webhosting to be able to use the Vbulletin script?
These are spelled out in the FAQ at vBulletin.com. It's a specific version of Apache, PHP and MySQL software. Any web host that you consider should be quickly looked up at WebHostingTalk.com first to see if they are problematic. It is impossible to know a good webhost by looking at their website.

Is it a all included package, just install and use, or would I have to download and install another program or script on my server for the Forum to work?
vBulletin is a group of PHP scripts and support files which you upload. You must also create a MySQL database and point vBulletin to it (A simple task for most). You upload the ~400 or so files, edit a config file, and visit your forum with your web browser.


Could I give users of the forum, a special title, for example automatically having settings adjusted to, that when people first register they have the title newbie and then this automatically changes after maybe 20 posts to experienced user, or whatever I make settings for?
Ranks and User Titles are easy in vBulletin.

Could users reply to posts by their email?
I would love to see this feature, but alas it is not built into vBulletin.

I read that Vbulletin could have both moderators and supermoderators, what's Supermoderators?
A super moderator is simply a moderator of ALL the forums and subforums on your site. It saves you time from having to set a person as a moderator of each and every forum on your site. Super moderators can do a few more things than moderators because of this global access.

Does the package have a wordfilter, so I could censor inappropriate words?
You can set certain words to be starred out like ****. You can also use word replacements to replace a word with something else.

[Reeve of Shinra]

When designing I use Macromedia Dreamweaver, could I change the appearance of the forum through Dreamweaver?

In addition to what Feldon said, I copy / paste the thml from the template into my editor. You could copy / paste this into dreamweaver but code view isn't quite the same.

[Kentmiller]

Hi again,

feldon23, first I want to thank you for the lengthy reply to my questions, I appreciate it, and also thanks to Reeve of Shinra for your reply.

With the Question concerning the Language manager, I didn't mean if the whole forum and all of the posts could be translated, which would be quite an immensely task :)
But just if all of the interface could be changed to Swedish in this case. feldon23, you answered that question perfectly for me.

I've another inquiry concerning hosting. Currently I have a hosting with Networksolutions with a Pro Hosting package, where I'm allowed 10 Mysql accounts and with 600 MB limit.
Although this would suffice at the very startup of my forum, I could run out of space (and I like to have everything fixed at the beginning so I won't have to make large changes further on). Do you know of (or if there even exists) a hosting provider with a shared (not dedicated, since that would probably incur over $200/monthly) hosting account with over 600 MB Limit and ideal for hosting my vBulletin discussion forum?
Or if there would exist a competetive priced dedicated hosting for about $600 per year?

I did post this inquiry also in another category as a separate thread, and if you would prefer to answer there, it's here;
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1301609#post1301609

Once again, I'm most grateful for all help recieved and thanks again for your former replies,
Sincerely,
Kent Miller

[feldon23]

Dedicated hosting is $99+ a month. You would typically get a 60GB hard drive in that instance.

$600 per year ($50/mo) puts you squarely in the Virtual Private Servers (VPS) market. This market has changed a lot in the last 3 years since I looked at them.

[Kentmiller]

feldon23, thanks again for your reply.

I found that Godaddy offers dedicated hosting for $67.99 per month, with their Economy Plan. Which would give me 120 GB disk and 500 GB Bandwidth.
https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/dedicated.asp?ci=722&display=dedicated

Would this be a good host for a vBulletin forum, and I suppose with this disk space I wouldn't need to upgrade anywhere in the near future, to another host for my forum due to too many members and posts?

Although, since I already have a hosting with Networksolutions with 600 mb Mysql, I'm thinking of starting with that and upon need, transferring to Godaddy. Is it troublesome moving a forum to another hosting?

I understand I might be kind of an annoyance with all my questions, and I apologize for this, I just find it so important that everything turns out right with my forum.
Once again, thanks for all your replies.
Sincerely,
Kent Miller