Innovation question

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  • AlexanderT
    Senior Member
    • Mar 2003
    • 992

    Innovation question

    vBulletin 5 Connect is claimed to be the "world's leading community software", "the leader in online community software", with the "most advanced and comprehensive feature set" and "unparalleled capabilities for building community websites."

    Off the top of my head I could think of IPB, Drupal, and ExpressionEngine as capable alternatives with a long track record for building online communities. So my question is: Where is the innovation in vBulletin 5 and what makes it better than the rest of the pack?
  • soniceffect
    Senior Member
    • Feb 2005
    • 938
    • 4.2.X

    #2
    First of all drupal and expression engine are both content management systems, not community software so that would completely rule them out of that sentence.

    I will answer honestly however on IPB having used it and switched. When vbulletin 4 came out I was one of the unhappy users who switched away. One of the things I very quickly began to realise is that I was missing the featureset that is in vbulletin. You can set things up in a much more granular fashion than you can do on IPB. There are more settings for forums, members, and the overall system in general than there is on IPB and its only once you move to it that you realise how much you use them. And I now use vbulletin again.

    Innovation wise, I would say the site builder and the general way you put together pages on vb5 is innovative. There is certainly no other community software that I am aware of that you can build in this fashion. And considering that they have rewritten a hell of a lot of the base code personally I think thats pretty good.

    Obviously just a personal opinion, however there it is
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    • AlexanderT
      Senior Member
      • Mar 2003
      • 992

      #3
      I guess it comes down to the definition of "community software", since it's a term predominantly used for vB 5 Connect.

      What is "community software"?

      From what I see, IB decided to expand the core of vBulletin as being a pure forum software. First they added a CMS for articles (vB 4). Now they're adding modules for the further addition of content.

      How does that exactly differ from "content management systems"?

      Drupal for example. From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

      The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features common to content management systems. These include user account registration and maintenance, menu management, RSS feeds, page layout customization, and system administration. The Drupal core installation can be used as a brochureware website, a single- or multi-user blog, an Internet forum, or a community website providing for user-generated content.
      You think Drupal is not a community software? Take a look:





      Really, Drupal gives you excellent opportunities for creating a community site and it's often used for that purpose. IB has decided to spin vB around by making it a "community software" tool rather than a forum with a CMS attached to it. Clearly they must have known about Drupal and other alternatives. I'd like know what makes vB 5 Connect the leader.

      Comment

      • soniceffect
        Senior Member
        • Feb 2005
        • 938
        • 4.2.X

        #4
        Originally posted by AlexanderT
        I guess it comes down to the definition of "community software", since it's a term predominantly used for vB 5 Connect.

        What is "community software"?

        From what I see, IB decided to expand the core of vBulletin as being a pure forum software. First they added a CMS for articles (vB 4). Now they're adding modules for the further addition of content.

        How does that exactly differ from "content management systems"?

        Drupal for example. From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):



        You think Drupal is not a community software? Take a look:





        Really, Drupal gives you excellent opportunities for creating a community site and it's often used for that purpose. IB has decided to spin vB around by making it a "community software" tool rather than a forum with a CMS attached to it. Clearly they must have known about Drupal and other alternatives. I'd like know what makes vB 5 Connect the leader.
        I would say that any CMS can be used to create community software, however is not community software itself.

        IMO vbulletin, xenforo, IPB, PHPbb, telligent and the likes are community software, wordpress is blogging software, whereas drupal, joomla, etc are content management systems from which you could create either.
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        Comment

        • AlexanderT
          Senior Member
          • Mar 2003
          • 992

          #5
          So in other words, vB 5 Connect is a stripped-down content-management-restricted-to-community-software? And that makes it innovative, how?

          Comment

          • Reeve of Shinra
            Senior Member
            • Sep 2001
            • 4325
            • 4.0.0

            #6
            The better question to ask is how vBulletin 5 Connect is all of these yet lacks fundamental features available in vb4, let alone competitors like IPB.

            "world's leading community software",
            "the leader in online community software"
            "most advanced and comprehensive feature set"
            "unparalleled capabilities for building community websites."
            Plan, Do, Check, Act!

            Comment

            • Wayne Luke
              vBulletin Technical Support Lead
              • Aug 2000
              • 73976

              #7
              You would have to ask the marketers. All of that is marketing speak... I could ask why people keep asking the same repeated questions but simply twisting a few words around.

              As far as our direct competitors, the Site Builder concept is fairly innovative. You haven't been able to play with that. The software is not missing fundamental features. No one has been able to point out a fundamental feature that is missing yet. Calendar, Member's List, Who's Online, Thread Rating (features people keep claiming as missing critical features) are secondary features at best. On some sites these may be critical but they are not fundamental features of the software. Many will be returning as we go through our beta process and the phased release.
              Translations provided by Google.

              Wayne Luke
              The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
              vBulletin 5 API

              Comment

              • Reeve of Shinra
                Senior Member
                • Sep 2001
                • 4325
                • 4.0.0

                #8
                The site builder is an interesting idea, so I will give credit there.
                Plan, Do, Check, Act!

                Comment

                • soniceffect
                  Senior Member
                  • Feb 2005
                  • 938
                  • 4.2.X

                  #9
                  Originally posted by AlexanderT
                  So in other words, vB 5 Connect is a stripped-down content-management-restricted-to-community-software? And that makes it innovative, how?
                  No, yet again its community software with content management functionality. Not sure how many times I can say that.

                  How is it innovative? Please show me another community based product where you can build pages in any way like site builder.

                  It is clear to me you dont like it. If you dont like it, please dont post to ask others to answer your question just so that you can disagree with them. There are loads of posts like this already, they are completely unconstructive. If you have suggestions on how to improve it, great do so.

                  I have my own issues with vb5 at the moment, as I expect has everyone else. Im just not ready to completely write off a whole peice of software on a single public beta, without any chance for things to change in it, on the first first public preview of a mammoth change in the software, and just to stick with the mob crowd that like to gather. I try to give my honest opinion and answer posts.

                  You asked a question, I gave an answer. Im not gonna bounce backwards and forwards answering questions that will result only in another question. Its pointless.
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                  Comment

                  • Mondy
                    Senior Member
                    • Apr 2008
                    • 199
                    • 3.6.x

                    #10
                    Originally posted by soniceffect
                    It is clear to me you dont like it. If you dont like it, please dont post to ask others to answer your question just so that you can disagree with them. There are loads of posts like this already, they are completely unconstructive. If you have suggestions on how to improve it, great do so.
                    Hear hear & Amen.

                    Nicely put Sonic.

                    Nuf said.
                    http://gblcg.com - The Business of Your Future - Strategy Redefined.

                    Comment

                    • Andy
                      Senior Member
                      • Jan 2002
                      • 5886
                      • 4.1.x

                      #11
                      Novel uses vB4 for their forum software.

                      The Symantec forum looks extremely basic and can barley be called a forum software.

                      Comment

                      • soniceffect
                        Senior Member
                        • Feb 2005
                        • 938
                        • 4.2.X

                        #12
                        Originally posted by Andy
                        Novel uses vB4 for their forum software.

                        The Symantec forum looks extremely basic and can barley be called a forum software.
                        mashups is a very basic forum too. So Novel is the only decent one out of those three and its running vbulletin?
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                        Comment

                        • rudedog1968
                          Senior Member
                          • Feb 2004
                          • 719
                          • 3.8.x

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Wayne Luke
                          You would have to ask the marketers. All of that is marketing speak... I could ask why people keep asking the same repeated questions but simply twisting a few words around.
                          If the Marketing and product managers, including Lawrence would actually come in here and answer these questions we would not have to keep asking them. As the other thread states most of us praise the "support staff" trying to answer and support the forums with non technical questions regarding the vB5 demo.

                          If you really think about it and to be brutally honest. You should not be answering these questions, marketing, product managers and Lawrence should have been in here, zero hour, calming the masses, putting out the fires and answer questions. Unless it's a technical questions regarding the beta, those other guys should be/have been in here non stop answering all these questions. Then again, maybe support should only be helping customers with released products and all the unreleased product questions should be answered by them.
                          Not so Rude, Rudedog FPSadmin.com | twitter | Microsoft MVP 2009-2014 - Games for Windows

                          Comment

                          • Wayne Luke
                            vBulletin Technical Support Lead
                            • Aug 2000
                            • 73976

                            #14
                            Realistically, it is our job to support the product. And you might be right, I should leave these but history tells me that just lets things get out of control. The other side of our job is moderating this site and a couple others. So this means we have to answer the questions. I do point out specific threads to management from time to time and let them answer if need be though.

                            The method of question asking can simply seem hostile at times and people won't wade into hostile territories. Support staff are required to do so though as part of the moderation duties. And the staff do feel attacked a lot on this site.
                            Translations provided by Google.

                            Wayne Luke
                            The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
                            vBulletin 5 API

                            Comment

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