Grandious Community Site... need some advice

[petergar]

(NOTE: I asked the same basic questions below on vbadvanced.com - I made the incorrect assumption that it was the same company... duh.)

GOOD: I have run a large forum for a non-profit organization since 1997 when it was using the Frontpage forum tool (ahh the good old days). I've been running UBBThreads for 9 years and it's fine. The forum has over 600,000 posts, 80 forums, 25,000 registered users and over 200 posts a day.

BAD: The club has a specific mission that prevents me from opening up the forum to a more broad range of similar hobbyists.

OPPORTUNITY: I have the opportunity to start a commercial community site to the same audience. I want to create a more robust community. ie. user contributed lists of club, club events, forums, photos, blogs, articles, etc.

I don't want to get into a massive development cycle. (I can spell PHP, but just barely). I'm highly impressed by tools like VBulletin, plus its 3rd party add-on's including Photopost, VB VBadvanced, etc. They appear to be the shortest path of getting the site up and running without spending a lot of money or time.

1. Will i get a single login/password for all area's of the site? Does it/should it support openid.org?

2. What about tools like Joomla, Drupal or VBAdvanced? Any reason to consider one over the other?

3. I need to build a database of regional clubs that is searchable - how?

4. I need an advanced user-submitted Events calendar. Is the one in VB up to the task? (Example: There are 1000s of regional events, most people only want to see events close to them)

5. I want the site SEO friendly. Are tools like http://www.crawlability.com/vbseo/ needed?

6. Can this be hosting ok on a service like HostGator or will I need something dedicated?

7. What are the technical issues of migrating from ubbthreads (7.x) to VB?

8. What are the ethical issues of moving usernames/passwords from UBB to VB and a new domain? (The non-profit is ok with the move)

9. How good are the blog tools on VB and can they be used instead of providing "hosting" to regional webmasters?

10. Advertising will be used to generate revenue. (CJ, Adsense, etc.) Are their management tools within the VB environment or will I need to use a 3rd party product? Which one?

That's probably more questions that I should ask... but... there ya go!

Look forward to you response(s).

Peter

P.S. 11. I'll need outside help on this... installation, configuration, etc. Someone with extensive experience. Does Jelsoft do that type of thing or do I need to find a 3rd party? (Yes, I'm prepared to pay)

[Chazel]

(NOTE: I asked the same basic questions below on vbadvanced.com - I made the incorrect assumption that it was the same company... duh.)

GOOD: I have run a large forum for a non-profit organization since 1997 when it was using the Frontpage forum tool (ahh the good old days). I've been running UBBThreads for 9 years and it's fine. The forum has over 600,000 posts, 80 forums, 25,000 registered users and over 200 posts a day.

BAD: The club has a specific mission that prevents me from opening up the forum to a more broad range of similar hobbyists.

OPPORTUNITY: I have the opportunity to start a commercial community site to the same audience. I want to create a more robust community. ie. user contributed lists of club, club events, forums, photos, blogs, articles, etc.

I don't want to get into a massive development cycle. (I can spell PHP, but just barely). I'm highly impressed by tools like VBulletin, plus its 3rd party add-on's including Photopost, VB VBadvanced, etc. They appear to be the shortest path of getting the site up and running without spending a lot of money or time.

1. Will i get a single login/password for all area's of the site? Does it/should it support openid.org?

2. What about tools like Joomla, Drupal or VBAdvanced? Any reason to consider one over the other?

3. I need to build a database of regional clubs that is searchable - how?

4. I need an advanced user-submitted Events calendar. Is the one in VB up to the task? (Example: There are 1000s of regional events, most people only want to see events close to them)

5. I want the site SEO friendly. Are tools like http://www.crawlability.com/vbseo/ needed?

6. Can this be hosting ok on a service like HostGator or will I need something dedicated?

7. What are the technical issues of migrating from ubbthreads (7.x) to VB?

8. What are the ethical issues of moving usernames/passwords from UBB to VB and a new domain? (The non-profit is ok with the move)

9. How good are the blog tools on VB and can they be used instead of providing "hosting" to regional webmasters?

10. Advertising will be used to generate revenue. (CJ, Adsense, etc.) Are their management tools within the VB environment or will I need to use a 3rd party product? Which one?

That's probably more questions that I should ask... but... there ya go!

Look forward to you response(s).

Peter

P.S. 11. I'll need outside help on this... installation, configuration, etc. Someone with extensive experience. Does Jelsoft do that type of thing or do I need to find a 3rd party? (Yes, I'm prepared to pay)

1) Yes, the login will be the same throughout your forum.

No, OpenID is not supported.

2) It's personal choice, really. Look around, gather opinions, and decide for yourself which one best suits your needs. They're all good products.

3) I'm not sure what you're asking...

4) Yes, vBulletin is capable of this.

5) They're not needed, in fact, most people do not use them. You can, however, choose to add it if you feel it necessary. Once again, gather opinions; it's a highly debated topic whether it is in fact necessary.

6) Yes, shared hosting from a company like HostGator will do just fine.

7) As far as I know, the imports are pretty smooth. I'm not sure, but some imports may require your users to reset their passwords, this may or may not be the case.

8) It's ethical as far as I'm concerned...

9) The vBulletin blog is very nice, but I'm not sure how to respond to your comparison question.

10) There are built in templates that support HTML ads. They're easy to configure. While not necessary, there's an add-on at vBulletin.org (vB Ad Management 4) which allows user group settings, "Remove this Ad" links, etc. Look into both and decide what you need.

11) Jelsoft offers this service, but it's $135 (I believe). You can hire a third party, but it's against the rules to solicit paid services on this forum, so look around.