Community thinking about transferring => Questions

[Elliot Hesp]

Hello!

I'm a member from an EU online gaming community. We have around 114000 posts 8.5K topics and 2K members.

Our current forum is based on PHPBB3, and we don't really like it and have recently been looking at other possibilities. We originally wanted a "blog" area, where people could post reviews, whilst all being linked to the forum accounts. We decided to install WordPress with PHPBB3, however this eventually proved too difficult as too many problems arose.

So now we are looking at vBulletin, however we have a few questions:

> Is it simple and easy to integrate all of the posts and users to vBulletin? Also would this cost?
> As you advertise a CMS tool, although we can see what the front end to the viewers looks like, is there anyway we can view the back-end (for adding, editing blog posts/reviews w/e).
> As all of our community members use Steam, are there any tools that might be of use? We currently have a Steam avatar mod for a users profile.
> In terms of theming/skinning the website, what are the best places to look? We like the look of these types: http://www.shape5.com/demo/index.php?hexicon_gamer We'd also be willing to pay for one.
> We have a mumble (VOIP) server, which links to the forum, so users can log in with their forum name and password. As I don't think this is available, if we did switch, how much would it cost (if possible) for someone to build such a tool?

I'm sure I will think of some more, but that'll do for now

Thanks

[Trevor Hannant]

> Is it simple and easy to integrate all of the posts and users to vBulletin? Also would this cost?

Yes, our Impex tool steps through the import process and will move your users, forums, posts and threads (with attachments) to vBulletin

> As you advertise a CMS tool, although we can see what the front end to the viewers looks like, is there anyway we can view the back-end (for adding, editing blog posts/reviews w/e).

We have a live demo of vBulletin 4 Publishing Suite, including full access to the admin control panel. You can set one up for your own use from this page (The demo is active for 24 hours. If you feel you need more time, send an email to [email protected] with the DemoID and ask for an extension.):

https://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php

> As all of our community members use Steam, are there any tools that might be of use? We currently have a Steam avatar mod for a users profile.

You can search on our customisation site, www.vbulletin.org, for Steam related modifications. We have other sites that have some installed so I'm sure one will exist

> In terms of theming/skinning the website, what are the best places to look? We like the look of these types: http://www.shape5.com/demo/index.php?hexicon_gamer We'd also be willing to pay for one.

There are many free and premium sites on the web. A quick search for "vbulletin 4 styles" will throw up a list for you (sorry, we can't recommend anyone officially)

> We have a mumble (VOIP) server, which links to the forum, so users can log in with their forum name and password. As I don't think this is available, if we did switch, how much would it cost (if possible) for someone to build such a tool?
Best place to ask would be on www.vbulletin.org also. Once you have a license, you can post this sort of request in the 'Request For Paid Services' forum there.