Starting a new site, Looking at all options.

[B.Goswick]

Hello,

I am a former vBulletin leaser however my old email address expired so I have to start a new account, I apologize for that. Its been almost eight years since I last ran a web site, life happened and then other things happened, now I have the time and even my doctor said it would help to get back into something that I once enjoyed, I'm basically an agoraphobic shut in so my outlet in the world is the internet (really long story)

However...

It seems things have changed in the last few years and vBulletin has come a long way from when I last ran it during the 2.x.x days, and gotten a bit more expensive on the wallet but you do get what you pay for. I have been doing some research the last couple of weeks and I do need to make a decision or I will just keep putting it off.

Now forgive me if I'm bringing up other forums software but I'm looking to explore my options so far I've come down to XenForo & vBulletin, price is my main concern along with integrating the forum into wordpress, twitter, facebook, every social networking site that I can does vBulletin do this? Also there was a plugin that allowed for NNTP gateway this is not a priority but it would be something I would like to implement on my site I've seen forums with it in the past, is this still possible? I know there are a ton of modifications but remember its been awhile so my coding skills are a bit rusty and I don't know how the new versions work.

Also is still allowed to run a "test" copy and an active copy on the domain? This was allowed in the past as long as the "test" copy was not a functioning copy for others to register this allowed owners to test plug-ins, mods, and themes.

I'm really interested in getting the site up today if possible, the forum is really the last part and if you can from my URL MyBB crashed again and it took a lot of work to get it running several time, for some reason spambots register and flood it with posts till it crashes and I cannot fix it.

I'm sorry if these questions were posted somewhere else, I am on some strong medications and my thought process at 5:20am is a little sluggish until I adjust to them.

[BirdOPrey5]

Hello,

Yes a test install is still allowed as long as it is password protected from the general public.

I know there used to be NNTP gateway for older versions of VB including (3.5 version here) - if you read the thread some people seem to have it working on 4.x with small edits. Like in the 2.x days we do not provide official support for 3rd party modifications.

Built in, vBulletin 4.x only offers Facebook integration- including both the Like button and the ability to post replies to the profile of the person leaving the comment. Also "Facebook Connect" allows users to register via Facebook instead of the usual vBulletin forum.

There is no Twitter or other social media integration by default in VB 4.x. There are free mods on www.vbulletin.org that add Twitter Tweet button and other social media sharing options.

The price of VB did go up but in the VB 2.x days you had to renew each year or you'd lose access to updates. Now when you purchase a version you get full access to that version (all of 4.x) indefinitely.