What I have found so far. vBulletin is a far inferior product. There is just so much wrong with it compared to IPB I don’t know where to start.

First lets look at the style editor and the vbulletin stylevars. The vbulletin style editor is old, very old in fact. When you edit a template the complete page refreshes and you are brought back to the template editor main page. If you make a mistake and the site doesn’t render correctly you have to find your spot to correct the problem. Not any easy task.

Now lets look at IPB template editor. You want to change the width of the site you open the main css file in the editor. Find the place to change, change it and commit the change. Notice how you get an ajax refresh and you stayed on the exact area of the edit. So when you check the site in a new windows if it doesn’t look right you can easily and quickly undo the edit.

Win for IPB.

Now lets look at SEO. Both vbulletin and IPB have SE friendly url’s. The vbulletin url’s take more to get working correctly and do not 301 same content. IPB url’s 301 exact content so you won’t be penalized for duplicate content. Unless you use vbseo vbulletin can not compare with IPB out of the box as far as SEO goes.

Without vbseo win for IPB.
With vbseo win for vBulletin.

There are other things that make IPB hands down the winner over vbulletin and it would take me a long time to point them out. Let me just say that I gave vbulletin another chance and after 2 years of development for the 4.0 branch it is still going backwards. In the same time IPB has set the bar extremely high by improving at every turn.

Now I have to convert the new site to IPB and this is the last time I will speak on vbulletin unless they absolutely blow my socks off in the future which is highly unlikely.

xenForo would not run. 500 errors for everything I did. I tried to upgrade it to xenForo RC 1 and while the installer recognized the xenForo database it didn’t give an option to upgrade. I could only do a clean install.

Since this was my personal playground I just blew it all up and started fresh. The first install didn’t work. It wouldn’t even start and there were no errors in the php log or the app pool logs. I turned on tracing for the site and while it told me the reason was a 500 error in the installer script it didn’t tell me which function. I could have tweaked the tracer config a bit to give me more info, but, since this was a test bed I shutoff tracing, download a new zip from xenForo and proceeded with the install.

The original zip I had must have been corrupt becuase the second attempt at the install worked without a hitch. I did try another upgrade on the original database and it was still a no go.

I imagine the problem is because of the differences in the 2 servers config. The old server was Windows 2003 32bit with 32bit mysql. The new server is Windows 2008R2 running 64bit php and mysql. Could be xenForo didn’t like the difference.

Anyway the install worked and my xenForo test bed is now open to all at http://test.spamforo.com.

I have posted a few threads of things I like and dislike about xenForo on the site including a detailed review. So not to repeat myself here just head over to the xenForo test site.

I am in the process of buying a database from a site that closed a couple months ago. It is a vbulletin 3.8.6 database. I am leaning towards using vbulletin 4.1.1 for this site. I haven’t touched vbulletin in almost 6 months. The reason I am considering vbulletin on this site is to see how far the software has come. Judging by the comments and threads about 4.1.1 on the vbulletin forums it seems as if it is going in the right direction. Yes there are some negative replies, but, if you really look at those comments you’ll see it’s from the same group of disgruntled people. The users that left for another forum product that for whatever reason still hang out at vbulletin to make everyone uncomfortable.

I am willing to give anyone a second chance and this is vbulletins second chance. I have 3 unused licenses that I never sold with the rest I had so nothing is lost if it turns out that vbulletin isn’t really getting any better. If vbulletin 4 doesn’t work out I can convert to IPB down the road.

Even though I will be using it on a new site it doesn’t mean I will ever spend any more money on more licenses. That will never happen. If I buy any forum licenses for future projects you can be sure the money will be spent for IPB and not vbulletin.

Internet Brands. This is your second and final chance. You’ll never see any more of my money, but, you could get good PR from me, Lord knows you need it, if you keep me interested and keep vbulletin up the standards it used to follow.

The first community to join the network is Illinois Forum. It is a community for people that live in Illinois, people planning to move to Illinois or people that used to live in Illinois to communicate and share ideas. Even if you don’t live in Illinois you’re still welcome at Illinois Forum. We are a friendly bunch.

The second community I added to the network is the Scribble Board. Scribble Board is a place to post your thoughts or ideas to share with others. No matter what the topic you’re welcome to post. It is easy to navigate and post if you’re in a hurry to get your thoughts out. No multiple forums to confuse you. You’ll never post in the wrong forum again. So why not visit Scribble Board and scribble your thoughts today?

vBulletins feature list is impressive for both the admin and the end users.
Some of the features include:

• Fast and efficient database back end
• Template driven interface
• Powerful search engine
• Multi language support
• User profiles
• Admin control panel that is second to none
• Unlimited forums and posts

For a list of all the features vBulletin has to offer check out vBulletins feature page.

From the standpoint of a forum admin there is no better control panel. There is an extensive user management system that alows an admin the freedom to create an unlimited amount of user groups with different permissions for each group. There is even an option to set permissions per user if you choose. If you have problem users there are extensive banning options. You can outright ban a person from accessing the site or you can add them to “Tachy goes to Coventry” a neat little place that hides their posts from other members yet makes the user think he is involved in the community.

Admins also have the freedom to customize the look and fell of the site with the built in style editor. Every aspect of the site can be changed. The only limitation is the imagination of the admin. If you don’t have the time to create your own style there is a wide selection or free premade styles. If you want a unique style there are a number of good vbulletin skin developers and most of them offer premade skins for a small price. Adding a premade style is as easy as can be. Upload the images to the forum directory and then head into the admin control panel and in the left pane under the style manager there is a link to download/upload styles. Import the style xml and you have a new look to your site.
With the newest version of vBulletin there is a plugin system. This system makes it very easy to incorporate more features into the system. With the older versions you had to modify the code in the php files. This is no longer true. All you have to do is import the plugins xml file. This system makes upgrading to new versions very easy.

While vBulletin is the best new forum admins that install vbulletin for the first time can become a bit overwhelmed. The first time you enter the admin control panel can be confusing to many. The best thing to do is to familiarize yourself with each feature. There is a help feature for each area. Use the links to get to know the software. Read all the documentation provided at the vBulletin website. If you can’t find an answer ask at the vBulletin support forums. The support people are very helpful and responsive to their customers.

If you want start a community or already have a community running different software, vBullein does have an import system so you can convert from many forum packages, and find your current package is lacking then vBulletin should be your choice.