Is vBulletin really needed?

Either or. IPB or vB are great pieces of software.

Originally Posted by sm0ke Either or. IPB or vB are great pieces of software.

I agree.

I prefer vB forums if it really comes to it. But there is no difference to me. I don't see the point in not joing a forum if it isn't vB. Some people do, however. :/

The thing is, I pay for a forum script. As long as I get the best forum available I am happy. At the moment with all this new stuff, vBulletin seems to be just covering itself in unneeded crap.

Obviously, I can't base my opinions on anything solid except for posting on the forums. Sadly, I don't have the money to pay for a licence just so I can run a forum on my computer to play around with it for a year. I love running forums, but I hate paying for them.

Something I had my eye on for a while was MyBB, as well as SMF.

I ran phpbb for months on two of my sites. Once the sites grew It became evident that phpBB was outgrown. Outgrown, what I mean by outgrown is that it lacked the features people where used to on other major forums. Usercp, ajax (edit, reply, and post) and overall it felt like it was lacking. I was originally going to wait for phpBB3, but it has been annouced two years ago and still is not officially out! Get VB and don't look back, I didn't!

Originally Posted by Ferrarislave I ran phpbb for months on two of my sites. Once the sites grew It became evident that phpBB was outgrown. Outgrown, what I mean by outgrown is that it lacked the features people where used to on other major forums. Usercp, ajax (edit, reply, and post) and overall it felt like it was lacking. I was originally going to wait for phpBB3, but it has been annouced two years ago and still is not officially out! Get VB and don't look back, I didn't!

AJAX is common on a lot of forums now.

phpBB still lacks Ajax. I havent used anything else besides phpbb and vb. I never was really attracted to IPB. It seems bland to me, kind of a subpar vb.

I mainly look for a really nice design when I go to a forum. It doesn't have to be vB or IPB or anything in that case. As long as it has a nice skin, I'm attracted.

Originally Posted by sm0ke I mainly look for a really nice design when I go to a forum. It doesn't have to be vB or IPB or anything in that case. As long as it has a nice skin, I'm attracted.

I like to have both. Vbulletin and a nice skin is usally the best of both worlds. Nice looks, good performance, security, and features.

I was actually going to post something very similar to this. Basically my question was would you take a site that used phpbb seriously. I ask this because I am thinking about starting my own gaming community. And I am going to buy a 20 man server for Battlefield 2 and that is quite expensive so I am thinking twice about forking over the cash for vbulletin. So back to my question, would you take a site serious that was using phpbb, with mods that are usefull but not pointless or overdone, and had a customized skin? The site would have its own 20 man gaming server and 20 man teamspeak server if that would help the image.