Should HD Columbus Move to vBulletin?

[Scott]

Just getting a feel from the community.

[nakedeye]

HEHEHEHEHE YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

[frenchophile]

what is vBulletin? what are pros and cons? I would like to make informed choice.

[snodgrass23]

It is a different forum software. It's probably the most supported and most popular one in use right now.

http://www.vbulletin.com/

[whitllam]

AVS Forum (http://www.avsforum.com) uses VBulletin for those of you who have frequented that site.

Personally, both this board software and VBulletin seem pretty comparable for the end user in terms of features and usability. To me, whatever the admins select in terms of usability from their end doesn't really matter to me as long as the threads transfer over seamlessly.

[Scott]

The number one difference is that phpbb is free and vBulletin has a licensing fee. However, as with GNUs, you get what you pay for.

I am constantly modding, hacking, etc. the current site in order for it to run smoothly. It's not that I have a problem with this--but recently I'm finding that Google has a huge issue with phpbb and indexing the pages, and this is a huge problem with me. Currently, in Altavista, Yahoo, MSN, etc., HD Columbus.net is receiving a high page rank for our key search terms, such as "HDTV in Columbus, Ohio," etc. and Yahoo ranks second in referrals to our site next to only AVS.

That's great, but if we are not indexed in Google, then we are virtually invisible to reaching others who have the same questions as we all do--learning more about HD, and thus, are not serving our community properly.

Yesterday, I rewrote our robots.txt, removed sessionID's (guest cookies which puts a string of numbers together to remember you by--robots are confused by these) for about twenty search robots and began looking into Google's adsense content and search features which could allow us to be more visible within Google.

vBulletin, has been through most of these issues already and have solved many issues in which a free-software site still has (don't even get me started on the security issues).

However, I don't want to jump to any hasty descisions and immediately take down the site for a transition only 3 weeks after its inception--that's why I was asking what the thoughts were from the community.

If we do go to vBulletin, it's probably better to do it now while we are still small rather than waiting until the site completely outgrows the software (as happens more times than not).

Will it keep all of the threads, topics, members, forums, post counts, etc.? Yes, it should be a seemless transition. How long would the site be down? Depends on how many problems would occur. Is it worth the risk? I'm not sure. :D

[mikebaby]

I would be happy with the software change. Honestly, for our small community of users, I thought the software used at .org served us very well, and made it very easy to see at a quck glance any activity on the board so that we didn't have to look through everything.

mikebaby

[Scott]

I would be happy with the software change. Honestly, for our small community of users, I thought the software used at .org served us very well, and made it very easy to see at a quck glance any activity on the board so that we didn't have to look through everything.

mikebaby

Unfortuneately, the software at .org had its limitations (like being really insecure for one).

[DBX]

Do what works best for you. As a user that does not provide any of the work that supports the operation of this forum, I believe that you should do what makes your life easier.

Thanks for your time and efforts...!!!!!

dbx

[zelig2]

I'm not positive but .org was running off windows server IIS. I only say that because I'm pretty sure that the hackers exploited a weakness in IIS as opposed to the software running the forum. What kind of machine/server are you running .net on?

I've not had any issues as of yet with phpBB. No complaints for an open source solution.

[Scott]

I'm not positive but .org was running off windows server IIS. I only say that because I'm pretty sure that the hackers exploited a weakness in IIS as opposed to the software running the forum. What kind of machine/server are you running .net on?

I've not had any issues as of yet with phpBB. No complaints for an open source solution.

I'm not sure (can't remember) what software .org was running on (nakedeye, help), and the security breakdown may have very well been with the server (.net runs on a Apache (UX) server and MySql DB). I'm all for open source as well---but again, in order to add enhancements and functionality to the site requires me to hack the original code, which then makes it next to impossible to keep on top of phpbb upgrades and security fixes (google phpbb site hacks and you'll find that phpbb is extremely insecure).

I haven't even purchased a license yet ($80/year or $160/owned) for vBulletin, but its at the top of my list.

[TheDreamer]

phpBB had its security holes....I used to have a forum, which went away after it got defaced.

Later I found there had been security advisories, etc. But, I was running phpBB as included as part of my shared hosting package....

Though I know of other sites that still use versions of phpBB that are said to be vulnerable....

And the shared hosting box was Linux/Apache....

If I were to do it over again, I would have my own copy of phpBB in my area of the site, etc....where I would (try to) keep up on keeping it patched.

As for my forum, only one person contacted me about it going away....so I guess it wasn't a big loss.

The Dreamer

[hova]

drupal.org

[Scott]

I just purchased an owned license for vBulletin and will began testing it soon. phpBB has just been too problematic in many areas for me to continue supporting it. Once I get a test-vb site up and running, I'll provide a link for testing purposes. After we're satisfied, we will upgrade the current board to vBulletin. All profiles and posts should* move over without a problem.

Thanks!

[Scott]

drupal.org

Sorry, just saw this post. I am somewhat familiar with drupal. I've installed it in the past and have found it, like phpBB, is a chore to keep updated/patched/etc. vBulletin is the current standard for forums, and that's the direction we're going. Thanks for the suggestion!

[zelig2]

Do you think you'll be able to move all the old posts over to vBulletin? Let me know the new address if you want someone to test it out.

[Scott]

Yep, all posts, forums, users, ranks, etc. I performed an import last night and everything came over okay. I did have trouble bringing over the current avatars, so I tried to "fix" it and wound up blowing up the entire development area. It also handles customized html posts differently. On this version of phpBB, I have a hack that allows only the admins to post html--and those posts are pretty messed up on the vBulletin side. I'll keep playing and let you all know when it's ready to test. Thanks!