I'm trying to make my mind up as to which would meet my needs. Two very simple features that I like in VBulletin are:

The "similar threads" list that appears at the bottom of a thread
The "quick reply" box that appears at the bottom of a thread.

I've looked around but haven't seen any IP.Board sites with these features. Is it possible to do this with IPB?

I'd also like to know what features people consider are better in IPB than Vb. Not so much interested in cost as I am in fuctionality.

The Quick Reply box is called Fast Reply in IP.Board. As for similar threads, it's not built in but I think I saw a mod for it over on Invisionize. Try searching there.

I know there's a mod for "Similar Topics" that you can install and the "Fast Reply" is a built in feature of IP.Board. O.o

It's a shame you can't see the customer forum, there's a 15+ page topic in there about the two.

Yeah, I saw this thread, I'm like, "I know! I'll link him to the other topic!" created a post around it, then realized he wasn't a customer

For similar topic mods, you've got your choice of:
http://mods.invisionize.com/db/index.php/f/8206
or
http://mods.invisionize.com/db/index.php/f/7293

They both have their advantages.

Also yes there is a mod for similar topics but I haven't tried it because when it was released people were saying the results were not related at all. Maybe it has been improved now, I don't know.

I think that vB has more stock features than IP.Board, and while their Admin CP is not as nice, I also like how it functions better. You can get full phrase searching, complete WYSIWYG CSS editing, among many others. These are improvements that really need to be added come IP.Board 3.

Yes.

I was wondering if you would like to take a moment and post a complete analysis of what you would like to see changed in the admin CP (in the appropriate suggestions forum of course). Obviously we are well into 3.0 development and much of the admin CP has been updated. Matt has been working away at the templating system to support some new features (shhh) and now might be a great time for you to explain exactly what you feel our Admin CP is lacking.

Please, if you do decide to do this, try to stay away from "vb has this this and this and IPB should too" but rather explain what you feel our system needs directly.

erm you do know he posted two blogs on it don't you .

I've already made a suggestion in that forum. What the ACP needs is PHRASE SEARCHING. Why this isn't in IPB currently is beyond me. With vB, I can search every single phrase and language on my board in seconds, finding anything I need to find. This is important for those who are either doing language translations or want to change one word to another.

For example, the other day, I wanted to change all instances of "email" to "e-mail." It took me about 45 minutes to go through every template and then manually search one by one and make the updates. When I did the same thing on vBulletin, it found about 250+ references in two seconds, and at the very bottom was a nice option to change every single instance at once, making the entire process lasting less than a minute.

This is just a very basic example of how I think vB's ACP is better when it comes to certain tasks.

Can I just ask WHY you took 45 minutes going through every template, when all you need to do is edit lang_cache/*/lang_global.php and replace the email string in there, it updates everywhere, its just as quick as the vB one, just requires a file edit. (Well you can actually do it in the Admin CP aswell under language management)

Perhaps you are not aware of the feature, but our skin system has search and replace fyi.

If you are talking about the language management section, you'd be happy to hear that our language management system has undergone a gigantic overhaul. In fact...I believe we're considering blogging about that section next.

Thats good to know!

After that could it be the SEO/FURL one ?

I'd much rather have the "Here are some screenshots and videos" one.

We can't do that yet I'm afraid. But, naturally, the new skin will be blogged about in due time. I love it, and I think you guys will too.

I know about the skin. The language manager is what I was talking about. And I'm glad to hear that you're making some big changes there.

I know this sounds strange, but I really wish some of the IPB devs would use vB for like a week or so to get a feel of what I'm talking about. It's just the way you can edit templates and CSS via vB's ACP. It's just much more fluid than how I feel it works in IPB.

Who's to say they don't already own vBulletin licenses I wouldn't be surprised if IPS have a few lying around, and Jelsoft have a few IP.Board ones somwhere

I'll be honest - after your post yesterday I tried out a demo of vb's ACP and I'm not understanding how it's easier. Granted, with everything, there's a learning curve and as I've (literally) never used our competitor's software before I'm not familiar with, but I was a tad confused as to how the template editor worked.

I know (or have heard, at least) that they have much fewer CSS classes, so changing one thing appears to affect a much broader area, but that's something we're working on for 3.0 as well (started with the Pro skin, but it's hard to accomplish it in 2.3.x due to the massive amount of HTML to work with). Additionally, Matt has been working for weeks on improving the template editor section of the ACP. I think once Rikki gets his hands on it and adds the functionality he's intending to add, our template editor will be one of the best out there. I can't wait for the both of them to finish it up.

Good, I'm glad to hear major improvements are coming there. That's what I've been talking about in my last few posts. I basically was just hoping for radically simpler editing of both templates and CSS. Sounds like CSS is what I'm looking for.

But as to how it's easier, I don't know... I've used vB for a while, so I'm used to it. But it's just the way everything can be done right through the ACP. Even with mods... You never have to upload additional files via FTP, it's all done via the ACP, including the editing of them. Hard to explain.

That is wonderful news! The one thing I hate about skinning is going through so many classes to make sure the correct hexadecimal value is assigned to it.

Yeah, I love the css_colors in the pro skin.

vB's template editor, I'll agree, could use some work. As for evertyhing else, once you've played around with the ACP for about an hour, things start to get easier.

Now, the vBulletin has a "Thumbs up" or "thumbs down" function, which allow members to agree or disagree with a comment without writing this in a comment. This function is quite good with regard to reducing the amount of crap posted.

My question is of course, does IPB have anything like this?

There will be a reputation system with 3.0.

Hmm. I've seen the specs for the reputation system. It looks good, but it's not what I'm looking for. I'm thinking of a function where a user can agree or disagree with other users post. In the example below you can see that users are giving a thumb up or down to posts.

Why have this?
Well, at least on my forum, as I see on a lot of other forums around there are way to many posts just saying "Good point" or "I agree" or other nonsense that you destroy your mouse trying to scroll past.

Click to view attachment

That is exactly what our reputation system is for. Users can give a post +1 or -1 (which you could easily skin to be a thumb up/down image set if you wish).

When a post reaches set reputation levels (e.g. -5 reputation points) you can choose to hide the post (with an option to still see it).

So, akin to the Karma/Moderation system in Slash then?

as much as i have enjoyed IPB. i moved to vbulletin for rare reason. and ended up staying.. i moved because vbulletin had the only capability i had known of to merge two or more boards.. at that time that was my intention. move boards to VB, merge, move back to IPB... however after getting over the brief time of anger of "change" i began to enjoy it.. the hooks system makes life so easy..

if IPB could create a convert/merge system that "doesn't leave things out" like passwords/custom fields/buddies/etc... so that "everything thinkable" is converted. and merge-able with a merge system supported by IPS

AND i liked the hooks system and how well the community supported it. i would be willing to convert back. however time will tell when i renew my license for IPB 3.0 gold/beta if it will "stay renewed" or not

perhaps an easier skin system? something that may make skinners more popular with IPB. the time it takes to create a skin smaller. less complex. causing "paid/custom" skins to be cheaper.

i mean.. i caught a sale on vb skins shortly after i switched.. 3 skins for 9$... i would have paid 10$ each.. but most skinners want 30$+

p.s. i hope my post is constructive, as i wish neither VB or IPB to fail. rather "both succeed" both offer great products that both have their advantages.

~uberjon

That's what the rep system does and is for, up or downvoting posts/users based on comments and conduct, vB has no such feature by default, they just have their rep system which could never achieve what you're looking for, you'd need a mod to make vB function how you're describing.





There's going to be a plugin and hooks system in IPB 3, honestly it sounds better than vB's if you ask me.



They've said the skinning system in IPB is going to make a lot of stuff easier, so.

The hooks system will be better than vBulletins by far, mainly because everytime you want a new hook point, you have to ask vBulletin to put it in the base code, which is pointless, and always ends in some users wanting hook points everywhere. IPS have taken a far better approach

I'm using both vbulletin and ipb, the reason I started using vbulletin is because the site was using it before I owned it really...

the things I detest about vbulletin:
* the search in vbulletin that's hyped up in one of these posts above is a thing I actually don't like at all, do you realize your database is almost double the size it should be? every goddamn word is indexed in there, first time I saw that search implementation I had to hold my chair as I simply could not believe it...
* code is not as well structured as ipb's, you wouldn't believe how many files you have to open in vbulletin to get to where you need to be (this is a major point for me)
* i prefer the standard skin layout of ipb over vbulletin's
* i simply HATE the vbulletin upgrade system, I had to execute an upgrade from vb3.5 to current version, and I had to press continue after each minor upgrade, in ipb all upgrades can be done without user interaction.
* there's no trash bin functionality in vbulletin
* I have the impression that the vbulletin site requires more resources cpu/bandwidth wise

things I like about vbulletin:
* support team seems faster with their responses, I only rarely use support so this might be a case of too less data and a subjective impression, but the times I asked for support I had the impression the vbulletin team responded a lot faster (even on weekends for vb, I suppose for easier questions only)
* they're not thinking about releasing an encoded version of the new version, I'm not sure if ips still is, but there has been talk about this in the past...
* hooks system present
* rating system & similar threads included in the package no extra modding required. (although the rating system in vbulletin requires tweaking to make it actually function!)
* unlimited inheritance of templates, comparison function after upgrade to a new version
* you can moderate (delete, merge, etc...) threads from within the view new posts function without the need to open the thread

It are both good packages really, comparable in functionality, but if I'd to choose, I personally would chose ipb, even ipb 2.0 that is.

I have an Ipb board but think I prefer using from users view vb mainly for one feature I don't find in ip unless I am missing it and that is the easy to manage subscribed threads.

I want an easier to administer board since I don't have time to be a geek. I have modified skins etc on current IP board but with ver 3 looks like have to learn all over again and debating whether to jump to vb

Managing subscribed threads in IPB is really simple, actually.

Go to My Controls, and in the user menu (typically on the left, could vary with skin) there is a section titled "Subscriptions", and the links "View Topics" and "View Forums" manage the subscribed topics and forums that the user has.

In addition, it has also been revealed that the user control panel is being revamped in 3.0, so the location of these management tools may be moved in the future.

Old topic?

Even though I have an IPB license, I'm currently using VB. For many users I have come to find, they are at times almost overwhelmed and confused about many of IPB's user and even admin functions. Depending on the type of forum you run, this is entirely possible and likely especially if you are attracting those with a 'basic' mentality and have a hard time grasping things.

While I prefer IPB, I'm waiting to see what IPB 3 is all about. I can't wait to see it in action and play with it. However it's been stated VB 4 is 'coming soon' as well. IMO IPB so far has trumped VB in some important areas. I think even some VB stalwarts see this as well. However VB is still the most popular of the 2 for it's simplicity and overall ease of use from an admin and user stance.

I personally hate hacking files to make a mod work. Only to have to keep hacking those files as updates for the forum come out. And it's more frustrating if there are a bunch of template changes with it. A total turn off for me. Thats one of the reasons I'm looking forward to IPB 3. Of course it would be silly not to see what VB 4 brings to the table a bit later.

Simplicity and ease of use for both members and admins/mods are the key. Yet keeping it full featured.

But when you are reading a topic - unless I am dumb and blind I don't see away to subscribe to just that thread/topic not the entire forum which seems to be the only option. Also when you reply - no option to subscribe other than I believe its on a universal basis can set up that option for all replies.

I have been active on message boards since the first days of the web, and before back when we had 300bps packet readers and all there was, was the "usenet" of newsgroups. I have used just about every board there is as a user, and if I can't easily figure it out..... That is why from a user view I favor vbulletin.

On this post I am looking all over, every icon and I can't figure out how to subcribe to this thread for example, other than e-mail notification (which is also good to have as does vbulletin if its turned on by admin).

Click the "Options" dropdown menu (to the right of "Rating" at the top of the thread) and click "Track this topic". You will be presented with a form to select how you want to track the topic.

When replying, tick "Enable email notification of replies" to subscribe while replying.

I think in a sense what works against IPB and other forum software is that so many people are used to VB and it's workings. So when they visit a forum using IPB or something else, you have to re-learn much of how the forum is used. And with IPB having so many features, I believe many people are a bit overwhelmed unless they take the time to re-learn. Which some just don't want to take the time to do, it can work against other forum software.

I see a lot of people complain about the complexity and lack of understanding about how to use many of IPB's features. Especially as admins. They like what they see, but they have no clue how to use it all. I hope IPB 3 fixes some of these issues. Maybe if you hover over something it gives a tooltip about it's function(s). And who wants to read through tons of pages of documents trying to understand it all? For most people it has to be easy to pick up and start using. If not, it's a turn off.

It'll be interesting to see if IPB 3 does this.

I almost miss that 20 page topic in the customer forum. Almost.

Correlation does not imply causation. Just because more people use Windows machines than *nix, for example, doesn't make Windows better (or worse.) Someone once made the analogy of comparing apples to oranges. IPB and vB are no different.