I have got to give vBulletin it's due... it does one thing perfectly...

Customisation. Not the style itself, which is either dated (version 3) or a trainwreck in half the browsers in the world (version 4), but the general ease of changing it is absolutely fantastic compared to most software. Not most forum software, but most software as a whole are harder to style than vBulletin.

Seriously, that style manager and template set is superb in terms of general usability. Heck, most pieces of software don't even have a quick interface to let you change the colour scheme, let alone add your own CSS easily and get a preview. Take any CMS like Drupal or Joomla. Or even Wordpress. Editing default colours involves CSS changes minimum, which means there's a far higher learning curve than for vBulletin. Changing templates? Ha, Wordpress, while valid and CSS based is pretty much impossible to mod by changing an existing style, you've pretty much got to create your own from the ground up. For a CMS, or most forum software products, you don't even get the template editor in the admin control panel, having to edit software code to actually change many of the elements of the software. That's not even starting on Media Wiki, which... well, it's point it was only really made for Wikipedia will become very apparent.

Hell, if I was harsh, I'd say vBulletin, and even forum software in general is really, really well designed in this aspect.

 

I've been saying it all along. everybody jumped on the ''bash vb'' bandwagon, but hands down their the best.

 

IPB doesn't seem all that bad to style
one thing I've noticed is custom IPB skins are cheaper than custom vBulletin skins

 

You are talking about vB 4 correct? I find it the most difficult to style out of all of the previous versions.

In fact myself, and a few other designers, got so frustrated, we gave up.

 

My designer did that, but I must say, I will give it time. I am a patient person and not hopping on IPB yet as I don't want to spend MORE money.

 

I'm talking about vBulletin 3 by the way, never tried styling version 4.

 

Heh, that explains it then. Check out vB 4's styling system. :unhunh:

 

So, would pretty much everyone agree vB 3's system is the best?

 

I don't know if it's the best, as I haven't tried styling any other script - yet.
But I do agree that it is very easy to design for vB 3.

 

When I skimmed through the thread, I was like "what the f...". Because I thought you were talking about vB 4... is kind of living the hell on earth to style for it, specially if you're used to CSS.

Anyways, I'm not sure about vB 3 system to be the best. I don't actually like it at all, but is probably because I don't like that kind of systems to style. I prefer to hand code everything... so much freedom. That's why I do prefer MyBB's style system 100 times, and why I love Wordpress way to make themes a billion times :heart:

 

MyBB's styling system is the best. vB's, you can do more. Combine those and it would be AMAZING.

 

And that's the major difference between the two types of administrators... vB's system and others like it are great for people who want to simply customise something that's already been coded and designed by someone else, and who don't know tons about recoding software and making themes from scratch. But that must be a pain for those who like hand coding, just as the themes and software used by those that like hand coding is a pain for people who merely want to make a few edits to images and layouts.

 

^ Yep, pretty much why we can't say something's the "best" in most situations.

I think it'd be cool if vB also implemented some sort of "Advanced" option to theme, kind of what MyBB offers, aside the normal way to theming.

 

What do you mean?

If you mean possibly altering the CSS itself, rather than using the Stylevar system, you can already do that.

 

The vBulletin 3 style system was really good at producing the kind of output that was required back when I wrote that system, but it's a bit cumbersome now when you want a lot more control over CSS. Still, I'm glad my work has stood the test of time and that people still find it useable and friendly so many years after I first put it together

 

It might be cumbersome now, but the ease of styling the 3 series is miles ahead of the 4. (We miss you, Kier )I'm with Peggy on having given up on designing vB4 any time soon - it's just a chaotic messy jumble.

 

You ain't just whistlin' dixie girlfriend!

 

That's why I'm glad I actually know a decent amount of CSS, no need for any kind of system so long as I can directly edit the CSS itself.

Not gonna lie, though, vB3's Main CSS system was top notch.

 

I have to say that vB3's styling was really, really easy to use. However, if you understand CSS, then the vB4 styling is pretty powerful. I love playing with it. I do think the admin cp page for it could be a lot better done since it can be a PITA at times to find things between the stylevars and the css templates, but once you have a system to find it all, it's quite easy to use.

 

The vB4 styling system in essence follows my design, but unfortunately, various factors meant that what was finally shipped fell a long way short of what I had originally intended. It's missing huge portions of the styling UI that would have made it properly useable...