First time forum software - HELP!!!

Discussion in 'Community Forum Software' started by Kev@ITK, Sep 22, 2012.

  1. Kev@ITK

    Kev@ITK Regular Member

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    Hi guys

    New to the forum obviously...

    In a nutshell, i'm a 30% partner in a new venture, responsible for all things 'admin' which at this point will include everything website/forum based. I would like to add at this point I am an accountant by trade so spredsheets are the depth of my computer related talents!!

    Our site will begin as a forum and in time turn into a full site, with the forum being just a part of it. By that time we'd hope to take on someone more advanced in the field but for now it's just me. We're a revenue based forum so will be looking for site sponsors as well as wanting to incorporate an online shop 6-12 months down the line (either our own stock or as a reseller).

    On the face of it, I would like:

    Strong Facebook/Twitter links I.e sign in options, sharing of posts and status updates (although I would ideally like the forum to use the 'flat' format instead of the 'threaded' approach social networking seems to be taking these days as I find it very hard to follow content this way.

    Blogging

    Live chat (not essential as wonder if this takes away from forum content?)

    Full website incorporating an online shop (would want the forum users to be able to purchase direct from the shop so everything would need to be fully integrated)

    User friendly (both for the end user and for me as the responsible admin!)

    Mobile friendly

    I'm sure there is more but that's all I can remember for now. Oh yeah, there's likely to be plenty of pics/vids flying about so a slick way to organise those would be great too.

    I was originally all set to buy vBull but version 5 BETA has really put me off and the more I reseach vB in general the more i'm put off completely. I'm now edging towards either XF or IPB.

    Given this is an independent forum I was hoping a few of you with experience would point me in the right direction? Need to get cracking early next week.

    Thanks in advance...

    Kev
     
    Kev@ITK, Sep 22, 2012
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  2. AWS

    AWS Administrator

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    IPB has this. It's enabled on this site. Xenforo has a Facebook login, but, it doesn't allow posting to and from the forum. vBulletin has Facebook integration, but, I'm unsure of how it works or what it does other than allow you to login via Facebook.

    IBP and vBulletin 4 have blogs. IPB also has chat.

    IBP and vBulletin have mobile apps and mobile skins.

    As far as the user experience goes they are all the same. No matter what each products fans might say the posting interface and presentation of posts don't vary. All 3 do what they are expected to do and that is allow people to engage in discussions.

    My choice was IPB as you can see since I run it here. I did use vbulletin for many years and converted to IPB a couple years ago. I don't regret the decision. I converted one of my large sites to xenforo and then converted it back to IPB before I sold it. xenforo just didn't fit my needs. It is missing some admin tools that I use everyday.

    If you want a forum only solution that is missing features that many admins use on a daily basis that may or may not have a future, read the various threads here or at the xenforo site about the lawsuit and other issues affecting it, then use xenforo.

    If you want a product you can expand upon with official addons then go with IPB or vbulletin.
     
    AWS, Sep 22, 2012
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  3. Kev@ITK

    Kev@ITK Regular Member

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    Ok, point taken then. On the flip side, what would you say IPB is missing?
     
    Kev@ITK, Sep 22, 2012
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  4. AWS

    AWS Administrator

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    For me nothing is missing or I should say I have not found anything missing.

    If there are specific features that you would be looking for other than what you posted then ask away.

    The real meat and potatoes of the software is in the admin/mod control panel. The user interface, as I said above, is really the same in all forum software. You really should test drive all 3 products. All 3 will allow you to demo the software as an admin. Once you do that you will have a good idea of which product is right for you.
     
    AWS, Sep 22, 2012
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  5. Kev@ITK

    Kev@ITK Regular Member

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    Well, vB is a waste of time now (surely?!?) so it only really leaves XF and IPB to look at. I have had a quick play with the demo's but given I have no idea what I'm doing beyond creating a new thread it's pretty pointless really. Unfortunately, my experience and 'wish list' is likely to come once we go live and I get a feel for things - hence needing to make an informed choice at this stage.

    One very small thing I did enjoy about XF was their third party 'like' system add-on...very interactive and fun for members which I don't think IPB offer. Rewarding members in different ways for their contribution would be great - we want to make the forum as fun and 'different' as possible so will be looking heavily at the range of add-ons available.
     
    Kev@ITK, Sep 22, 2012
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  6. David

    David Regular Member

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    Hey Kev@ITK!

    I see you're making your rounds to get a lot of different opinions! That's a great idea! I really can't add much here that already hasn't been added. But IPB has a like feature already built in to it. I'm not real familar with the XF addon so I can't say if it compares in features or not :D
     
    David, Sep 22, 2012
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  7. Kev@ITK

    Kev@ITK Regular Member

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    Ha, thanks David! I think I'm on 5 boards in total asking the same questions, wonder of I'll ever get a devinitive answer?!?! Unlikely I guess...
     
    Kev@ITK, Sep 22, 2012
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  8. Kev@ITK

    Kev@ITK Regular Member

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    How about the stories of extremely poor SEO with IPB?
     
    Kev@ITK, Sep 22, 2012
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  9. boatswife

    boatswife Regular Member

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    You may want to consider an arcade at some point, and IPB and vb have IPProArcade installs. Although with vb5, that will have to be configured to work. The last I knew with XF is that Kevin was still in beta stage with an arcade. I'm not sure if this was ever finished since I went back to IPB.

    I haven't had any issues with my IPB Gallery.
     
    boatswife, Sep 22, 2012
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  10. AWS

    AWS Administrator

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    I don't know if it's poor. This site ranks well and has site links. In fact all my sites rank well.

    There are a couple disgruntled ex-users of IPB that expected to retain all the traffic the site had after they converted. This is not possible. The traffic will drop, but, it will come back after everything is re-indexed. This site seen a drop after it was converted, but, now things are way better than it was when I first bought it.

    Here is an article I wrote shortly after I converted my first forum to IPB. It might answer some questions.

    http://bobschwarz.com/forum-seo-vbulletinvbseo-vs-ipb-with-seo-urls/

    No matter where you post you'll never get the same answer. I love IPB so of course I'll be biased to it, but, I'll also try to be objective and not let my feelings get in the way.

    Here is the best I can.

    Use IPB if you want to expand in the future by adding more features. No need to rely on third parties for blog, gallery, chat, shopping cart, content management system or downloads.

    Use xenforo if you want a forum only solution that lacks features that every admin uses like merging threads, moving threads or merging users. If you don't mind relying on third party developers to add extra functionality that may or may not support them in the future then choose xenforo.

    Also keep in mind IPB is actively being developed and improved upon and the staff communicates with the customers. While xenforo is not being developed at the moment it is supported by unpaid volunteers that could just walk away at any time.

    In my mind there is only one logical choice and that is IPB. I do like xenforo, but, with an uncertain future I would not take a chance with it.
     
    AWS, Sep 22, 2012
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  11. TSUFanatic

    TSUFanatic Regular Member

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    Kevv@ITK

    Welcome to AA.

    I would go with IPB, because it has all the features you desire above and it's easier then vBulletin to manage as well.

    Strong Facebook/Twitter links I.e sign in options, sharing of posts and status updates (although I would ideally like the forum to use the 'flat' format instead of the 'threaded' approach social networking seems to be taking these days as I find it very hard to follow content this way.

    --- IPB has Twitter & Facebook login and you can share post & status updates. vBulletin 4x has a similar thing called "Activity Stream" but it is more robust and not as good as compared to IPB's system.

    Blogging

    --- IP. Content or WordPress would be your best bet.

    Live chat (not essential as wonder if this takes away from forum content?)

    ---- IPB gives you free 5 users chat or you can buy more from them, vBulletin you have to install a plugin. Yes, it does take away from content, however if you used it as a staff-only live chat, that works brilliant. I am using it on my site as staff-only, it gets the message around faster than PM for staff members.

    Full website incorporating an online shop (would want the forum users to be able to purchase direct from the shop so everything would need to be fully integrated)
    ---- IP Nexus does this for you and it is fully incorporated with IPB.

    User friendly (both for the end user and for me as the responsible admin!)
    ---- Do you have any experience with IPB? I have read that the admincp is very similar to myBB's.

    Mobile friendly
    --- IPB has a mobile theme which is very mobile friendly or you can install TapaTalk for your guests.

    SEO
    -- IPB has friendly URLs as well and it's great.

    XenForo or IPB?
    -- I would go with IPB because xF development has stopped. IPB takes suggestions directly from it's customers unlike vBulletin and IPB is actively being developed on.

    - BullsNet
     
    TSUFanatic, Sep 23, 2012
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  12. Kev@ITK

    Kev@ITK Regular Member

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    Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by an arcade - online games?
     
    Kev@ITK, Sep 24, 2012
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  13. Kev@ITK

    Kev@ITK Regular Member

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    AWS & Bullsnet - thanks for the detailed responses, much appreciated.

    I'm running the IPB demo (XF is down!) and although the overall package does meet my general needs I just find the forum itself rather cold/corporate. For instance, over on XF there is the ability to hover over a thread/post/notification and you get to see rather a large preview of it - it's only a small addon i'm sure but what a fantastic engaging feature for the end user. I'm also finding the XF community great where as the IPB board is modding my every post and no publishing the ones they don't quite like - terrible from a potential new customers point of view.

    I guess I don't particularly have any more questions at this point, it's just down to me now to see how the demo goes. I'd love to see some examples of really fun/user friendly IPB forums though...
     
    Kev@ITK, Sep 24, 2012
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  14. boatswife

    boatswife Regular Member

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    Yes, an arcade can be added to play games. A feature that my members love.

    You can do a thread preview with IPB too. It shows the first and last post of the thread.

    Editing in......the preview thread is a free hook that you can install.
     
    boatswife, Sep 24, 2012
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  15. Kev@ITK

    Kev@ITK Regular Member

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    Thanks for that, an arcade would be great - should keep users on the site for longer.

    As for the preview hook, i'll take a look to see what examples I can find.

    Pretty sure i'll be going with IPB now anyway. It's not ideally what I wanted, I love the XF forum, but it's the more sensible approach over the long haul I think.
     
    Kev@ITK, Sep 25, 2012
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  16. TSUFanatic

    TSUFanatic Regular Member

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    Good choice.
     
    TSUFanatic, Sep 25, 2012
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