Vanilla Forums: Ask Away!

So you don't have an actual importer that we could run on our own to convert at our leisure?

 

I was talking about the hosted version. If you wanted to go it alone, there is one for the open source version here:

http://vanillaforums.org/addon/porter-core

The Vanilla 2 Exporter supports the following forum exports:

ASP Playground
bbPress 1
Drupal Forum
Joomla Kunena
mbox (listserv email export for advanced users only)
phpBB 2 & 3
punBB 1
SimplePress 1
SMF (Simple Machines) 1 & 2
Toast
UserVoice
Vanilla 1 & 2
vBulletin 3 & 4
Xenforo
YAF (Yet Another Forum)

I recommend the paid solution for those who are not technical and want support but you can certainly DIY. It really depends on your skills, needs and your focus.

 

Does this mean my question was too prying?

Scott

 

I like to play with the open source for some of my hobby (smaller) forums to test stuff out. If you are in the mood as well, or want to see the latest and greatest (bleeding edge), it's on Github: https://github.com/vanillaforums/Garden. But that's really for those that want to get their hands dirty. I think for mission critical or big brands communities the hosted solution is the best bet so you can focus on other things.

 

Not at all

 

@getoutofmylaboratory my post with the link is in limbo is above

 

Then can I get an answer to my questions please?

What I want to understand is if your hosted solution is truly a solution based on cloud computing and not just a solution using the trendy word "cloud" to describe something which it actually isn't, a true cloud computing solution.

It is true, basically anything on the Internet is "in the Cloud" in general. I just think using the words "cloud-based" to describe a service, like offering forum instances, which isn't really a cloud computing solution will be a mistake in the future, once people start to understand what a true cloud computing solutions are. Here are some aspects of what a true cloud computing offering should entail.

For instance, you mentioned your hosting solution can scale well. What does that scaling entail? Does a person have to actively be involved to do the scaling? If so, that isn't cloud computing. In a cloud computing solution, scaling happens robotically and automatically. Or for example, if the customer instances need to be upgraded, if the action needs to be done over multiple installations of the software for each customer, that isn't cloud computing, that is an (at best) automated hosted solution of the software.

And to be honest, I am only being picky about this, because what we at Skooppa want to do will be a true cloud computing solution (and not just for forum software). So I apologize for being so prying, but the term "cloud-based" needs to be proven with a service that is based on cloud computing that can do cloud computing things. It may be not so important right now, and you might get that customer or two more for using the buzzword "cloud". But, as more and more truly "cloud-based" solutions appear, like Skooppa, then it will be important to actually deliver a "cloud computing" based solution. Your customers will understand what it really means and will expect it from your service too. Or, you're going to have to drop the "cloud-based" reference.

Changing the topic a bit. Looking at your web site, I noticed this interesting FAQ about your hosted solution.

That seems odd. Why can't customers add the Google Analytics code to their forum instance themselves? Wouldn't they have access to the templates to customize their design?

Scott

 

Sorry, I missed this answer. (should look at my alerts, before I start posting)...

The answer sort of avoids where I wanted to go with my question. But still it answers it.

Your system is definitely not a cloud computing solution. Thanks.

Scott

 

@s.molinari If you are interested in the service I can arrange a call with our vp of infrastructure. I don't want to speak out of school., but I fear I have. So maybe I misspoke or stated things improperly. In this case I'm not the best person for these types of questions and should have stated thus. I went with my understanding, for example we scale automatically as a cloud solution should.

My original comment was to talk about the product itself, not the hosting configuration. I should have stuck to that then misrepresent with a possibly faulty answer. It would have been nice to know your angle up front -- I would have taken this offline with you. My offer to connect you with people to answer these queries still stands if you wish to learn more or become a customer.

For your GA question. In this case you have access to add your own code, but many customers are not comfortable with code, so we do it for them.

 

Thanks for the offer Adrian, but I don't really need to know if vanilla.com is truly a cloud computing offer or not. Your customers do, or rather, they will.

At this point in time, most people don't understand what real cloud computing is and what it means for a service like yours (maybe) and ours (in the future for sure) really means for them. But, as time goes on and cloud computing becomes more and more of the way such "hosted" (although I like to avoid this word like the plague) services are offered, then customers will come to expect it, simply because it is more convenient, safer and more reliable for them.

Well.....that is my view into my own cloud computing crystal ball.

As for the GA topic. That is what I thought. Maybe reword it to also note experienced admins can make the changes themselves?

Scott

 

@Adrian
I missed this thread!
I have one thing I really wanted to ask; why is Vanilla so damn expensive?
At one time, I was a bit itchy to try it but then backed away because of the pricing.

Since the script is free, I suppose $50 a month for small forum includes support?
I can get awesome VPS with such price and run either vB4 or xF without needing any real support since both are well documented.
Hell, IPB only cost $20 a month!

PS: And Digital Ocean KVM Cloud only cost $5.

 

Good question. However, I'd also like to point out, with any dynamic kind of website, your not going to get very far with 512mb of RAM.

Edit - I'd also say, 2 cpu cores and 2 GB of RAM is a bare minimum for a LAMP stack. So, to get that performance, you must pay $20 a month at Digital Ocean and it won't be managed either, i.e. updating the stack software is your responsibility, which I believe Vanilla does for you. So, $50 a month including the application is fair.

Scott

 

With $594.00 a year not including discount coupon, you'll get fully managed super quality VPS from WiredTree.

• Intel Dual Xeon (12+ CPUs)
• 2048MB Guaranteed SLM RAM
• 40GB Pure SSD Space
• CPU Priority: x2
• 4000GB Premium Bandwidth
• 2 Dedicated IPs
• cPanel / WHM (VPS Optimized)
• CentOS Linux 6 x64

 

Holy fcuk!

 

Which is getting closer to the price of Vanilla.

So, for $5 a year more, you get a fully functioning forum software too!

I wonder what hardware they have behind their cloud version. Does it really matter, as long as page response times are good? Do they monitor and report to customers on response time?

I also wonder if they upgrade the Vanilla software automatically too. That would be an argument for the service, wouldn't it?

But then again, looking at the traffic. Puh, it is quite expensive. 1000 page views for $1 is just....well.....terrible. Assuming a page is about 400kb (taken from their own support forum), that is 400 MB for $1 or $25 for a GB of traffic. OMG! A gig of traffic costs a few cents at most for anyone. Growing with them could definitely get expensive.....

Scott

 

So XF, IPB and vB can run on shared hosting but Vanilla requires super charged VPS?
Apparently Vanilla is a forum script for the rich.

 

Take http://www.webtropia.com/de/vserver/vserver-vs-linux-s.html its 11,54 euro a month inc tax. More then enough to start a forum you can expand if needed and best they have nice dedicated servers. What vanilla and IPB are asking for hosting is so expensive its only for people that have a good forum or have to much cash.

 

That's self manage though.
And IPB $20 is cheap for a managed hosting me think.

 

You can't really compare a shared hosting of XF, vB or IPB to Vanilla's cloud offering. Those are apples and oranges.

I am sure Vanilla will run on a shared server too. Download the open source version and find out.

To make a real comparison though, you'd need to know what hardware and what services they offer and how with their cloud offering. This kind of information is very vague or missing in their descriptions and thus, makes any kind of real comparison impossible to a "boxed software" offer like vB, XF or IPB.

Scott

 

The problem with managed and unmanged is that with issues you have less of a problem with managed because they will solve it for you where as unmanaged is try it your self first, but depends on the hosting provider. Also managing the system these days is nothing more then pressing 2 buttons and the control panel is automatic.

Also look what you will get 2048MB of memory with burt to 4096MB, 250GB space to store and 100Mbit flatrate datatransfer.

The IPB offer looks good don't get me wrong but its still expensive compared to self hosting, especially if you have a big board with lots of concurrent members online.