Forum Help please? vBulletin, SMF, SimplePress, PhpBB

vBulletin is not a WP addon. vBulletin is the worlds biggest forums software developers. They are not free. I've used them in the past. I'm sure there is a Chat modification you can download and install along side the forums

I would go with PHPBB. they are free and have 100's of mod's - There is a Chat room add on which is free.

Check them out at phpBB • Free and Open Source Forum Software here is a link to there mod area phpBB • Modifications

Couldn't you just use vBulletin as a separate page? For example, you have your WP website, and then you have a button for "Forum." This would lead to website.com/forum (or something to that effect), and your vBulletin page will be hosted there.

I haven't done much with forums, but from what I know, this would work.

It all depends on how you feel about a forum for your site ... if you don't really know and just want to put something up to see how it goes then go with a free option like PHPBB.

But if you actually want to make a dedicated investment to create a great forum then I would go with vBulletin ... both forums have 100's of addons you can get for them (free and paid) ... there are instant chat addons for both you can get

There are also many wordpress integration plugins you can get to integrate with both PHPBB and vBulletin for free.

Cheers ....
G.

That website (zenhex) is using vBulletin Publishing Suite v4.0 ... This includes integrated content pages (i.e. what you see on the homepage), user blogs, and forum all wrapped into one platform/cms.

Cheers ....
Gerald.

I use SMF on one of my sites and have used it for around 5 years now and they do have a chat plugin. The one reason I picked SMF is because of the amount of mods they have. They now have a built in payed members mod. You could keep your WP site up and run it along side the forum with a link to it in the top menu bar on your wp site. You can do it by using the custom menu links in the admin panel

Basically you can use any of the main forums (VBulletin, IPB, phpBB, SMF, MyBB, etc...) and integrate them with WordPress if you want.

There are bridges that means basically one login for everything. They can vary from easy to hard to setup and you have to make all versions of the scripts work with each other.

Then you can do like what was suggested above. Include a link to your forum from your main WordPress pages but it's not really integrated 100%. The advantage to this is the fact that you don't have to worry about flaky bridge plug-ins/hacks that can break after any update to the forum or blog script. The disadvantage is your users need to create two accounts; one for WordPress, one for the forum script.

No matter what you do I always suggest making your forum look the same as the main site/blog. It doesn't have to be fully attached to the site (although it helps), but at least the same color scheme so users know it's part of the main site.

Thanks everyone for your input (and for making my head spin). :-) I guess Ning with its drop and drag features was super easy and I'm a bit homesick, but the long term vision is to build something that builds assets too.

I don't want to make it complicated for users by having to sign up twice, let alone my technical abilities being restricted to handling Wordpress. So when you talk about scripts and bridges, I seem to age rather on the spot. haha

netfq, thanks for posting the details on zenhex, yes, that is what I want to create. In addition to what they have on their site I need the instant messaging, especially the group IM feature so I can have real-time discussions with several people at the same time.

Two last questions for vBulletin users:

1. I hear vBulletin is great to keep spammers out, is this done automatically?
2. Has anyone used PFP Beta for spam control or to get forum posts started?

Next steps, I need someone to get it set up for me and lay the ground work. Not too great with tackling this on my own. Can anyone recommend a great, trustworthy vBulletin zen master :-) that can get the groundwork to make it look like zenhex and will also be available in the future?

vBulletin is not apart of WordPress, correct...

If I were you, I'd go with vBulletin (even though it costs a good sum of money).

It's well worth the investment.

You guys rock!! Thank you all for sharing and helping!!

Jake, what's a good sum of money? I though vB with all bells and wistles is less than $1000 - any hidden costs I'm missing?

Special thanks netfq!! Looking for that template now. :-)

A-N-D my hair-pulling experience continues... Just when I was leaning towards vBulletin I not only found a recent article that talks about the vBulletin lawsuit against Xenforo but I also learned that since vBulletin's buy-out they are apparently no longer 'what they used to be.' Yes, according to Big Boards, Message Boards Statistics, they are still the largest, maybe also because they're been around the longest (?). Next runner-up is InvisionPower. Xenforo is probably too new to be on that list (?).

I've learned the hard way that setting the foundation is THE most important step here, so choosing the right platform from the get-go is crucial to me, money not so much.

Are there any former vBulletin users who made the jump to either InvisionPower or Xenforo, who can report unbiasedly what their preferences are (please leave your personal 'feelings' about the lawsuit out of this). :-)

I'd love to hear from those who used to use vBulletin in the past and now use another forum software.

I started with phpBB and tired SMF, but last year I decided to try a paid forum software and I can tell you now, I'll never go back to using free ones.

I almost paid for VB, but after doing some research, you will see VB isn't as good as how it used to be. So, I decided to go with IPB and I'm very happy with it. However, I do have my eyes on XenForo. I may give them a try on my second forum.

I started with phpBB also several years ago. Then I moved to VBulletin. I've owned forums that have had phpBB, SMF, MyBB, VBulletin and IPB controlling them. My preference was always VBulletin.

When VBulletin changed it's licensing terms I was very upset at the small discount for version 4 given considering I had a few owned licenses and have basically abandoned using VBulletin.

I've actually sold all of my forum sites, so I'm not running any forums at the moment. When I want to do things on the cheap or experimental I start out with phpBB, SMF or MyBB and then if things worked out I'd switch over to a paid forum if I deemed it necessary. I would still use VBulletin if I really needed it, but I'm still mad over the way things worked out with their licensing terms. I might gravitate more towards IPB though since I still have a valid license with them.

If your budget is $1000 or less you can pretty much take your pick. VBulletin with their blogging platform and a custom theme would only cost you like $400 - $500. A few dollars more and you can get someone to set everything up just how you want it.

Best way. Easiest way is to use WordPress, vBulletin and Digital Access Pass. DAP integrates with vBulletin so you only have one login. aMember works with vBulletin in the same way, but it's harder to setup.

I use this guy to integrate the looks of WP and vB. I design the theme, then he matches vBulletin to it. DAP you can do yourself. aMember you'll have to hire someone at $800+ to do it right.

Great feedback! Truly valuable, thanks everyone.

I have used, or attempted to use DAP before and it was just too confusing for me, way too technical for me. Didn't know you could use Wordpress AND vBulletin together though.

I've browsed through some IBP boards to see if I could find any of them that I liked and I find them quite ugly looking. There wasn't one that was appealing, although appeal may not be as important as content. The challenge with my topic is (related to metaphysics/spirituality) that it needs to be visually appealing or my clients will leave the moment they see a 'tacky' or complicated look.

The Xenforo site is lacking in a lot of information related to sales. Does anyone here use them and can report back if levels (free and paid) can be issued to various forum topics? Can instant chat be implemented and some of the other bells and whistles? The only Xenforo site I found, which I found great, is this one, General Forums.

By the way, I found a couple of posts that might be of interest to you:

This is a guy on Invision (quite a large board with 40K-50K members) why he's been unhappy, Success or destruction stories with xenForo? | XenForo Community

And this is from a guy who switched his niche to Xenforo (from vB) and is loving it (he's quite detailed with his numbers), A Success Story - One Month After Moving to Xenforo | XenForo Community

Here is a cool side-by-side features comparison (vB vs. XF). :-), ForumMatrix - Compare Them All

XF is still a bit new, so I wasn't exactly in a rush to buy it. Besides, I haven't even though of a domain name for the new site yet.

However, after reading the thread you posted it, I might buy it for my current forum just to see how well it would index the pages.. . I'm not jumping in the bandwagon just yet, but I'll keep you posted in this thread once I do.

(need to finish up on a few other projects first)

Yes, after reading more success stories and switches from vB and IP and posting some things on the Xenforo forum myself and getting to experience the feel for the forum I felt like it was a no brainer to make the jump. As far as XF being a new product. Yes, and that's why they'll work even harder to making it a success.

Got my server ready and Xenforo is in the bag. I in particular liked their 'Social' theme, http://general-forums.com, which is a free skin. Will keep you posted on how things are going.

Yeah, that is a pretty nice theme. I hope it's easy to create new ones too. I read that for developers, they made things really easy, but it's too bad I'm not one of them.

I don't know what it is, but there just something about XF that keeps calling me.. . -haha
I'm going to try and get one setup before Thanksgivings.

Actually, i mean developers as in.. . mod authors. Server side scripting is not my thing. I only do client side coding.

I'm more of a front end designer then a coder, but starting to get in to UX designing.

that is a pretty nice