I thought I did my research before buying into vB. I really liked the older versions of the software as a consumer. Now that I'm a customer and the product has gone downhill, I feel like a sucker. I'm a professional developer by profession, but I don't specialize in web development (although I'm learning quickly). I'm a multimedia specialist and I've worked some great gigs creating some excellent audio/video apps.
To answer your questions...
I originally was looking for just forum software, but the CMS idea enticed me as a way to make a more robust web site. I bought into vB to build a gaming website. I need a product that provides a solid forum and the ability to have CMS features where I can post categories of content (not vB categories...), such as Walkthroughs, Reviews, etc. I need to be able to post video, from as many sources as possible and have the video indexed. Pretty simple requirements at this point...
When I first registered my domain, I had a single HTML page with nothing but a single image. It was more of a placeholder than anything, didn't even have any metadata, etc. After a week or so I could type in my domain name and come up on page 5 of Google. After 3-4 weeks with the vB forum and CMS up, I can't be found in google at all!
I spent a lot of time researching my vB problems and I've learned about robots files and sitemaps and the complete lack of support in vB for these valuable features. Sure they say they support sitemaps, rofl... Not according to Google Webmaster Tools. And support for video sitemaps, not even on their whiteboards as far as I know. Sure, I'm a gamer at heart, but I'm not creating the site for no rea$on.
I need a tool designed and written by people that know what they are doing. I want a product by people that understand relational databases and how to make them work, along with the insight to create intuitive user interfaces that don't require a manual to use. I'm been so frustrated over the last few weeks struggling with vB that I'm exhausted. I'll get my wits back and be around to learn more. Thanks for the info and nice to meet y'all.