vBulletin 6 has arrived, what do you think about it?

[Wayne98101]

I've been a vBulletin fan since the days when BlackBerry Forums were all the rage. Over the years, I used vBulletin and Plush Forums for various projects without shopping around.

This time, I was planning to go with Plush for an upcoming project, but their features have lost their luster, and the customization options are still way too limited. So, I decided to give vBulletin Cloud a try. Big mistake. Setting up even the most basic permissions was a frustrating ordeal, and after finally wrestling that into shape, I realized it still looked painfully outdated.

I'm glad I found XenForo!

Side note: if you want a good laugh, check out "Instaforum," the latest from the folks behind Plush Forums. It's a masterpiece in how not to do forums.

 

[Max Taxable]

when BlackBerry Forums were all the rage.

Good grief how time flies.

 

[Ricsca]

@Wayne98101 i didn't know about the existence of instaforum but if I have to find a way to make forums updated and not stuck 20 years ago...
It seems to me a mix between forum and social and this is positive...
The problem is that they only have the cloud plan and therefore this limits its diffusion...
I don't understand why there are no categories though...

 

[javakhir]

you can not bring back to life the dead body! no matter what you do, don't you?

 

[Rangers Fans]

@Wayne98101 i didn't know about the existence of instaforum but if I have to find a way to make forums updated and not stuck 20 years ago...
It seems to me a mix between forum and social and this is positive...
The problem is that they only have the cloud plan and therefore this limits its diffusion...
I don't understand why there are no categories though...

First time hearing of it as well. Neat concept. Found catagories, you have to click on that bottom gray icon.

 

[Digital Doctor]

the existence of instaforum but if I have to find a way to make forums updated and not stuck 20 years ago...

this isn't a forum. It's xenforo conversations in public view. Hard pass.

Brogan released a way to style xenforo so it looks like a conversation. if that's what you fancy.

Can you name 3 ways this forum is an "update" to xenforo ?

 

[Ricsca]

@Digital Doctor i don't understand what instaforum has to do with xenforum... I find Instaforum (which I didn't know before) an attempt to update forums to 2024 by mixing classic forums with conversations/social...

All forums today have a structure that is the same as 20 years ago, so if someone tries to update the concept of a forum, I think it's a positive thing.

If 99% of users now use social media, perhaps we should admit that forums are no longer appealing as they are...

 

[Digital Doctor]

I take it you don’t have 3 updates, as requested.

 

[Ricsca]

I take it you don’t have 3 updates, as requested.

can you explain yourself better?

 

[Smartea]

It really does look pathetic.
So outdated and out of fashion.

Like the dinosaurs snatched a PHP IDE and decided to have at it.

 

[Mendalla]

I find Instaforum (which I didn't know before) an attempt to update forums to 2024 by mixing classic forums with conversations/social...

I am on a site that uses Circle, which is similar in this regard. Kind of feels like a forum but it's all comments on posts rather than forum style threads and is organized in "spaces" rather than "forums". I have problems with that structure but have adapted. Not my favourite, but maybe that's my age (pushing 60 so was using things like email, newsgroups, and BBSs before web forums were even a thing) and experience (nearly 20 years on my oldest forum). If it was not the fan group for my favourite singer, I likely would not be on it.

EDIT: And the software support sucks compared to Xenforo. I and others have been raging about how slow it is to load Notifications (vs. how they load basically instantly on any Xenforo site I am on) and nothing has been done so far. However, I am not staff there so all I can do is bug the staff from time to time to remind them that the problem is still there.

 

[Wayne98101]

First time hearing of it as well. Neat concept. Found catagories, you have to click on that bottom gray icon.

View attachment 313313

I signed up just to try it out and had the nerd group in our building test it out with me (clearly, we have nothing but free time).

While the concept isn't terrible, it's VERY buggy.

• The way you have to login was the biggest thing that annoyed me -- enter email address, wait for the email to hit your inbox, click the link to log in
• Buttons work "sometimes"
• Profiles are worthless
• It just has a cheap feel about it -- no sparkle whatsoever

I know those are small problems, but those small annoyances are enough to keep people from using anything that's not FB, X, Discord, etc.

And YES, I hear you people in the back screaming forums are dead. But how does the saying go? "I'll keep my forums until you pry them out of my cold, dead hands!"

 

[Ricsca]

Circle is even better...
It would be nice if xf would get some ideas.

 

[Arantor]

Circle is even better...
It would be nice if xf would get some ideas.

If Circle is so good why aren’t you using it?

 

[Ricsca]

If Circle is so good why aren’t you using it?

Your answer is so silly that it doesn't even deserve a comment from me... We are at the level of the answers of 3 year old children...

 

[Arantor]

We are at the level of the answers of 3 year old children...

Yes, we had noticed, but one gives as one receives.

 

[Mendalla]

Circle is even better...
It would be nice if xf would get some ideas.

There must be a better product example than Circle for the experience you describe. My experience of it as a user has been quite poor (see mention of slow-loading notifications but there are other issues, too). And if you are suggesting it is better than Instaforum then, yeah, that one is out. Discourse is kind of in that ballpark, too, or can be if configured right. It has been about the best of the lot in my experience, but I have used Circle a lot more and longer than Discourse.

I think if Xenforo offered a "social discussion" interface as an option or add-on and admins could choose, I would be fine with it. If it was well implemented, I might even use it. The article forum is already kind of in that post with comments ballpark and I think there's an add-on for doing comments on posts that could be leveraged. Themehouse's Feeds (or whatever they ended up calling it), at least the beta I tried, kind of had a vibe similar to the Feed/Home in Circle. Calling your nodes "spaces" rather than forums is mostly nomenclature. So with some work it is doable but, obviously, a single add-on or core option that put it all together would be better.

 

[Opus X]

i visited a few of the newer vbulletin sites recently in my looking at other software.
if what the ones i visited were their basic $180 offering it was not that bad.
seems like they offered a lot more than xenforo does?

 

[zappaDPJ]

seems like they offered a lot more than xenforo does?

They certainly offer a lot more bugs if that counts.

 

[Smartea]

They certainly offer a lot more bugs if that counts.

It's not a bug, it's an anomaly.