Vbulletin & Facebook - Right Idea

[ChemicalKicks]

My idea is this: now, a user comment a thread in fb app. Their friends see the notification about this comments...2 of them repond to this comment. Result: +2 extra comments. Extra content for the forum. You are right about the ads but in my experience the majority of clicks in a forum are by google visitors, not the users that know how here are the ads and don't click...

My understanding is that those 2 facebook users would still have to register on the forum to be able to post a response anyway.

It's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. I have yet to see an upside for using the vB Facebook App as an end user OR as a site owner.

Same here I don't see the demand or need, I'd love to be proved wrong though.

 

[DRE]

id rather have twitter login and see xf status updates posted to twitter than to see more facebook crap.

THANK YOU!!! I need that. I'd pay for this instead of that facebook app crap.

Lemme know when someone makes one.

 

[Rigel Kentaurus]

Let's be realistic about something ..

Web changes everyday, and catching up with whatever is trendy is a necessity, we cannot ignore Facebook because "it will go away as MySpace did", because, what if it doesn't? Same applies to twitter, to Google Plus, sadly, the forums that move along with the times are the ones that will survive.

I once say that the forum providers' responsibility is to care about this. In this case, vBulletin or XenForo are responsible for providing a hip and updated product, because, to tell the truth, that is why I am paying for it, so I don't have to worry about integration with whatever-is-cool-today, they should worry about building the connectors, I'll worry about building my community.

Does this mean adding stuff that is a trend, and deprecating it tomorrow? Well, sure, but that is how it works.

Now, vBulletin, they are terrible, they have little quality, the products barely work and they are going down the pit but at least .. they are trying

• They have a Facebook App
• And an Android App
• And a Mobile Style
• And a Facebook App

.. down in the department of going ahead with the times, they are doing the right thing, they are providing the tools that some people think they need. Even if Tapatalk does XenForo and ForumRunner too, that is not the same as having a dedicated App.

Even if XenForo looks ok in the iPhone (I use it all the time), it is not the same as a mobile app, a skin designed to be browsed using a mobile device. And it won't be the same as an iPad skin, designed to multitouch (I loose all the hovers and onMouseOver)

And... guess what? vBulletin is going to sell those, and they are going to make money. And a business is about making money. Sure, keeping your customers happy and being non-evil is good, but if you don't have money you are out of business. Period. XenForo does not have the luxury to say "those are not important" if there is a market for it.


Now, what is the market for a Facebook app? I have no idea, people with fat wallets, maybe. But vBulletin is right in the sense of keeping up with whatever people seem to want, and that is ok. And that is welcome. The only reason it had such bad reception is because their main product is filled with bugs.

Myself, I would probably not use it. I have enough trouble keeping my users on the site, promoting them to login through Facebook is like committing a long, painful suicide and watching my users go away little .. . by little .. little, by little. (you get the point)

There is some level of Facebook integration that would be useful, though. The new Facebook graph allows for user interactions, so, for example, an Application can define "post a thread" as an interaction, an anytime a user posts a thread, the people would see that in the news ticker (new in Facebook), user A posted a thread ... and they have to come to the forum to look at it. That I like.

Users need reminders to come back to the site, if I could message them, "hey, somebody answered to your thread", like the email notification (call it facebook notification), that would be cool, it would keep the people coming back.

So, to round up. vBulletin intentions: good. Concept: good. Implementation: really bad
Putting the page inside a frame and loading it inside Facebook .. that is lame
Wanting me to pay $99 for that .. ha!

 

[Alpha1]

I could really use an app that advertises my forum to facebook users and brings them to my forum.

The vbulletin app does it the other way around, and advertises other sites to my users. Plus there is the issue of data going to Internet Brands which owns competing sites. So vbulletins app is really not useful at this time. It does however look good.

If Mike and Kier would spend their valuable development time on a facebook app, then surely it would be much better. A facebook app could be a powerful tool to bring influx to your site.

 

[Carlos]

I could really use an app that advertises my forum to facebook users and brings them to my forum.

The vbulletin app does it the other way around, and advertises other sites to my users. Plus there is the issue of data going to Internet Brands which owns competing sites. So vbulletins app is really not useful at this time. It does however look good.

If Mike and Kier would spend their valuable development time on a facebook app, then surely it would be much better. A facebook app could be a powerful tool to bring influx to your site.

Well, I don't want a Facebook App on xenforo. The way that vBulletin has made it - It makes advertising "easier" to the average user. We shouldn't make it easy for others to advertise their vbulletin or xenforo instance, we should encourage them to work for the traffic, work for the members.

If you work hard enough advertising your forum, then you can be rewarded, with an influx of members and viewers lookin' at your site. Whatever is it the goal you're trying to attain.

 

[Alpha1]

Well, I don't want a Facebook App on xenforo. The way that vBulletin has made it - It makes advertising "easier" to the average user. We shouldn't make it easy for others to advertise their vbulletin or xenforo instance, we should encourage them to work for the traffic, work for the members.

If you work hard enough advertising your forum, then you can be rewarded, with an influx of members and viewers lookin' at your site. Whatever is it the goal you're trying to attain.

Why shouldn't it be easy for people to advertise their sites? Isn't the success of peoples sites, the success of XenForo?
Basically its the same as adding SEO to your site. It causes more influx of members.
I never advertised my site. I just focused on SEO and content quality. That lead to a big board.

 

[Carlos]

Why shouldn't it be easy for people to advertise their sites? Isn't the success of peoples sites, the success of XenForo?
Basically its the same as adding SEO to your site. It causes more influx of members.
I never advertised my site. I just focused on SEO and content quality. That lead to a big board.

Because from what I understand of the app, everything is automated - no personalization of posts. See my MW3Blog and MVC3Forum pages to see what I meant.

I like to have control over presentation, and the verbalization of my posts so it reaches the user personally.

 

[Alpha1]

I definitely agree with you on that.

 

[Carlos]

Good!

When I bought CODForums, the site's facebook was pulling RSS feeds from the forum itself - this more or less hurts the SEO postensity. It was only linking INSIDE facebook's walls - not directly to the forums.

 

[kkm323]

Very bad idea, I feel sorry for vb. The developers are wasting their time in unnecessary features instead of high demand features.

 

[Markos]

Personally i have no interest to comment on the vb move. My interest is limited on the idea of fusion about the forum system and the facebook platform. It simply ridicolous that a link to vb mean adverting on a website that every xf member know.

 

[MarcosPreviato]

vbulletin it was!

 

[el canadiano]

I wtf'd when I heard it was just an iFrame of the forums. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[ragtek]

you're wrong

it isn't a iframe!

it's a "own" application... (with an nice style instead of creating it for the core, they're including it in an extra application )

I wtf'd when I heard it was just an iFrame of the forums. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[dutchbb]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me this app seems to stimulate users to be more active on Facebook rather than on your own site/forum. I really don't like the idea of promoting Facebook usage, and my advertisers would probably be very worried if the banners they payed for weren't displayed to all users. I really want to invite potential members to my site, in other words; I want to show them the trailer, not the whole movie.

 

[Carlos]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me this app seems to stimulate users to be more active on Facebook rather than on your own site/forum. I really don't like the idea of promoting Facebook usage, and my advertisers would probably be very worried if the banners they payed for weren't displayed to all users. I really want to invite potential members to my site, in other words; I want to show them the trailer, not the whole movie.

Indeed:

When I bought CODForums, the site's facebook was pulling RSS feeds from the forum itself - this more or less hurts the SEO postensity. It was only linking INSIDE facebook's walls - not directly to the forums.