[dieselpowered]

Hey everyone, some time ago I had a general UTV site that included all makes and models…the site was called SxSHQ.com

I was thinking of starting that site up again and calling it PirateSxS.com

My first question is what domain do you like better? SxSHQ.com or PirateSxS.com

My next questions is what software to use, I will list a few examples of my sites that use the different software…I will indicate what software each site uses.

• Can-Am Commander Forums: Can-Am SSV Commander Forum (vBulletin)
• ShootersRealm.com: Shooting and Firearm Forums (vBulletin)
• Hunting, Fishing, and Outdoor Forums (IPB)

Here are the the two software platforms in their stock, non skinned state…this may be easier so that you are not distracted by a custom style:

• vBulletin Community Forum (vBulletin)
• IPS Community Forum (IPB)

Not sure if you can see, how IPB is very integrated, albums that you create in the gallery show in your profile as do blogs. As far as features and use, they are both very similar. More sites seem to use vBulletin, however, more and more people are switching out their vBulletin sites with IPB.

Anyhow, just thought I would see if I could get some of your opinions.

Thanks in advance!

 

[BLR]

Michael,

I like personally like the name PirateSxS.com vs SxSHQ....
Just like...Mud & Guts

with the IPB software I do like the gallery section where you can pick out a section and go to those photo's/video's ....

Both are easy to maneuver thru

 

[dieselpowered]

Thanks, yes I kinda like the PirateSxS.com as well

Still torn on the software, so all feedback and comments are welcome!

 

[sxsiowa]

I've used Joomla and SMF in the past and both worked relatively well, but vBulletin is by far the most popular based on the various forums I'm on.

 

[dieselpowered]

Yeah I think I am going to go with vBulletin and have pretty much settled on the domain PirateSxS.com

Figured I have had the domain for almost a year, should do something with it

 

[BLR]

Yeah I think I am going to go with vBulletin and have pretty much settled on the domain PirateSxS.com

Figured I have had the domain for almost a year, should do something with it

You devil...LOL

 

[Burner]

Hi.
I also own a forum in spanish about ATVs and SxS's it's www.Quadheads.com
But I have some basic knowledge
As you can see I have vBulletin integrated with their CMS package in the portal.
My experiences are this..

-This combo allows you to promote a post, blog to article easily to displaying it in the main page.
-vBulletin has allot of widgets to help customize the main page and forum.
-vBilletin has been just a little buggy, but that can be the Webmasters fault.
-they release are constantly patching and updating ( every 1 to 2 months)
-I have not tried the other software but I grade vBulletin in about a 9 on general experiences





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dieselpowered]

Thanks for your response Burner, first off, your site looks nice…for some reason I have been to it before

I am quite familiar with vBulletin as I have been using it for quite a few years…have used IPB quite a bit too, however, not as much as vBulletin.

The 3.8.X series of vBulletin was fantastic (that is what TKUnderground and CommanderTalk run on), however, once Internet Brands purchased vBulletin, things started going south, especially with the 4.X series. The 4.X series has gotten a lot less buggy, however, several bugs still exist. Not sure what you mean by the bugs being the fault of the webmaster as the webmaster is not responsible for the sloppy coding of the software.

The CMS, is quite a bit easier to use on vBulletin than on IPB, however, my understanding is the IPB CMS is quite a bit more robust. With that said, I have played with the vBulletin CMS, not the IPB as it is not very user friendly.

The environment in IPB is much more tightly integrated than on vBulletin, we will see in the future what happens if they release a vBulletin Gallery.

From an operation standpoint, they both are very similar, members seem to be more comfortable with vBulletin (probably only due to the fact that they have used it more)

The flash uploader in IPB is very nice.

Skin design, is much easier on vBulletin than on IPB, atleast that has been my experience. You can see my 4.X series vBulletin skin on ShootersRealm.com

I am leaning towards using the newest vBulletin to create the site simply due to the fact that I am quite familiar with the coding, templates, and database structure. I will likely leave the default skin for a little bit so that updates do not screw things up.

Thanks again!

 

[Burner]

I mean that some bugs may be because of the webmaster in the sense that
sometimes when you upgrade it fixes some old bugs but bring also new ones..
and the new ones are frequently are caused by bad programming on his part..
think of it as when you upgrade all your banners move out of place..(that sort of stuff)

Ive had issues with RSS feed scrips, Facebook and twitter plugins causing login problems, rotating banners and also sometimes CMS tends to cause ERRORS, so you are probably right in your comments regarding both CMS versions IPB being more robust.
Ive had instances that you promote a good topic from the forum with pics and the images don't resize correctly, then you have to manually re-link the images and when you try to move them for different layouts it sends everything out of order.

Our old forum used to be on phpbb and it was ROCK SOLID, in about 4 years I don't remember having any issues with upgrades of any kind..but it was not even close as versatile as vBulletin.

when we migrated to vBulletin we lost a hole bunch of pics and attachments that could not be imported to from phpbb to vBuletin with the impex software.. that really hurt because my site is more oriented to to the photo galleries of all our adventures... which happen on a weekly basis though out Latin America and Spain, so whe get a ton of ride reviews with nice pics... as much as we tried we could not get it fixed and had to settle to continue with the old DB without those precious pics..

Either way, its been a bumby road with vBulletin, but my thoughts are that the learning curve is whats mostly has caught us off guard..