I am trying to buy forums. I have not decided yet though.

[bnbn1382]

Well I narrowed down two forums to buy but I have to choose.
IPB or vB.
Although you guys might say IPB, I really want honest opinions.
Also I got three more questions.
1. Is there discount on buying IPB? Because I am pretty young, and my parents do not let me buy stuff easily.
2. Can you request mods?
3. I have heard that you can download mods but you have to actually edit them, not just click and installs. ( I heard that vB lets you do that but not IPB ). Will there be any updates that will allow me to do that? or is it already out?

[Jυra]

There's a system built in IPB that lets some mods/add ons install by just uploading the files and a couple acp clicks, you can request mods here or on modding communities, and IPB version 3 will have a hook system so there won't be any edits.

I'm sure if you ask around someone can either donate or let you use one of their licenses.

[MGBrose]

Well I narrowed down two forums to buy but I have to choose.

IPB or vB.

Although you guys might say IPB, I really want honest opinions.

Also I got three more questions.

1. Is there discount on buying IPB? Because I am pretty young, and my parents do not let me buy stuff easily.

2. Can you request mods?

3. I have heard that you can download mods but you have to actually edit them, not just click and installs. ( I heard that vB lets you do that but not IPB ). Will there be any updates that will allow me to do that? or is it already out?

My honest opinion is you really have to consider your website, the audience your catering to and know what you are looking for in a forum, feature wise. If you want a few social networking features right out of the box such as creating social groups or having personal image albums for every member, vb has that out of the box. Also you can tag your threads with keywords I believe for SEO and have prefixes attached to thread titles for organization purposes. And a fancy way of presenting images. But I think the admin side of vb has much to be desired, I rather like ipb's admin as in my opinion designed better. Also vb has a plugin system which you kind of addressed in your third question which I will go into a little bit more detail about that. In all reality besides those features which can be made as mods, just that vb has it default, in my opinion I don't see much of a difference between them with basic forum function wise. They both do and have the same features, member groups, profiles, threads, posts, emoticons, just the style and how was it implemented is pretty much different. Maybe I am oversimplifying things, hopefully other members can give you their opinions on the differences between them. In my honest opinion, I rather like ipb more as it is less bloated with features, so I can mod my board to the way I like it and not have some of the sometimes "half-ass" worked on features clutter up my board. And with the upcoming version of ipb, it will close the gap between ipb and vb with their plugin system. Plus will be more modern coding wise to vb. If your going with vb, you might want to check about their upcoming version of vb 4. I believe their announcement of recoding to more modern coding standards like ipb is doing for 3.0 over several versions a headache for website admins. To upgrade the board for each new version and have mods break or template edits not work because they are recoding each section of vb to modern standards would drive me crazy. But that's just my opinion.

To answer your questions
1. There really isn't any discounts on buying ipb. There is a discount on buying the ipb board, blog and gallery all together for a discounted price and cheaper renewal cost all together.
2. Yes, you can request mods, but like for any mod request, either for ipb or vb, it is based on coders interest if your mod gets made. Unless you pay for it, most likely it would get made.
3. What you said is true for some mods for vb. Yes, there is a plugin system that allows you to just upload a file to install a mod. But not all mods are like that. Vb has its fair share of plugins which you mod files or templates. I believe some mods here do not need file edits but I could be wrong. If you wait for ipb 3.0 to come out if your going with ipb, 3.0 will have a plugin system too. So one less major feature difference between vb and ipb.

[Aleks]

To answer your questions

1. There really isn't any discounts on buying ipb. There is a discount on buying the ipb board, blog and gallery all together for a discounted price and cheaper renewal cost all together.

2. Yes, you can request mods, but like for any mod request, either for ipb or vb, it is based on coders interest if your mod gets made. Unless you pay for it, most likely it would get made.

3. What you said is true for some mods for vb. Yes, there is a plugin system that allows you to just upload a file to install a mod. But not all mods are like that. Vb has its fair share of plugins which you mod files or templates. I believe some mods here do not need file edits but I could be wrong. If you wait for ipb 3.0 to come out if your going with ipb, 3.0 will have a plugin system too. So one less major feature difference between vb and ipb.

Another

[MGBrose]

Another

[Venom79]

The easiest way to decide would be to try the "Demo" of both boards both companys offer a demo you can try and see which one is easier to use and accommodate you needs better


IPB DEMO http://www.invisionpower.com/community/board/demo.html

VB DEMO http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php

[bnbn1382]

There's a system built in IPB that lets some mods/add ons install by just uploading the files and a couple acp clicks, you can request mods here or on modding communities, and IPB version 3 will have a hook system so there won't be any edits.

I'm sure if you ask around someone can either donate or let you use one of their licenses.

I am just asking.
Why would anyone donate me 150 dollars for IPB, especially in this economy. (stocks gone up again w00t)
It would be nice if they do though.. =D

My honest opinion is you really have to consider your website, the audience your catering to and know what you are looking for in a forum, feature wise. If you want a few social networking features right out of the box such as creating social groups or having personal image albums for every member, vb has that out of the box. Also you can tag your threads with keywords I believe for SEO and have prefixes attached to thread titles for organization purposes. And a fancy way of presenting images. But I think the admin side of vb has much to be desired, I rather like ipb's admin as in my opinion designed better. Also vb has a plugin system which you kind of addressed in your third question which I will go into a little bit more detail about that. In all reality besides those features which can be made as mods, just that vb has it default, in my opinion I don't see much of a difference between them with basic forum function wise. They both do and have the same features, member groups, profiles, threads, posts, emoticons, just the style and how was it implemented is pretty much different. Maybe I am oversimplifying things, hopefully other members can give you their opinions on the differences between them. In my honest opinion, I rather like ipb more as it is less bloated with features, so I can mod my board to the way I like it and not have some of the sometimes "half-ass" worked on features clutter up my board. And with the upcoming version of ipb, it will close the gap between ipb and vb with their plugin system. Plus will be more modern coding wise to vb. If your going with vb, you might want to check about their upcoming version of vb 4. I believe their announcement of recoding to more modern coding standards like ipb is doing for 3.0 over several versions a headache for website admins. To upgrade the board for each new version and have mods break or template edits not work because they are recoding each section of vb to modern standards would drive me crazy. But that's just my opinion.

To answer your questions

1. There really isn't any discounts on buying ipb. There is a discount on buying the ipb board, blog and gallery all together for a discounted price and cheaper renewal cost all together.

2. Yes, you can request mods, but like for any mod request, either for ipb or vb, it is based on coders interest if your mod gets made. Unless you pay for it, most likely it would get made.

3. What you said is true for some mods for vb. Yes, there is a plugin system that allows you to just upload a file to install a mod. But not all mods are like that. Vb has its fair share of plugins which you mod files or templates. I believe some mods here do not need file edits but I could be wrong. If you wait for ipb 3.0 to come out if your going with ipb, 3.0 will have a plugin system too. So one less major feature difference between vb and ipb.

When will IPB 3.0 come out? About when should I buy IPB? ( I think I remeber they give us five days for major updates, so like buy few days earlier before it comes out..)
How much would it cost for major updates?

[Lewis P]

When will IPB 3.0 come out? About when should I buy IPB? ( I think I remeber they give us five days for major updates, so like buy few days earlier before it comes out..)

How much would it cost for major updates?

The Beta version of IPB 3 will be out before the end of this month. The final version (the safe one to use) will be near the beginning of 2009.

IPS will install, and upgrade your board for free if you ask for it, at any time, but you must have an active support contract, which costs $25 every 6 months. :)



Edit: Sorry, IPS will install your board once and once only, but perform upgrades as and when needed at no extra charge. :)

[Mark]

While the information given in this thread so far has been accurate, I would ask you to send an E-Mail to sales@invisionpower.com with these questions so a staff member can answer you and thus we can ensure that the information you are given is consistent and accurate.

I am going to close this topic now, thank you for your understanding :)