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vBulletin Owners: Handy FAQs


Matt

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[quote name='Kaelon' date='15 October 2009 - 05:07 PM' timestamp='1255640857' post='1867141']
A couple of quick questions:

1. I am a Big Board owner, and my premiere community currently on vBulletin has nearly 2 million posts and 40,000 users. How well does IP handle these sorts of numbers? What does your Search algorithm look like? Do you have examples of Big Boards that run your software?

2. Can you point me in the direction of more information about how your templating system works? One of vBulletin 3.x's benefits is its customization of all HTML pieces surrounding variables using a purely HTML templating system.

Thanks!


Both vbulletin and IPB can handle these fine. I do recommend a cache system like xcache or memcache depending on your setup. However it really comes down to how many people are on at once not how many posts. Their search system is comparable to vbulletins and works pretty much the same however they have native sphinx support.

They use a very similar template system just like vbulletin's template system. I would say IPB takes more work to skin overall due to the increased amount of CSS.

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[quote name='Kaelon' date='15 October 2009 - 05:07 PM' timestamp='1255640857' post='1867141']
A couple of quick questions:

1. I am a Big Board owner, and my premiere community currently on vBulletin has nearly 2 million posts and 40,000 users. How well does IP handle these sorts of numbers? What does your Search algorithm look like? Do you have examples of Big Boards that run your software?

2. Can you point me in the direction of more information about how your templating system works? One of vBulletin 3.x's benefits is its customization of all HTML pieces surrounding variables using a purely HTML templating system.

Thanks!


1) We have many large corporations using IPB. One example is NBC, nearly 4 million posts and 260,000 users: http://boards.nbc.com/nbc/. The software is fully capable of handling sites of that size assuming your hardware is. As for search, one of the other developers can tell you more, I'm sure. I believe we recommend installing Sphinx for large sites, which IPB supports out of the box.

2) Our template system works in much the same way, but is also incredibly flexible. As you're probably used to, data is passed into individual templates, and you then use HTML to display them however you wish. The IPB template system also allows you to embed PHP if you want to do advanced manipulation, call templates into other templates if you want to easily reuse content, and even create your own template tags with a simple PHP config file (examples of tags included by default are a zebra striping tag for tables, and a date formatting tag).

Although many boards choose to keep the overall general 'look' of the default skin, with a little effort it is possible to completely change the appearance of the product, with nothing other than template modifications. To give you some idea, take a look at Skype's forum: http://forum.skype.com/ Although their live forum is running 2.x, their skin has been created for 3.x with zero backend modifications. It's all templates :)

The best way to see for yourself how the templates work is to try the demo, just go to http://www.invisionpower.com and click the Sign Up button on the homepage for a private demo installation :)

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[quote name='Matt' date='15 October 2009 - 05:30 PM' timestamp='1255591852' post='1866777']
.....IP.Content is on offer at $34.99 currently and includes 1 year technical support and access to download the latest version of the software. Renewal is $30 per year.
Just like with IP.Board, we'll be happy to install or upgrade it for you at no extra charge.


In the IP Store, its says that IP Content is $49.99 so you might need to change it, i presume its becuase v.1.1.0 is released.

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[quote name='Matt' date='16 October 2009 - 12:38 AM' timestamp='1255617527' post='1866908']
We have always 'grandfathered' our licenses when we've introduced new ones. For example, we previously offered lifetime licenses (lifetime usage and access to downloads) which we still uphold today and the same with our old perpetual licenses.

That said, we've not changed our current license for years and the six monthly renewal is a good model for us.



Thanks guys. I quite like the idea of things being grandfathered after a significant change. My broadband ISP does this too when others don't, and I've stuck with them for nearly a decade now.

What I'm fishing for is if there is something in the terms and conditions that ensures that that would happen for people who have already purchased something. IB claim that they dropped hints that what happened this week was coming, but I don't keep an eye out for such things in random posts on theirs or anyone elses forums with an eagle eye (who has time?), and instead rely on things being as they are in the contract, and what turned out to be an incorrect assumption that I would be able to renew perpetually. I would never have forseen them completely changing the licensing model without notice and withdrawing the ability to renew support. If the potential is there for the same thing to happen with IPB sometime in the future, I'd just like to have it marked down on the appropriate side of the pros/cons column is all. Not asking for anything or otherwise making demands :)

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  • Management

As mentioned previously, if we do change things then we always honour the existing licenses in circulation. We still honour the terms of the lifetime and perpetual licenses and we'd do the same with the standard license. If we sell you a license that says that as long as you keep on top of renewals then you can get access to upgrades at no extra cost then that's what we mean.

Even if we did bring out a super new license, the license you have is still valid. We wouldn't be foolish to "pull an IB" and pull the rug from under you.

I know you're looking for a little something to give you confidence that switching is going to protect you from all the hassle you're having now. All I can do is say that we're straight up, in it for the long haul and won't be careless with your trust.

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  • Management

[quote name='darkon' date='16 October 2009 - 11:31 AM' timestamp='1255689103' post='1867403']
I´m also thinking about switching from vB... but i have one question.

My Community uses custom-profilefields. Are those converted when converting from vB 3.8.4 to IPB? Are custom profilefields searchable in a membersearch?


Yes they are converted, and yes you can search them in the member list. :)

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If, in the future, some sort of "better" licensing terms became available than the one we had agreed to, it would existing customers be given the option to switch to it (depending on the circumstances, of course?) With multiple products and licensing types and different products hovering around, I think there's probably situations where this may come up (the community suite, for instance).

While logically licensing costs seem to get more expensive with time, if some 'All IPB products for a low $5 with no renewal fees ever' deal came up might be nice to switch to ;)

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  • Management

Well, we're far off into the land of theoretical situations now. :) I don't think I can write a cast iron statement that will cover all eventualities. If we did bring out a more attractive license then we probably would offer some way of switching. We've done it in the past.

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Hello,

I was waiting for the competitive upgrade pricing details but I see it's not listed anymore in the main post. Was the option ruled out or is there any information listed anywhere? This will be the deciding factor for me, and hopefully there is something still in the works...

Thank you

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I'm also vbulletin customer (soon to be EX). Walking into IPBoard's world will end up costing me more money to start but I need to trust the vendor; and I do give everyone a chance. Since I do not trust the current vendor anymore, I decided to leave. I'm giving IPBoard serious consideration.

I was worrying about..
1. Transition from vBulletin to IPBoard
2. Future licensing terms
3. Extras such as blog, CMS, gallery, etc

Well what do you know? One simple thread answers it ALL. It took me 8 minutes of my time to get all the answers.

I'll be playing with IPBoard demo tonight.

Thanks for this thread and a warm welcome kind of feeling that comes with it.
If the demo match my expectation (so far so good), I'm sure I'll become one of your customers soon.

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[quote name='mystical.vibe' date='16 October 2009 - 07:45 PM' timestamp='1255733150' post='1867754']
I'm also vbulletin customer (soon to be EX). Walking into IPBoard's world will end up costing me more money to start but I need to trust the vendor; and I do give everyone a chance. Since I do not trust the current vendor anymore, I decided to leave. I'm giving IPBoard serious consideration.

I was worrying about..
1. Transition from vBulletin to IPBoard
2. Future licensing terms
3. Extras such as blog, CMS, gallery, etc

Well what do you know? One simple thread answers it ALL. It took me 8 minutes of my time to get all the answers.

I'll be playing with IPBoard demo tonight.

Thanks for this thread and a warm welcome kind of feeling that comes with it.
If the demo match my expectation (so far so good), I'm sure I'll become one of your customers soon.


1 - Pretty easy. You can do it yourself with the free converter (http://www.invisionp...ard/convert.php) or buy a conversion from IPS. They will do everything for you.

2 - No problem here. Seriously. IPS ALWAYS honor their licenses (past, present and future).

3 - You can try the demo. See for yourself: http://www.invisionp...oducts/demo.php

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[quote name='ruinernix' date='16 October 2009 - 04:04 PM' timestamp='1255730658' post='1867732']
I was waiting for the competitive upgrade pricing details but I see it's not listed anymore in the main post. Was the option ruled out or is there any information listed anywhere? This will be the deciding factor for me, and hopefully there is something still in the works...

Same here. I was previously an IPS customer back in '04 (don't remember why I went to vB), but now that I've started looking into switching back, I remember how nice this community is... it's good to see that the folks I remember, like Matt, are still here and still actively posting and responding to customers, both existing and potential. However, I got suckered into renewing two vB licenses just a month or so ago, so a competitive upgrade price break would really help.

I hope that's still being discussed, and wasn't deleted from the initial post because IPS decided against it :(

Steve

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[quote name='Mark' date='17 October 2009 - 02:32 AM' timestamp='1255768353' post='1867875']
We did launch a sale
And I'm sure that's very helpful for those who want everything. This is actually why many of us are leaving vB, because IB is trying to manipulate everyone onto their Suite, when all we want is a forum.

I'm interested in IP.Board and IP.Content, so nothing in your sale is, for folks like us, on sale. :)

Take care,
Steve

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[quote name='Bluesplinter' date='17 October 2009 - 05:11 AM' timestamp='1255774307' post='1867891']
And I'm sure that's very helpful for those who want everything. This is actually why many of us are leaving vB, because IB is trying to manipulate everyone onto their Suite, when all we want is a forum.

I'm interested in IP.Board and IP.Content, so nothing in your sale is, for folks like us, on sale. :)

Take care,
Steve

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[quote name='Bluesplinter' date='17 October 2009 - 05:11 AM' timestamp='1255774307' post='1867891']
all we want is a forum.
...
...so nothing in your sale is, for folks like us, on sale.

And the same for us. I have 4 licenses for VB, and don't plan to continue any of them after this, nor do I need any addons (though I'm also contemplating the gallery for one board). I'm considering IPB (again), but won't be able to buy all 4 at the current pricing. If there was a decent sale for just forum software, I could justify at least two at this point.
Any hope of that?

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I'd suggest if you really wanted one, send a ticket to sales - at the very least it'll register your interest, and at the very best they might wrangle something for you. Bear in mind that the community suite promotion currently running is because they're discontinuing that suite in favour of just sliding scale your pricing based on your total spend, which is great for those of us using non-suite components (for example, I pay for IP.Content, IP.Blog, and IP.Downloads; I don't pay for IP.Board or IP.Gallery - only one of my purchases is a suite component)

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