Booth

Since so few people actually use them, I don't agree with shoving it back in again after they shoved it to the side due to lack of use.

But, if you want to add it back yourself, go read http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/articles.html?record=449

PM low space warning
PM vacation messages

After using this software for a bit, and having been pleased with its performance thus far I would like to share my thoughts with people looking for some answers. Hopefully some of my commentary will help potential buyers since it comes from a fellow vbulletin admin.

Just to elaborate a bit before beginning, I've been a vbulletin user for a little over 3 years now on a relatively small forum with a consistent group of posters. It isn't a 'big board' by any means, but over time I've probably used most the features that vbulletin offers. This puts me at an advantage with that software bundle over IP.Board, so if I give kudos to a feature that is 'missing', but isn't actually missing and a user error of ignorance on my part, please chime in and correct me fully.

I know you can't really be objective on some things, and for those instances I've tried to separate them from the facts by italicizing them. Also, this is not at all a comprehensive analysis of the two softwares. Just a collection of points that stood out to me. Hopefully this kind of thing is allowed if done in a non-hostile/polite to other product way, if not then nuke away or move to the appropriate area, if there is one.


Things in Invision's Favor:

This is based on the 3.0 series of board, after my use of the IP.Suite product that comes with IP.Board/Blog/Gallery


Private Messaging

While it's not a built-in in IPB3, I'm updating a mod that I've made to IPB2. Must finish it today or tomorrow.

We are investigating the possibility of offering a chat service for IPB directly from IPS.

This chat service would run inside of your IPB install much like Gallery or Blog however the actual exchange of chat messages would be handled by IPS servers. The high volume of transactions needed for a chat room would probably get you banned from most web hosting providers and, even if you have high-end hosting, it requires a specially tuned server to perform well. You can forget that headache and let us handle the transactions. Chat room statistics and access to log archives will of course be available for owners.

Testing

For the time being, we will only have the chat room open here on our company forums when an IPS staff member opens it. We are looking to test both the interface you use for chatting and the back-end server performance so we need online staff to monitor both sides of the exchange. So keep an eye for the chat link to appear in the top navigation or a "who's chatting" area to show up on the home page under statistics. When you see this then you know the room is available for testing :)

Please post bugs in the bug tracker under the IP.Chat category. You can post feedback here in the feedback forum or just reply to this topic. Please keep in mind this would be a version 1.0.0 so, although we can add all sorts of cool stuff over time, we are focusing on a nice, stable chat room right now. Things like private conversations, multiple rooms, and more are on our list but we must perfect the base chat room before adding on all the extras.

Please note that this is the first test of many users in the chat room so there will probably be issues. We will also be doing server-level testing so you might get kicked out now and again or the service may abruptly close so don't take it personally ;). Your feedback on all areas of the chat from features through usability down to speed of chat responses is appreciated.

Pricing

The pricing of the chat service is yet to be announced and will be based on how many people you have in your chat room at one time. Details of the package levels and pricing will be made available at a later date. The good news is that the first chat package level will be free for active IPB license holders. We hope you enjoy that extra benefit to being a license holder.

I'd like to suggest that when you click 'view new content' and get the message "Sorry, no new content found" there is a link which says... "To view posts that have been made over the last 24 hours click here."

Sometimes when checking view new content, and then I have to dash off somewhere else, I'm finding that the new content then disappears making the site look barren and then have to search for the post that was previously there.

I'd like to suggest that when you click 'view new content' and get the message "Sorry, no new content found" there is a link which says... "To view posts that have been made over the last 24 hours click here."

Sometimes when checking view new content, and then I have to dash off somewhere else, I'm finding that the new content then disappears making the site look barren and then have to search for the post that was previously there.

Posted blog entry today (and updated with video) in case anyone didn't see it.

Umm no, thats what Jelsoft/IB is doing for vBulletin 4 which is why i'm making the leap over to IPB3 in the very near future! :D

I think there is something wrong. OK, I try to explain what is suspicious.

Read some text in any post and double click on random desired word, like this:



On other sites when I double click on word it's marked in cca 0,2 second. But here when I double click on word I have to wait 1,5 second and then is word marked. Why??

I believe you understand what I mean.

Current skin:

Love the changes, especially the new green bullets for unread subforums and the hover effect for buttons is nice. My only suggestion is to add the AJAX mark forum read thingy for subforum bullets as well.

Lofi skin:

I noticed it received an update as well. Is it complete? I don't want to say much on it if it isn't, but I don't think the changes from the previous version are good. You're already crippling the forum by preventing access to certain key features (like the entire PM system), but now you're crippling the forum and topic listing as well. The previous version was great in that items were spaced out and you had more information. The current skin has less information but it's all crammed together so it looks even more overwhelming. There's no way to see if there's new topics in a forum or even see the last topic posted. What's the point of moving topic markers to the database in IPB3 if you're not going to use them to their fullest extent? :P

Also there still doesn't seem to be a way to change skins from lofi? I love that it automatically detects the user agent and applies the lofi skin, but I'm not a big fan of forcing my users to use it, nor is Google, Twitter, or any other application I use that makes use of a lofi theme.

Some screenshots if you don't have ready access to a mobile device:

Forum listing:


Topic listing: