Ditchmonkey

I stand corrected. Although - Rikki's statement makes me wonder whether they should really be offering general hosting under the kind of restrictions he mentioned.

I stand corrected. Although - Rikki's statement makes me wonder whether they should really be offering general hosting under the kind of restrictions he mentioned.

Vbulletin will resize image attachments to maximum dimensions specified in the admin. Whether attachments are displayed as thumbnails or full sized is also configurable. Of all the issues I had related to user dissatisfaction with the switch from VB to IPB, the biggest was related to these lack of options for image attachments in IPB. I am currently looking at moving a clients site to IPB but I don't think he's going to go for it without these options.

I think you will hear a lot of this from all our new Vbulletin refugees.

I can give you several reasons:

1. Many site users have fixed width sites and they would like ALL content to fit within the dimensions of the site.
2. Regardless of how big a users monitor is, users will always come up with images SO LARGE that they won't fit in any monitor
3. Regardless on your opinion on the issue, vbulletin provides this functionality so unless you want to hear about it regularly from here until the end of time, you'll need to address the issue.

And as I stated before, my #1 biggest complaint from my users after migrating from Vbulletin is the lack of options in photo attachment handling. And this is just one site in hundreds or thousands of sites that could end up moving to IPB. Why would you not add the settings many of your customers need? Seems pretty simple to me.

I can give you several reasons:

1. Many site users have fixed width sites and they would like ALL content to fit within the dimensions of the site.
2. Regardless of how big a users monitor is, users will always come up with images SO LARGE that they won't fit in any monitor
3. Regardless on your opinion on the issue, vbulletin provides this functionality so unless you want to hear about it regularly from here until the end of time, you'll need to address the issue.

And as I stated before, my #1 biggest complaint from my users after migrating from Vbulletin is the lack of options in photo attachment handling. And this is just one site in hundreds or thousands of sites that could end up moving to IPB. Why would you not add the settings many of your customers need? Seems pretty simple to me.

Vbulletin will resize image attachments to maximum dimensions specified in the admin. Whether attachments are displayed as thumbnails or full sized is also configurable. Of all the issues I had related to user dissatisfaction with the switch from VB to IPB, the biggest was related to these lack of options for image attachments in IPB. I am currently looking at moving a clients site to IPB but I don't think he's going to go for it without these options.

I think you will hear a lot of this from all our new Vbulletin refugees.

I've been a customer of IPS's for quite awhile now (I believe close to 5-6 years). And usually a pretty vocal (but civil) member. They (and you) may not always agree with me, and sometimes I admit I seem to run in circles like a dog before getting the point I'm trying to make across. But the staff has always been patient with me. And if I get out of hand on that rare chance, they let me know. They have been fair. They have been civil. And they have been partial.

Now I don't always agree with how some things have been done. But much of that was in the past. And they have overall improved in many of those areas. While I was vocal about things like the mod community not long ago, I think sometimes it takes certain events like the VB member mass exodus to IPB where they are asking for 'mod this' and 'mod that' to help move some things along or to re-awaken my arguments. (Which I'm sure they cringe at, at this point. lol)

But in the end, IPS has pulled through. Some things I admit seemed slow to improve. But they HAVE improved on them.

I understand some admin/owner frustrations. They want to move to IPB, but are stuck on VB because that's what their members want. And sometimes it's not an easy decision. And in some cases an impossible one because thats what the members are accustomed to.

I think this mass exodus to IPB from VB will help IPS in the long run. More active members, more input, more opinions, and so on. (Of course there is only 1 me! :P)

Long story short, I hope to not see the day IPS turns as anti-customer as VB has. VB never used to be this way. But since Oct., many of the fears that VB users had (mainly because of that leaked posting from the admin area on their forums), has come to pass. The changes seem to be due to the new mgmt and owners of Vbulletin. It's no longer the VB many knew.

I have supported IPS and will continue to do so. What's ironic for me is when I complained about their new pricing structure awhile back. I wasn't happy with it. Then VB comes out with theirs last month and made the IPB pricing changes look sane in scope. VB essentially made an ass out of me. Go figure. But at least it made me and others realize how good IPB really is in comparison.

Hopefully now we will see more positive changes. And hopefully that while they will continue to innovate, they will also add useful features members frequently request.

Thank you IPS for 'keeping it real' and for not sending some of us to the poor house any faster than you have to. ;) As well as acting 'normal' while also running a business. Too many times businesses become so business like, they lose touch with what the customer really wants, and instead THINK they know what the customer wants. (Big difference.)

So thanks for everything!

Although I can see this as a day at the office. :P

I know we have discussed this search issue a lot, but I continue to get a lot of complains - like this one I got today:




To summarize the main problems with the default search form are:

1. No option to return threads, rather than posts, as results.

2. Default search for multiple words is logical "or" rather than "and"

The combination of these two issues makes the search pretty useless - especially for those of us coming from Vbulletin, that by comparison, has a much more usable default search.

I have seen a few unofficial and vague comments about some changes coming - but the more specific replies to these issues from IPS staff have been along the lines of "we like it that way" or "thats just how mysql works and we can't do anything about it" (which is nonsense of course because vbulletin does it just fine with mysql).

So - this is an ongoing pain in my ass. IPS - for the most part I love you guys and I love the product, but as far as search goes - here's my temp solution:

I know we have discussed this search issue a lot, but I continue to get a lot of complains - like this one I got today:




To summarize the main problems with the default search form are:

1. No option to return threads, rather than posts, as results.

2. Default search for multiple words is logical "or" rather than "and"

The combination of these two issues makes the search pretty useless - especially for those of us coming from Vbulletin, that by comparison, has a much more usable default search.

I have seen a few unofficial and vague comments about some changes coming - but the more specific replies to these issues from IPS staff have been along the lines of "we like it that way" or "thats just how mysql works and we can't do anything about it" (which is nonsense of course because vbulletin does it just fine with mysql).

So - this is an ongoing pain in my ass. IPS - for the most part I love you guys and I love the product, but as far as search goes - here's my temp solution:

OK guys,
I am currently running a vbulletin forum with a professional design set. My first and foremost worry about moving over to invision was the design of my forum. My thought behind this is that it is going to be a big enough move over to invision as it stands without the fact that the forum will look completely different.

NOW, bare in mind I only purchased invision less than 24 hours ago. I have almost managed to duplicate the look of my forum with only a very very basic knowledge of CSS and some knowledge of photoshop. How have I done this? I would seriously urge you to have a good read through the topic on this forum http://www.smartestcomputing.us.com/index.php?showtopic=37422

This tutorial, I would print out and have at the side of you throughout your transition. Its simple, and it works...... Dont worry about your skinning guys. IMO its easier than vbulletin 3.8 and at the end of the day, you would have to learn 4.0 anyways.

I'd also like to point out that returning posts as results for a "topic search" makes perfect sense and to have the default forum search return results as a combination of topic and thread searches not only reduces the utility of regular search, but it to a certain degree reproduces functionality in the topic search.

I think what is important is that the most fundamental default behaviors of the IPB board conforms to what the bulk of your customers want and need. I also think that as per my example, returning posts as results really doesn't make as much sense as returning threads.

My users have been complaining that since switching from Vbulletin, searching for specific threads has become much more difficult. I believe that the problem is that when I search for "chains" for example, rather than returning threads that contain chains, it instead returns posts that contain chains. So page one of the results might look like this:

Thread 123
Thread 123
Thread 123
Thread 123
Thread 345
Thread 345
Thread 678
Thread 678
Thread 678
Thread 678

Where the first 4 results are 4 posts from the same thread. The next two are from another thread, and the final four are all from a third thread. So the first 10 search results just represented three threads and 10 posts within those three threads. Whats worse is the first four results are from a thread that was just created 30 minutes ago complaining about how hard it was to find that thread about "chains" that people remember.

I'm not sure it makes sense to return every post that contains the search phrase within the thread because - well if the thread is about chains we just might be mentioning it in every post.......

1. I don't believe that returning posts should be the default behavior
2. Is there anyway to change it?
3. If the answer to #2 is know can we get some improvements here? The default behavior should be to return threads as results, not posts.

The IPB board is only 150. The suite is 250. However since vbulletin has an albums feature that would require IPB gallery to migrate that data, I think it would be a good idea for IPB to have a discounted package that includes forum and gallery to facilitate a proper migration of the VB forum to IPB.

The IPB board is only 150. The suite is 250. However since vbulletin has an albums feature that would require IPB gallery to migrate that data, I think it would be a good idea for IPB to have a discounted package that includes forum and gallery to facilitate a proper migration of the VB forum to IPB.

The IPB board is only 150. The suite is 250. However since vbulletin has an albums feature that would require IPB gallery to migrate that data, I think it would be a good idea for IPB to have a discounted package that includes forum and gallery to facilitate a proper migration of the VB forum to IPB.

Well if you guys are serious about getting market share from vbulletin and migrating boards from vbulletin to IPB, you should at least prvide the option to duplicate the most basic Vbulletin user experience paradigms.

So can we get this as an option? Soon?

I'd also like to point out that returning posts as results for a "topic search" makes perfect sense and to have the default forum search return results as a combination of topic and thread searches not only reduces the utility of regular search, but it to a certain degree reproduces functionality in the topic search.

I think what is important is that the most fundamental default behaviors of the IPB board conforms to what the bulk of your customers want and need. I also think that as per my example, returning posts as results really doesn't make as much sense as returning threads.

My users have been complaining that since switching from Vbulletin, searching for specific threads has become much more difficult. I believe that the problem is that when I search for "chains" for example, rather than returning threads that contain chains, it instead returns posts that contain chains. So page one of the results might look like this:

Thread 123
Thread 123
Thread 123
Thread 123
Thread 345
Thread 345
Thread 678
Thread 678
Thread 678
Thread 678

Where the first 4 results are 4 posts from the same thread. The next two are from another thread, and the final four are all from a third thread. So the first 10 search results just represented three threads and 10 posts within those three threads. Whats worse is the first four results are from a thread that was just created 30 minutes ago complaining about how hard it was to find that thread about "chains" that people remember.

I'm not sure it makes sense to return every post that contains the search phrase within the thread because - well if the thread is about chains we just might be mentioning it in every post.......

1. I don't believe that returning posts should be the default behavior
2. Is there anyway to change it?
3. If the answer to #2 is know can we get some improvements here? The default behavior should be to return threads as results, not posts.

Mac OS X 10.5.9 Snow Leopard uses FEWER resources than Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard.
Ditto for a couple of other version of the operating system.

I don't think telling your customers that "Windows is fat and bloated, so we can be, too" is exactly what they want to hear.

"It's how computers and software work" is not entirely true. Look at how Firefox, Safari, Opera, and other pieces of software get faster, smaller, or both with each iteration. Even Windows7 is supposed to be less of a pig than Vista. There goes your Microsoft alibi.

One feature of Vbulletin that I miss are links to moved threads that expire automatically after x days. Would be nice to see that as part of IPB

Vbulletin has moved all customer feedback threads to a non-public forum so I can't link any threads. But let me tell you what's going on in that private forum - VB users are very angry and are becoming more and more vocal about it. VB staff are becoming very heavy-handed in moderating that forum. Essentially, dissent is no longer tolerated and constructive discussions about customer needs are a thing of the past.

So IPB - keep it up with the great communication, friendly customer support, and great product offerings and you may just see a mass-exodus to your products.

Vbulletin has moved all customer feedback threads to a non-public forum so I can't link any threads. But let me tell you what's going on in that private forum - VB users are very angry and are becoming more and more vocal about it. VB staff are becoming very heavy-handed in moderating that forum. Essentially, dissent is no longer tolerated and constructive discussions about customer needs are a thing of the past.

So IPB - keep it up with the great communication, friendly customer support, and great product offerings and you may just see a mass-exodus to your products.

Vbulletin has moved all customer feedback threads to a non-public forum so I can't link any threads. But let me tell you what's going on in that private forum - VB users are very angry and are becoming more and more vocal about it. VB staff are becoming very heavy-handed in moderating that forum. Essentially, dissent is no longer tolerated and constructive discussions about customer needs are a thing of the past.

So IPB - keep it up with the great communication, friendly customer support, and great product offerings and you may just see a mass-exodus to your products.