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Anyone move to Vanilla from vB?

AstonJAstonJ New
edited January 2012 in Vanilla 2.0 - 2.8

What did you think? And more importantly, what did you users think? (Got a link to any threads where they comment on the change?)

Comments

  • AstonJAstonJ New
    edited January 2012

    Thanks Lincoln.

    What about more poster info with the post bits - are they optional in Vanilla? Such as location, join date or even custom profile fields etc (Here the only additional info shown is avatar and post count).

    Are there options/plug-ins for traditional BBCODE too? I think some users might miss that. (Also do posted links get parsed automatically?)

    Does Vanilla track unread posts? So if there are new posts in a thread you are taken to the first unread post.

    Is Vanilla easy to customise? And can you make use of conditionals such as 'if guest, show this, else, show this'

    Thanks! Hope you don't mind me asking more questions!

  • RaizeRaize vancouver ✭✭

    way too many questions dude.. why not just try out vanilla and compare for yourself.

    i switched my student forum from vb to vanilla and ppl were quite upset about it. they said it didnt feel like a forum anore but i really hated how slow and bloated vb is.. i knew eventually vanilla would the better, more modern forum software so the earlier the switch the better. vanilla doesnt have nearly the amount of features or options that vb does (ie bloat) but it has a lot that vb doesnt have so the change is worth it, especially in the long run if u want ur forum to grow. case in point, vanilla mobile version is awesome

  • Aston, how long are you using Vanilla? How long are you using this forum?
    80% of your questions in your last post can be answered by just looking at vanillaforums.org

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  • 422422 Developer MVP
    edited January 2012

    We have run vb forums for yrs. Personally i wouldnt port across, unless your super human like Lincoln.
    I would imagine the grief would drive u insane ... Esp from users .. Why dunnit do this, how do i do dat...etc etc.

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  • LincLinc Detroit Admin
    What about more poster info with the post bits - are they optional in Vanilla? Such as location, join date or even custom profile fields etc (Here the only additional info shown is avatar and post count).

    Yes, see http://forums.penny-arcade.com/ (requires custom theme though)

    Are there options/plug-ins for traditional BBCODE too? I think some users might miss that. (Also do posted links get parsed automatically?)

    Available posting options are HTML, BBCode, and Markdown. When you import, it will automatically set older posts to use BBCode so formatting is not lost.

    Does Vanilla track unread posts? So if there are new posts in a thread you are taken to the first unread post.

    Yes, as this forum does.

    Is Vanilla easy to customise? And can you make use of conditionals such as 'if guest, show this, else, show this'

    Yes, far more so than vBulletin.

    I switched for 2 reasons. First, vBulletin belongs to an Internet that no longer exists. People who haven't already used a old school forum by now probably won't. It's too damn complicated and hard to use. Second, customizations in vBulletin were absurdly painful. While the learning curve on Vanilla may feel a little steep, once you have it the sky's the limit.

  • AstonJAstonJ New
    edited January 2012

    Raize said:
    way too many questions dude.. why not just try out vanilla and compare for yourself.

    UnderDog said:
    Aston, how long are you using Vanilla? How long are you using this forum?
    80% of your questions in your last post can be answered by just looking at vanillaforums.org

    Time. Plus I like getting a feel for support from the community (and what better way to 'look around' than use the forum asking questions) - as that matters a fair bit to me. Also (fao @UnderDog) you can never be sure what is default or an add-on (I'm not keen on using 3rd party adds - ok with official add-ons tho).

    422 said:
    We have run vb forums for yrs. Personally i wouldnt port across, unless your super human like Lincoln.
    I would imagine the grief would drive u insane ... Esp from users .. Why dunnit do this, how do i do dat...etc etc.

    I won't be transferring any of my large forums, or ones where the users are less techy - but a gaming forum where I think the users will be more able to switch :)

    Lincoln said:

    What about more poster info with the post bits - are they optional in Vanilla? Such as location, join date or even custom profile fields etc (Here the only additional info shown is avatar and post count).

    Yes, see http://forums.penny-arcade.com/ (requires custom theme though)

    Are there options/plug-ins for traditional BBCODE too? I think some users might miss that. (Also do posted links get parsed automatically?)

    Available posting options are HTML, BBCode, and Markdown. When you import, it will automatically set older posts to use BBCode so formatting is not lost.

    Does Vanilla track unread posts? So if there are new posts in a thread you are taken to the first unread post.

    Yes, as this forum does.

    Is Vanilla easy to customise? And can you make use of conditionals such as 'if guest, show this, else, show this'

    Yes, far more so than vBulletin.

    I switched for 2 reasons. First, vBulletin belongs to an Internet that no longer exists. People who haven't already used a old school forum by now probably won't. It's too damn complicated and hard to use. Second, customizations in vBulletin were absurdly painful. While the learning curve on Vanilla may feel a little steep, once you have it the sky's the limit.

    [bold]Thanks Lincoln.[/bold] Oops bold doesn't work there - is it set in the ACP then? (admin cp) and can it run alongside markdown (or the others)?

    Re unread posts - is it possible (perhaps with a conditional) to show threads that contain unread posts in bold?

    Re customisation, I've never had any major problems with vB - in fact I'm so used to it that I often stick with it because I know it so well. The site I am thinking about porting over is gameslurp.com do you think it would be easy enough? (link didn't auto-parse - is that possible?)

  • UnderDogUnderDog MVP
    edited January 2012

    Dude! You don't do the VB BBcodes, you have to figure out which BBcodes Vanilla is using.

    Make a clean install of vanilla and install the bbcode plugin
    Then make a text bold, make an url, etc, etc.

    You will see in the sourcecode which BBcodes will be used.

    When you put brackets around an url it won't autoparse
    if you just put

    http://www.gameslurp.com

    you will get an autoparsed link:
    http://www.gameslurp.com

    Last but not least : Install Vanilla, look around, find the demo database to import in the documentation, look around again. Take notes of the questions you want to ask and then ask them.

    And GameSlurp would be a great challenge to convert.

    Step by step by step

    The addons, by the way, are made by respectable guys, so don't worry about them being from a 3rd party or something.

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  • LincLinc Detroit Admin

    This forum is using Markdown, hence why your BBCode will not parse. It's set to a single option in the Dashboard, yes.

  • Lincoln said:
    This forum is using Markdown, hence why your BBCode will not parse. It's set to a single option in the Dashboard, yes.

    Well... besides that, the old bbcodes still work. Just [bold] from VBulletin will be another BBCode in Vanilla, same goes for the Urls.

    Conclusion : Both BBcode and MarkDown will work, just use the right codes.

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