vBulletin 3.5's BEST & WORST:

[Shining Arcanine]

You just typed out what Wayne said in a longer form

Cheater

Satan

Well, we've been trying to rewrite vBulletin's templates to be written properly (this goes beyond just pulling tables) at vBulletin-CSS.com, but we have had to water down our goals because every time we find a way to achieve them, it isn't possible due to a limitation of the Style Manager. We can remove the tables (and use CSS for positioning), but we can't do much beyond that as writing the templates as well as they could be requires modifying vBulletin. It is too limited.

Even so, none of Jelsoft's competitors come close to vBulletin's style system so you won't find a superior one unless someone gets so fed up with it that they design and market their own. I sent a list of suggestions to one of the developers so hopefully the next feature release will eliminate the Style Manager's limitations.

[Erwin]

Right. And leach the bandwidth off another site, also very uncool.

How is that different to images in sigs?

At the moment, we have:

Avatars - files have to be hosted on your server, cannot be remotely linked.
Signature Images - files have to remotely linked, cannot be hosted on your server.

Looks like vB Admins want the choice to have Avatars and Sig Images be able to do either one, to be given a choice rather than have the choice made for them.

[cyburbia]

Best: Implementation of AJAX.

Worst: Still haven't cleaned up the control panel.

The developers really listened to me when I pointed out a few problems, one of them very minor, with Beta 3. They were fixed in Beta 4, and it's really stable. I'm looking forward to 3.5 Gold, even if the control panel is still confusing.

[brinnie]

How is that different to images in sigs?

At the moment, we have:

Avatars - files have to be hosted on your server, cannot be remotely linked.
Signature Images - files have to remotely linked, cannot be hosted on your server.

Looks like vB Admins want the choice to have Avatars and Sig Images be able to do either one, to be given a choice rather than have the choice made for them.

I like your mind.

When one element cannot function the same as a parallel, you've got a problem.

[MJM]

Ah, the problem with writing in a relaxed state at my own computer isn't so much that it can lead to long-windedness, but the effort required to edit out/make less words to say as much ... I give up, here tis ...

Best Feature
vB Backbone - as the foundation for building an interactive community and resource knowledge base.

Worst Feature
Users Subscriptions - display and management controls
Subscriptions Display interface
New Posts - need more selectable viewing options
Selectable subscriptions should be viewable and manageable using the forums index interface.
In essence, the default view of the forums provides the bigger picture, a road map and global repository of information/postings. Members use the infrstructure provided as the foundation for creating a personalized road map and a knowledge base fine tuned to their interests and needs.

Subscriptions Management Interface - Come on now! The current subscribed threads interface is fine for viewing Most Recent subscriptions and that's where it ends.
Management of subscriptions should be also possible through the above - viewing of selected subscription types using the forums board as the display interface.

Subscription Types

Bookmark needs
- ability to bookmark (thread title only) for further reading
- ability to bookmark a post for further reference
- bookmarks folders provided based on forum board structure, viewable as per forum subscribed to, as all forums subscribed to, or in user customized folders. Bookmarked icon and management when viewing threads in forumdisplay.

Worse Feature: `Instant email notification' - because Instant is lacking, and because Instant is used in a somewhat deceptive manner that leads to confusion, misunderstanding and loss of communication.

Member: Uh, "I subscribed to receive instant email notification but only received one email. I thought the thread was dead. Now I won't get another instant email till i visit your website??? At least at Ygroups I do get all emails from the forums I've subscribed to. ..."

Instant should more aptly be called:
- Single reply email notification

Also needed:

- Receive all posts from this thread

- Receive all posts from this forum

This issue is NOT about sending an email from home computer to the forum - this is about readership subscriptions

For our readership subscriptions, the current Instant Email Notification subscription is inadequate.
They joined for the purpose of receiving up to date postings from (forum) topics of special interest to them.

Instead they are deprived of their desire to have truly `instant updates' sent to their own and most cherished home console.

I remember reading a comment when this was requested many moons ago ...
"Why would you want your members to read the posts in their email? - this will result in loss of traffic to your site"

Turns out that traffic at our site is growing quite nicely, primarily because we're providing content that visitors want to read.

The issue here is that vB does not provide for continuity of dialogue for subscribed readership through their home computer.

A basic principle for building an interactive community discussion site is to enable your members (who so desire) to be instantly updated on discussion that interests them most.
Email notifications are like a `carrot on the stick'.
Stick = site reminder
Carrot = email content
Eating carrot = going to site to view links in email / view image galleries > participating in dialogue

As would be expected, my opinion of most worst or most lacking features may not be desired by others, thus the need to provide easy on/off AND customizable options controls in the adminCP.

Mark

[Shining Arcanine]

How is that different to images in sigs?

At the moment, we have:

Avatars - files have to be hosted on your server, cannot be remotely linked.
Signature Images - files have to remotely linked, cannot be hosted on your server.

Looks like vB Admins want the choice to have Avatars and Sig Images be able to do either one, to be given a choice rather than have the choice made for them.

I agree. I right now have signature images disabled on my forums for three reasons:

1. I don't want tracking bugs in signatures: http://www.danasoft.com/
2. If they're not on my sites' server, they're probably on a slow server and I don't want the slow downs
3. I want to be able to enforce limitations on the screen space and disk space they take up, so they're aesthetically pleasing and don't contribute significantly to the load time of the page due to the sheer byte length of the images.

[Freddie Bingham]

Well, we've been trying to rewrite vBulletin's templates to be written properly (this goes beyond just pulling tables) at vBulletin-CSS.com, but we have had to water down our goals because every time we find a way to achieve them, it isn't possible due to a limitation of the Style Manager. We can remove the tables (and use CSS for positioning), but we can't do much beyond that as writing the templates as well as they could be requires modifying vBulletin. It is too limited.

Even so, none of Jelsoft's competitors come close to vBulletin's style system so you won't find a superior one unless someone gets so fed up with it that they design and market their own. I sent a list of suggestions to one of the developers so hopefully the next feature release will eliminate the Style Manager's limitations.

If achieving the end goal requires the style editor to be modified, that surely can be done as well.

[Biker]

I agree. I right now have signature images disabled on my forums for three reasons:

Yep.. Sigs are completely turned off on our site.

[brinnie]

Yep.. Sigs are completely turned off on our site.

I think I might do the same... Or at least, only for admins/mods

[bahbah]

Best
-----
AJAX and the promised improved more efficient code

Worst
------
The layout of the forum interface - it's too complex for forum newbies. This has been the case since I've been using vbulletin and is not a vb3 phenomena. It is something however that IMO is more important than adding features.

[Zachery]

Best
-----
AJAX and the promised improved more efficient code

Worst
------
The layout of the forum interface - it's too complex for forum newbies. This has been the case since I've been using vbulletin and is not a vb3 phenomena. It is something however that IMO is more important than adding features.

Hmm,

I really disagree on the forum interface. I believe some of the wordding may not be easy, but none of my users (10-40) have ever had a problem with the forum features. Or using its interface. Everything in vB is really stright forward.

[bahbah]

Hmm,

I really disagree on the forum interface. I believe some of the wordding may not be easy, but none of my users (10-40) have ever had a problem with the forum features. Or using its interface. Everything in vB is really stright forward.

My userbase is really centred around 15-25 and 40+

I receive at least 3-5 emails daily from new registrants asking how to post. I realise that some of the blame needs to lie on the site as well as the forum system - but if they can register surely they should be able to post. That is 3-5 people of the 80-100 people that register on my site daily.

It's all too easy to misunderstand quite how uneducated a lot of people are with computers and the internet.

I'm not saying that it's an easy task to make things easy for newbies, but adding every feature under the sun just makes it worse, and ends up catering for the minority of people that know enough about the system to actually benefit from it.

[filburt1]

The layout of the forum interface - it's too complex for forum newbies. This has been the case since I've been using vbulletin and is not a vb3 phenomena. It is something however that IMO is more important than adding features.

I very strongly agree. vB is like (and in some areas, surpasses) other forum engines in that they are simply far too complex to perform the simplest tasks without staring at the page for minutes on end trying what to do--which nobody does; they leave your site instead. Many people find vB easy to use because they are used for a forum interface, and more so, they are aware of the underlying concepts. Those new to any forum will be completely lost, especially one with so many features besides finding and making posts enabled by default.

[SonnetCelestial]

Best: security (not infallible but that's non existent on the net)
Worst: usually need to install the product to get a general feel for latest features

I've been looking for a features list for candidate 2 and as usual I probably will need to download and install it to know what it does. Many other sites have a "test" section to allow you to get a feel for the product. It would be great if I could test vb and future releases without needing to download it and install it all the time.

Am I lazy? Yes. Are other people lazy? Double yes

[Wayne Luke]

I've been looking for a features list for candidate 2 and as usual I probably will need to download and install it to know what it does. Many other sites have a "test" section to allow you to get a feel for the product. It would be great if I could test vb and future releases without needing to download it and install it all the time.

We have an online test version of the latest stable version. You can register for a copy at: http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php

When 3.5.0 is released the Admin Demo will be updated. However, it most likely won't allow access to plugins or products because those would open a security risk for this server.