im just not impressed at all....

[BIGMONAY2K]

okay i'm new here but i've a few things to say...

I really want to buy this software, infact i did try yesterday only to run into probs with paypoint. However, after reading the forum i am somewhat glad i didnt have success.

I still have a burning interest despite being strong advised to stay away from the admin team of a big forum that i am on. They have themselves just gone from vb to ipb. I'm hearing lots of bad things about vb atm and i'm hoping they change soon. Apparently members and old timers are flocking away from here which can only be bad news.

More worryingly is the extension of the offer - while this is great news for me and many others, it also raises the question why now keep it open without an end date - surely its not been as much of a success as vb anticipated.

I am not trying to be negative but after reading forum i feel i am realising this is not what i'd hoped and had been expecting.

For instance, some of the graphics/skin is utter crap, horrid grey colours too square in shape, it looks like we gone back in time. Yet within this 'reply to thread' box its refreshingly light and bright, the two dont mix, its like two different systems mangled together. At the very top of the page with all the very square out of date style, you have a 'remember me?' radio button but even this is sitting in the middle of no mans land.

Even the cms, it seems its trying to mimic a newspaper, especially with that terrible front 'news page' old style font, well newspapers are old technology now, even the content boxes down the side are too square, would be nice to see roundness - think sports cars - u dont see a square ferrari. Rise above it and do something better, something original, set a new precedence.

I'm looking for something smooth and light and easy to read and write, i'm looking at something spacious yet clear. Also something major i was hoping for, epecially with it being web 2.0, i was hoping for some www.bbc.co.uk style site interactivity and on the spot configuration and managibility and and changeable preferences per user, like drag and drop style sections - this is the future and this is what i want. Same things going on here www.virginmedia.com these sites have that customisation i'm hoping for. Are these features being looked into, will they be introduced?

I am dreadfully disappointed. I want this software but i know if i buy it i'll be feeling let down. I reckon vb and the community need to patch things up and work together on this to ensure vbulletin doesnt go down the pan.

Imho, vb need to sort this stupid attitude to banning people off the forums if they not like what they hear, they need to sort out the crazy licencing for the poor buggers who gotta pay again to upgrade to version 4, and then further the company behind vb should drop beta prices further on the understanding that these beta users are infact helping them to further develop a currently disappointing beta release. Only then can i see everyone pulling together and making vb exceed its potential - i'll deffo buy into it.

Ps. The scroll bar in the reply section doesnt work with mouse click movement, only mouse wheel scroll.

Regards,


buzzin

i couldnt agree with u more my friend...

[R1lover]

I'm very happy and thankful of my decision to not go on with vb4.... from the looks of the post here I made the correct decision as well..... On Thanksgiving Day, I'm very thankful for this.... lol

[cbiweb]

I'm very happy and thankful of my decision to not go on with vb4.... from the looks of the post here I made the correct decision as well..... On Thanksgiving Day, I'm very thankful for this.... lol

LOL - I get a kick out of all the flack people give over a BETA product.

[socceronly]

I am new, so perhaps I am missing something. I just don't see the horror.

I have only seen mentioned in this thread once, about the backend of the forum. I remember reading somplace that the whole thing was re written in OOP and will make future upgrades and module development easier.

Doesn't that count? It is not immediately obvious, but if cosmetics are all people are worried about it all seems a bit hysterical.

If people were complaining like this about the backend on a serious technical level I would be worried.


EDIT: I am talking about the forum, not the CMS.

[icarusforde]

LOL - I get a kick out of all the flack people give over a BETA product.

Same. BETA is the keyword. xD

I am new, so perhaps I am missing something. I just don't see the horror.

I have only seen mentioned in this thread once, about the backend of the forum. I remember reading somplace that the whole thing was re written in OOP and will make future upgrades and module development easier.

Doesn't that count? It is not immediately obvious, but if cosmetics are all people are worried about it all seems a bit hysterical.

If people were complaining like this about the backend on a serious technical level I would be worried.

Mmm, they are. vB is completely configurable, change it if you dont like it ppl. :P

[socceronly]

Same. BETA is the keyword. xD


Mmm, they are. vB is completely configurable, change it if you dont like it ppl. :P

Sorry I don't understand your response. Are you saying they are complaining about the backend on a serious technical level and it is not just the cosmetics people are complaining about like this thread?

[icarusforde]

Nope, i was hideously unclear there.

Most of the complaining is all about the cosmetics of it, like you said. :P

[Jerz]

I remember reading somplace that the whole thing was re written in OOP and will make future upgrades and module development easier.

That was the original plan, but IB decided it would be better to rewrite it over the 4.x series instead of all at once.

[socceronly]

Nope, i was hideously unclear there.

Most of the complaining is all about the cosmetics of it, like you said. :P

LOL.

Good to hear.

[Abomination]

Not everyone has the skill or money to change the stock forum significantly to make it more usable.
My understanding is whatever V4.0 looks like will be the look of the v4 series.
The more usable the stock forum software is, and the better it looks, more sales will increase, which in theory would be best for all of us using the vb software.

[icarusforde]

That's why other people make the styles that you can download at vbulletin.org and then use on your board.

And the vB4 style is one of the best i have seen, that i would happily stay with on my board if i had no other choices

[Ingenious]

they have themselves just gone from vb to ipb. i'm hearing lots of bad things about vb atm and i'm hoping they change soon. apparently members and old timers are flocking away from here which can only be bad news

I have to be careful how I phrase this, so as not to breach the forum rules about "bashing" other software, but here goes I'll try and be as factual as I can... I originally ran an old forum (Ikonboard, a perl based forum) and looked into moving to IPB about two years ago. I got no response whatsoever to my pre-sales email questions, yet vBulletin answered within hours, so I came to vBulletin instead. I have been very happy with it.

Recently, with 3.8 clearly heading towards end of life, and with no vB4 to see at the time, I also started looking into IPB and have been active there asking many questions. That was until my forum account stopped working, so I tried a password reset and that did not work. So I emailed their support and it bounced back. So I then called them (from the UK, not cheap) and their tech support would not help because I was not a licenced customer. They put me through to pre-sales, which was an answerphone, I tried calling back approx 10 times over two days during their office hours and always an answerphone. So I left a message leaving my username and asking if someone could fix it and email me. No response. No reply, no email. I also tried emailing their tech help email, this bounced back. Eventually, my account started working again, so I posted about this not entirely positive experience in their forum, and they didn't respond to that either.

What I guess I'm saying is two things. One, the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence - please don't let a handful of vocal people tell you otherwise. Two, I personally put a VERY HIGH value on customer service, this is worth more to me than a better feature set. vBulletin customer service is brilliant, in fact most of my issues have been sorted here in these forums, without even needing support tickets.

At the end of the day, all of the leading forum packages are good and there isn't a lot to choose between them in terms of features. What's missing in one, you can replace with mods, plug-ins or template changes. But having looked at IPB again, although I can appreciate the odd thing I really do like (attachments in PMs, dynamic resizing of IMG images), my presales experience was sufficiently bad - just like 2 years ago - to put me off, and I'm not going to make any rash decisions.

I do think a lot of the dissent here was because vB4 was "launched" without a tangible product to actually see, and also change is never easy (human nature being what it is!), and now we have a beta that is slightly quirky and buggy (yes I know, it's because it's a beta). I just get a very bad feeling about vB's competitors based on my direct presales experiences, yet come into this forum and there's LOTS of very helpful people standing by to sort out your problems. So the product here may be changing, and may need some work, but the service is still good.

Sorry I have rambled on, but I feel obliged to point out my experience with "the other side" was not a bed of roses as I think the saying goes.

[deityx]

First impressions are everything. It might be a beta, but people see the style, form their opinions and then rarely change them.

I once saw Starcraft beta. It looked like total crap compared to what it was later. It's not important where I saw it or how, and it's not important that it might not be the best looking game. The bottom line is, beta differs from the final product alot in many cases (most cases to be more precise; or serious products). As for the LOOKS, for gods sake - one has the option to change the look of vBulletin in its entirety, assuming they know what they're doing. So I think, people should just focus on the technical aspects, features and similar things. Bugs will be fixed, voices are heard thus features will be added in time. Just be patient.

[dutchbb]

This thread makes little to no sense now since so many changes have been made to the style since it was posted. I think it would be better to close it and allow for new opinions to be posted based on new user experience.

[Grover]

This thread makes little to no sense now since so many changes have been made to the style since it was posted. I think it would be better to close it and allow for new opinions to be posted based on new user experience.

Well... actually I am still not impressed. Hopefully the Gold release can turn things around...