phpBB User With Questions Before Purchasing vBulletin

[edytwinky]

Attention vBulletin users.

I've currently been using phpbb for the past 4½ years. I'm getting tired of doing upgrades since I have to remod my board each go around. In that time frame, i'm now pretty knowledgeable on the basic php and sql language so I'd feel comfortable moving on to a different forum software that uses php. I've been looking at going ahead and paying for a commercial license for a better forum software. After looking at Invision and vBulletin, I've narrowed it down to vBulletin as the one I may probably go with. I have quite a few questions before going ahead with the purchase and I figured here would be the best place to go.
1.) In switching over a heavily modded board to vBulletin, would I lose any of the following things: user avatars, birthdates, gender, smilies, usergroups?
2.) When I install vBulletin, I would like to keep my old phpbb board up and install vBulletin on to a different domain name. (example phpbb.sitename.com to vbulletin.sitename.com) and import my phpbbboard. Is this possible to do or do I have to install vBulletin on to the spot where phpBB is loaded on to?
3.) Generally how much time would it take to install and import my phpBB information?
4.) I would plan on purchasing my own license for $160. If vBulletin goes out of business for whatever reason, would I still be able to use the software on my site?
5.) I have an arcade set up on phpbb and i'm guessing that's not transferrable on vBulletin (i.e. the scores), right?
6.) Is it necessary to purchase the additional $20 fee for the members area every year for site updates? Are these that common?
7..) Finally, each time I upgrade vBulletin to the newest version, do I have to reinstall any mods?

HOpefully this isn't too much to ask. Thanks for any help you guys can offer

[Fusion]

1. You'll be using the ImpEx system to do your import. See the linked documentation for details.
2. You can keep the old board, yes.
3. Depends on the size of your board, Internet connectivity etc.
4. I'd imagine so, yes. No one knows what happens when a company goes belly up, though. Not that I see that happing to Jelsoft anytime soon.
5. Yes, most likely. See the official mod site vBulletin.org for any arcades available for vBulletin.
6. See the Announcements forum for the frequency of releases. If you go for an owned license, upgrades isn't a must, except for security fixes, which are usually supplied as patches.
7. Depends on the mod. vBulletin has the ability to use plugins, which is very upgrade-friendly.

If you choose vBulletin, I'll hazard a guess you won't regret it.

Hope this helped, and welcome!

[edytwinky]

Thanks that answers most of it but not so much question #1

1.) In switching over a heavily modded board to vBulletin, would I lose any of the following things: user avatars, birthdates, gender, smilies, usergroups?

It doesn't say much about transferring over the birthdates and genders from the users table.

[Fusion]

Well, I haven't used the ImpEx much myself, but I know that the next semi-major release of vBulletin will include a Social Networking component. I assume this will also include a gender-field by default.
As for the rest, do a search for phpbb and import to see what others have said. I'd also suggest you do a dry-run import and see if anything is missing. If it fails, you are encouraged to open a support-ticket, so that the staff can assist you directly.

[edytwinky]

Thanks for the help.

I have now purchased vBulletin and look forward to the upgrade for my forums.

[Fusion]

Congratulations. I'm sure you won't regret going with vBulletin.

[edytwinky]

have a few questions. I've installed vBulletin and have done a test import on phpBB.

1.) How do I disable the "ignore user" feature?

2.) Can I also disable the "rating" feature for a thread?

3.) When quoting a thread, I would like the color of the quoted section to be a light blue. how do I go about doing this?

[Fusion]

1. The only setting currently available is to choose whether or not Admins and Mods can be ignored (under vBulletin Options). I'm not sure I'd like to prevent a user from ignoring other users.
2. Forum Options, per forum, but if you set it for the top forum and use inheritance it affects the whole forum.
3. Probably under the CSS settings, that's where the fonts are defined.

You might want to move this to the How Do I section now that you have a license.