Questions about styles, plugins, and other various things before purchase

[acktacky]

So, as associated with my join date on this forum, I've actually had vBulletin in the past. The forum I run switched from phpBB2, to vBulletin, back to phpBB2, and upgraded to phpBB3. We've been running fine, but the forum has been around for nearly 9 years now, and we're going to continue on with a new name and a complete database wipe.

My initial thought was to go to Wordpress/bbPress, because I really, really like bbPress. However, myself and the person I'm working with, we're starting to find that it might be a little more difficult than we anticipated. The customization of it all is a really, really big draw, but getting it all working together to look nice is causing the biggest problem of all.

I came back here to see what vBulletin has been up to, and I'm very, very happy to see that the Suite exists. It's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. However, that's a big purchase, and would zap most of the site's funds. So, I'm here to ask a few questions to make sure.


Really important, life altering questions

1. In the past, vBulletin was a real pain to custom skin. I'm not looking to download themes and use them--I want to make them. Are there any availble themes out there that are ready to be "molded?" Things like Sandbox for Wordpress come to mind--themes that trash the "useless" stuff and just leave the essential bones to build up from? Custom themes are one of my biggest draws on my forum, and I want to make sure they're still available.

Not so dire and life altering questions

1. Moving from phpBB3 to vBulletin, is there a script I can use to transfer posts over? I saw quickly in the Features list that it allowed various other forums, but not phpBB. I don't REALLY want to do this, but some members are already asking for help to do it when we move. I'd be more concerned about individual posts, which is silly and doubt there's anything out there for that.

2. Are there any plugins available that make a medal system for the forums? Or even a level system if I had to.

3. Where do I even find a list of plugins?

4. What kind of animal would you be?

Sorry that these are all probably really lazy questions, but that's just because I'm being honest and saying that I'm being lazy. I appreciate any input from you guys, as I think I might want to make vBulletin my home again if #1 is resolved. Thanks!

[Zachery]

1. vBulletin 3 was likely easier to customize than vBulletin 4 is. I know we've been working on making that better and have done so in the 4.0.8 release and are still working on that going forward.

Yes, Impex (http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex_systems)

vBulletin.org would be the best place for all of those questions

[acktacky]

Wow, thanks for the speedy response!

Umm, drat. I kinda figured that. I guess I'll just have to take a gander in the demo and see how difficult it will be... Or at least look at some other themes and see if I can work from them. Is 4.0.8 the most recent? And actually, that brings another question that I might not quite remember--do small upgrades like that cost money? Or do you only pay for big releases like, say, if 4.1 or 5.0 or something came out?

Oooo. And I can just import posts. Awesome. I might look into that. I just don't want to have to import users too. Haha.

Just trying to lighten the mood, but of course! Thanks again!

[Zachery]

4.0.8 came out today, we haven't yet updated our demo to 4.0.8 though.

You'll need to import forums, and threads, before importing posts. But I don't believe users are required part of that.

If you purchase a vB4 license, you get 4.x. You'd have to pay for a new version ala vB5.

[acktacky]

Okay, cool, on all of those. Maybe I'll wait for the demo to be put up before I poke around too much. This is all very helpful, though. Thanks. :J