IP.Board v. vBulletin

[jtwhite]

From a user point of view, I prefer VB as it's more straight-forward than IP Board. From an admin point of view, I have no idea as I've only used VB's admin controls. (For my own forum, I use myBB but that's not included. )

That's what I don't like about vBulletin, it's too straight-forward; too basic. It needs some spicing up. The Admin Panel on IP.Board is amazing.

Vbulletin is more advanced , but vbulletin has very much buggs .
IP.Board is better only for design & styles .

vBulletin definitely is more buggy. I don't understand why you say vBulletin is more advanced. Elaborate?

Although i absoulutely love the new default theme on IP board...

Me too, it's extremely sexy!

[Mr. DOS]

I haven't had any experience with vBulletin beyond than a couple demos, but from that time alone, I can firmly express my dislike for it.

However, I've admin'd a relatively small IP.Board 2 board for someone for almost a year now, and I don't like it much either.

vBulletin gets on my nerves largely due to its interface. As stated above, the ACP is rudimentary and still very much resembles a phpBB2-era ACP. Beyond that, the posting interface feels tired and old. I'm using the Quick Reply to write this; look at how much space it takes up and yet still wastes. The text box width is about OK, because much wider and reading becomes a pain, but it's far too short. There's OS-styled buttons below it, but the button to open it was themed. The textbox I'm writing in fits in badly with even the default theme, looking like it was ripped straight out of Office 98.

On the other hand, vBulletin feels comparatively quick and stable compared to IP.B. Its interface may be buggy in places, but that strikes me more as an interface thing than a backend thing. I mean, lets look at IP.B's backend: loading a simple thread takes about 11 database queries*. It's not exactly the fastest board system around either, and it handles a lot of template issues in seemingly retarded ways**.

Overall, I hate both boards. Sometimes, I open a piece of software and I just get this feeling about it, like it's going to break apart in my hands if I push it too hard. So far, both boards have given me that feeling, and both continue to do so (although I have yet to try their newest versions). SMF (what I run my own tens-of-thousand-posts board on) gives me a similar feeling. Actually, I could sum up by saying that I hate all board software I've come across yet (except for the now-abandoned IceBB; I didn't like it that much, but it looked like it had promise). Given all that, though, I think I'll conclude by saying that of both options given, I hate IP.B slightly less than vB.

--- Mr. DOS

* IP.B 2 numbers here.
** Again, IP.B 2. I hear tell they've made a lot of template system upgradifications in IP.B 3. I sincerely hope so - it couldn't have been much worse in 2.

[jtwhite]

I agree with you, vBulletin just feels old. The ACP in vBulletin is very much phpBB-2 style. I loved IP.B since IP.B 2, and 3 is much better than 2. I just feel that IPS is much more innovative.

I can firmly express my dislike for it.

(: