Good luck with your venture, though I'd recommend vBulletin if you're looking for something professional. You'll probably need to do some advertising, either paid for free advertising.

Danny, why do you think vBulleting is "more professional" then phpBB?

From my experience, as a generalization (although there are certainly exceptions) vBulletin comes off as much more professional.

Well, I have taken some time to review the vBulletin forums, and discussions. The fact that there is open discussions on supporting vBulletin for money is already a plus. I have tried to start a forum on phpBB, and you would think I asked them to re-write the code in .ASP or something... :rolleyes:

I just wanted one forum, where phpBB users, whom are willing to PAY for MODs & hacks, could post their requirest, and the professionals, MOD and hack developers could PM back to the poster. No dice. :cry:

There are also several more modifications available to vBulletin then to phpBB. One of my major problems with phpBB was the lack of default/built-in feature to add profile fields, then flag them as public/visible or private/hidden.

My only concern is with vBulletin (other then the price), is how the modifications are implemented. Are they all manual in the files, or is there a tool, similar to phpBB's EasyMOD? :?:

I do not thin vBulletin and phpBB looks that much different from the user's perspective so my only other concern is how easy to add non-vBulletin pages with the vBulletin look/feel "engine/template/skin"? I seen a few "portal or CMS tools, but I cannot try them out since I cannot install vBulletin, without buying it. Any suggestions on this?

I think I am pretty much set on vBulletin as the solution for this community web site.

Now for the domain name - I need some sort of an identity.

Is there a tool out there that can find short, as short as possible, domain names, using a list of thoughts, words, synonyms, etc. to generate a domain name? :?:

Well, I am stuck.

I cannot get anyone to answer my questions on vBulletin.org, and of course vBulletin.com won't answer.

The questions are "compatibility" of various hacks
Best CMS forcompatibility with other hacks,
and most plugins,
and easiest to re-install in new versions of vBulletin.

Any suggestions? I am willing to drop the owned price, but it is driving me nuts that I can't even see the hacks' screen shots. That is ridiculuous! How am I supposed to decide if vBulletin is the right choice if I can't see it? I am not asking for the code...

I can't offer much assistance as far as the vBulletin community is concerned, but I can say that vB is an excellent choice. It powers this forum, and my PHP knowledge along with how extensible the code is, has allowed me to build blogs, a code snippet section, tutorials, a portal, and a link directory on top of the vBulletin core system.

Unfortunatelly I cannot rely on my own PHP knowledge, albeit I could do it. I am not interested in coding or making major changes by myself.

On a different note, searching for their return policy and support agreement I realized that they haveno return policy. They decide "case by case". As a business, anything non-concrete non-defined scares me. While searching for the refund policy, I have also read some of threads on their license enforcement problems, whereby representatives of theirs contacted the ISP directly to remove a site, which turned out to be a valid license. A serious problem and potentially costly for a business.

Sudenly vBulletin doesn't look so hot... I am revisiting other GPL/free forums with CMS/Portal to see if they can do the job...

Hmmm...

I understand the dilema of visible source. There are compiled PHP solutions. This would not just protect the code (to the extent that is not reverse engineered), but possibly make it faster. It would also provide some more consistency to MODs and such. Jelsoft would have to provide standardized hooks.

At some point the vendor will have to trust the customer. The relationship ,the way it sounds on the board, currenty seems very hostile towards customers who are not in the "clique". Interestingly, this is more of a trademark of open source projects.

As for the exchange between the Pirate Reports or something like that individual and the web site owner was just scary. The postings are on vBulletin.com. Search for "piratereports". There are two cases that show up, which suggest to me there are many more. In one case the registered user's web site was taken down going through the ISP, and on a second case a registered user's ISP was threatened to take site down.

In both cases vBulletin does not dispute the validity of their registration. The responses from them are crude, have an air of superiority, and blatant disregard for curtesy. Their customer relationship, in one word "sucks".

The software looks great from what I have seen, and the potential is there, for me to use it in my solution.

But I am scared to deploy a commercial web site where seconds could mean loss of serious money. From what I have seen, they do NOT follow DMCA rules of attempted notifications - they go directly to the host, and hosts are scared so they would destroy the site.

So now I am in a quandry. Here is a software that would do the job, but am I willing to drop the money for owned & (c) removed version, and commit to annual fee to get updates - knowing that their customer appreciation is not in their top 10 list of things to do?

Yes... I am.

I have looked and looked and looked. Came to the realization that there is a major management problem with phpBB.

All hacks/mods/add-ons (mods hereon) use SubSilver templates/Style. Any new styles added, the mods have to be redone, i.e. programmed either the mod templates, the styles themselves or both.

In vB, that is not the case. The styles and look-and-feel is inherited by the mods.

This creates a huge problem in phpBB. When there is a major version change, I would have to re-apply all mods, THEN reapply all template/style changes.

My primary goal is to make the site as self-sufficient, self-managing as possible, most hands off.

Am I wrong? Correct me quickly before I drop $280...

Could it be possible that you start out with a phpbb and then after you KNOW the site is a hit then transfer everything (including posts) over to vB?

No. And the simple reasons areI do not want to spend the time to convert the system
customer confusion at conversion
search engines will have to reindex new pages and expire old pages and time is money when it comes to web sites :cheesy:
I will have to maintain old system until all major SEs expire pages (duplicate system) further confusing customers
conversion potentially not work and loose some data/information/content
Moderators will have to re-trained and potentially loose them
I will have to be retrained and potentially loose it :lol:
Can't think of others right now, but I am sure there are...

In my previous job I have learn something from a [great man - the ability to take a concept, strip it down to its elements then apply it to a similar but not exact situation.

Now you would say this is what makes us human. We learn a trick and then can apply the trick to similar events, with slight modifications. That is why we lead dogs, and not dogs lead us, right?

I believe this is not the case when most of us deal with business, only with very very basic things... Great entrepreneurs have taken this concept and made it into an art. I hope to do just the same. So by selecting the "right" solution in the begining, I will have to change/alter fewer things for new niche markets...

Did I even remotely make any sense? :eek:

The concept is as follows -

1. Select the appropriate technology. The forum software, and portal piece. It has to be flexible, and cannot lock the site into itself. 2. deploy an online community with a unique interest to attract eyeballs 3. make sure that the unique interest has sufficient user base, (for example buggy whips are really cool but there are too few people interested) 5. Do not initially, or ever charge for visitors 6. Generate sufficient amount of content to start discussions 7. Get news (RSS, XML, etc.) feeds to trigger new discussions 8. Make sure advertisements are managed appropriate throughout the site, and are unobtrusive 9. Usability is a key element 10. Find the right key phrases, and get site listed on appropriate systems 11. Once eyeball momentum is sufficient, enlist members to be moderators 12. Reward moderators 13. Reward frequent posters

For technology, I am now firm on vBulletin. For add-ons and features, I will purchase them and installed them as need arises.

I am still hesitant on a decent host. I have one that will provide a shared IP solution for $10/month, DB, e-mail, etc. basically the works. I had no problems so far for the last three years for two sites. It is shared servers, and there is the potential of running afoul with it. I think until the site starts generating sufficient money to support a dedicated hosting, I will keep it with them.

I have also selected a domain name -tincap. Has absolutely no relations to the content of the site, but I have asked several people and the all pronounced it and wrote it down the same way. I grabbed .com, .net & the .org.

I have selected a unique topic. It has strong potential and several off-shoot topics which could become other sites.

I am currently waiting to install the software, and add content to the site.

I am a die-hard fan of VB. It's to much money for me though, I aint going to pay almost $200 for a flop-site. You know? (If it was a flop, you'd be out all that.) PhpBB works great, has great templates, and it's easy to understand.

I say you take the $200 you'd pay for VB and spend it on advertising. That should be good.

LOL! I guess if I was more pragmatist, this would make complete sense. Too bad I am an optimist entrepreneur. And as an entrepreneur, Ihave to be an optimist. So $280 for me will be an investment, not "money down the drain". If it fails, which it won't, I can chalk it up to a positive learning experience.