VBulletin v4 Publishing Suite

[golles]

Just after some opinion on VBulletin v4 Publishing Suite.

We are looking at a community site at the moment that is built on VBulletin 4 and the publishing suite powers the entire site.

If we buy the site we will certainly keep the forum. But I am unsure of the capabilities of the publishing suite as a content management system. Specifically need blog(s), static page publishing and flexibility on layout / design.

My key concerns are:

1) On site SEO
2) Ease of use.
3) Comparison against say something like Wordpress.
4) Flexibility.

I have tried researching the SEO bits first and foremost but there are so many different opinions it is hard sifting through the noise.

Any thoughts from those of you that run VBulletin sites?

Many thanks

[petertdavis]

It really depends on what your goal is with it, especially with regards to how you're using it as a CMS. The one key advantage that the vBulletin CMS has is the ability to turn any post in the forum into an article in the CMS at the click of a button. Another consideration for you is that the site is already using it, and as a buyer, especially if you're new to the community, if you come in and shake things up a lot you might get some push-back from the community. I could give you better advice if I knew what the site is, send me a PM if you want to discuss it in private.

[golles]

peter thanks - good points. I wil ponder on this for a bit.

Really the CMS will be used as one would use Wordpress for example - mostly blog type entries, some static page (article type) etc. But we plan to build to non forum content significantly, so the CMS and the capabilities will be quite important although other than needing good on page / site SEO nothing out of the ordinary.

[Clinton]

1) On site SEO
2) Ease of use.
3) Comparison against say something like Wordpress.
4) Flexibility.

1. There are numerous good SEO tools for vB
2. I find it easy enough. I sometimes get stuck but there's a large userbase so quite easy to get help (vbulletin.com and .org)
3. You'll have the same hassle with vB that you have with WP - the need to constantly update
4. There are a lot more plugins for Wordpress, but there may be a lot more to vB than you've realised. You can do stuff like static pages and it's easy to give multiple users their own blogs.

As you've probably realised, you don't have to use the vB suite for the blog - you could setup WP on the site for the blog and continue to use vB for the forum.

[petertdavis]

peter thanks - good points. I wil ponder on this for a bit.

Really the CMS will be used as one would use Wordpress for example - mostly blog type entries, some static page (article type) etc. But we plan to build to non forum content significantly, so the CMS and the capabilities will be quite important although other than needing good on page / site SEO nothing out of the ordinary.

It sounds like you may want to convert the CMS into Wordpress then. There are ways to integrate vBulletin and Wordpress, and as you're already aware I'm sure, Wordpress is top of the line when it comes to content management. The only real long-term downside of doing that is that you have to maintain two software installs along with whatever bridge you use between the two, and the initial adjusting of the designs/style/theme might be a bit tricky to get them to fit together that they look like a single site. Convincing the community that changing is good might be a problem in the short-term, but it really depends on how much they use the CMS right now. Could be that they don't interact with it at all and won't care one way or the other. It might be a good idea to talk to some key members of the community first to get their input.