Question about THIS website!!

[Nate]

I'm working on a web site and i'm stumped...so, whoever built this web site, please help me out.

Does this site use PHPNuke or PostNuke?

[Smulkin]

We used to use them on the old site. We currently use vBulletin and vbportal

[Nate]

those cost $ tho, right? any specific reason as to the change?

[Smulkin]

Yes they did cost $ - top reasons were ease of manageability and security, updates and modular options. You could argue since the others are open source you have sooo many more options and while true it takes a lot more work on your own and if you are not very fluent in php it's a moot point.

Anyone who has been aoround these forums in a while can easily vouch as to the stability of the new vs old site (hosting boofs notwithstanding lol).

[TekWarren]

for what its worth, and similiarly to this website...I started a forum years ago based off the free versions of php based message boards. While in the beginning it worked well it things like updating and modifications/add ons where quite "manual" and forced me to learn bits of PHP...which was good for me. About a year ago or so I moved to a product that cost money...and it was definately worth it. As smulkin said, security, reliability, support, functionality, addon's, etc, etc, where made easier. You can definately apply "you get what you pay for in this situation. I don't use the same product as this site but I think our reasons for the change are on the same track. Also as smulkin said if you know the language you can have a very successful and interactive forum from the free based software as well. I enjoyed learning php and mysql but not "really" knowing it can have its problems It has helped me manage things much better though and keep the databases running clean and efficient.

sorry if i am stepping on toes or babbling to much.

[Smulkin]

Neither nor, amigo. You nailed it far more articulately than I was able to and hit some points I missed to boot. If you are not well versed in these languages and don't have scads of free time it is worth the $ in the long run. I DID neglect to mention support - which seems more focused and by definition narrower since it is a commercial release.

[led4urhead]

[QUOTE=TekWarren]... Also as smulkin said if you know the language you can have a very successful and interactive forum from the free based software as well. I enjoyed learning php and mysql but not "really" knowing it can have its problems ... [QUOTE]


This is especially true in our case .

Going along with the open source theme ... just remember that there are always people out there with mailcious intentions who have the same access to the code as you do. Having said this ... i still run another PNphpbb forum .

[Nate]

Well i ended up figuring it out...and once i got it figured out i clicked "yes" on a button that said "disable site", so other viewers wouldn't view the site while i was updating and stuff...now i can't even find a way to log in to the Admin account so I can work on the site....i locked myself out. dunno what to do....*bangs head on desk*..

[TekWarren]

I've done that! I'm not sure which system you are using but previously with the phpbb software if you closed the admin controll panel once you locked out the forum...well that was it. I'm pretty sure there is a way to open it again it though, I think all its doing is changing a database value...do some searching it can be frustrating at first but don't give up!

[Nate]

I didn't make any major changes...so i'll probably just do a fresh install and not make that mistake again