vBulletin Mobile Suite

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
We're going to be upgrading to vBulletin 4.x soon (yes, really, I know it's been a long wait) and we have the option of adding on the vBulletin Mobile Suite. I know some of you check the forums on an iPhone or Android phone and would be interested in us purchasing and using the Mobile Suite.

Trouble is, it costs $199 the first year and $99 a year thereafter. Ouch.

So is there a demand for this? Is there $200 worth of demand for this? If we decided to call for donations, could we reasonably expect CGA community members to cover the cost?
 
I like the idea of the mobile site. I like the idea of others paying for it as well.
 
Hescominsoon said:
this is the forum runner software the IB Just purchased. They've really jacked the prices on it..:(
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Indeed they have.

And if I'm reading their site correctly, there's also a yearly fee to publish an iOS app? Maybe? It's a tad confusing. Or maybe I'm just a bit dense.
 
If someone would just step up and donate $300 dollars... *cough*
 
Lloren said:
If someone would just step up and donate $300 dollars... *cough*
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Yeeeh, that's probably not very likely. Especially not for a "luxury" feature like this.

Oh, and that's $325 for the first year (have to include the Android app, too!) and $200 per year thereafter.

Yeesh. I was thinking it'd be like $75 or $50 upfront then maybe $25 or $50 a year after.
 
Am I the only one who thinks Mobile Suit when reading Mobile Suite? Yes? Darn.

On topic: That's quite the pretty penny. For a non-commercial site, I'm skeptical of it being worth the cash (especially when there are already recurring server bills to be paid).

Then again, being the only guy in America who doesn't have so much as a basic cell phone, I'm not so sure my thought on the matter is really worth much. haha
 
I'd use it if it were available for free - but to be completely honest, it's not something I'm interested in paying for.
 
Those prices are rather ridiculous. :(

Maybe we can just find a more mobile browser-friendly skin for vBulletin 4.x instead.
 
I'm pretty sure it's only 99 the second year and following years and 199 for the first year. We could also compile and publish our own Android application and Iphone application. At 8.33 a month (2nd year) it doesn't seem to bad. If 20 people wanted the application and would donate 10 bucks each.....
 
I occasionally check the forums on my work smartphone and our forums do not translate well to mobile browsers, so it would be nice to offer the option to our users.

But YEESH those prices.
 
Uhm, then why are we even bothering with vBulliten anymore? When both phpBB and Vanilla offer mobile for FREE.

And yes, mobile is almost nessicary now IMO.

EDIT: This is the only forum I check that doesn't offer mobile, so I rarely check it anymore. I only get on my computer once a week anymore since I have my iPhone. And I know many others who are the same.

EDIT 2: As a matter of fact; I think, thanks to using vBulliten, we are lacking a lot of features that IMO should be on every forum, that or I just don't know how the back end of vB works, since I have always used phpBB.
 
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XionTawa said:
Uhm, then why are we even bothering with vBulliten anymore? When both phpBB and Vanilla offer mobile for FREE.

And yes, mobile is almost nessicary now IMO.

EDIT: This is the only forum I check that doesn't offer mobile, so I rarely check it anymore. I only get on my computer once a week anymore since I have my iPhone. And I know many others who are the same.

EDIT 2: As a matter of fact; I think, thanks to using vBulliten, we are lacking a lot of features that IMO should be on every forum, that or I just don't know how the back end of vB works, since I have always used phpBB.
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Great! So we can put you down for $20 too?
 
Lloren said:
Great! So we can put you down for $20 too?
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I would, if I didn't just get laid off, and then had my car break down 5 times... >_>

What I am saying, is most other forum platforms offer it for free, so why is vB charging us so much for a service they should offer for free. And if they are going to act this way, why don't we more to a better forum software?
 
XionTawa said:
I would, if I didn't just get laid off, and then had my car break down 5 times... >_>

What I am saying, is most other forum platforms offer it for free, so why is vB charging us so much for a service they should offer for free. And if they are going to act this way, why don't we more to a better forum software?
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I've been an administrator for PhpBB and it was terrible. Constant security fixes and updates. It's free, yes, but the cost of time to administer and the plugin system (yeesh). You literally can't pay me to do phpBB.

Vanilla is freemium so if we wanted to do certain things we would have to pay in (just like vBulletin). http://vanillaforums.com/plans

Overall vBulletin is a pretty mature product. It has it's quirks, but it works well and it's fast. The cost is low comparative to what you get from it (IMHO).


Back on topic: Time for a poll for mobile?
 
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I don't think we need poll...we just end up getting the top 20-30 people who are most vocal. Check the TS/Mumble poll...big issue, affecting a couple of hundred or more users, being decided by about 30 responses. Most of us would respect the leadership decision.
 
Lloren said:
I've been an administrator for PhpBB and it was terrible. Constant security fixes and updates. It's free, yes, but the cost of time to administer and the plugin system (yeesh). You literally can't pay me to do phpBB.

Vanilla is freemium so if we wanted to do certain things we would have to pay in (just like vBulletin). http://vanillaforums.com/plans

Overall vBulletin is a pretty mature product. It has it's quirks, but it works well and it's fast. The cost is low comparative to what you get from it (IMHO).


Back on topic: Time for a poll for mobile?
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Weird, I have been the Admin for many phpBB forums, some that had many members, and I didn't have many issues at all. I felt their platform was very user friendly and easy to manage. But I have to agree with you on the plugin system, that is a mess.
 
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