Are people more inclined to join vBulletin/IPB forums?

Do you think people are more inclined to join forums with paid softwares such as vBulletin and IPB?

 

For me, yes, I am more likely to join a VB forum as compared to anything else.

Over the years I have seen several communities destroyed by hackers - namely phpbb forums. If I see a phpbb forum, there is a 99.999999999% chance that I will not join.

SMF and MYBB are not so bad. I am a member of a lot of communities that run both of that software.

I see your forum as your business front. If you are going to open a store, or a business, do you want to look professional? Or do you want to look like your trying to get off as cheap as possible?

 

I think ~kev~ is absolutely right. Definitively VB. People are more accustomed to this script.
For every 10 forums I visit usually 9 are VB. You can almost navigate them while blindfolded.

 

I can only speak for myself, but vBulletin all the way!

 

I register with Vbulletin software boards more often

but custom boards are those we work on...

 

Yes because Vbullettin forum look more clean and professional...

or may be because there are lots of VB forums so we are used to such interface...

 

Well for me it doesnt matter, it depends if members can really read and feel interesting to join the forum, Why not!
but in ur typo of question, i can only answer vbulletin.
yes because vbulletin has much better features and nice looks.

 

IT all depends on how is community and no. of active members.

 

no I think narci and sumit710 are correct here.

It has nothing to do with what forum software you use, yes some are better than others, but that wont make people join your site. Active users and content that is appealing and intresting, coupled with an attractive design is the only way you get users.

 

When I see a phpbb forum and I think about signing up - I remind myself of all the hacked phpbbs I have belonged to.

One community stayed down for about 6 weeks. During that time a lot of the members left and never came back. The owner had to switch to another forum software just to keep his site online.

A forum that belonged to my buddy - he was hacked so may times he finally took the site down. We ran into each other in town the other day. While we were talking I asked him about his site. He told me that it was more trouble then it was worth. He was getting hacked several times a week.

I have my reasons as to "why" I will not join a phpbb forum. Not everyone is going to understand. My buddies forum, it was a way for a bunch of us to stay in touch. Some of the people that my buddy and I knew, they moved away, one joined the military. A combination of hackers and insecure software had to screw everything up.

And those are the reasons why I will not join a phpbb forum.

 

I am. I pretty much never join SMF/phpBB forums unless it's really nichey that I want to contribute to.

Heard way too many stories like ^ to want to invest time into one of those communities

 

I once have seen an Internet script which would automatically register your domain and enter your signature in over 5,000 phpBB forums. I must admit I have tried it. It worked. So it really tells you how protected the software is, unless they already fixed it. If I remember correctly it even read the captcha.

 

No 99.9% of people don't care what it runs and wouldn't have a clue if you pointed it out to them.

 

I remember asking this a while back on another forum and I found out that with forums such as Webmaster forums and computer forums, basically vBulletin is a winner! But on other forums where the users may not be so up to speed on different forum softwares then It does not really matter so much.

 

Totally agree with ~kev~'s .

 

I totally agree with ~kev~.

I almost immediately click the "back" button when I land on a phpBB forum; most of them are really ugly. I'm fine with MyBB, and okay with SMF.

I think vBulletin certainly is what most people are accustomed to so they are more likely to join because they immediately feel comfortable.

It's a personal opinion/matter though. Some people have their pet peeves, and phpBB is one of mine.

 

Personally I'm okay with most software as long as it's user friendly and has content I want. If it's IPB or similar then I guess I'm "slightly" more likely to return to post, but I know content and community is king.

 

Activity really shot up on my forum when I bought and installed vbulletin.

 

I never scroll down to see what forum software is used before I take part. It has more to do with the look of the site as well as how active it is.

I think VB forums generally look much more professional that other types but a lot of VB forum owners don't invest the time to customize their forums and present them 'as is' so they look really clinical.