I want to start a forum and if it gets popular to buy vbulletin for it, but i dont want to reset the members/posts etc. Would i be able to change over and add the stuff through mysql and etc??
Well it is possible. On Feb 3rd 2006. I made a phpBB free host forum. Near the end of Jan 2008 I move to vBulletin. My profile. I moved from phpBB 2 free hosted to phpBB 2 paid hosted. Then from there to vBulletin. I have never done anything like this before and I managed to be sucessful and do this all quickly. If you look at my profile. It says I registered on 03/02/06, which is when we was on phpBB 2 free host. So yes it is possible and everything stays the same. Please note not all hosts allow backups, and those that do charge a lot.
Yes, each popular forum software has conversion kits for each other. Also, just wondering, what makes you think it will make sense to convert your forum software to Vbulletin because it gets popular?
I'm just guessing here: He would want to convert when his forum gets popular because vBulletin has a lot more features and better mods for it. Also, it handles bigger communities better. ImpEx is used to transfer your non-vB software to vB. You can read more here: http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex
Yes, each forum has conversion script's. You could get it at the vBulletin Official Site. (You have to buy the License 1st)
The only problem is finding one of the free hosting companies that allow backups that actually work. There is not usually any guarentee on these. Unless you find a free host and install a free forum yourself.
Oh yes. I thought it was a free host. Anyways. If it isn't there would be no problems what so ever. Actually someone on this forum would install vBulletin and transfer the database for like $20 USD if you feel you cannot do it.