ridwan sameer Posted June 15, 2012 Posted June 15, 2012 When it comes to CMS I think wordpress is second to none. But Wordpress can be considered more of a blog(ish) Thing, So for a full blown CMS, Joomla is there, and it;s free (but highly complicated) Quote
JHTech100 Posted June 15, 2012 Posted June 15, 2012 Whether a paid script is better than a free one is all a matter of opinion. For example, I prefer MyBB over xenForo, IPB, and vB because of its UI. Quote
ridwan sameer Posted June 16, 2012 Posted June 16, 2012 Do you really Prefer MyBB Over XF, IPB and vB? It's a bit hard to believe.. I mean I love myBB...But if i was given the option to switch i would Quote
JHTech100 Posted June 16, 2012 Posted June 16, 2012 I find vBulletin's ACP clunky and cheap looking. As for IPB, I like their spam monitoring and stuff, but I just never came to like the ACP layout. xenForo is really good, and I'll admit that. However, I found that it's theming system would require a fair amount of education to ever be able to effectively utilize, though it is powerful. MyBB isn't bloated with unnecessary features, it's ACP puts what you use most up front, and it's very easy to install a plugin among the many plugins that you can choose from. Quote
Ram8349 Posted June 16, 2012 Posted June 16, 2012 (edited) I'm going to have to disagree with most of you on this one. It's not that paid forum software is really THAT much better, it's more the image your users see. I get turned off quick by small forums running on free software simply because I'm not convinced the admin is going to stick with it since he has nothing to lose. When someone spends $140+ on a forum license, it shows they're more serious and is more likely to stick with the forum throughout it's growth. Free or paid is not an indication of how strong the admin's will is. Someone might not see it as necessary to pay for something that can get for free. Some others might not have the budget to start with. According to you, do you really believe all vbulletin users never cancel their forums? I very much doubt it. Edited June 16, 2012 by Ram8349 Quote
Administrators Nathan Posted June 16, 2012 Administrators Posted June 16, 2012 Free or paid is not an indication of how strong the admin's will is. Someone might not see it as necessary to pay for something that can get for free. Some others might not have the budget to start with. According to you, do you really believe all vbulletin users never cancel their forums? I very much doubt it. I disagree you always put more effort and take more care of something you have your own money invested in. Quote
Ram8349 Posted June 17, 2012 Posted June 17, 2012 I disagree you always put more effort and take more care of something you have your own money invested in. Paying for a forum software isn't the only investment. Domain, host plan, web design, advertisement, contest with cash prize, etc. all are a part of the investment. I even paid for licensed photos to avoid copyright issues. Forum software on the other hand, there are good free ones out there like MyBB. I don't find it necessary to pay for it on my first try in case it does not do well. By using a paid forum software, it doesn't guarantee automatic success nor a indication of higher rate of success. Victor Leigh 1 Quote
ridwan sameer Posted June 17, 2012 Posted June 17, 2012 I think what they're trying to convey is that if a person is ready to spend 200$ on a piece of forum software for their website... Their looking to go big. They have more drive to do what they have to do. However when a person uses everything free... and he thinks of giving up the site.. He has nothing to loose. Quote
SpikeTheLobster Posted June 17, 2012 Posted June 17, 2012 I disagree you always put more effort and take more care of something you have your own money invested in. I think what they're trying to convey is that if a person is ready to spend 200$ on a piece of forum software for their website... Their looking to go big. They have more drive to do what they have to do. However when a person uses everything free... and he thinks of giving up the site.. He has nothing to loose. I disagree. There are far too many variables involved: is that $200 a lot of money for the person or is it just throwaway cash? How interested are they in their subject? How long have they been thinking about starting a community? And so on. I know people who would throw away $1,000 on a two-day motivational course that's total BS and gives them nothing. They think it's worth the money. Does that mean the course is worthwhile to me? No. I've never spent any money on any pre-built apps and I've never needed to. Because I don't start anything I'm not REALLY interested in - and that will take you a lot further for a lot longer than $200 on a license will. Passion and interest are a thousand times more important than budget. It's easy to walk away from a $200 investment if you see your ROI going down the toilet but it's incredibly hard to walk away from a $0 investment if it's your baby. Quote
tetutato Posted June 17, 2012 Posted June 17, 2012 I disagree you always put more effort and take more care of something you have your own money invested in. Well take it into account that it's not only paid forums that gets money invested into them. I example, spent over 150USD as well for designs, etc. Quote
DarkGizmo Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 For forum scripts. I think Paid is better then the free solutions out there. However, with CMS and blog scripts. Free is just as good. I've found wordpress to be fantastic to serve as my site's CMS over a paid gaming CMS script that seems to be just a modified version of Wordpress anyway. Quote
Ram8349 Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 Well take it into account that it's not only paid forums that gets money invested into them. I example, spent over 150USD as well for designs, etc. Me too. I spent money for web design job. Most of it was on the MyBB forum as well as on Wordpress. Just because the software are free, doesn't mean they don't cost money to run. Web sites with free software can in fact cost more than web sites with paid software to run. I am not exactly sure what MyBB is missing compare to the paid forum software. But I am sure that Wordpress is the best blog software agreed by most people. It is free to have too, not necessarily mean the web sites who run these free software won't cost more money. Quote
Victor Leigh Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 Paying for a forum software isn't the only investment. Domain, host plan, web design, advertisement, contest with cash prize, etc. all are a part of the investment. I even paid for licensed photos to avoid copyright issues. Forum software on the other hand, there are good free ones out there like MyBB. I don't find it necessary to pay for it on my first try in case it does not do well. By using a paid forum software, it doesn't guarantee automatic success nor a indication of higher rate of success. I think you would not regret choosing myBB. I have not started my forum yet but I have almost made up my mind to use myBB. Reason being that there are a couple of myBB plugin developers who are actively supporting their plugins. Yes, it's not free but then again we are talking about just 7usd for a whole year's subscription. Quote
ridwan sameer Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 I disagree. There are far too many variables involved: is that $200 a lot of money for the person or is it just throwaway cash? How interested are they in their subject? How long have they been thinking about starting a community? And so on. I know people who would throw away $1,000 on a two-day motivational course that's total BS and gives them nothing. They think it's worth the money. Does that mean the course is worthwhile to me? No. I've never spent any money on any pre-built apps and I've never needed to. Because I don't start anything I'm not REALLY interested in - and that will take you a lot further for a lot longer than $200 on a license will. Passion and interest are a thousand times more important than budget. It's easy to walk away from a $200 investment if you see your ROI going down the toilet but it's incredibly hard to walk away from a $0 investment if it's your baby. I disagree. There are far too many variables involved: is that $200 a lot of money for the person or is it just throwaway cash? How interested are they in their subject? How long have they been thinking about starting a community? And so on. I know people who would throw away $1,000 on a two-day motivational course that's total BS and gives them nothing. They think it's worth the money. Does that mean the course is worthwhile to me? No. I've never spent any money on any pre-built apps and I've never needed to. Because I don't start anything I'm not REALLY interested in - and that will take you a lot further for a lot longer than $200 on a license will. Passion and interest are a thousand times more important than budget. It's easy to walk away from a $200 investment if you see your ROI going down the toilet but it's incredibly hard to walk away from a $0 investment if it's your baby. Well in the example your talking about... They're spending money because they THought it would be usefull.... If it turns out to be crap they probably got scammed... But that still goes to show that they're willing to pay for it if they care about it Quote
SpikeTheLobster Posted June 19, 2012 Posted June 19, 2012 Well in the example your talking about... They're spending money because they THought it would be usefull.... If it turns out to be crap they probably got scammed... But that still goes to show that they're willing to pay for it if they care about it No, it goes to show that they have the money to spend. The perfect example is the thread somewhere about stuff people have bought on impulse and never used - hundreds or thousands of dollars thrown away on sites they don't care about... which proves my point that passion and interest are MUCH more important than budget and buying software does not indicate permanence. Quote
fivebysix Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 First of all Wordpress is a great content management system and for most of my clients it fits what they want perfectly because it's easy to use, there is some support out there for them from an extensive library and it's free. When it comes to other paid solutions, on one hand you have to realize that it's great to have a product which was paid for by workers who were paid to make it. In a lot of cases that means you're going to get something of quality because the better the product, the more sales they will achieve. On the other hand, open source anything can be tricky because anyone can work on that kind of a content system. They're concerned not with sales but with providing a great and affordable (free) solution out of love. Quote
Soulwatcher Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 I think it depends, I have seen some awesome phpBB and MyBB forums and I have seen a whole lot of paid forum scripts that the persons forum was lack luster at best. I think it depends on the admin more then the forum script its self. if a admin is active and a likeable person, then their forum is going to be active. If they have no personality or they are not active on the forum then its going to go nowhere quick! P.S. I think wordpress is the best CMS hands down! Greg Quote
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