Icrontic runs on the heavily-modified marriage of vBulletin and WordPress. WordPress is a light, extensible, and semantic content management system. vBulletin is the most popular forum software out there. After wading up to my neck in plugins and documentation for both, I’m here to tell you that Jelsoft, the maker of vBulletin, should be embarrassed.
Templates
WordPress has a template system that is completely divorced from its core components. You could take your folder of (22) template files, place them into any other WordPress install, and they’re ready to roll. New versions rarely ever conflict with existing templates. Did I mention that the templates are physical files? That means you can open them in your favorite code editor to work on them, too.
In contrast, vBulletin’s template system is stored in the database, which instantly screws you: no opening in your code editor, no saving it as files. You can export the whole thing as a gigantic proprietary file, just in case that’s helpful. Almost every non-bugfix release breaks a half-dozen or more templates which then need to be “reverted.” Essentially, you must start over and re-skin the entire file. The templates are also hopelessly granular, which means there are hundreds of sub-templates, all sorted into categories with cryptic names that do not correspond to any common-sense scheme. I’m sure this was all very impressive in 2001. In 2008, it’s pathetic.
Documentation
WordPress maintains a Codex of documentation that is well-maintained, thorough, and exceedingly helpful. I have rarely come across a development issue that could not be easily solved by spending a few minutes browsing the Codex.
Meanwhile, vBulletin has a manual (useless for developers), an API reference (auto-generated and cryptic), and two forums for support. One is for “official” help (vbulletin.com), and the other is for “hack” help (vbulletin.org). Thus far I’ve gathered that vbulletin.com is mostly a place where developers are kindly told to move along to the dot-org site.
Both of these vBulletin support sites lack any organized documentation to help developers, and both insist that you “search the forum” because — duh — someone else already asked. Unfortunately, the search function is apt to return threads that would be useful were they not filled with dead links. I get “you cannot access this page” errors more often than I get helpful information.
I’m getting really really good at prefixing my Google searches with site:vbulletin.org, since that’s the only way I can find assistance on vB development. I’ve spent days on simple issues for want of clearer documentation.
Features
WordPress subscribes to a fairly simple thesis: build and maintain the solid framework, and let everyone else add the “extra” features through plugins. The have an easily-navigable directory of plugins that are sorted by category so you can find the ones you need to customize your site to your purposes.
vBulletin has a different idea: they seem to define the quality of their product by the number of features they can tack on. Every point release contains a dizzying list of new toys which can’t be avoided without falling behind on security updates.
One can’t help but notice that most of the features added in the last year are aimed at making them a pale imitation of Facebook: walls, albums, social groups, and so on. As of late, I’ve spent significant time removing these ugly and poorly-implemented features.
Interface
WordPress is currently prepping its 2.7 release, which is entirely focused on reworking the admin panel for great usability. They’ve been conducting surveys and exhaustive rounds of testing to make sure this interface change is absolutely perfect. The attention to detail has been outstanding.
I honestly don’t think Jelsoft has ever heard of usability testing. No, seriously. There’s a thread in their forum pleading with them to hire a usability expert for the 4.0 release and — as far as I can tell — it’s falling on deaf ears. Jelsoft seems like a company of great engineers, but only engineers.
Yet another dropdown menu is the solution to every newly-minted feature. I swear there are 20 more Javascript dropdown menus in vBulletin than there were three years ago. I have five-year veterans of Icrontic’s forum staff asking how to manage pedestrian features like banning and thread-moving thanks to vBulletin’s cryptic design philosophy. It’s beyond confusing; it’s unusable for novices.
HTML Markup
View Souce (ctrl-U in Firefox) on a WordPress page, and then do the same on a vBulletin page. Enough said?
WordPress is semantic, while vBulletin still has the funk of a ’90s tables-in-tables layout with approximately 28 pounds of Javascript. I could fill a legion of buckets with the crying done over the hopelessness of search engine or mobile-optimization. They built an “archive” version in the vague attempt to compensate for this massive failure.
Price
WordPress is free, and vBulletin has cost us well over $400 in licensing and fees over the years. Go figure.
In the end
I feel like vBulletin is a weight around my neck that makes every developmental move on the site exponentially more complicated. Conversely, WordPress continues to surprise and delight.
I think Jelsoft, not coincidentally, suffers from the engineer’s “you’re doing it wrong” perspective, which instinctively blames the user if she/he can’t figure something out. Those days died when the iPhone, Facebook, and Flickr stormed onto the scene. If your users can’t use your product right, it’s your fault.
I don’t have any present intention to dump vBulletin, but I do have high expectations for 4.0. If it doesn’t rectify, specifically, the template and interface issues that plague the system so badly, I will be seriously researching alternatives. My advice to those looking for forum software right now? Come on in, the quicksand is fine.
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