What do you use for your homepage?

So, I'm currently using vBadvanced and it's just been too limiting for me. I was thinking of going with Word Press as my homepage, but that then gives me headaches for having folks logged in on vB and not WP, etc. I've also been toying about the idea of just creating a custom homepage, but I don't have the time to invest in it right now.

What does everyone use here and what would you suggest as the easiest and most customizable homepage solution in your opinion?

 

I used to use vBAdvanced but quickly grew away from that for lack of taste. One thing I always considered but never did try is ProVB - ProvB Index - vBulletin Homepages

I currently do have a WP blog in the root of my forum's domain and there is no integration whatsoever. We just use the blog for posting articles related to our niche.

And here, we have the same setup.

 

Nick, don't you miss the capability of having your members posting comments and responding to your articles/blogs by not having the 'bridged' integration? Or, how do you handle that? Is it simply...here's an article, read it if you'd like to? Just curious because that integration piece is one that is bothering me. How do you like WP itself? Is it easy to use?

 

I'd like to have the integration, but I have got over it. I use the RSS feed to post a thread on my forum when a new blog post is made. I keep all threads in that forum closed and each one has a link to the original post on the blog. Members follow the link, read the article and then post a comment.

WordPress itself is amazing - it's probably my favorite open-source script out there. It's so easy to use and customize. I couldn't recommend it more.

 

Hmm....interesting Nick. Good point about the RSS feed into a specific "articles" or "blog articles" forum and then having the members participate that way. Very good suggestion. And, I'm happy that you feel WP is easy to use and customize because that's what I'm looking for.

Anyone else with any other suggestions?

 

I currently use vBadvanced, but it has started to show its many limitations. In particular, my forum has a very large number of usergroups. Each time your add a new usergroup, an admin has to go through and setup all the vBa permissions once again. No permissions cloning or inherited system for page permissions. I hope that the new vB4 CMS has something for a home page, otherwise I will have to seriously consider making changes.

 

Imperial, it seems like vBadvanced is a decent starting point, but you can quickly grow out of it. Have you thought of what option(s) you'd go with in place of vBadvanced?

 

I use vBadvanced and will likely stick with it unless the new cms is worth my $. I don't find vba limiting at all for what I need. In fact, it's quite customizable. You should see the showcase forum on vba. Some of those homepages are amazing.

 

I think the vBulletin 4 CMS is something to look forward to.

AA uses a vB/WordPress integration like Nick mentioned. It is nice, yes, but it can get a little tricky depending on what you want to do with it. For people to comment our blog posts/articles, we had to setup an RSS feed to the forum, from the blog. We couldn't make the way we originally wanted it work right.

 

Savage, I know that there is a way to have it fully integrated. I've heard of folks getting it done and it running them about $300-400 to have it done.

Any info about the vB4 CMS out there yet?

 

Only what's been posted at vb.com in the blog.

 

Not too much more than what is seen here.

 

and here vBulletin Content Management Introduction - vBulletin Community Forum
this was back in Feb.

 

Yeah, there's that. But that's showing the new system in vB 4 on the vB 3 layout. So technically we will never actually see it as seen in the screenshots if I am not mistaken.

 

Yeah you're right about that. I should go to bed, lol

 

Cool...thanks for the links folks!

I'm going to do some reading tomorrow. It's just past midnight here and I've gotta get some shut-eye.

 

Goodnight!

...and Peggy!

 

I'm still here!

G'night Arny!

 

I tried vBAdvanced in the past but never liked it so I make my custom index page different for my forums (sometimes the same) and sometimes i just have the forum as index.

 

I generally use the forum index page for the homepage. I have used vBadvanced in the past, but haven't for a while now.