New Forum for my Busy Website - Advice Appreciated

[HulkSmash]

I've made the decision to bolt VBulletin to my busy website. It's a classifieds site running a specialized Classifieds script (Geocore). I'm lucky as it has a bridge already built for users to carry across login details to the VB software.

In terms of traffic, it's getting 1m+ page views per month with roughly 17k registered users.

In order for the bridge to work I need to install it on a sub-folder of the domain. I'm currently hosting with Siteground.

Does anyone foresee any issues with the above?

Also, I've never installed let along run a forum. Are there any tips and tricks that folks would like to share that will help me on my journey?

I'd like to utilize the BLOG function as well. Any tips?

Lastly, are there any monetization tips? I currently run Adsense on my main site.

All help is very much appreciated

 

[tony45]

I've made the decision to bolt VBulletin to my busy website. It's a classifieds site running a specialized Classifieds script (Geocore). I'm lucky as it has a bridge already built for users to carry across login details to the VB software.

In terms of traffic, it's getting 1m+ page views per month with roughly 17k registered users.

In order for the bridge to work I need to install it on a sub-folder of the domain. I'm currently hosting with Siteground.

Does anyone foresee any issues with the above?

Also, I've never installed let along run a forum. Are there any tips and tricks that folks would like to share that will help me on my journey?

I'd like to utilize the BLOG function as well. Any tips?

Lastly, are there any monetization tips? I currently run Adsense on my main site.

All help is very much appreciated

First of all: good luck!
Now my question: why vb? That software is getting worse and worse everyday. Have you seen invision or xf?

 

[RisingSun]

We migrated away from vB two years ago. We still have users who mourn the old forum, but our new XF forum is much better positioned for the future. I would not start a new forum with vB in 2020.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Does anyone foresee any issues with the above?

It depends which version of vBulletin. vB3 & 4 are EOL and will only run on unsupported and insecure versions of PHP. That would be an issue.

vB5, the current version is not well regarded. It has a huge unresolved bug count and it's proving to be somewhat insecure although it's fair to say patches are released fairly swiftly. There's also very little third party support.

Personally I would look to see if there's a better option available although I am mindful of your specific requirements.

 

[HulkSmash]

Thanks for the replies I'll try and answer each individually:

Now my question: why vb? That software is getting worse and worse everyday. Have you seen invision or xf?

My current site's software has a native bridge for user accounts/logins for either vBulletin or Phorum. I don't want to bother with any customization work as I'm not entirely sure my users even want a forum yet. Otherwise, I'd consider a more modern software (although I don't really know of many others).

vB5, the current version is not well regarded.

That is a worry as that's the version that I was looking at. I was going to install it along with the mobile bundle

vB3 & 4 are EOL and will only run on unsupported and insecure versions of PHP.

My current site is also running slightly older software which means I'm stuck on PHP 7.1. What version does vB3/4 require?

Thanks to everyone for the input so far

 

[RisingSun]

My current site is also running slightly older software which means I'm stuck on PHP 7.1. What version does vB3/4 require?

vBulletin 3.8.11 is not compatible with PHP 7.2.0 or higher. Link
That said, vB 3.8.x is classic forum software. Some of our users still miss it.

 

[zappaDPJ]

That is a worry as that's the version that I was looking at. I was going to install it along with the mobile bundle

The mobile bundle has its own set of problems. As far as I'm aware it's outsourced or certainly appears to be. It's constantly being updated which should be a good thing except that means it requires resubmitting the app to Google and Apple and it often gets rejected especially by Apple. (I assume you are aware that Apple hardware and and developer account are a requirement.)

That said no other forum software I'm aware offers a dedicated app.

 

[DigNap15]

I started my website and my forum at the same time
I am also with Siteground
But I'm no expert so cannot give you much advice
Other than to say that in general it pays to keep up with new software, otherwise one day, you will have to make a big jump