Photopost VBclassifieds?

[ludachris]

Obviously, the owners of PP saw the value in VBgallery and bought the rights to the script. Many vB owners were moving over to that script and dropping Photopost as their gallery software solution. VBgallery is made specifically to tie into vB, and it's a much easier integration. The code is written more similar to vB and the modifications/customizations are easier to achieve because of that. Photopost does tie into vB, but it since it is also setup to be a standalone product and tie into other forum software, there are shortcomings in how tight the vB integration is because of that. VBgallery doesn't have these shortcomings.

With all of that said, I'd like to ask if Photopost would seriously consider creating a script like VBgallery as a Classifieds solution. PPclassifieds has been a fine solution for a while now, but it lacks the ability to tightly integrate into vB just like Photopost. It's more difficult to take advantage of profile fields in vB, and modifications aren't as easy to make due to the codebase being way different than vB. PPclassifieds will work fine as a standalone product and for many who are trying to integrate it into forums site. But for us, it just doesn't integrate as well as we'd like. If someone else created a Classifieds product that was built similar to VBgallery, we'd drop my PPclassifieds script in a heartbeat and use the alternative script. I would hope you guys would seriously consider this.

[tomzl]

I must say I agree with this post. I would love if PP Classifieds were more compatible with vBulletin. Judging by browsing this forum the majority of Classifieds are used with vBulletin forums so it would benefit most users.

[Chuck S]

This post you are posting to is a year and a half old and abit false in its assumptions that everyone is moving to vbGallery. Also as a matter of fact vbulletin makes up about 35% of the customer based integrations.

Photopost licenses outweigh vbGallery 6-7 to 1 and in the past year from what we have seen as a company alot of vbgallery users are dropping that script and purchasing Photopost licenses and converting to that product. At least thats what we have seen as a company in general. As far as sales go people buy Photopost about 20 to 1 over vbGallery.

We are not making any new scripts that I can say with certainty based on the sales figures that I see. We already have 4 products to support as it is.

[ludachris]

Chuck, not to be an antagonist, but -

I wonder if the PP licenses would be outselling the vbGallery licenses so much if vbGallery were to continue to improve and have more features added at the same rate PP does. Ever since vbGallery was bought out the development rate of the script has not been the same as PP - I'm assuming because All Enthusiast, Inc doesn't want it to compete with PP, the more expensive flagship product. After 2 years it doesn't even show up on the Purchasing page alongside the other PP products:
http://techimo.stores.yahoo.net/photlic.html

It's very unfortunate for us vb clients too because vbGallery is so much more integrated with our forum yet it probably won't end up being developed as much as it would by someone else because of a conflict with the more expensive PP product. And the product we really would like to see have more features added likely won't because of this.

Don't get me wrong, I do like how powerful PP is but I wouldn't move back due to how integrated vbGallery is with vb. It's so much easier to modify vbGallery to do things with vb that PP just can't do as easily. I just wish there was an alternative Classifieds solution similar to what vbGallery is to vb.

[tomzl]

Chuck, my post was mostly aimed at Classifieds and how it would be great to have a more vBulletin integrated option. 35% is quite a large percentage of customers. I think it is more logical to develop software to be more compatible with vBulletin than phpBB (or any random open source forum) because vBulletin admins are more likely to spend cash on software like PP Classifieds. That's my logic but it may be flawed.

Are there any plans for future releases of Classifieds (3.0 probably?) or a rough estimate when it will be released? What direction will it take?

[Chuck S]

Tomzl

We support like 16 different integrations with Photopost Classifieds. I am merely stating we are not doing to be doing any branch off's of the code. There is no specific timeline set when the next version will be released. The features are not set but as always we look into the suggestions forum for the suggestions and we prioritize them in the order we determine and add what we wish.

Don't get me wrong, I do like how powerful PP is but I wouldn't move back due to how integrated vbGallery is with vb. It's so much easier to modify vbGallery to do things with vb that PP just can't do as easily. I just wish there was an alternative Classifieds solution similar to what vbGallery is to vb.

Ludachris its easier to you because your more familiar hacking vbulletin and the way they do things. I am not even gonna discuss how the owner runs his company. What he listed where and how is up to him. I merely work here but judging sales things are going great.

Now comparing both products since they integrate the very same way by calling the vb global file and loading the vb header navbar and footer the only difference I see on a product level is the admin section of Photopost is outside the vb admin.

[Michael P]

In all fairness, I think we've had one major update to PhotoPost and one big update to vBGallery in the past year.

[ludachris]

Chuck, vBulletin is by far the most widely used forums software and there are thousands of modifications available for it that plug right in and work within the vbulletin code base. VBgallery is one of those scripts. It plugs in to vbulletin's product system.

I'm merely suggesting that you guys do something along the lines of what you did with Photopost - you created a couple spin-off scripts in Classifieds and Reviewpost that use the same code base as Photopost. If you did the same thing with a classifieds script that is basically spin-off of VBgallery I know a ton of people would want it. I see so many people asking about this in the vbulletin.org forums all the time. Vbulletin owners are spoiled with how easy it is to plug in add-on scripts, and they'll be more inclined to use a product if it plugs in easily and uses the vb template system.

Yes, Photopost Classifieds can tie into vb using its headers and footers. But it doesn't "plug in" to it the way VBgallery does. That's what makes VBgallery so great! You can go into the vb template system and add in vb variables and do all sorts of mods. I'd love to see a classifieds system that ties in that well.

There is a classifieds product on the market now that plugs in to vb, it's called VBclassifieds(.com). It's too bad you guys don't try something like that.

[oldengine]

Since this is the suggestion forum, I want to make clear that my recent order to upgrade my vBGallery to PP-Pro turned out to be a big mistake. Please don't count me in those upgrade statistics.

The file structure of PP Pro is totally incompatible with vBGallery and therefore I cannot move my database to it and continue with my numerous existing links from vBulletin forum posts.

My vote and allegiance remains with the vBGallery product! In my case, the vBGallery product is superior and will remain in use. Please continue to support vBGallery.

[Chuck S]

We have never stopped supporting it and you have your choice which to run.