Am I being naive?

[thesadshow]

I am going to be starting a forum based around a very popular topic and, therefore, don't want to leave any weaknesses for future competition to exploit. My question revolves around vBulletin forum licensing. I got some helpful recommendations from some fellow BHW members about free forum alternatives such as bbpress, mybb etc. but I am concerned that they will be inferior to the competition. It seems like every single large forum out there is using vBulletin, so should I consider it an essential business component (since this will be a long-term project for me) to bite the bullet and buy a vBulletin license? Are all the big forums using it because it's an essential part of a successful standalone forum, or did some of these guys simply switch to vBulletin after they found success starting off with a free forum? Sorry my enter button is being weird and won't let me make new paragraphs on here.

 

[Apposl]

Here's your answer.

You posted this a couple/few weeks ago, right? If you haven't started a forum yet, then you're not going to succeed. The competition wasn't hemming and hawing about what script to pick the past few weeks, they were EXECUTING.

You can't afford anything, start with an open-source forum solution. Sure, it might not be the 'best,' but you need to start building and growing your community now. The free versions can be made just as nice as any other, find a few strong features you know you really need and want, and don't even worry about the extra stuff initially.

If you get a ton of traffic and start making money, you'll have a feedback system, you can then switch/modify/hire out for better software or functionality.

Do what gets you going today, right now.

Who cares about the competition. There will always be competition. We called that a target rich environment in the military. If you strike gold, people are going to try and copy you. Look at Groupon. You're not special or different. Just go do it, and if the way you do it works, keep doing it that way.

But start doing it right now.

(Just my two cents. I decided a few days ago to setup my first forum, so I've been doing a lot of research lately. Mobile friendly is a must for my website. Like Vanilla Forums, free and hosted. Also, SMF, phpBB, bbPress, good options. I believe I'm going to save up for IPB or Xenforo.)

 

[imupnow]

bro you should start out with getting a free forum and when you start getting alot of people signing up and starts to get popular then move it to vBulletin

 

[WayneInc]

This is your Answer OP.

bro you should start out with getting a free forum and when you start getting alot of people signing up and starts to get popular then move it to vBulletin

 

[ChEcKeD]

MyBB is the popular alternative, there are lots of huge forums still using it.