New stuff to look forward to..

[Libertine]

Normally we stay away from adding plugins to this site because of the hassle it is keeping up with the people that develop the plugins. Which are usually ordinary people who are just good at coding. Reliability always comes into question. Plus, its a pain in the you know what to keep updating the plugins along with the forums..and to make sure there are no errors / security issues...or increased loading time with the forums.

The official vBulletin crew has announced that they are now working on Add-Ons / Plugins themselves. So there's a good chance in the future that new types of Add-Ons will eventually be installed here.

their official announcement :

New Official vBulletin Add-on Products - vBulletin Community Forum

Main parts to read :

Blog and Social Networking

In response to user requests we have been working on a blogging system that will fully integrate with vBulletin. vBulletin Blog (a working title) will allow sites running vBulletin to extend the functionality to allow forum users to maintain weblogs from their user control panel and leverages the extensive vBulletin permissions system to enable administrators to fine-tune the features available to their visitors.

Blogs can be made private, with blog authors themselves able to create a list of users permitted to view their messages, while the vBulletin inline moderation system makes it easy to ensure that blogs and comments do not contain unwanted material.

Trackback and pingback support is fully integrated, so site owners can expect to quickly find related sites linking back to their own, improving search engine rankings and building traffic.

Additionally, vBulletin Blog adds social networking functionality to your vBulletin installation, which will allow your users to quickly and safely make connections and form relationships. Member profile pages are extended to include an enhanced buddy system, visitor tracking, blog integration and a comment system, all housed within a new and improved profile page template together with improved delivery of existing profile information.

As usual with vBulletin, every feature and template can be endlessly customised via the admin control panel, and can be extended even further with additional 3rd party plugins.

We are committed to developing tools to enhance your community and unite your members, and with the introduction of blogging and social networking support, vBulletin has become an advanced, exciting, platform on which your community can grow and flourish.

Next Update....

We are keen to keep you informed during the final stages of development of these new products. Keep an eye on the vBulletin announcement forum over the next few weeks for feature lists, screenshots and details of our plans for beta testing!

This is a very exciting time for the vBulletin team, and at this stage I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support. We do read every suggestion posted in these forums, and continue to work hard to develop stable, feature-rich, software solutions.

[E. Writer]

Will the plug-ins be on all sites or just the ones that want to enable them?

[Libertine]

Originally Posted by E. Writer

Will the plug-ins be on all sites or just the ones that want to enable them?

Its an optional plug-in. The Blogs / Social Networking is just one example. The others will be more interesting.

Regarding the Blogs one..There will be plenty of time to analyze it to see if its a fit here.. If its going to look too myspace'ish..then forget it.

[OME6A]

This is interesting news.

Originally Posted by Libertine

If its going to look too myspace'ish..then forget it.

Being that Myspace is the most successful model for the noted features, I'd expect it to look very similar. Time will tell I suppose.

[BoyEngland]

If this site turns into anything like MySpace, then Im gone. (To the delight of many)

I can't wait to see some of the more interesting features actually, I think that most of the features added so far in the past have been a success so if that's anything to go by, I can see the new update(s) to be a "hit".

[OME6A]

I doubt it'd be anything obstructive. You'd probably access a person's space or blog, just as you would their profile.

[Sparkplug1990]

Considering like half the world has a myspace, this could attract members. haha

I am looking forward to some new things that are added to the site.

[Focus]

Bring back the rep system.

[Scorpinox]

Originally Posted by BoyEngland

If this site turns into anything like MySpace, then Im gone. (To the delight of many)

I can't wait to see some of the more interesting features actually, I think that most of the features added so far in the past have been a success so if that's anything to go by, I can see the new update(s) to be a "hit".

Yeah,if this turns even remotely like Myspace,I will leave as well.I hope it doesn't,though because I just joined recently.

Perhaps you guys have seen Gamespot's Blog system? It's a good one,and I'd love to see it here.

Gamespot's Blog system for those who haven't seen it yet

So forget about the layout being that we have Vbulletin and Gamespot has their own,but that's a really good blog system and I've enjoyed it for a while now.

[BoyEngland]

I think I noticed a new feature today or maybe I just missed it before now.

At the top of the first post of each page the thread title is there in huge letters. (Huge Title)

It's a good idea actually, I like it.

Is it actually new or am I just slow?