Does the site come with a user forum like this one?

[pipedragon]

I was wondering if the site comes with a user forum like this one we are using. Also does it integrate with the site or do people need to create seperate accounts? I was thinking of using PHPBB at www.phpbb.com can I use that forum with peoples accounts from your software? Either one will do. Thank You in advance! :)

[Peter]

No it does not. To be honest, nothing beats VBulletin, we highly recommend the software to everyone interested in a discussion forum. The potential and thought put into VBulletin far exceeds our needs to power our threads and many other software community sites as well. :)

However >>
A good thing to think about is exactly "How Much Discussion" you are willing to allow on your public marketplace. Many forms of abuse can come out of the idea of a public or even member-specific forum. Let's face it, you cannot be responsible for every 'members action' on your forum, and the last thing you want is a member posting 1000's of rude remarks about your buyers or seller or even if they are having a bad day -- Your site all over your forum.

LanceKB tries to moderate this idea in a more secure manner allow discussion to take place, article moderation and questions to article moderation as well. Here are a few links and thoughts to help you decide. ;)

I'd suggest first checking out this thread here: http://www.ilance.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=5&highlight=forum

Then you can decide for yourself what you want to do -- Full Blown Forum or LanceKB! :) referring to this thread here: http://www.ilance.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=106&highlight=LanceKB

However, I cannot speak for every customer, and you may feel that a forum may be a good route to go. In this case, you'll also be happy to know that ILance will have "import scripts" that will allow customers using VBulletin, PHPBB, Invision (and few others) will be able to take full advantage of their existing forums via database mapping:

Customer has a VBulletin forum with 500,000 members
Customer purchases ILance v3
Customer runs VB to ILance User Import PHP script
Customer's 500,000 VB members can now use the same user/pass to gain access to Customer's ILance v3 marketplace.
Customer's VB database is UNTOUCHED! :)
More options such as "Default Subscription Group for Bulk Member Import" and other ideas such "Set a default FREE subscription length for this bulk Import" that could possibly allow those 500,000 members instant access to the marketplace for X days FREE (with FULL access) then after X days, they all become invoiced for their subscription renewals. :eek: