The current paid subscription service built into VB3 is wonderful but none of the four companies currently offered will accept adult content sites. Are there any additional billing processors in the works that will both provide the required call back and accept adult oriented forums? I have 7 sites that I would like to base permissions on usergroup settings rather than protecting entire directories.
If not, is there some technical information available that I can provide to companies interested in supporting subsciptions and are willing to work out a solution for my needs?
Thanks very much.
Is there someone I might contact directly that can provide some specifics on the paid subscribtion requirements?
No problem.
I've been using it for quite awhile and it's one of the best purchases I've made. You'll be hard-pressed to find better support than what Alex provides there anywhere else as well!
Good luck!
Cheers,
~Regs.
Well... I'm now up and running with CCBill on my board using aMember Pro as recommended earlier in this thread. Overall I would say... yes, it's certainly an option to get you up and running right now and it's flexibility is wonderful. You can actually combine both usergroup AND protected directories if you wish but there seems to be some minor issues with usernames from the VB database. Support has been very good but I do get the sense they are lacking in further development right now. Both credit cards and online checks are currently offered with phone billing supposed to be available shortly (it's available from CCBill now). If you need adult online payments based on usergroup access "right now" it's good but plan on shelling out the bucks and spending some time fiddling with settings.
Suggestions for future versions are not acted on immediately. They are considered by the Developers as they work on the next version.
If you need help with custom scripting, then you might want to ask over at vbulletin.org.
The bigger issue for me is that I have other programs which also use the vbulletin user database. So this would most likely prevent me from being able to use Amember Pro.
They have an integration script for VB3 that draws from the forum user database the same way other integrated scripts do. I run four scripts off the VB tables now all based on usergroup permissions. CCBill is included but Verotel continues to refuse any third party integrations. I purchased aMember Pro this morning and to be honest, it gives me far more flexibility than I had originally hoped for from VB's subscription service because I can mix both directory and usergroup protection. A definite thumbs up from me and my thanks to Regs.
Please post this in the vB3 Suggestions forum so a Developer will see it.
vB itself is able to use CCBill, or is this from a 3rd party?
I would like CCBill as they offer subscriptions for 95% of the sites I promote.
If and when I get the information I have requested from vBulletin support I will be writing an Ibill module. I currently run several adult websites and 3 of them use Ibill they all have very large and active memberships. Since I can not move from phpbb until I have this written it will happen sooner than later.
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If you have interest in this module let me know (I will be happy to make it available for free). I have written several php scripts for Ibill so this should not be very difficult as long as I am able to get the information from the support staff
But that's exactly my question - what is needed from the payment processor to activate those various scripts? Is it simply a call to the correct script, are certain variables passed, if so which ones, etc? I need the specifics on what needs to be sent from a billing company to make it work. I'm not asking vBulletin to include additional payment processors and will develop my own scripts for integration but I do need to understand what to ask for so I can set it up. This wasn't intended as a general suggestion to VB but I did want to extend an offer to work together on it if of interest. I'm simply after the technical specifications involved.
Using paypal for example, I would go into my pay pal account and give it the URL for the paypal script on a site (ie, http://forums.unrealplayground.com/subscriptions/paypal.php)
That is basically it. Everytime paypal recieves a payment to that account, the IPN system will connect to the specified script (that comes with vBulletin) and update or add subscriptions. So to make sure I have all the info you may want (again, using paypal as the example
1) Fill in the info for my payment company (paypal) in the AdminCP.
2) Create my subscription plans via the AdminCP subscriptions section
3) Enable the IPN service via my paypal account and just put in the location of the script for my forums.
That should be it. Now depending on how I setup my subscriptions will determine what happens when a member of my forums makes a payment. The easiest way is to setup groups that relate to your subscriptions. Then setup what type of access that group will have and have users added to the group for your subscription plan(s).
And then as I stated before, you can use the vBulletin permissions to tie some of this into your website or just write your own code to verify which group a user is in.
So you don't really need to worry about what happens between your forums and the payment system as long as the forums support it. You just have to worry about setting up the various subscription plans and what you want to happen based on when someone pays for a particular plan.
Hopefully that helps. And the item that Regs posted looks pretty nice also.
I would be willing to help pay for an iBill & CCBill module.
As requested...
Sure thing but I'll send it as a PM to preserve the "all audiences" rating for VB forums. I only just purchased it yesterday so it's not active yet... just installed because I need to expand the usergroup permissions within PhotoPost first (for better access control). I wasn't expecting to find a ready made solution to this and figured on at least another week or two before converting over. If you want to see it in use with a VB board right away check out http://www.extremepixels.com/ .
I too am interested in hearing a status update on any iBill / CCBill integration attempts. Thank you.
any news on this ?
/Allan
The current paid subscription service built into VB3 is wonderful but none of the four companies currently offered will accept adult content sites. Are there any additional billing processors in the works that will both provide the required call back and accept adult oriented forums? I have 7 sites that I would like to base permissions on usergroup settings rather than protecting entire directories.Bryan Ex, this is exactly what I was trying to find out before converting to VB for my own adult website.
It's imperative that I can find a way to satisfy iBill's requirements to secure a directory. They of course have no clue about user groups nor the dynamics associated with tiered users. I'll be watching the other forum for the responses here. Thanks for asking and clarifying my very basic question regarding a VB conversion.
Desert-John
vB itself is able to use CCBill, or is this from a 3rd party?
I would like CCBill as they offer subscriptions for 95% of the sites I promote.
vB can not use CCBill or iBill with out an additional module, which is not currently available from the vB folks! CCBill and iBill are the two most popular payment processors used by adult sites, but their use is not just limited for adult sites. iBill for example, offer several orms of membership and content selling, including hard oding, pin coding, and web500 phone billing.
Since adult communities are now becoming very popular (I should know, because we own the largest, and one of the most popular adult directories and search engine networks :eek: ), and adult surfers are "easily" tempted to part with a small sum for a worth while subscription. I should say that an iBill & a CCBill module would prove to be rather popular, even if it was launched as a premium, optional extra. I would certainly be happy to pay for it, and other vB owners have stated that they would be happy to pay too, and provide resources for it's development. I guess us adult webmasters obviously just have far too much money kicking around. Any way I better go now. Don't get a very good internet connection out here on my super Yacht, and my hos are waiting for me in the hot tub on the upper deck! :D
When someone sets up a subscription via the UserCP, the payment system communicates with the various scripts in the subscriptions folder.
But that's exactly my question - what is needed from the payment processor to activate those various scripts? Is it simply a call to the correct script, are certain variables passed, if so which ones, etc? I need the specifics on what needs to be sent from a billing company to make it work. I'm not asking vBulletin to include additional payment processors and will develop my own scripts for integration but I do need to understand what to ask for so I can set it up. This wasn't intended as a general suggestion to VB but I did want to extend an offer to work together on it if of interest. I'm simply after the technical specifications involved.
Bryan,
May I suggest you look into Amember Pro with it's optional vBulletin integration script? It'll do everything you're looking for and then some...
http://www.cgi-central.net/scripts/amember/
Cheers,
~Regs.
To my knowledge there are no other subscription services being worked on. Which specific service would you like to see added?
Thanks very much Regs! I'll have some research to do on this but it does seem like the solution I'm looking for. Verotel is not currently listed but I do have a contact with them that seems to be interested in this project and CCBill is already integrated. I see a bunch of shiny new VB boards coming up in my near future.
I am also interested in using ccbill (& perhaps verotel) with vbulletin.
I checked out the Amember Pro. That program would work but the downside is that it maintains an independent database so all users must go through the Amember Pro interface first. (I am not sure if Amember Pro addresses the issue of members making password changes directly in vbulletin)
The bigger issue for me is that I have other programs which also use the vbulletin user database. So this would most likely prevent me from being able to use Amember Pro.
I would be willing to help pay for a direct ccbill integration if vbulletin was able to accept that project.
Contact me if anyone else is also interested.
Ralph
dam shame they don't support iBill. I really need an iBill module for vB. I have found this one DreamAccount (http://www.dreamcost.com/?page=dreamaccount&aid=84), but I kind of wonder if it's been updated to work with vB3. Does anyone use DreamAccount?
I need one of the "big three" that handle adult content - Verotel, CCBill, or iBill. I've contacted all three and all three have requested additional information with regards to supporting a subscription service for either VB or IPB. If I'm successful at finding a billing company that can support my VB installation AND will carry adult web sites I'll be looking at an additional 5~6 licenses in addition to the current site that's ready now. Ideally, if I can get one of those three companies to commit to developing their support (preferably Verotel.com) I would be more than willing to provide a full featured web site for beta testing plus my time and implementation. What I need is some specifics on what is needed from Verotel to tie into the subscription service. I would love to work with vBulletin on this but if I at least had the specs I could go alone if not of interest. Either way I'm willing to put in the legwork and resources. Appreciate your consideration...
- Bryan Ex
You saved him a lot of trouble there Regs... lol I might look into that as well. Although I do not have a porn site, thinking of setting up a store, so this may come in useful for me.
Right on Regs!
Steve... I don't seem to be getting anywhere with this unfortunately. If vBulletin is not interested in working with adult webmasters that is fine but I could really use at least an overview of how the subscription service works. The only information contained with the online manual explains how to set up your currently offered services (paypal, wordpay,etc.). What exactly is required from a payment processor and what scripts do I need to contract out development for at my end?
Once the payment system is setup via vBulletin and on the payment site itself (i.e., paypal IPN for example), the forums take care of the rest. Using paypal as an example. When someone sets up a subscription via the UserCP, the payment system communicates with the various scripts in the subscriptions folder. Once payment is verified, users will have whatever action taken according to how you setup the subscription. So for example, you have a group called 'Premium Member' and a $10/month subscription. You can have it so anyone setting up this subscription will be added to the 'Premium Member' group. Then you can use that group to allow access to restricted forums and such or give them other misc perks. Now, as far as creating a directory with images or something with restricted access, just have your script validate against the vBulletin permissions either adding your own custom permissions or just querying the database to see if a user belongs to the required group.
Not sure if this helps, but what it boils down to is that vBulletin allows you to easily setup subscription plans and once configured, it just does what you have instructed it to do for each plan (ie, add some user to a specific group or something). Then you just base access on those groups. It sounds like the only problem you will have is it doesn't support the required payment services yet. Basing all the access on the usergroups is a snap.
Steve... I don't seem to be getting anywhere with this unfortunately. If vBulletin is not interested in working with adult webmasters that is fine but I could really use at least an overview of how the subscription service works. The only information contained with the online manual explains how to set up your currently offered services (paypal, wordpay,etc.). What exactly is required from a payment processor and what scripts do I need to contract out development for at my end?
Bryan, any chance of me seeing a link to your site as I may be interested as well in purchasing it. I'd just like to see a demonstration from someone who is fairly new to that application. ;)
If and when I get the information I have requested from vBulletin support I will be writing an Ibill module. I currently run several adult websites and 3 of them use Ibill they all have very large and active memberships. Since I can not move from phpbb until I have this written it will happen sooner than later.
If you have interest in this module let me know (I will be happy to make it available for free). I have written several php scripts for Ibill so this should not be very difficult as long as I am able to get the information from the support staff
Sounds great!! Count me in. :cool:
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Subscriptions & adult content