Hi there!
When I first saw the Mandelbulb I got really fascinated, so I started to read all about it on the page by Daniel White. I found that the idea was pretty cool and I started to think about the formula. Then an idea came to my mind.
When I took a look at this forum here I saw that godzillions of variations already exist but I'm too lazy to look them through to see if someone already had this idea. But on the other hand, I dont want it to be lost, so I'll post it anyway.
Basically I thought that there must be a possibility to get rid of the inhomogeneity of a spherical coordinate system that is taken as a basis here.
I hate the standard spherical coordinate system. If I explained why I'm afraid I'd use mathematical terms like "singularity" wrongly. And I fear that my approach uses this coordinate system, too. In a way. But enough blabla.
So here my idea:
Instead of doubling these angles in a spherical coordinate system like that
double yang = atan2(sqrt(x*x + y*y) , z);
double zang = atan2(y , x);
newx = (r*r) * sin( yang*2 + 0.5*pi ) * cos(zang*2 +pi);
newy = (r*r) * sin( yang*2 + 0.5*pi ) * sin(zang*2 +pi);
newz = (r*r) * cos( yang*2 + 0.5*pi );
we could use rotations in relation to local coordinate systems, best describable by matrix multiplications i guess.
First we go from (1,0,0) to the point we want to rotate (yellow). But we rotate the coordinate system with us. Step one is around the x-axis by phi1, step two is around the new z axis by phi2. See pic1.
Then we do these two steps again to obtain our result. See pic2.
The rest (distance from (0,0,0) and addition of C) is similar to the original idea.
EDIT: Doesnt work exactly the way I painted it, see below.
I don't know whether the resulting fractal is different from the "normal" one in any way, but my feeling tells me it's worth the try.
So I hope that someone finds the time and the motivation to implement it (I lack both) and that it is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that everyone looks for.

Best wishes,
Mirko Kunze