[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by Master Of Unive

...bugs and major features haven't been filled soon...

What version of vB are you running, and what bugs have you noticed with the software?

[TheLastSuperman]

Why not 7? Because Seven Eight Nine as in ATE! I'd be running for my life!

Joking aside, well simply put because 5 is still being actively developed and improved upon and it happens to be the primary version on the cloud which is making them quite a bit of money. Many people fail to realize that, sure many customers want mods and think outside the box 0 the cloud is not the perfect fit for them but those who want a simple and straight forward forum have exactly what they need in vB5 and the cloud - it's like pressing an Easy Button. Those who've always pressed it don't know the hard way nor will they ever benefit from the hard work (customization in our case) but in the same sense they don't always need said benefits as some need the basic cloud setup and some need more.

I've been waiting for seemingly EVER for vB5 to improve, here recently some strides have been made but we're still a long way off imho, the amount of time left to improve upon it before a new version is mentioned, mocked up, and developed is not much so I dare say we'll be seeing vB6 before we see a rock solid kick A double SS chew bubble gum no wait all out of gum vB5.

[Big Kahuna]

I've had three VB forums since VB1, and it îs a fact that Social Media and sites with groups (Mostly Facebook) are killing forums. I've been trying everything to encourage more activity, but I feel like I'm losing the battle. I upgraded all three forums from an addon feature rich 4 to VB5, and activity dropped like a lead balloon. I've been checking for features that VB4 had addons for - and there's nt a damn addon I find useful. There are only three pages of addons that don't work, brand, or require the "Pro" version to be useful. Most of the addons haven't had the creator login in four years.

It looks like Vbulletin is going the way of the dinosaur, and I see a future of shutting them down and focussing on Pages and Groups on Facebook.

I personally prefer the organization and layout of the board, but the lack of addon and feature support on Vbulletin tells me it won't last too much longer as interest from Users and Developers both have died. Nothing defines VB as being better anymore. Sad!

[In Omnibus]

Originally Posted by Big Kahuna

I've had three VB forums since VB1, and it îs a fact that Social Media and sites with groups (Mostly Facebook) are killing forums. I've been trying everything to encourage more activity, but I feel like I'm losing the battle. I upgraded all three forums from an addon feature rich 4 to VB5, and activity dropped like a lead balloon. I've been checking for features that VB4 had addons for - and there's nt a damn addon I find useful. There are only three pages of addons that don't work, brand, or require the "Pro" version to be useful. Most of the addons haven't had the creator login in four years.

It looks like Vbulletin is going the way of the dinosaur, and I see a future of shutting them down and focussing on Pages and Groups on Facebook.

I personally prefer the organization and layout of the board, but the lack of addon and feature support on Vbulletin tells me it won't last too much longer as interest from Users and Developers both have died. Nothing defines VB as being better anymore. Sad!

Forums will always have a niche because they can do things that no social media platform can do. If you've ever used Facebook Groups you know social media can't do what forums do. It tried and failed miserably.

[Mark.B]

Again, and I'll keep on saying it, lack of add-ons will not kill any of the forum products in the market, because only a TINY FRACTION of site owners are interested in modifying and customising their boards.

It doesn't matter how many times people trot this one out, it doesn't change the facts. A thriving add on community certainly doesnt hurt, but it is absolutely not essential, it is a niche and a very small one at that.

Another huge mistake forum owners make, is trying to turn their forums into Facebook,a nd demanding the vendors make their forum products into Facebook clones. It won't work. Forums are not Facebook. Facebook and Twitter have taken a lot of activity away from forums, but that's because they have taken people's TIME. The attractions of Facebook are not going to be replicated in a forum, it's the presence of family / friends / colleagues all on the same network that provides the attraction, not the fact there's a like button or that posts are laid out in a certain way.

The way to keep your forum active is with CONTENT, not by trying to make it look and feel like Facebook.

[Replicant]

Premium mods for other software brands are all for sale, not free. Why should it be any different for vb5?

[In Omnibus]

Originally Posted by Replicant

Premium mods for other software brands are all for sale, not free. Why should it be any different for vb5?

Free mods are usually a sales pitch to get you to purchase the premium versions.

Here's a free mod with two functions no one cares about but if you want the one with functions and features you actually want that'll cost you!

The options are typically limited to free half-baked products that don't do everything you want or paid full versions that lock you into a particular software version and a host of future compatibility issues.

There is no perfect solution but the one that comes closest is the one most forums use:

Zero modifications.

[Master Of Unive]

Originally Posted by Mark.B

Again, and I'll keep on saying it, lack of add-ons will not kill any of the forum products in the market, because only a TINY FRACTION of site owners are interested in modifying and customising their boards.

It doesn't matter how many times people trot this one out, it doesn't change the facts. A thriving add on community certainly doesnt hurt, but it is absolutely not essential, it is a niche and a very small one at that.

Another huge mistake forum owners make, is trying to turn their forums into Facebook,a nd demanding the vendors make their forum products into Facebook clones. It won't work. Forums are not Facebook. Facebook and Twitter have taken a lot of activity away from forums, but that's because they have taken people's TIME. The attractions of Facebook are not going to be replicated in a forum, it's the presence of family / friends / colleagues all on the same network that provides the attraction, not the fact there's a like button or that posts are laid out in a certain way.

The way to keep your forum active is with CONTENT, not by trying to make it look and feel like Facebook.

because only a TINY FRACTION of site owners are interested in modifying and customising their boards

Definitely not tiny, if so vB3 and vB4 were no where near what they archived. I've built many forums and I know each forum need special things to attract people. You could begin a forum plainly simple, without modifications but at the end, site owner have to do more to increase activities, if they do not want the site looks dead. Back in the days, I had some forums which could fill the latest posts statistic within every 10 seconds, and I knew modifications got an important role. Content is the first thing, but the question is how to keep people interest, how to make them keep supporting your forum, not only content can do, because your site is not an unique on the internet.

You provided an example of vbulletin did not have many modifications from early days, but it is invalid argument for me. vBulletin had potential to be great and useful was main reason attracting more modifications and addons, but now they want to turn back to the bronze age. You could not pay for every modification as I stated in my previous reply.

I know some giant forums which have great contents also great amount of active users. Most of biggest forum are still in old version with plenty of modifications, you just cannot see through their old style, for example 2-step authentication. They've been there since vb2, upgraded to vb3, some forums even upgraded to vb4, and likely stalled forever or chose to migrate to another board / system.

Anyway, this thread is just a unreal expectation as it would never be considered. I just want to express the fact of how their strategy changed.

[Brandon Sheley]

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

Why not 7? Because Seven Eight Nine as in ATE! I'd be running for my life!

I'm glad you said what we were all thinking...lol


so a few false (in my opinion) statements in this thread.
1. vb5 is a trainwreck.. vb4 was for years, vb5 is destine for the same if not worse future.
2. Saying no one makes free mods anymore is a lie. Check wordpress, check phpbb check opensourse scripts. 1000's of free mods all across the board. Paid as well of course, but there are free moders out there that just want to help out.
3. vb5 is far from gold even today after "released" years ago. No way in the world it should attempt to create another major version.
4. Correct vb isn't going to die because lack of mods for latest version. The mods at vb.org were certainly a large perk to owning a vb license back in the day.
5. Don't even run a site "in the cloud" It's like renting when you have enough money to buy a house and you know how to fix a broken pipe if needed.

In short.. you'll never polish a turd enough that I'll be convinced to put it on my head and use it as a hat..

[Paul M]

Assuming there were ever to be a new version (and there are no signs of that heppening atm) then it would be vB6.
There is no reason to jump to 7, php only did that becasue they had started on designing php 6 before abandoning it.

Microsoft just cannot count, there numbering has been all over the place (e.g. 3.11, 95, 98, 3.5, 4, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10).

[Dave]

Fun fact: Microsoft skipped 9 because a lot of (old) software checks for the number 9 in the Microsoft version in order to determine whether it's something like Windows 98/95. It would of caused conflicts.

vBulletin 5 is not suitable for my needs yet, but perhaps it will meet my requirements sometime in the future. It's starting to look a lot better than a few years ago though.

[In Omnibus]

Fun Fact #2: People who purchased a competing product which is essentially a stripped version of vB4 and then paid for every add on and mod are hard to take seriously on their opinions of vB5.

[Paul M]

Personally I cannot see me ever running anything beyond VB4. The basic design of VB5 means it will just wont perform that well on large sites, and a new version (VB6+) designed in a different way seems compltely unlikely now, or in the forseeable future. Atm, vB3.8 is running our site quite happily, and will continue to do so for a long while. We could move too VB4.2 if necessary, but in both cases the only likely issues are php compatibility, so I should be able to keep them running for years yet.

If it ever came to a point where I had to move, then I'd look at what alternatives were available at the time.

[Master Of Unive]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Personally I cannot see me ever running anything beyond VB4. The basic design of VB5 means it will just wont perform that well on large sites, and a new version (VB6+) designed in a different way seems compltely unlikely now, or in the forseeable future. Atm, vB3.8 is running our site quite happily, and will continue to do so for a long while. We could move too VB4.2 if necessary, but in both cases the only likely issues are php compatibility, so I should be able to keep them running for years yet.

If it ever came to a point where I had to move, then I'd look at what alternatives were available at the time.

Yes, that's certainly what I am doing. At least, vb4 can run on php7 (however require modifying core classes), which is enough by now. In future, the only option is to move from vb.

vB5 took nearly 4 years to fix bugs and now said: "You don't need modifications".

Fun Fact #3: This thread seems to be the most replied thread recently. But we have run off arguments.
We agreed that there would be no vb6 in a near future. vB5 is lack of addons and vB want to tell us that we don't need modifications.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Master Of Unive

Yes, that's certainly what I am doing. At least, vb4 can run on php7 (however require modifying core classes), which is enough by now. In future, the only option is to move from vb.

vB5 took nearly 4 years to fix bugs and now said: "You don't need modifications".

Fun Fact #3: This thread seems to be the most replied thread recently. But we have run off arguments.
We agreed that there would be no vb6 in a near future. vB5 is lack of addons and vB want to tell us that we don't need modifications.

I believe there's a version out there that has support for PHP 7 at vbulletin.com, but it's not stable release. (?)