Maybe the phenomenon is due to the 'volunteer' nature of the site, but like anything, got its PROs & CONs

I think it's because vBulletin is becoming stuffed with too many features.I would rather work on the code improvement first.

I'm sure that everything listed in this thread plays a part in the overall picture. For me, personally, the above quote is what has turned me off from vB.

That, and I refuse to work with tables. There were several occasions where I would sit down and try to come up with a tableless / semantic markup / etc skin so that all I would need to do is create stylesheet after stylesheet for new skins, but vB is a BEAST. Way too many templates, and about 30 or so in, I lost motivation and ended up being angry that vB is still this way.

To me, paying $160 for something that is so frustrating to work with is not only irritating, but also absurd and in my opinion, Jelsoft should have done something about that, instead of putting their time into trying to mimic Myspace.

I think its because of the increasing amount of Nulled vBulletins going around the internet. People with valid licenses are RIPPING mods and styles and posting them on warez sites so with a simple off shore host, you can run any nulled vbulletin with any mods and get away with it. I think more people are turning to that and think they can get away with it which I have almost done before I started my sites. I think that vBulletin should come up with more security in the future to prevent nulling of the software and its features.

Almost every single warez site on the net has nulled scripts like vBulletin.

As much as I am flattered that you quoted me,I must disagree with your statement.I think the template system is way better constructed and also easier to use than,let's say,some Smarty based.I work with PhpFoX which is heavily based on Smarty,and it's hell of a pain.The vB template system is not perfect,but best I have seen so far and they make it easier to create end-user products.

I prefer vB because of the template system. But I digress.

I don't think the "too many features" argument makes any kind of logical sense, though. I could understand if it where a "function creep" argument; too many features that no one uses. But that's not the case here. You've got features that people are either choosing to use and others are choosing not to use. I hear too many vB owners say things like the Social Networking features are a bad idea or surpurflous, while totally ignoring the fact that a lot of sites utilize the feature and that their users like, even love it.

Yes,but they could have included an option to get rid of all that Social networking stuff,like use old style profiles.

I just bought vB about a week ago, and I don't plan on quitting.

Well, perhaps I wasn't as clear as I should have been. My issue is not with the template system itself, but the markup used in the templates. Tables, tables, tables.. and when there are literally hundreds of different templates inside of a style, it is way too overwhelming for someone like me to go in and make it different. Like I said, I have tried and lost motivation.

I don't think that it's HARD to do.. just frustrating. It's almost 2009, and tableless markup has been around for years now. Imagine a vBulletin where a new style meant almost never having to touch the html markup.. and only doing it all with css? Why that wasn't a main focus for vB 3.5 (hell, even 3.0) I will never understand, and I think it is absolutely ridiculous that it is now 3.8 and it still isn't even on the list.

I am just stating, that is the main reason why I have turned from vBulletin.. and I'm sure there's at least a handful of people who feel the same I do? This may or may not be their plans for 4.0, I don't know.. but at that point, I think it's going to be too little too late.

PHPBB is free, and their default style is light years ahead of vBulletins (note that I'm talking strictly about markup here, not the look/feel of the style itself). There's something wrong with that picture, if you ask me.

Yes,I am sorry I misunderstood.I have to agree with that point,that is true.The loads of tables is what convinced me not to be a designer :)