The future is XenForo and those a like. vBulletin is leaving the bulletin board behind and it seems as though they're trying to make some kind of social media platform.

Such sites are like fireworks. They go up, they attract people by the masses, but then they go out..... Myspace is a good example.

I remember everyone under the sun loving, liking, and wanting to get in on that action. You were not "somebody" if you didn't have a Myspace account. Look where that is today. Friendster is also another example.

Facebook is just another example. How much do people hate Facebook right now? Answer: Just as much as they did MySpace before the turn. Its at that point where there is a growing dislike, but everyone still hangs around with the feeling they need something else. But no one can really imagine there being anything else to replace it.... Just like MySpace or Friendster.

This is the business that I see vBulletin trying to get into. They want to make a social media platform. And I'm reminded of the firework.

people who hate facebook 20, people who still use it 1 billion

Myspace or friendster never reached close to the heights of facebook. facebook is now google strength, it's not going anywhere for awhile.

While Xenforo may potentially rise to enterprise edition class someday, IPB has been rather stagnant in moving forward, and while vBulletin is enterprise class but having increased difficulty in keeping the core customers happy,....


.... one must ask the real and correct question instead.

"I would love to know the future of forum software"?

I think , in good conscious that VB3 should fall into class of the Win-XP in that ibrands keeps it as a classic and keep critical security support for those of us that like the hobbieware of the fiddling of code.

additionally, as Ibrands continues to roll out versions, they should keep in mind a nice and easy bridge/import to move up and over to their latest project version.

But, Hey ! What do I know, I'm just a small voice in the shadows.

These are good ideas and generally what is happening. VB 3.8.7 (soon to be 3.8.8) is still receiving important security updates and even support for PHP 5.4.x.

Also even with VB 5.x, you can upgrade directly from VB 3.8 without having to upgrade to 4.x first, so a direct upgrade path was included from the start.

My feeling is the sheer market share of VB 3.x means we will see it supported in some way for a long time to come.

I'm not sure if you keep up with what's going on or not. But as of April of next year, Win-XP is EOL and no further security updates will be issued.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...d-support-help

I was actually surprised when IB reversed their decision to EOL 3.x.

It is quite clear that you were not around at the times of vB3, so you might want to think twice before telling people what they have to remember. There are people who actually do remember, you know...

If that's what floats your boat, frustrating major releases may make you happy. vB customers once were used to high quality releases, and even beta versions ypu could happily install without a second thought if you had half a clue what you were doing. This fundamentally changed with vB4 Gold, and vB5 is even worse.

You know... I do remember vBulletin 1, vBulletin, 2, and vBulletin 3. I even remember the short lived vBulletin Lite edition, which you forgot (assuming you knew what that was).

And let me tell you something.... vBulletin is not what it once was.

wait what? vb3 is not EOF anymore? YAY!!!

like its getting new things or just security patches?

You don't have to literally remember something to know things are always buggy and unstable at the beginning of their life.

I read through a number of things about people whining that vBulletin 4 sucked when it was first released and calling vBulletin 3 God; now vBulletin 5 is what sucks and vBulletin 4 is the God. There was a guy complaining about it back in 2010 on a forum I currently regularly visit here.

Anyway, instead of wasting people's time and energy, if you don't like something about vBulletin 5, actually do something about it and make improvement suggestions rather than just sitting here pointlessly complaining and hoping something will automatically happen to improve it.

No, it's definitely at the end of its life. This recent release was for PHP support, I believe. All vBulletin 3 gets now are security patches.