There's always the option of programming hacks in a way that doesn't require major code modifications to the standard vB scripts. For instance, using include to embed code, adding additional tables instead of modifying vB tables, etc.

You don't have to do the whole upgrade - just do the patch to fix the security hole.

You only need to upgrade if you want the bug fixes as well, no one is putting a gun to your head and saying UPGRADE OR DIE.

Patch yourself and move on :)

I really hate to say it but deal with it. When you start hacking the board you should see this coming...

While it was true at one time we wen't awhile without a release, its not the norm now. The dev team can't forsee everything, and when they see a problem that may effect its entire customer base a new release is always one of the best options imho. It draws more attention, simply because the admin cp tells you when a new version is out.

If they wanted to start offering patches for major holes like this, it would require a re-code in parts of the admin cp to support patches aswell.

Email is nice, and so is the forum, but most do upgrade because the admin cp tells them to. You have to remember that most customers probbly never post at vB.com unless they need support.

If you see all these releases becoming a problem for your hacked forum maybe its time you re-think how you upgrade. Its not hard to find the changes in the files and patch by hand, if any SQL is added its right there in the upgrade script. Maybe you should consider CVS or Subversion to manage your php files.

It's all good, because they will be releasing 3.2 in March. :laugh: :banana: :p

All valid points, and like I say, I *have* reconsidered things, which is why I have said that from the next major release the only hack I will implement is the arcade.

When I first got a forum releases lasted a while, and were more often new features or minor bug fixes, not security issues. So you could hack the board knowing that you could pick and choose the minor releases and even then they wouldn't be too often. I was fine with that. It meant one week of serious coding maybe every three or six months.

However, there simply isn't time for me to be doing four full upgrades in six weeks like this. I'm not criticising Jelsoft for doing it, quite the opposite, I'm glad that they keep it up to date, but clearly the security situation with forums has got to the point where weekly releases will soon be the norm.

That being the case, many people like me won't be able to devote that amount of time to upgrades, hence something will have to give...and that something will be hacks.

An unhacked board would take me less than 5 minutes to upgrade. No hassle at all. I personally will always run an arcade hack, so with that I would say about 20 minutes at most.

All the others are just nice luxuries, and many may be part of the next major release anyway.

The only sad thing with this is that if, as I suspect, this approach becomes more widespread, the modification community will continue to shrink and will eventually die. That's sad, but it's an inevitable consequence of what's happening. Sure there'll always be a fair few hardcore people who enjoy coding and hacking, but those, like me, who find coding difficult and a tedious chore, those type of people will give it up.

There's always the option not to use any hacks, that is what I'll be doing from the next major release onwards, that way upgrades are no problem.

Boards can still be heavily customised in templates, in fact quite a lot of what used to be thought of as hacks can now be done that way, so it's not great problem.

Not having used CVS or Subversion, can you tell me how it would be used for making upgrading possibly easier? I'm always looking for better ways to do things.

I am sure some can relate to this ... :laugh:

Just for laughs.

Are you serious?
I'm away for 7 days at the start of March!

cvs rdiff -u -r 3.0.6 -r 3.0.7 > 3.0.7.patch

Trivial for the devlopers