I'm interested with custom 3.8.12 :up:

I know I am going to get some backlash with what I am about to say but I really don't care ...

Versions 3 and 4 still work and honestly what else can you possibly need to make them better? No one will ever be satisfied with anything as long as people keep offering new versions and that's not in forum and cms software but in everything that can be sold to any customer base...

If someone has an idea for something to add to their forums they can simply hire someone who is willing to develop whatever they might need, I have had several addons, plugins and what not made just for me by a handful of people and "I" am quite happy and satisfied with what I have on my forums ...

I have never once thought about even upgrading to to version 5, for what?

If your site, forums work why fix it? Have fun with what you have !!

We will be interested in this, Paul.:up:

If you're interested in Paul doing custom work on your forums privately then that's how you should discuss it: Privately. This is the wrong place to solicit paid work and all it can do is cause problems.

Not necessary.

We can discuss about it publicly, as there's obviously big public interest about this particular custom work. And we know about it only because it was publicly unannounced.

I guess that all of us can privately define all details with Paul, but some work could be done openly.

This still isn't the place to discuss paid work. There's a forum specifically for that. In addition there are other ways of contacting Paul.

Having people turn this into a solicitations forum is only going to get it shut down entirely, which serves no one.

I'm interested with custom 3.8.12

Paul, i think you should add in display unread mod ;)

When did you become a moderator ? I must have missed that. :erm:

They are not "discussing paid work", they are expressing an interest (if it should happen).
If I decide to take that route, I will make it known, and create a way for people to contact me about it.

If people wish to contact me before, then TAZ is a better place.
I joined the staff there in the summer, and spend most of my vBulletin related time there now.
There is nothing tying me to this site anymore.

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I happen to agree, Im trying to remember why I never added it as part of "Garfield", when we did 4.2.0, but I dont recall now.

I didn't. When did you become a "member?"

I've been known to be wrong before but everything says they're looking for reasons to shutter this site. The complete lack of activity for vB5.x is a valid reason. So, adding requests for paid work from the developer they let go on software they no longer actively service is just adding another reason. I realize you and others here don't care. It's only about your individual needs and screw everyone else.

I don't think that "we who discuss here" screwed anyone. I think you missed who's actually one to blame for current situation.

And I understand your fears, I myself like vB4. I liked vB3 also. I guess I'm guilty of not liking vB5. But, who knows, maybe with xenforo 2 I see a bit of light. Who knows... maybe...

I'm happy that a knowledgeable and reliable engineer is available for work on existing 3.x forums. If vBulletin would post they would contract out support, I would be happy for that. Some of us have reasons for sticking with the old versions of vB, so let's not overlook that assistance and support are a good thing.

To be clear I am painfully aware of who is to blame for the current situation.
To be clear it isn't Paul.
To be clear, that is all hindsight.

The customers who purchased vB5 need this site not to become nothing more than a platform for customers who purchased software which is no longer officially supported to discuss paid work. vBulletin gains nothing from keeping open a website that serves only as free advertising for third party coders to work on software they no longer sell.

Meanwhile, this site does virtually nothing for customers of the product they do currently sell. So, why should they keep it up and running? You tell me.

Why did customers buy "owned license"? What does it mean "OWNED LICENSE"? if php background not support my forum version, then it's limited license, mean php limited license..

There is no such thing as an owned license any more.

Prior to the vB4 release there were two types of license:

Owned license: You paid a one off fee similar to how you do now, and you could run the software for life, similar to now. BUT the initial fee covered updates for a year. After that, you could carry on running the software, but only up to the latest version that was available at the point the year expired. You could then by a further year of updates for a small fee. This is similar to how XenForo works today. There are still plenty of customers with these licenses, but the upgrade option is no longer available for purchase...if they want the newer releases they need to upgrade to a full 'new style' license.

Leased license: You paid an annual fee and could run the software and download updates for a year. After a year, you either paid the same fee again, or else you had to stop running the software altogether.

Just a little history lesson for anyone interested.

Loyalty to their customers? Past and present.

We bought the product vB made (3). We like it, we use it and we paid for it (twice). We do not like the new product (5), it is not what we want. If a company is struggling, making the product their customers want is the first thing they should examine.

Loyalty to customers who purchased a product how long ago? Should companies be indefinitely loyal to customers who purchased their product once years ago? vB3.8 is roughly ten years old. My vB4 license is eight years old. IB doesn't owe me anything for something I purchased eight years ago. Or ten years ago.

I don't mind telling you IB doesn't owe anyone except vB5 customers anything.

From where some people developed this sense of entitlement to lifetime product support I don't know but IB has supported vB3.x and vB4.x a lot longer than most companies support any product. Longer than any product Microsoft or Apple has ever produced. Longer than any car warranty. Longer than they should have.

If the last time you paid the company any money was at least a decade ago, what makes you think they 'owe' you anything?

Strange, I'm pretty sure I paid for vB4 to be able to download updates (of course, within vB4 branch, not any type of update) "indefinitely". I'm pretty sure I can log in to members area and download latest vB4 version.

Not sure how it was called exactly.

I'm checking and here's what it say in members area:

And I can download vB4.2.5

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I'm pretty sure that there are people still who buy vB5 (as they can buy only that version) and actually download and use vB3 or vB4. If they close this site, their sales will drop dramatically.

And not only that, but some people who use vB3 and/or vB4 will sooner switch to other platforms (think xenforo) then later. Which basically will mean that there's even smaller number of forums who uses vB. Number of sites who use that software platform is for company that makes that software also something of value.

This may come as a shock to some people, but most companies exist to make a profit. Providing a free service to people because they paid some money ten years ago isn't really good business practice.

--------------- Added [DATE]1515269916[/DATE] at [TIME]1515269916[/TIME] ---------------

Yep, hence my comment at the top of the post:
--------------- Added [DATE]1515269981[/DATE] at [TIME]1515269981[/TIME] ---------------

Nobody has said anything about closing this site. I'm not sure where all this has come from.

Mark, you replied to my comments twice, are you ok?

Yes, I split the quote into what was intended to be two posts, I forgot about the annoying post merging on here.

I said that if this site becomes nothing more than a host for people to solicit paid work for versions which are no longer officially supported there is no reason for it to be kept open.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the site is doing nothing constructive for the promotion of vB5. Why would IB keep open a site that serves no purpose to the only software version they are currently selling and officially supporting? That was the question I asked, to which I received no answer, valid or otherwise.

The end isn't here. IB and KKR, more specifically, have far more than enough capital to see vB5 through to fruition. That doesn't mean this site continues to serve what IB considers a useful purpose. What would be lost in their eyes if they simply moved everything related to the vB5 product over to vbulletin.com? It's not as though there is so much traffic the server couldn't handle the additional load.

Closing this site just isn't on the agenda, indeed it's part of the support process to refer customisation queries here. vB3 and vB4 are still supported by the support team, it's only ongoing development that has stopped, and in fact that had already been the case for years, Paul was only doing php compatibility changes and some minor bugfixes. There has been no 'active' development (new features, improvements etc) of vB3 and vB4 for several years now, I think 2012/2013 in fact when 4.2.0 and 4.2.1 came out. vB3 it's actually back to 2009.

In terms of support: Support tickets and forum queries are all still given equal priority regardless of version.

Nobody can say what may happen in the future obviously.

That seems like a valid reason to keep it open, since its part of the service it provides.
Also, why do you keep stating vB5 is the only officially supported version ? :erm: Thats just wrong.

This site has never existed to promote any version of vbulletin, somrthing the "rocket scientist" would already know.
The scientist would also know that vB3 & vB4 are still officially supported. :cool:

It's simple, forums in general are dead.

They didn't see that coming (or they decided not to do anything), they were slow, but they still had to create a new product. But I doubt they were given enough fund to develop a good one. And finally there's vb5, a half-@ss forum with some social network features, bad design and full of bugs (at the early state, I don't know its current situation now).

Bull. The current vBulletin 5 sales page lists "Extensive 3rd Party Developer Community" under Support.

https://www.vbulletin.com/en/features/

The vBulletin 4 sales page listed the third party developer community under support.

Congratulations, you just figured out this site hosts 3rd party tools.

Now perhaps you would like to explain how that means the site (which still runs vb3 btw) is "promoting" any version.

In fact, whch version is it "promoting" exactly ?

The page specifically lists vBulletin 5 and ONLY vBulletin 5. Naming "extensive third party developer community" of any version other than vBulletin 5 as a feature of vBulletin 5 on a page which only names vBulletin 5 as the product for sale is a complete non sequitur. I think you're looking for an argument from ignorance and you'll not get one from me.

I think you completely avoided answering the question, with mumbo jumbo.

To be clear - vbulletin.org has never existed to showcase any vBulletin version.

That was never the claim. The goalposts have been moved so many times in this discussion that it has lost all meaning. When people start arguing strawmen that were never constructed it's time to move on, and so I shall move on. And, so, at some point, shall vBulletin from this site. That was the initial and only point.

On the Russian support forum vBulletin are available vB3 and vB4 with the compatibility php7.2
Developers do not need this. The administrator adapts his forum or downloads a compatible version in the Internet.

Ah I saw Marks post on the first page that vb4 publishing suite is EOL, does that mean the vb4 forum itself will not get security updates? The publishing suite and the forum are 2 separate downloads at vb.com so are they separate products as well?

Thanks

I didn't read the other pages but this last one is just filler content, vbulletin.org is a solid assist to vbulletin.com, I don't see it dying just yet.

It just means there is no active development on vB4 - forum or suite - planned. So no new features, no further bug fixes, no php compatibility changes, etc etc. It's actually been this way for a while, certainly since Paul left, and even prior to that there was no feature development going back a few years now. Paul was mainly doing php compatibility and some minor bug fixes.

In terms of security releases, any issue found will be evaluated if it should arise (which is broadly similar to now).

Because there is a vBulletin 5 section that offers paid custom work and a free section as well. Given it's very limited in development, it's still there to keep the promise of 3rd party support.


I believe they can't be doing that bad in sales or they would already be developing something else. I do not like vB5 either, but there are some who do. I've seen some communities start developing Reddit type forums. All depends on taste and what the consumer wants. They want to focus on their newer software, I can understand it. They even released security fixes after EOL. I'd like to see anyone go to Apple and ask them to patch a security flaw in an iPhone 1G.

Good to hear!

Just saw that Real IP Detection is withdrawn with a note "For vBulletin 4.2.x please use the built in reverse proxy detection." Where do I find this?

What a shame.. Vb4 was the best of the best. I'm sure just like me many still use this version and would be great to bring it back to life..

I tried to throw money at him to assist but he said he's done with vb.

What are you trying to do? There are many who have VB 4 running under PHP 7.4.x You do not need a vBulletin developer to achieve this, but only someone with knowledge of PHP itself.