Very true, and that's not even mentioning the great open source CMSs out there...

Here is what the vb.com people had to say. As long as your current license is active you will get the Forums 4.0 update for free (not the suite). When your license expires you will have to get a new one or upgrade it to continue getting updates for 4.x.

Anyways, I purchased the Suite for $130 ... lets see what I can do with it. Funny how the paypal page redirects to the homepage and does not give any indication whether your purchased or upgraded... nothing!

Good luck you all!

Just in case it's not clear, if you have an Active vB license now, then you are getting a "visitor's pass" to try out vB4 until your license expires. Then it will cost $175 to get a real vB4 license. If you let your license expire, then you are a NEW CUSTOMER for $195.

Then when vB5 comes out in 12-18 months (exact quote from Ray Morgan), that will be another $130? $175? $195?

All those people who were saying that each vB having a fixed price would work out cheaper than $40 ($60?) a year have been proven WRONG. $300-500 for 4 years is more than $40 or even $60 a year.

Are there any truths to the rumour the guys that left vB 2 months ago are starting their own old school vB type forum software?

Where exactly did you get that from? Gonna quote vB.com support:

So do you mean that if you use the 'free' upgrade to 4.0 option, you still have to purchase a copy of 4.0 once your current vB version expires? That doesn't make sense.

Cool! You think the skin can be tweaked? That would be brilliant! I'll investigate that option nearer installation time! Thanks again! :)

So does that mean someone like me who has only just bought the owned license for 3.8.4 would have a "visitors pass" for a year? Because in that case that's quite sweet as by the time my pass runs out theoretically I shouldn't have to wait too long for version 5.0 and so should wait until then to buy the license again.

I have no intention of upgrading to 4.0 until it has been tried and tested. IMHO new versions usually introduce bugs, security holes and the like and it has proved prudent to stay a little behind the crowd and just apply security patches to the old version until a new version gets into it's second release.

The VB4 upgrade pricing structure is just not viable for me I barely cover costs at the moment. I purchased an owned licence so I can closely monitor my costs and the goal posts have now been moved.

The new features of VB4 suite do not interest me. I guess I will stick with 3.8 for a while but my licence runs out in December.

Will I still be able to download security patches for 3.8 when my licence expires? Somehow I think not! No licence = no login at vbulletin.com.

WHY NOT SAY VB4 onwards is a new pricing structure (for new users) but for all pre 3.8 and VB4 budget (non suite forum only users) you stick on your existing contract with owned licence renewals maybe just adding a little more to the annual renewal cost if people want VB4.

IPB or SMF look like my only option as I no longer trust VB as a company.

Forcing people to pay large fees like this at short notice is commercial suicide. Those who can will pay and hate your brand and prepare to move away and those that can't will just have to dissapear.

If someone puts a gun to my head I look for a way to defend myself rather than comply with their unreasonable demands.

Seems that they need urgently cash to pay the programmers, otherwise the project will never finish;)

I'm trying to find if there is any ETA for the release. ...or I need to pay without knowing when I'll get it?

On what do you base this ? If you licence is valid, then you will have access to vb.org.

Not true Im afraid. The template syntax has changed in 4.0, so it will generally take much more than a few minor tweaks for styles to work on vb4.