vBulletin.org Changes - Jan 2011.
 

Now that vbulletin has moved onto version 4.1, there will be some minor changes to the release forums in January 2011. These changes affect the current 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7 forums.

These versions are now very old, and unsupported by IB - they are also now rarely used by the vast majority of sites. New releases for these versions are extremely rare, and almost always just duplicates of 3.8 releases. Therefore its time to semi-retire them.

In practical terms, this means the following will happen.

The 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7 forums will be combined into a single "Pre 3.8" forum. This will most likely be termed the 3.x forums. This is not an ideal name since it wont include 3.0 or 3.8, but it will suffice.

The above forums will be closed to new releases. All existing mods will remain open for both posting and download, they will simply not allow new threads.

The [new] combined forums will remain in the main modification and style areas, they will not be moving to the archive area.

Why don't you call them the "Pre 3.8 Forums" if 3.x forums is not ideal?

Well thats a possibility (and slightly less inacurate) but as we have 2.x forums & 4.x forums, it seems logical to have 3.x forums. Swings and roundabouts as they say.

Or 3.5+ forums.

That should be fine .. but I hope that the Pre 3.8 forum will have sub forums like 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 or it will be difficult to search things out.

Hi Paul,

Is the staff of vB.org discussing a migration from vB 3.6.12 to vB 4.1?

Thank you,
Jonathan

Why not just close new releases and not merge the forums? Instead they can be kept under a 3.x forums category as sub-forums. Easier to search this way :(

just like microsoft is doing. they stopped supporting windows xp, and asking its customers to upgrade to windows 7. ur saying that 3.x versions is no more supported, and to upgrade to 4.x versions. nice marketing (business) move. to increase ur sales ;) . well its ur right to do that. good luck anyways...

Is there actually a need to merge the forum content? It mores sensible to put them under an umberella forum. Achieves the same effect of reducing the forum numbers at a higher level and combining the content in on area whilst still allowing for easy identification of where version a thread is for. Unless of course there is some other way to easily identify which version a thread is for.

No, there is going to be no change in the vb.org forum software for now. Some of the older 3.x forums are going to be reorganised in Jan 2011.

If subforums arn't ideal, maybe put a thread prefix on all threads in, for example the 3.6 mods section with the prefix vB 3.6. I'm not sure how practical/doable that would be though.

All release threads have a version set in them by the author, but apparently its not currently shown in thread listings. I may have to look at changing that.

As far as vb.org and vb4 is concerned, yes, that is being looked at in 2011 as well.

Woha that would be brilliant, Though looks like vb.org will be requiring a lot of code work.

Will vB.org upgrade to vB4 in 2011?

It looks like Paul has said yes :)

Well then just add prefixes specifically for that forum. Just add a prefix for each version of vbulletin 3.x
3.0
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8

and make it a requirement for users to assign a prefix for easier problem sorting.

what ?

dont be more vb 3.6 ?

shit !

no offence but allot of sites have not transfered to version 4 or regret doing so because its so POOR. the fact this forum is on 3.6 says it all.

I am glad you are still allowing those version mods to still be downloaded and discussed. That would have been really bad if you chose to close them down completely.

True, but what about new threads? I think we won't be able to make new modification threads or discussion. :(

'old'? that's very short sighted thinking - Has anyone actually thought about this or are 'we' leaving it up to one person who may or may not be aware that there's a huge subscriber base in play here on the 'old' versions? :down:

Are you planning to use the CMS for Mods?

I really hope so, because if you manage that, then the CMS will be ready for my needs.

No, of course not. We just woke up one morning and thought "lets do this". ;)

At no time did we bother to actually research the activity in the old 35/36/37 release forums.

Im not really sure what you mean by this ?

Please don't move on too quickly as it has me concerned for the actual life of vB4 it's going to be over by February '11

You should not call the combined forum 3.x but rather 3.y, as in "why".

I could have been clearer. Let me try again:
If I understand it correctly the Modification releases on vb.org are currently in GARS.
Do you(vb.org administration) intent to replace GARS with the vbCMS, and migrate the Modification releases to a CMS content type?

I dont know where you get that idea. We dont have GARS, and never have.

Errrr. what ?

I read that somewhere. Obviously its not true. But the question remains the same. Do you intent to utilize the CMS for Modification Releases?

I don't understand why you would close the 3.5-3.7 forums for new mods. I understand a new 3.6 mod is a very RARE occurrence but why turn off new threads (mods)? It doesn't hurt anyone to have them remain enabled- it's not like you can have less 4.x threads because 3.6 forum is open...

I maybe can understand putting the early 3.x mod forums under some 3.x umbrella to "clean up" the look of the site but preventing new mods from being posted just doesn't make any sense.

Truthfully the same logic goes to why the 3.0 and earlier mods were ever "archived" (deleted) to begin with but what's done is done... Don't make that mistake again. :(

This forum itself runs 3.6!

I really don't see a good reason why old modifications can't be left as is. All versions should be able to be downloaded and released. It doesn't hurt anything or anyone.

Hey staff

are you guys planning to upgrade this board in jan

No.

So when will this site be updated?

If not vB4, then maybe 3.8?

I think what was trying to be got at was:

Are you intending to write a custom content type for modifications?

The more I think about this, the more I can't see a problem with leaving things as they are.

What reason is there for closing off the option to add new threads for older versions?

What reason is there for reducing the numbers of forums?

I don't see the point in any of it other than to perhaps limit the expansion of user developments for the old versions and make it harder to look up older versions of vB and thus encourage people to move to vB4.0 - which is still far from ideal for a great many people.

It could well be a terrible move and return to bite the site harshly when we see the effect it has on people.

Updated or Upgraded ? They are two different things.

Updated : Jan 2011

Upgraded : Sometime in 2011.

Do you guys plan on using 3.8.7 or just directly skip to 4.1?

Most likely straight to 4.1.

Mr. Paul, vBulletin.org still the same? So when will this site be updated?