I would love to know the future of vbulletin
 

Hey guys, I've been a loyal member, customer, designer, etc of vbulletin. Few years ago I used my forums as a small talk for my members but I now own big businesses and sadly I have a feeling that vbulletin will turn into something my businesses won't need. Im talking for alot of people here is not only me. vbulletin 3.8 to me is still the best platform there is, I just couldn't upgrade to 4 and definitely 5 is not looking any different from 4. Will vbulletin ever merge into new stuff without getting rid of the actual "vbulletin" that most of us know? its getting more difficult to customize it based on our members needs and now I just can't risk my businesses future if this keeps getting way out of vbulletin's original COOL software. What is your opinion and what do you think it'll happen with vb

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This is the single most asked question and the most discussed. Whether or not this company makes a homerun with VB or falls flat on its face is something that can be hashed over till the cows come home and not get anywhere.

Personally I think the future of vb is not looking too good. With the premature release of vb 5 the trust that was gained by vb 4.2x that became a very solid product, is so good as gone. And I think it will be impossible to get that trust back anytime soon. A lot of forums left/are leaving vb for better alternatives. Most notable some of the biggest forums that once were the walking advertisement of vb 's popularity. Not to mentioned the coders and a lot of helpful users too.

If IB does not change its policies soon and make vb 5 a really great and solid product like vb once was, then vB is as good as finished imho.

Seems like two different questions to me - future of forum software vs. future of vBulletin specifically.

I think forums will always satisfy a need that cannot be replaced by social media. People love to interact with like-minded communities about shared niche interests. In fact, with successful forums, I see more loyalty & thought put into posts than on huge sites like Facebook.

As for vBulletin, I still think it's one of the best forum softwares out there. I also liked IPB and phpBB, although my most successful forum has been on vB. Haven't tried xenForo, mainly because it feels "lonely" to me (I can't really explain why).

Having used vB 3, 4, and 5, I believe that 4 is the best version. More specifics in your question might help. I'm wondering what made 4 less cool than 3? What is the "actual" vBulletin? :)

It's strange that you say 5 is not looking any different than 4. They feel drastically different to me, in a bad way. You certainly wouldn't be the first to be frustrated with vB5, but I would highly recommend giving 4 a shot. Our members have been extremely happy with it, and have quickly voted against using various other softwares (or going back to 3)

Adding to this, vBulletin 5 is still in its early stages. It's got ample time to improve.

People have to remember that vBulletin 1, 2, 3, and 4 were like this at the beginning, too, and I'm sure they were just as frustrating as vBulletin 5 is right now.

My opinion is that the future of this software is uncertain. How about preparing for unknown?

I think vB's future is still secure. But they definitely went to the wrong way about vB5. It seems so unstable and requires a lot more work than currently is being done.

My local psychic tell me Internet Brands will sell vBulletin to vbresults and Paul M will give me an admin account on vBulletin.org.

I think their crystal ball is broken. ;)

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.

My friend, you do not need to lecture me about doing something. I was both on the alpha/beta testing teams for vB4 and vB5, and spent lots of my spare time being ignored. Every one of your posts just underlines that you are just plain clueless of what happened, so do yourself a favour and stop pretending otherwise.

vBulletin 3.8.8 (currently in Beta but no known new bugs) was an update only for PHP 5.4 support.

However you need to hold a VB4 or VB5 license to download it. All VB 3.x license holders have expired licenses so they will not be able to download the update without buying a license upgrade at this time.

We do not know if this policy may change for the 3.8.8 final release.

Lecture me; I lecture you.

Oh, the short term memory. You were the one making claims about things you obviously have no clue about, not me, and you were the one telling people what to do, as if you were the only enlightened one.

I may have worded it wrong; I was trying to say that vBulletin 1-4 were BETAs at one point, too, and I'm sure they had their bugs. Whether it was a lot of bugs or not, that doesn't matter.

My point still stands, however.

Alright... Fair enough.... Beta's and Alpha's obviously do have bugs. This is common knowledge. :)

So... now that vBulletin 5 is out of beta on it's Gold Release, but closely resembles Alpha / Beta software... How do you explain that? :confused::rolleyes:

You are completely wrong about facebook. You have to be hanging out with a select group to not see that facebook is very healthy and still going. Some business owners that I ran into before facebook came along would say I'm not a computer guy. I can send emails and thats about it. Now I see most everyone at least has a facebook page up and generating additional income to what they had before hand. And around 75% of the business owners that have been around and know a little about being online say that facebook brings in 80% of their internet sales.

If you don't wake up soon and pay attention to the hardcore facts you will be left behind in a hurry.

Integrating social media into your discussion forums, especially facebook, is an extremely wise move! I'm looking for someone right now to hire to integrate facebook into my site as much as possible. I have all the facebook developers access to everything, just don't have the time.

Anyway, everyone is getting involved with facebook. Even Google which owns chunks upon chunks of the internet is integrating stuff of theirs as well.

Btw, as I think about, facebook has its own forum app that you can setup now. It has a add on chat feature, plus other stuff. I try not draw any attention to that and will probably come back here in a few days and remove it from this post. But the thing here is you can't compete with "Free". And that is what facebook is, and so is all the software gang's out there.

I logged into my Instagram and Vimeo accounts a few hours ago which I had not done in around a month or more and sure enough they both a setup with integration with facebook.

The way I see it is vBulletin has about one chance to put something together soon, that of coarse is a fully integrated with social media. Positively get away from the high cost of what is charged for this board. Keep in mind those getting involved are doing it with no cost to the consumer. vB will as others do need to find a completely different way to make money from us. Btw I don't care about XenForo and the others out there because I don't have any money invested into them.

vBulletin has been competing with "free" from day one. There have always been popular free forum packages available since there has been vBulletin.

People more than willing to pay for quality.

Using it and liking it are two different things.

People liked Friendster, then hated it and something else came along.
People loved MySpace, then hated and moved on.

Today, people use to love Facebook. Maybe they still like it, but the "love it" phase is over with and its moving toward the critize phase.

As I said... Using something and liking it does not always go hand in hand. Sometimes people stick with somethings because they're use to it . Or because others are there & ironically, they're there only because you're there.... and they're only needing a replacement in time.

I again point out the "firework" affect. It's bright, shinny, and draws a large croud, but as soon as it goes out, everyone goes home.

Well in that case don't be the guy that sells his umbrella during a rain storm because he's not getting wet.

You point out things about the old media setups that don't really matter. You can't really compare those old setups to facebook either because they never received anything close to what facebook has. I personally do not care for facebook. I wish it didn't exist. However, it does exist I will have to except it as long as I'm in the media scope as I am.

Each day now that goes by for discussion forums to not have social media integrated into them is unfortunately like adding another nail in the coffin. The more our members are away from our current "been there done that" discussion forums, they will be use to that facebook type layout and never look back at what we have put countless hours into building. Look at Google+, it has a similar layout as facebook. Like it or not, that is where it's at and if you are not wise enough to go where the people are, you maybe standing alone soon.

If you want the current hottest ticket out there today, you will have to enhance what is out there. I don't know if you or anyone else that may read this in the time frame of me posting, but if have joined any of the facebook developer stuff that is available but they pretty much allow you to drop most of the facebook platform into your stuff so to speak. Yeah they have some rule and guidelines but it's open more then most may realize.

Regardless whatever route everyone takes I wish them luck and hope they get where they planned to go.

Many people dont use, and have never used, facebook.

Many more are fed up of all the advertising thats taking over it, and are abandoning it.

+1 :)

Yup! Haven't been back to check mine in 2 years. Don't miss it either.

Your neglecting that win-xp has been/ will be alive till EOL for 14 years. Additionally, win-7 is the extension/bridge and that too will live for a decade plus.

Just saying... VB3.x should benchmark the success of that business decision

PS, I believe that if one had purchased the 3.x extension at the time offered... all updates are still included till EOL

Advertising? Where?!?

Firefox + Ad Block Plus

:D

lol at many people not using facebook. if many arent using it, what term is used for people using it? everyone? Id say taking into account parts of the planet with no electricity and running water, you are correct. Many people arent using it.