TOTAL Confusion 3, 4 or 5
 

I've been a vBulletin owner/admin since 2004.

My current vBulletin stats are Threads: 127,940, Posts: 1,043,499, Members: 74,689

I am running: vBulletin 3.8.7 Patch Level 3

Now that vBulletin has fractured into three different followings, 3, 4 and 5, what the hell do I do? Has anyone made sense of this random senseless drift in a marketing scheme? I have purchased ALL upgrades to vBulletin so that's not the problem. Which one is working at the top shelf quality that used to be vBulletin? Where do I go from here? My long term philosophy has been, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

There's NO compelling reason to "upgrade" to v4 or v5. No one's ever been able to supply one.

If you and your members are happy with 3.8.x, don't change.

30,000+ v4 installations were hacked recently.

Many of your add-ons and Mods, and plugins will not be compatible with version 5.

I think you'll rue the day you ever "upgrade" and they will have to pry MY 3.8 out of my cold, dead hands.

How about this...

The table and blocky design for vBulletin 3 SUCKS!!! The flexibility with CSS and mobile related feautres / social media on vB4 are far superior than vB3.

Common sense in my opinion, upgrade to vBulletin 4 and you're good to go for a few years.

About the recently hacked vB4 sites, do you know how many vB3 sites have been hacked over the years? lol.

Upgrade to vB4 and customize it nicely, you'll thank me later. Don't just do the typical crappy stylevar edits a bunch of people do around here, spend some time and do something really nice for your community. Good luck either way!

Agreed

Your answer is simply, "it looks better."

That's hardly compelling. It's just a opinion. MY opinion is, vB4 looks like crap. It's the wimpy "web 2.0" crap. Old school PHP baby, that's what rocks.

See?

vB 3.8 NEVER had the security issues we're seeing with v4. Not even close.

all kidding aside, i cant see why vbulletin cannot add a shlt load of new features to 3.8. vb3.8 clearly is the best boards out of 3, 4 and 5. vb3 ruled the net back in the days. even looking at big-boards, those massive ass boards out there are all still running vb3.

you cant tell me vbulletin cant turn vb3 into something more awesome. ive changed to IP.Boards and clearly they are the rulers of the net today. but in the back of my mind, im always thinking while using IP.Boards, vbulletin can add most features to vb3 similar to IP.Boards.

oldengine, im pretty sure 70% of vb3 users have been in your boat, what to do, where to go, i feel lost...all because some big head thought they could make vbulletin better, or try and make money, god knows what goes on in that place and in ther minds.

i must say, it was really hard for me to leave vbulletin. for vbulletin 3 freaks like me, its like giving up smoking or drinking or some shlt. but i took the leap to IP.Boards because they rule with their convertors, like holly crap. you can make it look like vbulletin and give it the feel vb3 has but with all the extras. the extras vbulletin can still add to vb3 and most likely get half their customers back. after vb4 was released, IP.Boards was flooded with new members converting. it died down there for a little bit, but then vb5 was released, look out Invisionpower, you have more customers!

dont some vbulletin stuff go to bed at night and think, "holly crap, what have we done to vbulletin". vb3 awesome, vb4 SMF clone but worse...umm...vb5, its like if vb5 was actually a piece of software that you could hold in your hand, im thinking someone through it under a train and uploaded it to the net.

if you ask me, vb3 most likely could get hacked at anytime, depends on if the hackers feel like attacking your site, vb4 the same. vb5 could turn into something in like 10 years if they still exist.

no offense against those that put all the time and effort into creating vb3 and the support was good. really going to miss the old days with vb3. the last email i got vb3 was not even mentioned, so im guessing its all over for what was once the best boards ever.

ah, good the see vb.org still running vb3, once it upgrades, im out of here.

oldengine, good luck with the choice you make, either stay with vb3 or move :p

Opinions... everyone has them. Hard facts are vBulletin (3 and 4 combined) still dominate forum market-share and XenForo has already surpassed IPB, but remains a distant second to VB.

Unless you have a specific reason to upgrade, then stick with 3.8.7 (or 3.8.8).

You can move to vb 4.2.2 if you *really* want the fun of an upgrade.

I concur ^

Here's my thoughts:

I recently ran into a woman running a fully patched 3.8 site, she had spent money and members even donated to have quite a few (fabulous mind you I simply adored them honestly) styles made for the forum, for all the different seasons too! It was a treat to login and see :D. She said that, she contacted a few coders etc and one even went so far as to tell her that they could not work on her site unless she upgraded to 4.x which I found too cute simply put.

^ That is not the case at all, her forum was just fine as I told her and upgrading including the custom styles would cost well more then she intended to spend, if it ain't broke don't fix it as the saying goes, why spend more money? Not everyone has a huge budget for their forum while others do, some are simple hobby sites some major sites related to a business or other. Now does this mean 4.x is better? No in fact I think 3.x and 4.x are very comparable, 5.x is just not up to par (personal opinion and where's the cms and other features, lack of modifications on here to boot as well but again as I've said before in other posts it's getting better over time, I can clearly see that).

What I'm trying to convey is this:

• If you have a nice 3.x site, it's 3.8.x fully patched and it works fine then no need to upgrade to 4 or 5. If you have a nice 4.x site, it's fully updated and patched no need to upgrade to 5.
• If you're new to vBulletin then I personally recommend starting with 4.x, either 4.2.1 or 4.2.2 (requires php 5.4) and you can always upgrade to 5.x at a later time when it improves just like many did with going from 3.x to 4.x long ago. I say this because 4.x has been in a good spot for quite a while, many mods on here for it and also easy enough to find solutions online considering the amount of support given to date.

If you have doubts, check out vbulletin.com it is running 5.x, see if you like how the site looks and feels but remember styles can be changed/added make sure it feels right is what I would do while browsing/interacting with the site.

Just my 2 cents, if you don't want to keep my pennies find a wishing well and be sure it's a good wish before you toss them in :cool:.

"Likely could get hacked" is relative - it's true of any platform. But v3 is inherently more secure than v4. v4 isn't getting "hacked" because it's prevalent out there, it's happening because it's relatively easy to do. Because of all the exploits it has, and ones it has that haven't been found yet. Most of what you see happening to v4 isn't much more than script kiddie stuff, done more for "street cred" than anything else. These script kiddies wouldn't waste any time at all with v3 because it would require too much work on their part. And they know it.

But if a true, hard core black hat HACKER really wanted to, there's little question that he could "hack" a v3 installation. But your true, hard core black hat hacker has way too many other bigger fish to fry than a message board installation.^^ I have been saying this incessantly as well. There is no compelling reason to go to 4 or 5.

And besides - if your members like your platform why do you want to upset them?

I have been using 4x for well over 2 years now (closer to 3)...and actually I really like it. And my members like it a lot. Just last week one member was talking to me..asking about what software I was using and how they loved it. (they are used to 3x) Of course some of my modifications have improved my forum...and I have had people in the past to help some out with any problems..but so far, not even close to a hack. (knock on wood). :)

Just see what Internet Brands is doing itself. Their sites are mostly on vb3. Apparently that makes sense to do for their massive number of websites.

I don't think any site, or any software is exempt from being hacked if someone is determined to do so. I do my best to protect my site. Not much more I can do.

4.2.2 does not require php 5.4 :erm:

Correct.

It just adds support for PHP 5.4.

Looking for "compelling" reasons to upgrade? Take vBulletin.org for instance - Still running vB 3.7.x --- As are a myriad of other IB-owned forums, the majority (if not all) of them are running vB 3. See the IB Automotive properties at http://www.internetbrands.com/our-brands/automotive/ as an example.

If IB itself is refusing to upgrade their online properties to any of the 'latest greatest' versions of vBulletin (vB4-vB5) -- Why should you?

You likely shouldn't :D

J.

Odd because 4.2.2 seems to have issues unless you make a few changes (how time is set on the server and a few other changes, most fixes show if you search for the errors on google ;)) to run it on php5.3 so imo if you want to run 4.2.2 then upgrade your php to 5.4 i.e. required in a sense.

:p

My sincere thanks for all of the posts here. I am still running vBulletin 3.8.7 Patch Level 3+.

It's php specific,not just 5.3 or 5.4..What runs on 5.3.27 won't run on 5.3.17 and vice versa..So upgrading to 5.4 won't solve all the problems.

I think a big portion of why certain large sites aren't upgrading is because of the amount of work it would take to completely redo everything. At least thats what my dilemma is.

I'm currently on 3.8.7pl3, 45,000 members and 4.6mil posts… I need a better search, i need a CMS, and i need to take advantage of the latest functionality for "big board" database handling. But I'm not convinced vb4 or vb5 is the answer. I've owned vb4 since it came out, tried to upgrade to it and backed out cause i just wasn't ready to build all new templates and designs.

Yes I know as in old mods etc that use deprecated values etc and yes someone was upgraded to 4.2.2 and to php5.4 then had to move them back to 5.3.27 I believe and it worked fine (yeah 4.2.2 on 5.3.27 but then on another 4.2.2 site it would not function properly on 5.3.27 but it was new the owner said forget it Mike just install me 4.2.1 so he could get going with the site as it was brand new but not everyone can simply do that i.e. if their forum has been long standing and has thousands of threads and posts etc) long story short every site there's been an issue on was custom regarding modifications/plugins so in essence unless you do a test server/site (most host will accommodate that request for free if you call and explain what is going on to them, if not perhaps a nominal fee and you will more than likely need to edit your hosts file to view the new site on the different server IP) then you just don't know and that compatibility tab in the admincp does not work all the time, it's a band-aid per say you should do as the hint suggest and sort the issues properly.

I'm not recommending 4.2.2 at all now, same as vB5.x I suggest 4.2.1 but that's because of the mod issues as some owners simply don't want to deal with all that, had them tell me that on the phone despite me telling them 4.2.2 and 5.4 will ensure their site runs smoother for longer (if no issues).

Thats good advice,but it's not only down to mods/plugins.Vb is also different on specific php versions,but we cant go constantly testing php versions with the vb version or the mod/plugin.So we really need to see some more system requirements being more specific as to the version of 5.3 or 5.4.

LOL, just to add to the confusion...

4.2.2 is running fine on PHP 5.3.10 for me. :D

Now on vBulletin 3.8.9 Beta 2, but still looking.

Threads: 127,761, Posts: 1,041,312, Members: 74,459

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

vB5.1 is broken, do NOT use it under any circumstances on a site you care about.

I suppose it could be considered broke in that I'm finding mods for version 4 that I cannot run on version 3.

If I update to 4, what exact version should I be targeting toward for starters?

Looks like Paul says: 4.2.1 or 4.2.2

My suggestion is to stay far far away from vbulletin 5. It's nowhere near ready for prime time.
vBulletin 5 is broke in the fact that most of the site does not work and your members will hate you for "upgrading" to it.

4.2.3 (wait for Beta 3 now, its due out soon).

For vB3, 3.8.9 (again, Beta 3 due in a week or two).

You should list them. BoP5 has a huge list of v3 mods that work in v4, and otherwise. The two platforms are not so dissimilar that v4 mods cannot be also coded/ported to v3.

That's not a definition of "broken" by the way. You'll see "broken" and alot of misery and heartbreak - and loss of a ton of regular users - on a botched or glitchy "upgrade."

I've seen this happen even with a smooth "upgrade."

What's the compelling reason to "upgrade?"

So the parts for my 2014 corvette don't fit in my 1969 corvette, which one is broke?

Justs because a vB4 mod does not work in vB3 does not mean anything is broke. Most of the mods are not cross version compatible, unless they are a plugin only mod.

I would go with 4.2.2 Patch Level 1 for now, later on you can upgrade to 4.2.3 once its out of beta and marked as "stable" because its ready and willing to work with php 5.4 being compliant and fixing more bug issues.

My personal opinion here but do not go to vB5 yet just bide your time and eventually it might run smooth like a 1967 Pontiac LeMans with a 326, mind you its not the GTO but it still runs smooth as silk if handled the right way so maybe just maybe one day we'll see vB5 "stable" as vB3 and 4 have been for some time now ;).

See my post on page one of this thread: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....36&postcount=9

^ If its running fine i.e. "if it ain't broke don't fix it"

There are a LOT of us with that opinion ;)

Thank you for the more positive of the comments and I do own a 1978 Corvette with 7,500 miles on it. No parts required.

Actually, what I'm looking for is a means of purging posts after a specified time limit. I won't go into what the posts are for fear of radicalized comments. This one would have worked except not on 3.8.9 https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=275314

The other thing is the need to come up to speed for the smart phone / iphone users on my site. I own a copy of vBulletin Mobile Suite, but it might be overkill. I installed a style to try: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=263822 but it's too light. No Google ads and no attachment uploading.

Hacks at work here are: Event Attendance, FlashChat, Miserable Users (enough of those out there!), Mobile Device Detection, vBGallery, Post Thank You and Post Groan, Prevent Double Posts, vBCode Table, etc.

It's been a long vB ride since 2004 and my boards started in 1996 with WebBBS so I've been around and through several servers.

Have you tried this mod, https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=139646

Hell yeah, if it aint fixed, don't break it... err.

I agree, I don't see why vBulletin doesn't maintain three different product lines, 3, 4, and 5.

vB3 does everything we want, it's paid for, and it's got a few mods we cannot live without. We couldn't switch to vB4 or 5 if we wanted to.

I hate to be silly here, but most people are not buying new licenses for vBulletin 3, and since we don't get money outside of new licenses, or professional upgrades/installs on 3, we're not making money on 3. There for....

You've made money on me! I've bought upgrades to 4 AND 5 and just about anything you've sold over the years. It's just that the upgrades have turned into downgrades and I decided to hold onto a stable foundation.

I replied to that thread- I suspect it will work and told you how to test it.

Oh sure, you are right, but that is because they are not actively developing v3, I would say. Speaking for our group, if vBulletin released a v3.9 that included Downloads II, more and better spam prevention, a super Award Manager, & better mobile integration, we would buy the license again, gladly. We've used vb3 for 6 years, we have gotten our $175 worth from it many times over.