Why vB team didn't continue developing vb 4x?
 

Hello,

I have a question:
Why vB team don't continue developing vb 4x like adding responsive design and other improvements for it?

while more people are using vb4x then vb developed vb5, it needs time and it doesn't have features (addons, mods..etc) like vb4 did.

any shares?

$$$$

VB4 is in IB's rear view mirror and the further it gets away, the more they like it. (More VB5 sales)
Adding features like responsive styling to VB4 would be costly for IB to do aside from the labor involved, the sales they would lose on VB5 since that is one of the selling points. Since VB4 already has a built-in mobile style, making it responsive wouldn't make sense.

As far as IB Management is concerned, vB4 is an old version, vB5 is the current version - and therefore the only one they will develop.

Its a constant uphill battle for me to get any work done on it - and all they will entertain is occasional fixing of major issues - like php 5.4 problems, php 5.5 issues, and more recently, facebook.

There will not, ever, be any more feature development. It is, infact, only its continued popularity with customers that gets it any time at all.

Yeah it's a shame Paul. :(

I just announced on my forum today that I want everyone to keep an eye open for any bugs and warnings so I can fix them all and then keep error/warning reporting enabled so I can handle any new developments in php, and have an easier time debugging my projects. I want to keep vB for as long as it's supported for vulnerabilities and exploits. Once support is ended we're moving to a different platform. My mind is made up. They've decided to dump us, I'll dump them.

I'm not trying to be snarky or tossing insults. I'm just sayin' ....

Here is two bugs I just fixed today, http://ozzmodz.com/showthread.php/65...list-Bug-Fixes

I wish it was possible for us as a community to continue development on vBulletin 4 in some way to add new features, legally.

There is, that is called a modification. :p

Well yeah I'm talking about something that will belong to vBulletin 4 officially.

Well that will never happen, as they still own the rights to it, look at vB2 it is still run on some sites, and even though it's old as heck, it is still not open source.

I know for sure of one major forum aggregator who's done exactly that. They have something like 40-plus boards, all were vBulletin - they're switching them all away from vB to xF.None of this is exactly accurate - v4 AND v3.8 are still supported and v4 at least, still comes with the new license you buy.

It was the same way when v4 first came out, you still got the latest v3 with the new license, available for download. And it's been the same way with all prior versions.

There can't be more or less v5 sales based on v4, since v5 is the license you're buying when you do buy a new license. It's always been that way.Not necessary, alot more than making sense.

Be all that as it may, most of the "new features" touted in v5 are derived from add-ons this community authored, for v4. Therefore none of them are anything new, for those who've been around awhile.

In my admin forum:

Well I guess the customers at least have that :up:

@Max: You can use every version of the software with your license, even vB2 if you care to. That has no implication whatsoever on whether that version is supported or not. And vB3.8 has been officialy end of life since 4.2 was released. Policy was (and afaik still is): Two .x versions back is officially supported. (4.0 and 4.1, so 4.2 ended 3.8's life).

So what your saying is, if someone has a VB4 license and they upgrade to VB5 for the features not offered in VB4, that doesn't constitute a sale?

Umm, no. I said new license, not upgrade of existing.

That upgrade scenario's always existed as well. But it's hardly ever about extra features. It's usually about knee jerk 'gotta have the latest and greatest or oh noes haxors.' And such. Few people actually do any research on upgrades, as you well know.

This situation isn't new or unique to vBulletin. In reality it's always been this way. Version one to two. Version 2 to version 3. Three to four. And so on.

The only difference this time is, version 5 has nothing at all in common with, or is in any way compatible with previous versions, except the badging and nameplate. That's never happened before. That's what's new.

Again, most all of the "new features" v5 touts, are actually old ideas that were created and perfected for v3 and v4, here by this community.

The OP was talking about why features are not being added to VB4 by VB, which is why I was talking about VB4 users upgrading for features - meaning VB driving VB5 sales by not adding features to VB4. As far as the features VB5 has being based on VB4 mods, I have to agree with you there, but from what I've seen on a lot of the VB4 mods on this board are no longer being maintained by the developer since the exodus. Unfortunately for users that depend on those mod features, they either need to find someone who can fix/make it work with the current VB4 or go without OR upgrade to VB5. Again driving VB5 sales.

Explain to me what is in vB5 that would make me want to upgrade?

What features are in vB5, that I can not get on this site?
What mods are available for vB4 that are not available in vB5?

This site was a major backbone to vBulletin, alot of people bought it due to the amount of mods that were available to customize it to their needs. But that is not the case anymore, someone in their infinite wisdom saw to that.

It would be great to see IB continue to develop the 4.x series. I feel like the 5.x series is meant to cater to a different sort of community development as opposed to 4.x's traditional community/message board development style. I have to admit I had a lot of doubts after vB5 came out whether or not to stick with the software. IPB and Xenforo looked promising, and the only reason I have stuck with vB is because of the amazing people here who are willing to help, teach, and develop for those of us who aren't as talented. vB.org is, in my mind, vB's saving grace. +1 to all the hard workers here at vB.org.

Trying to move the goalposts is unbecoming. You weren't addressing the OP when you asked me to clarify my statement, which I did in fact, do. Features do not drive v5 sales. "Upgrading" to 5 from 4 isn't a new license.

Pretending all this stuff is new doesn't make it so. vBulletin has never added features to prior versions once the new versions are released. Why would they?

in post comments for starters.

That's basically what I'm saying. VB4 is the best platform to be on at this point in time for stability and mods. But as time moves forward and other supporting software comes to end of life, where does that leave the mods that are no longer maintained? The users of those mods will have the choice of not upgrading from the current version they are on, upgrading to VB5 or moving to another platform. I'm not trying to throw out insults here. I'm simply making the point, eventually VB4 is going to be plain vanilla VB4 if the mods are not kept maintained with the current version. Some of you are on top of it, others not so much.

Again, nothing new. As posted before, there's still some major forums running version 2. They haven't suddenly crashed or gone away because of "end of life."

:confused:

Isn't that what I was saying?

Just because a mod is unsupported, does not mean it is going to stop working at some magical point in time.

This site is geared towards modifications. If a mod becomes unusable, and it is a popular mod, the members work together to find a fix, and provide it in tat mods thread.

If no one fixes anything, some people take to hiring someone to make fixes/changes.

Also just because vB4 is not getting any feature updates does not mean it is going to stop working either, there is site out there running vB2 and doing just fine. Why? Because they made the necessary change to the system to keep it going.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2015/02/1.gif

We can pretend that too.

I've made this point in other threads too, but vB4 was no gem when it was released. It took awhile for it to be a good piece of software, and for a long time people stayed with vB3, and as others have pointed out, even vB2. Some communities aren't always looking to add new things, so the perceived lack of mod maintenance isn't really an issue (others have pointed out there are always solutions).

While we may wish that IB had learned from the past, this seems to be a trend with all software these days (not just forum software) that a product is released far under expectations and slowly gets to where it needs to be. With vB5 being developed for the latest version of php, to take advantage of all it offers is a good thing, but it is lacking some things most of us consider a necessity to use. All we can do is continue to help each other on legacy version of the software and hope that IB will get vB5 to a place it needs to be. As long as there are those of us who stick it out, hopefully we will be rewarded, but our future is not at stake here. Our boards are fine and will continue to be fine. The only ones who have anything on the line are IB. If they fail to deliver on what will keep people invested in then a larger share will go to other software.

No, but they do stop working on occasion like when hosts upgrade their sites and the owner of the site may not have the skills or the money to hire someone to fix it or move it, but running an upgrade script is within their grasp.

Kudos to the folks who can keep their sites up and running.

When a host upgrades PHP version, it doesn't stop vBulletin installations from working.

Again, that is what this site is for, ask in the mods thread, and the member base will find a solution to a mod issue if there is enough people using it.

But vB5 don't have that problem because there is nada for mods for it, so you don't have to worry about mods not working.

No, but it can fill the screen with errors/warnings and make someone think it's broken. They call their host, host tells them to upgrade, that their version is no longer compatible. If you didn't know any better, what would you do?

But vB4 is still getting PHP compatibility upgrades, so that is a mute point.

I would do like 100s of others have done, come here and learn.

The host is always going to blame, you.

At least it was a point...:)

Grief.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2015/01/2.gif

I agree.

I wish people would make more of a habit of contacting their software support first. We can then sort the problem. If the issue were to turn out to be hosting related, we can help them approach their host with correct information.

Most hosts I've had any experience of have been utterly woeful and fall back on "it's the software" almost every time. It's appalling.