Is it me or...
 

... are the new 4.0 boards I see "customized" looking like clones of each other and/or hacked-up versions of IPB boards?

I wonder to myself sometimes if the 4.x series vBulletin is beyond such customization as we've seen with the 3.x series. I absolutely abhor the fact that the template/hook coding system has been so drastically changed as to require any and all styles/hacks/modifications/etcetera customized for the 3.x series to be reworked to work with the 4.x branch. ((sigh....))

Comments?

Jacquii.

Fundamentally, all the styles released for free for any version look mostly the same. In the beginning anyway. It will take people a while to grow accustomed to the new system and to come up with something very different that isn't just grotesque.

I love the new software. I was able to convert many of my old skins to 4.0 without any problems. There are limitations, but overall I love the software.

Reminds me of the way the majority vbadvanced sites tended to look almost exactly the same. As Jedi mentioned it'll take a while for people to start customizing properly but most will just change a couple of colors and put up their own logo and that'll be it. Biggest problem I have (in my limited experience so far) is that vb4 is more complicated to customize than 3.8 - there's css hardcoded in templates, stuff like that. So I'm holding of for a couple of months on one site and sticking with 3.8 on another.