vBulletin 5 Connect Screenshots and Concerns
 

I'm sure most of you must have seen the vBulletin 5 screenshots on facebook. and the press writeup. vBulletin 5 doesn't just have a number, now it also has a name - Connect.

What I gather from the very limited information. vB5 "Connect" is/has/is claimed to have :

• Complete new software written from ground up. As mentioned by Wayne Luke here.
• Release in late 2012
• 125 new significant features and enhancements
• Sleek new UI with extensive social integration (oh no ... more twitter)
• Category-leading mobile optimization (relief from tapatalk?)
• Simplified site set up, customization and management
• New core architecture for improved search, better performance and easier modifications
• Dynamic tools for content discovery (Eh?)
• Expanded photo and video sharing capabilities
• Full integration with VigLink
• More than 100 other new features and enhancements (hmmm ... more bugs too?)

From what I deduce from the screenshots, my major concerns are:

• As it is a completely new software, it will be incompatible with all vb3x and vb4x mods.
• Much time and money will be required to get the same mods once again.
• New "Activity stream" which replaces New posts/what's new takes up a large amount of space and will show fewer new threads in visible screen. One may have to scroll down long distances/go through many pages to see the new activity.
• Extensive use of jquery. Higher page loading time.

Screenshots :


Please share your thoughts and concerns on the matter. :)

This really isn't much different than when vB4 came out and many vB3 mods stopped working. There may be some that are still compatible, others won't be.

The activity stream is already in use in vB 4.2. If it's anything like that in vB5, personally I don't see the problem. That doesn't mean I like the activity stream, but it's not an evil either.

I'm not a fan of jquery, but in some cases it's needed. We'll need to wait and see how it's used and how it affects the system.

In my opinion, anything posted here is going to be pure speculation. Nobody has a working copy of vB5 yet to be able to say what is or isn't a concern. Most anything posted will be what was seen between vB3 and vB4 amped up to apply to vB5.

Wowwww I like this

No, actually it is different because in vB4 you could initially use some of the vB3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 mods without any changes and in some cases with minor changes. You did not require a complete rewrite of all the mods. Mostly it was the styling system which got disrupted.

However It seems that in vB5 all the mods from 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and 4.x will stop working at once from the onset including any paid mods that you have. If this happens, transition will surely take more time than vB4 did not to mention the additional expense of any paid mods.

That may be, but I hope that we are given the options to disable elements that we do not require.

As to the compatibility of mods: Not a single vb3/vb4 addon/modification will work on vB5. Not only will the underlying code be all new, but also the plugin system will work differently. This has already been established by Paul.
Still, I don't see how this can be avoided. You can't ask for an all new and modern codebase and expect old addons to work with it.

Regarding jquery: If anything, it will result in faster page loads. Now we're using two different JS frameworks plus a whole lot of custom vB JS. Better to use just jquery. If pulled offsite from google, chances are very high that the library doesn't even have to be loaded but is already present in the users browser cache from prior sites he visited.

Same as the above, new hook system has already bean said by Paul, so no vB 3 or 4 mods will ever work, they wll all have to be done again, along with Styles.

I won't be touching vb5 for many years.

That will depend on the quality of vB5. It won't be a quick switch, that's for sure.

It will also depend upon the people developing addons/mods and styles for vBulletin. vb.org will play a major role in this. If mods for vB5 are quickly developed then more people will be tempted to make a switch.

Now unfortunately due to various reasons a lot of very talented coders/designers are no longer with vB. Also one of the reasons why a lot of people did not go for vB4 initially is because a lot of the professional style developers refused to make custom styles for vB4. If the styling system is more user friendly on vB5 then this problem can be avoided.

Just as I said: That will depend on the quality of vB5 ;)

If vB5 is a great product, addons will follow, I'm pretty optimistic. We had a lot of addon-related pessimism after vB4 release, yet there is no shortage.

And if it has a good plugin system and is better stylable than vB4 is (or at least was), then even some coders and designers may come back.

wooo hoooo much fun for me... more clients will come to have their 3.x and 4.x board supported by third party coders.... same situation as when 4.0a arised... ;)