Upgrading VB3 to VB4 or What Else?
 

I have run a vBulletin Forum with 100 boards since 2004 and a small one on Perl for 9 years before that.

After 15 years, Threads: 170,663, Posts: 1,495,477, Members: 99,030

I'm feeling like I should take a step toward upgrading, but VB5 is unknown for big boards.

My dedicated server is great, 1TB bandwidth, 900Gb space 30GB memory, (2)Xeon.

Running 3.8.11 and curious if you think 4.22 would be a good move? Or?

I hope to take care of mobile users?

Xenforo seems to be way too much of a change, besides I own ALL vBulletin licenses.

https://www.smokstak.com/

Oldengine (who is older and steps very carefully)

If I were you I'd create a test database and try out vBulletin 4.2.5 before committing to any upgrade of a live site.

The real question is: Why are you looking to upgrade the forum software and will moving to vBulletin 4 accomplish that goal? If the answer is specifically mobile users then you'd be far better off moving to vBulletin 5 because it was more or less developed mobile first whereas vBulletin 4 was still developed desktop first and mobile was almost an afterthought. Ten years ago desktop usage was still well ahead of mobile device usage. All software was coded for desktop usage first.

You can find mobile themes for vBulletin 4 but typically the reviews on them are all the same in that they are only partially responsive or incompatible with the most recent browsers and devices.

Are you looking to develop your own mobile applications?

Do you have any modifications or add ons you consider vital to your site?

hi,

it looks like you are running vb 3.8.9:D. vb 4.22 doesn't exist or do you mean 4.2.2:rolleyes:? I can definitely recommend vb 4.2.5 and use my diffs for PHP 7.3: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....7&postcount=20
For Mobile Styles you may be able to use this service: https://www.vb4mobile.com

a current editor is also in work: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...=327251=327251

So update to vb 4.2.5 is not a problem and sustainable.

Thank you for your comments. I need all the help I can find.

And thanks for the comment on vB5 and Mobile. Facebook is killing me.

Facebook is killing a lot of sites which is odd to me because they were just fined over a billion dollars for privacy violations. You'd think people would stop using it.

I would leave it on vbulletin 3 just for the fact that, vb3 is what your users/guests are used to.

I find the concern is are you competent fixing any security issues if you stay on vB3 or transition to vB 4.2.x.

I think you could move to XenForo with the right designer - https://www.homesteadingtoday.com/ is a great example of a vB3 to XF.

It's definitely not an easier decision or undertaking. I would make multiple backups for sure no matter what direction you go.

I would keep 3.8.11 and just use add-ons and tweak it here and there. We were running 3.5 up until last year. People generally don't like change. It's the members who make for a great community, not necessarily the software. As they say at oldversion.com, newer is not always better.

I like your simple, old school layout. It's very easy to navigate.

Your site seems very fast. 30GB is a lot of memory. Who is your host and what price range are you paying for it monthly if you don't mind me asking?