Replacing Index.php all together?
 

With all the hacks out there to have your board appear just the way you want it, I don't see the need to have index.php that came with vbulletin.

A php page with the hacks you want will allow you to have complete control of the look and feel.

Any comments on why the original vb index.php page should be kept?

What you are suggesting is like trying to start a car w/out an engine.

For one, you dont have any code to produce catagories, forumhome template etc

and second, none of the hacks would work anyway if it was just hack code..

What a silly suggestion

You could go with out a index.php but your gonna have to access the forums directly :s Be kinda dumb if you ask me.

People who don't have vbulletin in the root of their domain (ie. mysite.com/forums) tend to link directly to the forum categories from their homepage anyways and by pass the vb's index.php altogether. With webwelcome.php, the links to your main forums, and "last xx posts on non-vb page", you have basically what vb's index.php does.

For those who have a micro site within the folder mysite.com/forums/, why not duplicate what they did in the root of their site? replace vb's index.php?

Realistically, it would be a major problem for vB newbies, and since 60% of vBers are newbies, they wouldnt know what to do. Im sure a serious hacker could do this, but all in all it would be pointless