[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Plugins have a downside... They make overall system less safe- with a plugin system if someone gets Admin access to the forum they more or less have access to the whole hosting account as they can create a plugin to give them disk access. With the VB5 extension system a hacked Admin account would not give disk access.

Also plugins only really work for the desktop version. With ForumRunner, Tapatalk, and the VB Mobile Suite plugins cause problems- some are active, some are not- some will cause errors on this mobile platforms.

The idea of doing everything via extensions is a clean one and one that would prevent such problems introduced by plugins- but what we got was a system simply not capable of allowing all the mods we were used to.

If they could redo the extensions system in some way that allowed total control I'd be for it, but realistically a plugin system would be easier to implement.

Well I've fixed quite a few hacked forums in my time and truth be told if I think back and honestly think hard... yup it was more often vulnerabilities in vBulletin itself then it was a plugin vulnerability. I just don't think saying you're safer without them is the best thing to do or way to think... of course you're safe on a 100% default board without any customizations UNTIL an exploit is found within vBulletin itself then it's another patch release.

If you google "Powered by vBulletin" I'm pretty sure if you spent a few hours (anyone for that matter) and actually clicked on the links you would find waaaaaaay more customized sites than default... if I can build a business based entirely on vBulletin customization and make enough money to support a wife, three kids, a new car and a house payment then I dare say YES they're required (since that many people are evidently looking to customize it beyond the default appearance and functionality) and the ability to further customize vBulletin should always be there, removing that system was a mistake - someone should address this issue with management repeatedly until they finally open their eyes imo, pass it up the chain of command but do it with some gusto .