[In Omnibus]

I've always been of the mindset that the default core software needs to serve the intended purpose. Purchasing software because of third party modifications is asking for trouble. Once a developer moves on from supporting a product you are stuck with any of the risks inherent to outdated software, including but not limited to script errors and security risks.

Don't get me wrong. I like some of the add ons and modifications a great deal. But I could strip every damn one of them from every site I own and still function perfectly well. Bells and whistles don't keep members around unless that's all a site has to offer. If that is the case they aren't around long.

I've been doing this for twenty-five years and, in my experience, the forums that last are those with substance over style. vB5 allows compete customization of the substance of a site without the time-consuming development of manual custom pages. If I were starting from scratch that would be my choice. If I were working with an existing site I would advise members not to get too comfortable with outdated software. vB4 is almost seven years old. That's an eternity in software development.