Why 3.5 is inferior to 3.0

[Mark.B]

In some respects anyway.

First off, as I've mentioned before, LOADS of hacks have not been ported (eg Quickquote, smilies in QR, etc) and clearly are not ever going to be. I cannot upgrade without them, I can't justify an upgrade that adds NO new features for members (because it doesn't) and in fact takes some away in the form of hacks.

Secondly, too much control is lost. If you install, for example, Paul M's 'online today' hack, and also his 'posted today' hack, you cannot change the order they appear in on the front page because it's all tucked away in the plug ins. This isn't Paul's fault, his hacks are great, but there are too many cases now where once you'd have been told 'edit the xxxxx template' but now you are told 'that cannot be changed due to the plug in system'.

I don't want my board looking like an identikit version of everyone else's. I have always installed hacks as a foundation for what I want, to give the functionality, then customised the cosmetic look to suit my site. This is now much more difficult than it was, and in some cases, such as the example above, it's now impossible.

Despite numerous attempts at doing it, I simply cannot attain the same functionality and customisation in 3.5 as I could in 3.0...so currently I am 'left behind' running a 3.0.11 installation when I ought to be running 3.5.4.

Personally I cannot wait for 4.0 which hopefully will be a radical departure from the '3' series and will actually add a new look and new END USER features, so I can at least justify losing some stuff by the fact that other things will be gained.

I mean, who on Earth thought it was a good idea to move from 3.0 to 3.5 and offer ABSOLUTELY NO new features for the end user?

Sorry to sound negative - I love vB - but this whole situation is getting me down. I sort of wish I'd stayed on vB 2 now because the present situation is a mess. At least on 2 you knew where you stood.