Vbulletin 5.x and why i won't upgrade from 4.x

[katie hunter]

Well before i was able to reply, i found the topic was closed.

This was purely about the course of development with vb 5.x. I would never upgrade from 4.x to 5.x for many reasons and if 4.x is discontinued, i would migrate to a different forum software.

That was my ticket to IB. My recommendation were:

1. Scrape vbulletin codes of 5.x and rebrand it to a different version and start with a more friendly frame work. Zend, Codeigniter, or Cakephp. This would be friendly for developers and there is a lot of documentation for it out there. I personally recommend cakephp.

2. A global feed is something that vbulletin can embrace, just look at twitter now days. Social media have been consuming most of the traffic and forum now days isn't as popular as it use to be. Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter is the get to go for many information now days instead of a forum. The need to like, retweet or share is what makes Twitter and FB now days the most used platforms for communication. FB now have FB page with Groups created for the page. It give a user many tools a forum would give.

I made these tickets as a vision for vb 5.x but it is slow and honestly you need to revamp this framework. If you head to freelancer.com, you want a system that is familiar and friendly for developers to use. Using one of the mentioned framework above is a smart move.

http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBV-12406 (Blogs & Articles redesign)
http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBV-12379 (Group redesign)
http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBV-12676 (Media tab & Album)
http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBV-12698 (Notification system)

Why do you think cellphones use Android as a system ? LG, Sony, Samsung etc.. are not designing their OS from scratch like apple.

3. You need to hire skilled developers and web designers. I did recommend where they can find the best. You need developers with a strong vision. You need few set of new faces for vbulletin who are friendly with a new leadership approach.

Make the solution easy rather than complicated.

This was my ticket more or less.

[Mark.B]

You're unlikely to get a response beyond "thank you for your feedback" if you put a support ticket in like that.

The support team are there to answer support questions. They cannot possibly give a meaningful response to something like that. What were you hoping we might say?

The company are happy with the current product line and, as best I can tell, have no plans to change it. They are also happy with the current team of developers / designers and have no plans to change those either. They would certainly not hire new ones from freelancer.com.

[katie hunter]

Not from freelancer.com, i redacted the site url in this topic. I've also redacted other info that i kept to the ticket.

[Brandon Sheley]

I understand the frustration katie, but this thread will solve nothing.

[katie hunter]

Well if this is truly the reality then i might migrate to xenforo if vb 4.x is discontinued but i didn't feel there by the owners. I am also a loyal vb owner, i didn't like the way they were recruiting vb members to migrate. Everyone was jumping on the bangwagon back int he days.

And Kier and Ashley don't like anyone to criticize their product. At least with vbulletin i've been heard many times in the past about certain improvements. IB needs to get it together if they want a successful product.

It is delusional if they think vb 5.x is a great product.

--------------- Added [DATE]1500572440[/DATE] at [TIME]1500572440[/TIME] ---------------

IB did respond to me and they care. Hopefully something good will come out of this. I don't think any company no matter what it is, wants their product not to succeed.

[Dave]

vBulletin 4 is already pretty much discontinued besides security patches.
It can be dangerous to upgrade to different forum software, your guests/members are used to what you have now so sudden change might make them take it to the heart and leave.

[katie hunter]

Not really because i know my members. They love vb 4.x because of the addons i have, and the customization i did, and it can be applied to xenforo as well but like i said i am a loyal vb owner and i have high hopes for it. I also diverted my focus from a forum to a custom coded homepage with its own profile system and they love it. I was able to do what i didn't see on vbulletin for years.

Those owners that i know in the anime community who upgraded to vb 5.x they hated and their communities died so fast.

Hello Katie,

Good to hear from you. Thanks so much for taking the time to send in this email along with your thoughtful feedback. I will pass this to the appropriate folks. If need be, I will reach out.

Thanks,
Christine
vBulletin Support Manager