What's going wrong with vBulletin and vB.org?

[BirdOPrey5]

First, I find on my own forums weekends are the slower days. My traffic is highest on Tuesdays through Thursdays and lowest on Sunday... So I am not sure Saturday is the high traffic day here, either.

As for people expecting to see new mods for 3.x, I hate to break it to you but you are on a sinking ship. (I too have a 3.8 forum mind you) but 3.x is very old. Only 3.8.7 even works on PHP 5.3 and it's only a matter of time before PHP 5.4 becomes the standard effectively ending the use of VB 3.x on shared hosting which is the vast majority of sites.

I LOVE my VB 3.8 forum, I do but this is not new nor unexpected. Even a year ago as I was releasing identical mods for VB 3.8 and 4.x at the same time as a coder I would see my 3.x mods get 1 or 2 downloads in the same time period the same mod for 4.x easily had 10 or more downloads. Looking at my own profile my 4.x mods have 3 to 4 times as many installs as the same 3.x mod, and those are ones released a year+ ago. The issue is even more dramatic for those more recent mods.

If I didn't have a 3,x forum of my own I personally wouldn't even bother making 3.x versions anymore- they only complicate upgrades and support. Even for one I am currently working on I strongly considered skipping the 3.x version.

3.x was great software, but the truth is 4.2.0 does everything 3.x did and more. You know in 3.x for every single "pip" of reputation on an entire page there is a separate template being called? In 4.2.0 it's all done in 1 existing template per post.

I see a lot of activity picking up on VB5 on vBulletin.com. More than I expected to be honest- and we're not even recommend people use VB5 on live sites yet. VB5 is going to be a virtual clean slate from add-on and modification perspective- old code won't work. New customers, new to VB, are going to vbulletin.com with modification questions. As they become more familiar with vBulletin and the code of VB5 stabilizes I think we'll see both increased traffic and questions here on vbulletin.org.

The vast majority of VB3 forums and a lot of VB4 forums are "mature" forums these days. Their Admins have them setup and working as they like them- they don't go looking for new modifications or changes like they used to. When I started my 3.x forum I'd come here and go through all the mods, get ideas, make additions, etc... But after several years I like where I am and I still love this site but I'm just not looking for new mods anymore.

My 2 cents.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

As for people expecting to see new mods for 3.x, I hate to break it to you but you are on a sinking ship. (I too have a 3.8 forum mind you) but 3.x is very old. Only 3.8.7 even works on PHP 5.3 and it's only a matter of time before PHP 5.4 becomes the standard effectively ending the use of VB 3.x on shared hosting which is the vast majority of sites.

How serious of a problem is this and how long do you think, before it does become a serious problem?

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

How serious of a problem is this and how long do you think, before it does become a serious problem?

If you're not running 3.8.7 I think it's already an issue. You can't just assume all hosts have PHP 5.2.x available anymore. The "work around" is a cheap VPS where you can run any version of PHP you like but not everyone who Admins vBulletin wants to or is able to setup a VPS.

I think there's probably only another year or so before we see PHP 5.3 starting to get dropped as options from shared hosts. PHP 5.4 is out now and PHP 5.5 is currently in Beta.

The reality is you can't expect to be running your 3.x forum in 2 or 3 years unless you are in control of the software running on your server.

PHP 5.4 and beyond will bring performance enhancements that hosts will want to support.


The above is my OPINION only.

Also edit- When I say "you" and "your" I mean any VB 3.x customer, not talking about any specific setup- I don't have any idea how "your" forum is setup or running.

[Max Taxable]

I have a 3.8... You're saying a time will come soon where the PHP version isn't used, and we will have to upgrade to version 4?

[Christos Teriakis]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

I have a 3.8... You're saying a time will come soon where the PHP version isn't used, and we will have to upgrade to version 4?

Please keep the thread clean from offtopic posts. Compatibility between vB3x and PHP has nothing to do with thrad's topic. You can start a seperate thread for it.

Thank you
Chris

[socialteenz]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

I have a 3.8... You're saying a time will come soon where the PHP version isn't used, and we will have to upgrade to version 4?

Yes, when you are on a shared host.

[Simon Lloyd]

Im on a dedicated box so no worries there

[BirdOPrey5]

Apologies ChrisTERiS, and to get back on topic....

I often see people say things aren't like they used to be... Not only here- but everywhere in life. In high school teacher's would say we weren't like the students a few years earlier used to be. In college the professors said the same thing. Even Alumni from my fraternity would say things aren't like they used to be (2 or 3 years earlier before they graduated.) When I got my first real job and I'd talk to people who have been there for years they'd tell me how things weren't like they used to be just a few years earlier. When I was in the hospital, nurses and hospital staff would tell me things in the hospital weren't like they used to be... When I was moved to rehab, the nurses there said the rehab wasn't like it used to be... And when I started with vBulletin the more senior coders used to tell me about how it used to be.

It's like my entire life I'm 2 or 3 years behind "what used to be" and had I been born a couple years earlier I would have been living some sort of dream life hitting everything at their "highs" instead of being just a few years too late to see how great they used to be.

The fact is though... No matter when or where you find yourself it is likely you will always find people saying it's not like it used to be- because the fact is- they are right- things change, there are no constants- Whatever vBulletin.org is like today I can only promise next year it will be different. Whether you consider it better or worse will be up to you but it will never be like it used to be. That is an unattainable dream.

I no longer worry about how it used to be... and I take what I hear about the "old" days with a grain of salt.

[Christos Teriakis]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Only 3.8.7 even works on PHP 5.3 and it's only a matter of time before PHP 5.4 becomes the standard effectively ending the use of VB 3.x on shared hosting which is the vast majority of sites.

I need just a couple of hours to modify vB3's core files to work with the new PHP version. Not only me but the mayority of PHP coders can do it.

Chris

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by Lynne

Some of us aren't commenting in this thread because we see this same type of thread pop-up every six months and we get tired of posting our same comments.

Ziiiiiiiiiiing *Shocker*

lol

My 2 cents you ask? Your over thinking things, Christeris quit being "nosey" per say and just code something I mean seriously we have threads like this still? These threads continually going up every six months is actually bad for community morale because before this post I'm sure many new members were quite happy here yet now you've managed to sew a seed of corruption in them (play on words).

Also quick heads up for those who are not reading - vBulletin 5 is in Beta, don't judge a company based on a product that's not even complete yet and still has plenty of room for improvement. If you would spend time helping submit ideas, bugs, and more... me? What am I doing? Yeap you guessed it personal issues however that only slammed my workload not made it barren like a wasteland.

Chin up, heads high and wait for vB5 Gold before you skin it alive .