Why are all vb4 Mods are so out of date ?

[WOLF-G4MIN-X]

Hi guys,

last time i was using vB that was a long time ago, pre vB4. Tried a few other things in between and then stopped websites completely. Recently got back, checked on vB again and installed the latest vB4 Forum.

Going through the Mod section, I notice many mods (names) i actually remembered using back then, and thats an eternity ago. Are there no newer vB4 Mods anymore ? I mean, most are around 2012/13.

So there is no fixing of their creators to expect anytime ever. Is noone making Mods for vB4 anymore ? I realize that vB5 is out, but many many people say, vB5 is a step back into the wrong direction. Plus, I am not doing that much stuff anymore, that would justify the expensive price of upgrading to vB5 for the little i do.

Just wondering, in that immense list of Mods, which are a bit more up to date, and which of the old ones are still secure and working with 4.2.5 ?

Thanks in advance.

Wolf

[Brandon Sheley]

supply and demand my friend




the supply isn't like it was in the golden years
The owners of vb haven't helped the situation, also some say forums in general aren't as popular but I think there is more to the story.

[WOLF-G4MIN-X]

I agree on that forums arent as popular anymore as back then, most of it is because I think the Social Networks have taken a hugh spot on that.

And people are more and more lazy, so the little they wanna actually "type", they rather spend on some stupid comments on Facebook, Twitter etc.

Back then, IRC chat was a great thing (and I still think it is today), but since Messengers like MSN Messenger (yeah, old as well by now) and similiar came out, many people that were new to IRC sided with those because it looked more fancy. Smilies, animations and all that stuff that messenger apps (especially today) come with, makes it look more fancy than good old IRC chat.

I was sad for a long time, that many people i knew on IRC once, were off that and never came back. I still think that the way IRC works, is still unbeaten by other chat apps.

The more lucky I was when I got to Discord, in which the text chat pays really great hommage to IRC i think.

Anyways, too much off-topic. I love fourms, but if you're getting back into that stuff these days (after a longer time not doing any of that), its appearant that you cant get people to forums as plentyful as back then, when Forums were much more "hyped".

I tried multiple systems over time (and I am not really good with stuff like php/mysql), and I found some systems quite nice, like vB, although I think there were always many security issues that came with it over the years. I tried IPB and somewhat couldnt really get to like it. And Woltlab Burning Board, which I think looks a bit more "dry" but has some nice features, I think vB is still behind of. But Burning Board can get somewhat visually boring long term, which is why I thought I give vB another try.

But with the lack of good (for me) themes and mostly mods that were already abandoned at least a couple years or longer, i am not sure if vB is the way to go for me now. Not seeing to upgrade to vB 5, because of the high price, and the limited usage on my end, to justify the upprade. But i didnt thought that vB4 would be so "passed by", concerning Themes and mods.

Its really too bad.

[Brandon Sheley]

The key is not doing the same thing everyone else is doing with their forums

There are still very successful forums out there, and there are forums with great search engine traffic as well from quality content.. eg searching for repair info for my truck I was always landing on the same trailblazer forum

There are still people who like to type, generally they are older people..lol

cater to them

oh also mobile use is very big... if your forums or website isn't usable on mobile, you're going to miss out on some traffic depending on your niche

[WOLF-G4MIN-X]

Originally Posted by Brandon Sheley

The key is not doing the same thing everyone else is doing with their forums

There are still very successful forums out there, and there are forums with great search engine traffic as well from quality content.. eg searching for repair info for my truck I was always landing on the same trailblazer forum

There are still people who like to type, generally they are older people..lol

cater to them

I was always more into gaming, and my days of hosting thousands of files like maps, mods etc are also mostly over, because of these times have passed too mostly, since most games dont even allow maps and mods anymore, unless they're official and you pay for it from the Games developer.

As for older , yes , we mid-40s generation still like to type. Thats true.

But still, in order for me to get excited again, i have to find some nice Mods and some nice themes for me to really do something for a forum. And in that big pile of mostly "outdated" Mods, I dont even know which one is still secure and works without issues even now. And since most of the people that created them, are not arround anymore, things are not as easy as it was before.

[Brandon Sheley]

What kind of mods are you looking for that aren't being supported?

Do those mods/plugins offer anything beneficial to your members?

Have you considered changing frameworks, you always have options

[WOLF-G4MIN-X]

The problems are not which Mods arent supported, many of the Mods are ages old and might consider a lot of Security issues which I do not want to put into a fresh vB install. And the list of Mods is so long, that it would take a long time to find the "black sheep", especially since most of their creators are not around anymore to maybe do some about it.

But I guess i will check into that.

[Dave]

"if it aint broke dont fix it", most of the "older" mods are just fine. I've actually looked into the code of the majority of the relatively popular plugins and most of them are secure as far as I've seen.

[vbuser2017]

I have to say I agree with the OP it's been a huge task upgrading and trying to find solutions to old mods that don't work anymore. One of them is VB Image Hosting which does support VB 4 but not the most current version / some bugs.

[Brandon Sheley]

I still won't suggest to any of my clients running vbulletin 5 just on principle alone. An open source option like phpbb would be a better option for them.