Is vB4 suitable for my site?

[mp3u]

I'm looking at vB4 for a major rebuild to my current website and forum and I would love some advice as to whether you guys think it would be suitable or not. I'm not very technical so please excuse the basic/dumb questions and lack of tech knowledge.

Background:
I've got a site made up of a vB3.8 forum and a separate out of date ASP content site (approx 35,000 members). It's a media based site where users have their own page with a player for their own user generated mp3's and movie files plus space for user comments, reviews chart nominations, user bio etc. The forum currently sits separate to the site and requires a separate login which is far from ideal.

Plan:
I'm looking at the potential of using vB4 as a platform for the entire site using the CMS modules etc. I understand that this will involve hiring a very advanced PHP coder with a high level of vb expertise and I know that there is likely to be considerable cost involved.

Questions:
1) Is it possible to have custom URL's for Users Profile pages? eg mydomain.com/myprofile ? So when a user signs up they get their user name assigned to their User Profile page automatically.
2) If so, would it be possible to extend the vB4 database to incorporate additional tables of information from the existing website? I realise there would be data migration issues and costs but is this the type of thing that can be done without having to completely reinvent the wheel?
3) How customisable are user profile pages? Is the sky the limit or are there tight restrictions?
4) I will also need to distinguish between paid members and regular free users. Paid members have additional features and access to other facilities/services. There would need to be a payment system incorporated for this of course (Paypal).

5) Is vB4 easy for vB3 coders to work with? I mean, could an expert PHP coder who has a lot of experience with 3.8 be able to successfully complete a job like this using vB4 or is there a steep learning curve for everyone to skill up on?

Last question... is this something that I should forget about using vB for? Is it best to keep such a site separate from the forum?

Thanks for reading this far, I hope I'm posting in the right place. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Dave

[ChopSuey]

1 - you would need vBSEO
2 - (No comment)
3 - you can check for yourself, http://www.yoursite.com/forum/profile.php?do=customize
4 - Default Paid Subscriptions System ?
5 - Some people already know the new code, you'll learn easily.


My two cents.

[Universal]

Originally Posted by mp3u

Questions:
1) Is it possible to have custom URL's for Users Profile pages? eg mydomain.com/myprofile ? So when a user signs up they get their user name assigned to their User Profile page automatically.

Not sure if you have figured this out but vB 4.0 does use members names for their profile page:

http://www.yourdomain.com/member.php?54-MEMBERS-NAME

I hope this helps.

[Dismounted]

Originally Posted by Universal

http://www.yourdomain.com/member.php?54-MEMBERS-NAME

You can also increase the human "friendliness" of the URL, to:

http://www.yourdomain.com/member/54-MEMBERS-NAME

[mp3u]

That is very cool, looks like I'll take this to the next level and have some quoted drawn up. Thanks for the replies guys!