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[Dr.CustUmz]

Lets get some conversation going.

I have always been a fan of vB3, and have never contemplated moving to another version, or software. I see SOOO many developers have moved on to xenforo, this site is not what it once was. I just wonder, am I wasting my time writing products for vb3 still...?

What software do you use?
What are the benefits?
Why do you like it?

[In Omnibus]

I currently use 5 but I have licenses for 5, 4, and 3. The primary reason I use 5 is because I don't want to use ten plus year old core PHP, deprecated SQL, HTML 4.0 transitional, and CSS 2.0. Third party modifications aside these are a nightmare to maintain and entirely non-compliant with modern privacy and security requirements and expectations. Any version can be made to work if you want to spend all your time making it work. I'd rather spend my time on other things, like content and membership engagement.

I hesitate to get into a discussion about competing software here, sufficed to say I've always looked at XenForo as an updated version of vBulletin 4, which is exactly what it is. And by updated I mean the PHP, SQL, HTML, and CSS are the current standards. But the general functionality, features, themes, modifications, etc. are all ten plus year old ideas. People are generally resistant to change, so a lot of them went to something that was just a more modern version of what they know, XenForo.

I have no idea what they have done or intend to do with that product in the future, nor do I have any interest in it. The manner with which they left vBulletin and had a functional product such a short tie later leads me to believe they were developing XF on vBulletin time. It would also explain a lot about the end of their time on vBulletin and the state of the product at that time.

Are you wasting your time? Of course not. Develop products that serve your own interests and if you want to offer them to other vBulletin 3 users there are still a good number of them out there.

[Dr.CustUmz]

Thanks for the the exact controversy I intended with the start of this thread! We all (should know) by now xF was EXACTLY that, but lets not digress from the topic

I understand completely your reasoning to stay on the latest version. I too have a vB5, 4 CMS, and 3 license. However I can not seem to get my butt in gear to take the plunge to even vB4, as a coder I feel vB3 is all I need and any version there after just has too much bloat + I'd have to re learn the new languages implemented with any newer version. vB4 seems to be the most popular of all the vB versions, and maybe that was because of non coding admins wanting the latest software for their site, but as a coder I feel their is no need to leave vB3. The downside of that, is I planned (long ago) to build free and paid plugins, and if I'm not developing for what people use... that is where I ask myself is it pointless to continue in my vB3 era.

I have SOOO many mods I have developed. some little, some big, and I never find myself finalizing them, because all I want to do is code more things, or life gets in the way. I want to be come a profitable developer, and I feel the way I'm doing things now, just aren't going to cut it. I may have to begin developing for the Other boards as well.

[6piston]

it's been so long since my last visit here, love coming here just to experience the nostalgia of the old internet.

I've been using VB3 since 2005, it was the best forums platform at the time, all the free ones were somehow just lacking and at vb, they had the best and the only mods available. I remember it was fantastic how I site looks at the time, with vbadvanced as front page CMS, my classifieds section was based on vbacmps as well, just lotsa template edits. My site was pretty decent in size then, at its peak 100,000 members, 8mil pageviews monthly.

Server bills were rising fast as well, not to mention endless fighting ddos and hacking that the site never seemed to recover fully. There's alsways bound to be data loss, corruption.

I also remember my VBSEO days, it was the most expensive, bloated, unrealiable, mythical software at the time. I'm sure many found it great, but i truly didn't. I had to upgrade my servers just because vbseo somehow used a lot of resources and I kept it on for years fearing site rank drop.

But all in all, Vbulletin was the primary backbone for over a decade of my now 20 year old site. Unfortunately, as the standards increase, with the mobile use and the social networks, I couldn't stick with VB and VB4 just didn't work for me. I'm currently on xf for a few years now, the site isn't like what it used to be unfortunately but it offers better more modern user experience

it has been a great run, big thanks vbulletin, the team, developers and fellow vbulletin.org forummers!

[yellow_spider]

Must admit V3 is still my favourite. I did try 4 for ages but the there were various things I did not like at all such as the editor which seemed to have odd issues (for me at least) compared to 3 which was really and still is stable.

To be fair there were huge leaps and strides in 4 compared to 3 but if I'm honest here if I wanted to start a new VB based site I'd probably pick V3 over V4 as SEO and such would not really matter for the small niches I have for sites anyway. I'm also not really hugely fussed if it does not work properly on a mobile device either, it may work in a fashion these days with more modern mobile browsers and that is quite good enough.