Who's excited for vb4 ??

Chic Petite and Ice Cream Forums will probably take an hour or so to restore the look under vBulletin 4. That would mostly be the headers. They aren't that highly customized.

The other two will take more time but really not extraordinary amount of work.

 

I'm very excited for it.

I had thought about trying to port all, or most, of my 3.8x styles over to vb4, but decided against it. I'll be starting an entirely new line of vB themes with vB 4.

 

I look forward to seeing them Peggy; you never know, I may just have to pick up a few new styles to keep myself from tearing my hair out over the changes

 

haha I'll save you the trouble. I'll post a pick of my bald self once I learn vB4.

 

Do we know if vB will be releasing documentation for us designers like they had for the 3 series or no?

 

I haven't heard yet if they will be or not Rocket

 

When I switch to VB4 I am expecting to use the default theme for a little while. Or until Peggy can update her green theme to VB4. All I am going to do is change the header image, use the default theme and go from there.

But I am looking forward to the release of VB4. Its going to be nice to see the new stuff that was added. Kinda like what happened when profiles and the image gallery was added.

 

I certainly won't be applying to be a beta tester - since Jelsoft are trying to get rid of customers like me, I don't think there's much point in any leased licence holders applying. We're not profitable enough.

 

I've got 5 licenses and won't be applying, either. Additionally, I was close to purchasing two more licenses as well. Honestly, you just don't treat customers this way.

 

You do realize that the leased license is actually the more expensive and costly of the two licenses correct? You have to pay $100 a year to continue using the software. So... Let's say you have had the software for 6 years.

5 years at $85.00 and 1 years at $100.00 (price went up last year). Total cost is $525.00 over 6 years.

Now, lets look what the owned license would have cost you:

Purchase at $160.00, then 4 years of renewals of $30.00 each and 1 year of renewals at $40.00 each. Total comes to $320.00 over 6 years.

You could have saved $205 over six years buy purchasing the owned license. So in fact, the leased license owners that actually renew are more profitable than owned licenses. Unfortunately very few renew the license. Probably less than 10% renew regularly.

If they do get rid of the leased license it would most likely be because of the astronomical license enforcement costs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars a year are spent getting people to renew their leases or upgrade the license to an owned license. That is because very few actually renew when the license expires and yet continue to use the software illegally. The license agreement is only as good as the enforcement behind it.

 

This is my big rub right now with the folks at Jelsoft/IB. They keep stating that they don't have set pricing. Fine, but with the permission snafu, we've seen that a price analysis has been done. That said, you could at least give your current license holders some preliminary estimates or ranges so folks could budget accordinly -- because we know they have a ballpark range in mind for pricing with the product being just over a month out for RTM.

As someone with 5 owned licenses, this isn't going to be just a drop in the bucket to upgrade my sites. To leave folks hanging like this up to Gold release is a terrible way to conduct business.

 

I'm not really sure what to do....I currently have 3.7. should I upgrade to 3.8 and be done with it....or upgrade to 4.

I have a small board...few hundred users...but I hope that grows.

 

3.7 to 3.8 isn't that major of an upgrade, so I would just do it. As for being done, I'm not sure. I would still upgrade to 4.0 in due time.

 

yea but I'm looking to update my style/skin when I upgrade versions. thats a major factor in my decision making process.

 

Didn't think about that, but still 3.7 -> 3.8 shouldn't require much of a change. I don't recall how many template edits there were, so I can't say for sure. But it certainly wasn't a big hassle.

 

Never thought of the licensing enforcement issues. That must be a huge headache.

 

I asked myself "what does 3.8 have that 3.7 does not"?

The improved PM tracking system made it worth upgrading for me. Additional features like Latest Albums was a huge bonus as well.

 

Your current style is not going to work in vB4.

If you're wanting to upgrade soon, I'd go ahead and do it. vB4 won't be out for a while anyway.

 

I know it wont work and I'm not really in a hurry. I just dont know if I want to do 4.0. but I suppose I'll just wait. that will be a good time for a new style

 

Thats the 3/4/5th time ive seen you post this. Where have IB/JS said this ?