Another 'should I upgrade' thread

I'm looking for a bit of advice, as I'm still undecided and the sale is only active for another day.

I have two forums:

Forum #1 started as vB3, then I converted to IPB 3 when it was released. IPB has some great features, but there were also a lot of things from vB3 that I missed. So...

• I could switch back to vB and continue to upgrade until my current license expires (March), though for this forum I'd prefer to have up-to-date forum software.
• I could pay $130 now, but I probably would not use the cms for this site - the upgrade would be to make sure I can get updates to the entire vB4 line of software. And I think there may be better ways to spend $130 on my site (advertising, commissioned articles, maybe a contest).
• I could wait and possibly upgrade later, at a greatly increased price.
• I could keep IPB and hope they continue to improve it. I don't like the software quite as much, but I like the company and pricing structure a lot more.

Forum #2 is currently running vB3.

• For this forum I think I'd be happy running vB3 for a long time, maybe indefinitely, although there are some things in vB4 I wouldn't mind having (seo urls, inline quick reply, updated style system).
• For this forum I could probably make use of the cms, although vbadvanced might work too.

I'm really not sure whether to upgrade, and if I do, which site to upgrade. It'd be nice to have one copy of vB4 just in case I want to release forum skins to others.

None of the options seem ideal. I miss Jelsoft a lot. I wish someone would come out with the Wordpress of forum software (whether or not it was free).

 

Upgrade #2.

You will have access to updates/security patches for the life of v3, could develop skins on your testvb copy.

And if you wanted to use the v4 Forum2 license at Forum1 then you could swap the urls in your licensed user area at vb.com.

I just went through this same thought process. Although v3 will EOL at some point it is a software I know and works well and will be using it for various specific tasks as needed.

 

Thanks for the reply. I ended up very reluctantly upgrading one of my licenses. One expires two weeks later than the other, so I just chose the one that expired earlier; I can switch the urls around once I make a final decision on which site I want to use it on.

 

I think the majority would use 'reluctantly' when they upgraded, I certainly did.

Best of luck.

 

Before you upgrade, just try out MyBB. I really don't see why people have trouble accepting that it's a good software.

 

It is indeed good software. But that doesn't mean people prefer it over vBulletin for reasons other than price.

Don't you think if vBulletin as it is today were released free, that most MyBB users would switch to it? I do.

 

I do believe so, but I don't understand why.

 

vBulletin is by far a better product. Disregard all of the hoopla about the licensing and IB's takeover, and look at vB 3.8: it is the best on the market.

But IP.Board is slowly climbing the ranks. And 4.0 isn't really that great compared to what it should have been and what other companies are headed towards (particularly IP.Board). So vB's position as the top-dog may slowly be changing; unfortunately for them.

 

MyBB has just about every feature that vBulletin has. The only thing that MyBB seems to be lacking is in the profile area, but that's it. MyBB has the best plugin system that I seen, with hooks for just about every function - so you will never need to edit a core file (there was a small exception for 1 huge plugin).

While MyBB may be lacking in professional themes and modifications, they are easily created, and have nothing to do with the base product.

In addition, when I transferred a vBulletin forum to a MyBB forum, both the disk space it took and the size of the database were cut in half.

 

That will change.


On-topic(sorta): MyBB is great, but vB has more features. I've used MyBB for a year as an admin and two as a moderator and sorry to say but I prefer vB.

 

For the insanely low price of myBB, it is a much better value than vBulletin. In fact, every myBB license reflects a savings of $195 over vBulletin.

 

You have your issue with vB, I have none with it. I think it's one of the best, you pretty much have bashed it all the time for the reasons you have, another thread with the same damn thing?

I've used MyBB and I make themes for it, personally my $195 were well spent, so please.

 

I've [heavy sarcasm]noticed[/heavy sarcasm] a lot of that lately.

Thank you.