The Future of Your PC Forums

[Computer Head]

First of all, I have updated the permissions of the Site Information and Announcements forum to allow members to reply to threads but not create their own (unless the thread is locked for obvious reasons).

The reason I am bringing this up to the members is for the fact that vBulletin will no longer offer support for the vBulletin 3 series. In other words, I still receive support because I still have a valid license, but will no longer have support after December 20th because vBulletin will not allow a vBulletin license to be renewed for the 3.x.x series of software.

So many of you are thinking, why not just switch to vBulletin 4? First, and most importantly, vBulletin 4 upgrade is not included in my current license, so I would still have to fork out just the same as somebody who never had a valid license. Second of all, regardless of what happens, whether we switch to vBulletin 4 or something else, it is likely that we would lose a lot of the extra features currently installed on this site, such as the arcade, articles section, the bridge to the wiki, just to name a few.

Now, I've been keeping a close eye on IPB 3.0, which was just recently released and is gaining popularity among the forum community. It is very rich in features and we could probably add a facelift to the site by switching to it. Either way, I most likely will not stay with vBulletin 3 for the simple reason that vulnerabilities could develop and I doubt vBulletin will be releasing any more updates or patch level updates in the future to patch these vulnerabilities.

Since I feel that we are a very democratic site and offer members a chance to make decisions for the forum's future, I will post a poll on what YOU think I should do. A vBulletin 4 license is $285 (nearly double what it was for vB 3, but supposedly it's a lifetime license). However, IPB 3.0 is $249 for the entire suite, including 4 major applications: the forum, the blog, the gallery, and downloads. However, the forum component by itself is $149. As far as the site, I can incorporate Joomla into this site for no extra charge with IPB.

So with that, I will post a poll onto this thread and feel free to comment on what you think about this situation.

[kab012345]

Would be interesting to upgrade to 4.

[Computer Head]

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/

An example of vB 4. It's still a beta but they went ahead and upgraded the site.

[Mayhem]

I dunno, its cheaper for the IPB3 Full licence compared to the vB4 licence. However the Blog feture is nice if where having a review section in IPB3.

[pokerdegenerate]

^^ but if the IPD3 full license is not lifetime it may be beneficial to go with the vB4. But it would have to be in the contract that it is a lifetime license. And if this is the case does this mean when vB5 comes out you can upgrade or is there another fee for the upgrade when that time comes?

Im a noob to all these forum programs so I really don't know how to vote because I don't know much about setting up the forums. I guess in the long run it comes down to what will be the most affective over time, if you can get something that costs a little more in the short term but will last longer than its worth it. So what Im saying I guess is if vB4 offers a lifetime license and IPB3 doesn't than its probably makes more sense to go with the vB4 even if it is a little more in the short term.

[Computer Head]

^^ but if the IPD3 full license is not lifetime it may be beneficial to go with the vB4. But it would have to be in the contract that it is a lifetime license. And if this is the case does this mean when vB5 comes out you can upgrade or is there another fee for the upgrade when that time comes?

Im a noob to all these forum programs so I really don't know how to vote because I don't know much about setting up the forums. I guess in the long run it comes down to what will be the most affective over time, if you can get something that costs a little more in the short term but will last longer than its worth it. So what Im saying I guess is if vB4 offers a lifetime license and IPB3 doesn't than its probably makes more sense to go with the vB4 even if it is a little more in the short term.

vb4 is a lifetime license, to my knowledge, IPB is not. But I think the license structure that they put a note in my AdminCP about says that the lifetime license is only good for this major release (4.x.x) ... when they release vB5, it will probably be an upgrade fee but they would still have to offer support. I also spoke with Seti on his site that I moderate and I may stay with vB 3.8 until I can afford vB4. YSF has a license 3 days old because I renewed it a month ago while they still offered vB3 renewals, but that's Fab's site. He will have to fork out if he wants the upgrade if the site is still going by then.

EDIT: Since my family doesn't believe in Christmas presents, they are giving me my Christmas money on December 1st. Albeit it's only a little more than half the cost of the license, but I can probably save up enough money out of my paychecks to cover the rest. I haven't been able to find a Christmas present I wanted so I guess this may be it.

[Mayhem]

vb4 is a lifetime license, to my knowledge, IPB is not. But I think the license structure that they put a note in my AdminCP about says that the lifetime license is only good for this major release (4.x.x) ... when they release vB5, it will probably be an upgrade fee but they would still have to offer support. I also spoke with Seti on his site that I moderate and I may stay with vB 3.8 until I can afford vB4. YSF has a license 3 days old because I renewed it a month ago while they still offered vB3 renewals, but that's Fab's site. He will have to fork out if he wants the upgrade if the site is still going by then.

EDIT: Since my family doesn't believe in Christmas presents, they are giving me my Christmas money on December 1st. Albeit it's only a little more than half the cost of the license, but I can probably save up enough money out of my paychecks to cover the rest. I haven't been able to find a Christmas present I wanted so I guess this may be it.

Make me feel guilty. Maybe there a way where we can split the cost amongst us? You still have that "donation" link that was on YPCF at the beginning?

[Computer Head]

Sorry, I wasn't trying to make you feel guilty. I'm probably not going to accept donations for this. But I will figure out a way to get us going with vB4. This inability to purchase it at this time is probably a blessing in disguise because it's giving the developers a chance to redo their mods for the new version since the entire backend is being re-written. But I was on a site at one time where donations caused a lot of beef on the site and I don't want that to happen here. I've maintained the cost of the site before so it's just a part of website upkeep. (((Hey, I have an idea, Luke can buy it, after all, it's his site (only when it's convenient LOL)))) I think it's a fair proposition, I pay for hosting, he pays for the domain name and the software. I'll have to have a discussion with him.

[Greg]

I have yet to see any reason to upgrade to vB 4. It seems a waste of money, and I know that I will be advising against it on sites that I'm an administrator at.

I would stay with the 3.8 branch, and maybe eventually move to SMF 2 or MyBB.

[Computer Head]

Well after checking my bank account and checking the date, today was the last day to get the upgrade for $130, so I went ahead and did it. I've always had faith in vB and since it's $130 for an unlimited time period, it just seemed like a good buy. Since I just renewed YSF a month ago, they gave me an upgrade for $90. I put that on ol' "plastic." So the verdict is that we will stay with vBulletin. I don't have a specific time that we need to upgrade so once vB4 goes live, I will probably install it at the "Testing Grounds" for the staff to test out and get familiar with. Then, once I see that it's a viable time to put vB4 live, the switchover will occur.