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First, I've been running a VB forum with almost 90K Members and over a million posts. I am a big fan of VB and one of the few php apps I'm willing to pay for. I'm a major proponent of open source software (been running dev on one for 5 years), and also contribute some to one of my other favorite forums (Vanilla). That out of the way, I just want to say that what VB was attempting to do with VB5 is much -- so much that I 'could' almost say that they bit more they could chew on this one.
In software, the elusive unicorn is that 'perfect app' that solves all the problems one had before -- which is usually the inspiration for completely rewriting an app from the ground up. It's obvious with VB5 that quite a bit has been taken from some of the most popular VB plugins and built in by default (not good for folks like VBSEO), which is great because I won't have to pay more for all those other extras and or have unsupported plugins in my system. Unfortunately what this does is add so many not-so-important 'To-Dos' to the development of a new app while assuring backward compatibility. This then leads to what is essentially an unfinished app, that really should still be in beta.
What VB is doing with VB5 is colossal and they've more or less pulled it off. I still have a functional forum - the broken parts I can live with (for now). Site Builder, is awesome but has some reaaaally annoying bugs. +1000 to responsive design. I've seen some of the other forums try to pull that one off unsuccessfully and most of the time have sucky mobile plugins. My users will really appreciate this particular feature. A forum has so many moving pieces that one has to stop and appreciate a successful responsive re-design. As a software developer, I can understand the pressures of reworking an app from the ground up -- its not easy at all, especially with tons of legacy users out there. No one loves change.
I do appreciate VB's responsiveness as we struggle with the change. At one point I thought I should have read the forums before committing to VB5, but hey, I'm all in for the ride now. This all reminds me of those really cool Android ROMs that suddenly bugger up when making calls.
In software, the elusive unicorn is that 'perfect app' that solves all the problems one had before -- which is usually the inspiration for completely rewriting an app from the ground up. It's obvious with VB5 that quite a bit has been taken from some of the most popular VB plugins and built in by default (not good for folks like VBSEO), which is great because I won't have to pay more for all those other extras and or have unsupported plugins in my system. Unfortunately what this does is add so many not-so-important 'To-Dos' to the development of a new app while assuring backward compatibility. This then leads to what is essentially an unfinished app, that really should still be in beta.
What VB is doing with VB5 is colossal and they've more or less pulled it off. I still have a functional forum - the broken parts I can live with (for now). Site Builder, is awesome but has some reaaaally annoying bugs. +1000 to responsive design. I've seen some of the other forums try to pull that one off unsuccessfully and most of the time have sucky mobile plugins. My users will really appreciate this particular feature. A forum has so many moving pieces that one has to stop and appreciate a successful responsive re-design. As a software developer, I can understand the pressures of reworking an app from the ground up -- its not easy at all, especially with tons of legacy users out there. No one loves change.
I do appreciate VB's responsiveness as we struggle with the change. At one point I thought I should have read the forums before committing to VB5, but hey, I'm all in for the ride now. This all reminds me of those really cool Android ROMs that suddenly bugger up when making calls.
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