I am a long time user of vBulletin. I have been around since the early stages of vBulletin software. There were some main reasons why I always chose vB over any other similar software. One being that is was such a robust application with so much "meat" to it, features, spam prevention, adaptability, and freedom to modify and improve. It had come a long way over the years to become an application that is great for starting a community from scratch. I always felt is was absolutely worth the money.
However, I think vB 5 is a flop. I am really disappointed with this newer version. I feel that you took something really great and stripped it down to almost nothing. What I felt was once great for making a "community" is not much more than a forum software with a blog option now. I can't understand why you removed so many good functions that were in vB 4? What was the thinking behind stripping this down so much?
I am also upset because I tried to upgrade to the next beta version and you are using such a new version of MySQL, that my host doesn't even have it yet. So I am stuck at beta 23 and can't upgrade.
I will say that there are a few nice changes, but I just don't think it is worth it.
I have decided I want to roll back to vB 4, but considering you have made such drastic changes which are probably making big variations in the database, I am concerned that trying to roll back is going to be a nightmare.
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For those wondering what it is I do not like, I have several sites using older versions of vB. The content management system that was in vB 4 is gone. You cannot post articles. The member list is completely gone. The information about who's online, member statistics, and all that is gone. I am not too keen on the new site editor, but I attribute that to me being a web developer. I suppose the site editor is their idea for helping people who want to edit with no development skills. The advanced post editing with the WYSIWYG editor is not set by default and my users don't even know it exists. The tab for it is not noticeable. The blog setup is awful. Missing pagination at the bottom of the pages. I have had a lot of trouble using the friendly URLs with my GoDaddy hosting. I am probably forgetting something. Looking at my vb4 sites and looking at my vb5 site, it seems dull and feature lacking.
However, I think vB 5 is a flop. I am really disappointed with this newer version. I feel that you took something really great and stripped it down to almost nothing. What I felt was once great for making a "community" is not much more than a forum software with a blog option now. I can't understand why you removed so many good functions that were in vB 4? What was the thinking behind stripping this down so much?
I am also upset because I tried to upgrade to the next beta version and you are using such a new version of MySQL, that my host doesn't even have it yet. So I am stuck at beta 23 and can't upgrade.
I will say that there are a few nice changes, but I just don't think it is worth it.
I have decided I want to roll back to vB 4, but considering you have made such drastic changes which are probably making big variations in the database, I am concerned that trying to roll back is going to be a nightmare.
- - - Updated - - -
For those wondering what it is I do not like, I have several sites using older versions of vB. The content management system that was in vB 4 is gone. You cannot post articles. The member list is completely gone. The information about who's online, member statistics, and all that is gone. I am not too keen on the new site editor, but I attribute that to me being a web developer. I suppose the site editor is their idea for helping people who want to edit with no development skills. The advanced post editing with the WYSIWYG editor is not set by default and my users don't even know it exists. The tab for it is not noticeable. The blog setup is awful. Missing pagination at the bottom of the pages. I have had a lot of trouble using the friendly URLs with my GoDaddy hosting. I am probably forgetting something. Looking at my vb4 sites and looking at my vb5 site, it seems dull and feature lacking.
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