I just wish there was a demo of vB4 before making the investment for an upgrade.
Actual details about VB4 vs. VB3?
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The vB4 features list is available for all to see and can easily be compared to the current feature list.
Although it would be good to perhaps add an asterisk to the features that are new in vB4. I'll make that suggestion.
My understanding is that there will be more info released about the search enhancements in vB4 but further testing is required first.Steve Machol, former vBulletin Customer Support Manager (and NOT retired!)
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vBulletin includes support for ReCaptcha, yet they don't include the keys. vBulletin includes support for Akismet, yet they don't include the keys.
Not offering Sphinx just because you may not include its files in the vBulletin package doesn't make sense.Comment
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I thought that's what Wayne meant, too. And it's what confuses me. How does adding support for Sphinx require Jelsoft to include the Sphinx package? Other Sphinx-supporting software doesn't include the package either, but they include instruction where to get it.
vBulletin includes support for ReCaptcha, yet they don't include the keys. vBulletin includes support for Akismet, yet they don't include the keys.
Not offering Sphinx just because you may not include its files in the vBulletin package doesn't make sense.Comment
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Sure? I didn't know that. I thought ReCaptcha keys were bound to authorized domains. In fact, when I click on the help icon within VB AdminCP, it says:
In order to use reCAPTCHA™ you need to sign up for the service at recaptcha.net, which will provide you with a public and a private key. You need to enter the public key you are given here.Last edited by AlexanderT; Tue 20 Oct '09, 12:52am.Comment
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The vB4 features list is available for all to see and can easily be compared to the current feature list.
Although it would be good to perhaps add an asterisk to the features that are new in vB4. I'll make that suggestion.
My understanding is that there will be more info released about the search enhancements in vB4 but further testing is required first.
Other than Video Embedding and URL Rewriting, what else is new?Comment
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What I don't understand is: why the apparent disinterest / low priority in integrating Sphinx? It would be such a good way to start gaining a positive momentum among currently disgruntled customers (in particular those with big boards), and it's not like there weren't any prior discussions on the benefit of supporting Sphinx.
While the built in search may work fine for the majority of the boards running VB, for those of us in the top 1% size wise, we've HAD to choose an alternative way to search out sites. The built in search has scaling issues once boards reach a certain size. Sadly it has nothing to do with hardware, and more to do with code efficiency. For years I fell into the "just throw more hardware at it" mentality trying to fix the search issues we were having. Once I began using Sphinx load has remained stable and low. The only exceptions to that rule is when the site still has to use the original search engine for particular searches the vb.org sphinx hack does not replace, and that's when I have load spikes (due to table locks) and up to a couple minutes of non response from my site.
The integration of an option to use sphinx, just like all the other optional products you can use that are included with vbulletin (ie... paypal, recaptcha), would be an amazing addition to the product. We aren't asking you guys to make it the default search engine, because for most sites it would be overkill. However for those of us that have had to resort to using sphinx, in self defense to keep our sites running, it would be nice to have that option without requiring the software to be re-hacked every time an update comes out.Comment
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I don't know about you guys, but I think Sphinx would be a perfect 4.1 feature. Getting 4.0 released is more important for the majority of customers.
Also I can't think of any forum where anything over google searching is really needed at all, other than those devoted to you know what.Comment
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I don't know about you guys, but I think Sphinx would be a perfect 4.1 feature. Getting 4.0 released is more important for the majority of customers.
Also I can't think of any forum where anything over google searching is really needed at all, other than those devoted to you know what.
It would mean we'll be waiting in the wings with very outdated software until the 4.0 branch runs it's production cycle, which could be years.
Considering we've been asking for it since around the 3.6 branch, I think by 4.0 we've waited long enough and it's the perfect time to make it available.
Besides the code hasn't gone gold yet anyway, so there is still time to make additions.
And the google search, while a nice option to have (and we do), isn't updated nearly frequent enough to be useful for very large very active communities. When you average 3500 people online at any given time, around 600 new legit threads per day, and over 15,000 new posts per day, google just isn't good enough. So just not being dedicated to "you know what" isn't enough for google's serach to be a replacement. If I'm paying for the product's search ability, I'd like to use it.Last edited by NickCat; Tue 20 Oct '09, 8:12am.Comment
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Like I said, I think IB should consider how to establish faith within the community. Obviously adding features that have been requested for a long time is a step in the right direction.Comment
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I know!! It's so strange that they are not listening to their long-term customers. I think it's one thing where competitors shine - they listen to their customers and implement features that are also much requested here, but either not available, or only has a half-done solution on vb.org, or only as a third party plugin for $$$.
Like I said, I think IB should consider how to establish faith within the community. Obviously adding features that have been requested for a long time is a step in the right direction.
Not good for a business that is trying to offload its smaller customers in favour of enterprise users. Enterprise users generally need a scaleable search feature.MARK.B
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RCA - Teck has written code for Sphinx integration, but it costs (I think) like $2,000-$5,000... Not very feasible for most of us. I would be willing to pay about $250 tops for a full sphinx integration / replacement over the standard search.
Like others that rely on sphinx, I too am strongly weighing the options of switching to IPB instead of vB 4.
If I upgraded to vB 4 right now, my site would not be online for 5 minutes before it the load would bring things to a screeching halt... Oh sure, I could use the "suggested fix" and disable search... but then what good is a forum if people can't search for the information they are looking for? How useful would the Internet be without search engines? *sigh*
There should be a dedicated person on the vB team solely for improving and optimizing searching. Both speed & relevancy are extremely important...
One thing that has baffled me over the years, some searches within vB can yield "no results", but if you take the same query and run it manually in the DB it can yield a few posts or threads that contain what was searched for. vB filters and weighs things so oddly and aggressively it can actually reject the only few valid results. They call it a feature... I call it a 'bug'...Comment
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I thought that's what Wayne meant, too. And it's what confuses me. How does adding support for Sphinx require Jelsoft to include the Sphinx package? Other Sphinx-supporting software doesn't include the package either, but they include instruction where to get it. <br /><br />vBulletin includes support for ReCaptcha, yet they don't include the keys. vBulletin includes support for Akismet, yet they don't include the keys.<br /><br />Not offering Sphinx just because you may not include its files in the vBulletin package doesn't make sense.
Sphinx is publicly distributed under GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2.
In cases when GPL version of Sphinx could not be used because of license restrictions, you can obtain a “commercial” license from us.
Commercial license is normally required when you need to embed Sphinx your application (or redistribute Sphinx along with it), but do not want to disclose your source code as required by GPL. This is similar to MySQL licensing model, so the rule of the thumb would be “if MySQL needs to be licensed, Sphinx needs to be licensed too.”
One important case when commercial license is not required is when you use Sphinx on your Web site. For example, even if you provide paid search services to your end users, you still do not need a commercial license. This is because no redistribution of Sphinx code is actually happening, and GPL does not oblige you to do anything. You can consider buying a support package to protect yourself from bugs and help us keep the project going.
Final licensing price would depend on the application character, licensing volume, retail price, royalty policy, amount of required technical support, etc. Guideline price for small-volume (5-20 copies) royalty-free licensing is $100/copy. If you're going to license many more copies than that, contact us for a quote.
Please send the requests through Contact Form.Comment
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