Should we upgrade to VB 5?

[Daniel Allen]

Hey everyone!

We are a gaming YouTube channel with 100k subscribers & recently have started slowly pushing viewers to our website. http://www.xeraingaming.com

Over a year ago we decided to go with Vbulletin for our website. This was mainly because someone similar to us was using the same software & we thought if it is good enough for them, then it is good enough for us. Since then we have had VB 4 installed, Joomla, Wordpress & back to VB4.

With all the trials of different software solutions we have restarted the site several times & it wasn't until recently that we said to ourselves "OK we will stick with VB for now, unless we can migrate everything to another choice that comes up".

I recently set up VIP memberships, GIF's for VIPS, I added a Achievement plugin & we also use the CMS for articles.

One thing I absolutely hate about VB 4, is the look. I really hate the dated, slow look & that is why I am wondering whether we should upgrade to 5. I was looking at other forum companies however at the moment we don't have the funds (or want to invest MORE money into other software) especially when we spent so much on VB 5.

Do you think we should upgrade to VB 5? Is there a way to create a second backup of our current site & try and upgrade to see what happens (without touching the current active site)?
Can we still have the VIP membership?
Is the CMS in VB 5 good enough yet?

I don't mind losing the current plugins as long as...

VIP memberships stay
Permissions for VIPS stay
All posts carry over


We just feel like the site is slow & dated at the moment. However bad VB5 may be, surely it will improve the overall look of the site? We also have people saying they can't register or confirm their e-mails on the site fairly often too, so maybe VB 5 will help that.

It would also be good to improve the social element & bring users back more often.

Many thanks!

[TLMD]

Well, if it is only about the look of vB4, you can have a different one by using another theme or, if you are familiar with theming, creating an own theme, which fits your needs/expectations.

As for your questions:

Is there a way to create a second backup of our current site & try and upgrade to see what happens (without touching the current active site)?

Sure. You can always create a local test installation of your current vB4 site with all content included. Then do a test upgrade to vB5. (Of course, this is only possible if you already own a vB5 license.)

Can we still have the VIP membership?

vB5 has paid subscriptions.

Is the CMS in VB 5 good enough yet?

The vB5 CMS wasn't officially released yet. It will come with vB 5.1.0, which should arrive soon. However, as a licensed customer you can already download the Beta of vB 5.1.0 and play around with the CMS. It is very similar to the vB4 CMS, though not exactly the same.

The current Beta can also be accessed here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/beta

Do you think we should upgrade to VB 5?

That is hard to say. You should definetly try out the demo:

http://www.vbulletin.com/en/vb5-trial

[Daniel Allen]

Oh thanks for the Demo link! That demo is actually loading fast than this forum.
Some things that confuse me about VB5 & I am wondering if they can be configured in the settings:

When viewing threads in a category you can only move to page 2 at the top of the page & not the bottom? Surely most people change to page 2 from the bottom after scanning the list of threads?

Also can you disable comments to posts? I don't understand why this is needed, when someone can just reply as a post.

[TLMD]

When viewing threads in a category you can only move to page 2 at the top of the page & not the bottom?

vB5 has a floating bar. Open a larger thread (with more answers) and scroll down. You will the that the navigation bar attaches at the top of the screen.

Also can you disable comments to posts? I don't understand why this is needed, when someone can just reply as a post.

Yes, you can. (And yes, I also don't see the need for comments to a post. )

[Daniel Allen]

vB5 has a floating bar. Open a larger thread (with more answers) and scroll down. You will the that the navigation bar attaches at the top of the screen.

Oh yeah! haha, I completely didn't see that. Thanks for the heads up!

[feldon23]

There are many themes and styles available for vBulletin. I would look further into those. You've already got a solid ecosystem of vB4 and many other sections which may not integrate with vB5.

[BirdOPrey5]

I doubt VB5 will solve your email issues- Are you using SMTP email in vBulletin 4? SMTP emails are less likely to be blocked as spam and be delivered. Have you check your email queue? "Dead" sites without much traffic really should be using email queuing because emails are only sent when there is traffic to the site that set off scheduled tasks. You can manually run the task to clear the queue and then turn off the mailqueue system in Email Options in Admin CP.