This is what I can tell you from experience with vbulletin 5.
Considering your lack of experience and this is something your starting out with no knowledge of how to use it here are the pros and cons.
Vbulletin 5 pros:
- Site builder does wonders. This makes it easier on you to setup your website and gives you more potential to do the necessary administrative work the right way
- More content focused. It doesn't have to be fancied up to look good. The content based style makes it perfect for attracting guests and people who want to view content fast
- Vbulletin 5 is improving with every release. Each and every release has shown remarkable improvement
- Mods are now lasting longer with more stability for the newer version releases. I was able to install a shoutbox and several other mods for 5.0.x and worked perfectly without issue on 5.1.4
- Easy to edit templates and add custom CSS when you obtain the knowledge of using CSS (cascading style sheets). Once you learn the market tricks you can change the page to look however you want and it's simpler than it looks
- Editing StyleVars (in order to make custom styles) are also easy to do with the StyleVar table I have added to the vbulletin 5 tutorial section (you can view that here on this site)
- If there is a bug, the team here has always been able to fix it pretty fast.
Vbulletin 5 cons:
- New products can sometime have small bugs
- Not as old and doesn't have as many mods developed
- Not as developed in layout and design. Seems more professional based than pretty looking
- No forum stats until 5.1.5 (which will include stats and a content slider as well and is the newest coming release)
- No colored names for the staff. All usernames have the same color
Overall, vbulletin 4 is a worse choice any day in my opinion. If I had to choose between vbulletin 4 or vbulletin 3, I would choose vbulletin 3 over vbulletin 4. Which goes to show my personal dislike for it. It's just not the kind of software that is going to make it to the big time. One word that can describe it to me is indifferent. But it is also well developed and has been around for years. It also has all the options that would make for a unique experience and includes every bit of the necessary tools to get the job done. I'm sure you would be happy with it as well had you choose vbulletin 4.
Simply put, I only feel that vbulletin 5 has more to offer you in professionalism and uniqueness. There is no other forum software like it and it seems to be a growing trend with the releases showing such improvement. You can always start with vbulletin 4 and work your way up to vbulletin 5 once you find the releases suit your needs.
You will find what your looking for with vbulletin 4 or vbulletin 5 both. They are both great softwares.
I recommend vbulletin 5.
Good luck with your website! Hoping you find the software that suits you best.
Considering your lack of experience and this is something your starting out with no knowledge of how to use it here are the pros and cons.
Vbulletin 5 pros:
- Site builder does wonders. This makes it easier on you to setup your website and gives you more potential to do the necessary administrative work the right way
- More content focused. It doesn't have to be fancied up to look good. The content based style makes it perfect for attracting guests and people who want to view content fast
- Vbulletin 5 is improving with every release. Each and every release has shown remarkable improvement
- Mods are now lasting longer with more stability for the newer version releases. I was able to install a shoutbox and several other mods for 5.0.x and worked perfectly without issue on 5.1.4
- Easy to edit templates and add custom CSS when you obtain the knowledge of using CSS (cascading style sheets). Once you learn the market tricks you can change the page to look however you want and it's simpler than it looks
- Editing StyleVars (in order to make custom styles) are also easy to do with the StyleVar table I have added to the vbulletin 5 tutorial section (you can view that here on this site)
- If there is a bug, the team here has always been able to fix it pretty fast.
Vbulletin 5 cons:
- New products can sometime have small bugs
- Not as old and doesn't have as many mods developed
- Not as developed in layout and design. Seems more professional based than pretty looking
- No forum stats until 5.1.5 (which will include stats and a content slider as well and is the newest coming release)
- No colored names for the staff. All usernames have the same color
Overall, vbulletin 4 is a worse choice any day in my opinion. If I had to choose between vbulletin 4 or vbulletin 3, I would choose vbulletin 3 over vbulletin 4. Which goes to show my personal dislike for it. It's just not the kind of software that is going to make it to the big time. One word that can describe it to me is indifferent. But it is also well developed and has been around for years. It also has all the options that would make for a unique experience and includes every bit of the necessary tools to get the job done. I'm sure you would be happy with it as well had you choose vbulletin 4.
Simply put, I only feel that vbulletin 5 has more to offer you in professionalism and uniqueness. There is no other forum software like it and it seems to be a growing trend with the releases showing such improvement. You can always start with vbulletin 4 and work your way up to vbulletin 5 once you find the releases suit your needs.
You will find what your looking for with vbulletin 4 or vbulletin 5 both. They are both great softwares.
I recommend vbulletin 5.
Good luck with your website! Hoping you find the software that suits you best.
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