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The "need to upgrade" myth busted.

Max Taxable

The Wyatt Earp of Anti-Spam
The "need to upgrade my vBulletin" myth busted.

People get in such a big hurry to "upgrade" their vBulletin installations to versions 4 or 5, and seemingly never stop to think about it.

Well, you need to think about it. And you need to ask only one important question: "What is the compelling reason to upgrade?"

Truth: There isn't one.

After years of asking this question of people, none have given any answer close to compelling. I hear:

  • "Better for security" - Patently false. vB 4 is one of the most hacked and defaced boards, all time. You kidding?
  • "Better for support" - Debatable. Not compelling anyway, as I will prove.
  • "Looks better" - Really? EotB Eye of the beholder - by definition, not a compelling reason.
  • "ALL the big boards use (higher version)" - Patently false.
  • "I just wannabe up to date." - Not compelling. Just feelgood, false sense of security.
  • "Earlier versions not compatible with new PHP versons." - They can be adjusted to be so, and it's no mystery or even all that difficult.
  • "Better for mobile users earlier versions are not" - Pretty compelling reason here I agree but, they can be and are. And again, not that difficult.
  • "Better against forum spam" - FAR from it! This claim is one of the most laughable out there!

I try to get people to ask this important question and to THINK about this before jumping in - trying to save people the regret, buyer's remorse and screwed up sites that invariably result.

It shocks most people when I show them that out of the top ten largest, highest posting traffic message boards that run vBulletin, nine of them run version 3 or earlier, still. And of those nine, one still runs version 2! Yes, version 2.

They have no security problems and no compatibility problems. They get no spam. They have no complaints about their look, their "outdated" scripts, nothing like that. They have excellent mobile versions and their sites load greasy fast and serve their memberships well.

Here they are:

forums.offtopic.com - v3.8.7
forums.somethingawful.com - v 2.2.9! Yes, version 2.2.9.
forocoches.com/foro/ - v3.8.7
pbnation.com/forum.php - v3.8.7
forum.bodybuilding.com - v4.1.1 (And they still, rue the day they ever 'upgraded' from version 3. Ask them.)
fanforum.com - 3.8.7
skyscrapercity.com - 3.8.8 beta1
forumserver.twoplustwo.com - v3.8.7
neogaf.com/forum - v3.8.7
boxingscene.com/forums - v3.8.2 (They DID 'upgrade' to v4 but hated it SO much, they did the massive work necessary to revert back!)

Is someone here starting to get a clue? There's no arguing with the outstanding success of the sites listed. They know what I am trying to tell you - there is NO compelling reason to upgrade your vBulletin 3.8.7 installation to higher versions. None at all. (except for v3.8.8 when it is released.)

Even vBulletin dot org knows this. - v3.6.12

If you still want to do it, good luck. But don't say I didn't warn ya.
 
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Well said.... I have said this for a few years as well. I have begged friends with 3.8 not to upgrade to any of the new beta versions... but they did & reverted back.
Problem now is that most coders are creating addons in vb4 & 5... leaving 3.8 behind.. I wish vbulletin would allow 3.8 purchases only option to new clients instead of having to buy crap they wont need.
From what I understand there is not much that needs to be done to update early boards to work with php5.5 (or what ever it is) but, I don't know what files to edit to make that happen.

If you have a list of which php files need edited and the code needed to change that you would like to share that would be great.:biggrin1:
 
Well said.... I have said this for a few years as well. I have begged friends with 3.8 not to upgrade to any of the new beta versions... but they did & reverted back.
Problem now is that most coders are creating addons in vb4 & 5... leaving 3.8 behind.. I wish vbulletin would allow 3.8 purchases only option to new clients instead of having to buy crap they wont need.
From what I understand there is not much that needs to be done to update early boards to work with php5.5 (or what ever it is) but, I don't know what files to edit to make that happen.

If you have a list of which php files need edited and the code needed to change that you would like to share that would be great.:biggrin1:
The software lets you know specifically, in the warning messages such as:

HTML:
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/yourforum/public_html/newattachment.php on line 284

And oddly enough this is easy to fix by editing the file mentioned, and removing the ampersand from the line mentioned.

But no, alas and unfortunately I haven't compiled a list of everything needed for newer PHP compliance. Since so far I have only fixed three such sites with older vB running on newer PHP.

Sites such as this one can keep the v3 mods alive and coming ahead, Blind-Eddie! Folks like you, Ozzy, and some others can feel free to continue to make version 3 products and release them here!

But you're right, as long as most of the more sheepish licensees feel that false need to "upgrade," new 3.x products are a rare breed indeed.
 
I am not a coder by any means, I never went to school for it, I learned on my own, with the help of the vb.org members over the years.
I am a copy-n-paste kind a guy. :cool1:
It is an awesome hobby..plus I make a few bux from those that know less then me working on their 3.8 site. :biggrin1:
 
I am not a coder by any means, I never went to school for it, I learned on my own, with the help of the vb.org members over the years.
I am a copy-n-paste kind a guy. :cool1:
It is an awesome hobby..plus I make a few bux from those that know less then me working on their 3.8 site. :biggrin1:
I'm the same way, just a hunt and peck script kiddie. But I'm learning.

Ozzy's self taught as well.
 
I wish I had seen this in 2010. Like a fool I believed the hype about security issues if I did not upgrade. As each upgrade was released I was choked about having to redo all my custom edits, assuming my skins I purchased were upgraded as well. (CompleteVB that means you!!)

I am currently at the latest version, and am happy with it, but know if there is another upgrade to it , I will not be installing it.
 
I wish I had seen this in 2010. Like a fool I believed the hype about security issues if I did not upgrade. As each upgrade was released I was choked about having to redo all my custom edits, assuming my skins I purchased were upgraded as well. (CompleteVB that means you!!)

I am currently at the latest version, and am happy with it, but know if there is another upgrade to it , I will not be installing it.
Here in the High Desert of West Texas we say, "if it ain't broke don't fix it!"
 
I just updated my forum a couple weeks ago from vb3.8 to vb4.

I actually had bought my license for vb4 during the pre-release sale several years ago.

I have a highly customized forum and updating it took quite a bit of work. Fortunately, over the years I've figured out a lot of stuff for myself. It would have been a lot worse to not know what I was doing. It also helped to have the help of "vb friends" I've made on over the years.

I'm glad I waited to upgrade though because I don't like stuff that doesn't work and it seemed to me that only in the last couple versions of vb4 did everything work correctly. Having to update every month to patch bugs would have been a pain. My members have a low tolerance for change and bugs as well.

Now that I've upgraded I'm glad I did it. I've been able to include some new features that weren't available for vb3 and I think my members are getting used to it.

Here's a link to my site: Captive Reefs. I've still got a lot of work to do...but its coming along.

I'm still not sure what vb5 is all about...and it gives me a headache thinking about it. lol
 
I just updated my forum a couple weeks ago from vb3.8 to vb4.

I actually had bought my license for vb4 during the pre-release sale several years ago.

I have a highly customized forum and updating it took quite a bit of work. Fortunately, over the years I've figured out a lot of stuff for myself. It would have been a lot worse to not know what I was doing. It also helped to have the help of "vb friends" I've made on over the years.

I'm glad I waited to upgrade though because I don't like stuff that doesn't work and it seemed to me that only in the last couple versions of vb4 did everything work correctly. Having to update every month to patch bugs would have been a pain. My members have a low tolerance for change and bugs as well.

Now that I've upgraded I'm glad I did it. I've been able to include some new features that weren't available for vb3 and I think my members are getting used to it.

Here's a link to my site: Captive Reefs. I've still got a lot of work to do...but its coming along.

I'm still not sure what vb5 is all about...and it gives me a headache thinking about it. lol
New features such as?
 
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