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Thread: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

  1. #1

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    Post vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Hi,

    May I know what version of vBulletin is used here in our forums?

    And what's the lastest version available?

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    Administrator Steve R Jones's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    We are using version 4.2.5

    You'd have to go to their site to see what the latest is....

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    Frenzied Member jdc20181's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Latest is 5.6.2

    lol
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    Administrator Steve R Jones's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    And of course as all experts on the VBForums web site know - Newer doesn't mean better

  5. #5
    Frenzied Member jdc20181's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve R Jones View Post
    And of course as all experts on the VBForums web site know - Newer doesn't mean better
    No, but when you have a software product that had EOL in 2017, it prob means, you should at least be considering going to the next supported version. Hell y'all could ship away from Vbulletin altogether. Open source alternatives out there.
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    PowerPoster jdc2000's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    There are alternative forum software packages available, however, I have seen and used many different forum software packages and I have yet to see one that looks as good as or works as well as vBulletin. There are a few that are close, but most are junk.

  7. #7
    Administrator Steve R Jones's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    jdc20181 - the good news is that it gives you something to COMPLAIN ABOUT.... Which by the way is getting old. HINT HINT

    EOL doesn't mean anything to anyone outside the SALES Department.

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    ex-Administrator brad jones's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve R Jones View Post
    EOL doesn't mean anything to anyone outside the SALES Department.
    To be fair - the biggest issue with older software and EOL is security patches. As long as the forum is kept secure, the version is less important.

    And with VBulletin - there were big changes from 4 to 5 that were not necessarily better. Sometimes upgrading isn't good (as has been said). Many products have been put out of business because they were upgraded poorly.
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Thanks for the responses.

    I personally find many problems in the past in our forum (basically some bugs, outdated UI, etc.). And I didn't visited the site for some time, assuming it would be resolved soon when am back. But looks like we are still getting dragged in certain places.

    Do you guys ever thought about making it more modern? I mean the site looks very outdated now. Make it more user friendly (maybe for the sake of new users) ?
    VBForums is something that taught me many things and I wish it would've been better if a complete revamp is done to the UI, make it more easier to use with less complications & bugs, make it mobile responsive, etc.

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    Frenzied Member jdc20181's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Interesting, this page says its insecure.

    I agree, I think in the future something more modern should be utilized.

    Just for the purpose of humoring my complaints @Steve, take a look at Discourse, https://www.discourse.org/ Its open source regularly upgraded, and I am pretty sure it would just as easy to port over everything here to there. (Oh here we go https://meta.discourse.org/t/importi...lletin-4/54881)
    I promise ill complain less eventually but isn't that what Forum feedback is for?
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  11. #11
    PowerPoster kfcSmitty's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    This page is not secure because akhileshbc has http://www.vbforums.com/images/butto...tation-40b.png linked in their signature.

    A lot of pages will be marked as not secure, even though they're using SSL because of the unsecured images. Not much they can do about it.

  12. #12
    ex-Administrator brad jones's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    The original question was about versions of vBulletin -

    It is worth noting that vBulletin did a huge re-write going from 4 to 5. In that re-write a lot of features were not converted over and it basically became a new product. As such, many people/companies chose to not upgrade.

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    PowerPoster jdc2000's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Just looked at Discourse. It has the typical "modern" look with plenty of bling-bling and eye-candy, but the reviewers also complained that it tends to look cluttered. It also appears to be missing a lot of the things that you want in a programming oriented forum.

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    New Member Doc.AElstein's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Just my 2 cents:
    I have been mostly around some forums for a few years that mostly used vBulletin in versions 3.8-4.2.5
    A lot of users were happy with them and their workings and with a few problems and Bugs they are comfortable with the workarounds.
    A few forums upgraded or moved on to the competitors software. A lot of members have not managed to feel comfortable with the change and there is a drift to them using more the forums still on the vBulletin 4.2.5
    I am not a computer professional but I keep getting the gut feel that a lot of software, ( including a lot of Microsoft stuff ) , seems to have peaked at around 10 years ago. In total it often / mostly does not seem to get better any more, and seems in some cases to be getting worse. Things seem to be introduced for the benefit of the software supplier that often don’t benefit the end user, assuming the end user even knows about them all.
    I have the option to buy one of these forums that currently still is on vBulletin 4.2.5
    If I buy it, I will be intending to hold on to vBulletin 4.2.5 for as long as it is practical to do so

    Alan
    Last edited by Doc.AElstein; Oct 6th, 2020 at 02:36 AM. Reason: typo ... had version 4.5 instead of 4.2.5

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Those are good points. I sometimes think that, when it comes to UI, change is done for the sake of change, not to improve anything. It seems to be more an exercise in looking busy rather than providing substantive improvements. That seems reasonable, because while there may be hundreds of ways to accomplish the same task, it can be very difficult to show why one is better than another beyond a matter of personal preference.

    Looking outdated hardly matters when a whole bunch of the long time users also look a bit outdated.
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    Junior Member wossy's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker View Post
    ...when a whole bunch of the long time users also look a bit outdated.
    What was it like in the olden days grandpa?
    On the bright side, I've still got pessimism and despair to fall back on.

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    Fanatic Member 2kaud's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Well there there was this device called a modem into which you placed the phone handset into rubber 'ears' to help keep out external noise. You dialled the modem at the other end hopefully attached to the computer you wanted to attach. After a serious of 'squawks' they would possibly acknowledge each other and then you could communicate at 110 baud (no, that's not a typing error!). Often they would fail to sync with each other and you had to try again, and again.... If you wanted a different computer, you had to terminate one connection and try to connect to the other. The telephone call between the computers was charged at usual rates, so you tried to keep the connection time as short as possible. Forget graphics, this was all command prompt text....

    Oh the misery days...... but those of us around then doing this stuff were the pioneers. I remember building my own modem as I couldn't afford to buy one as they were so expensive. Trying to find a phone handset that would fit my DIY 'ears'. Ah those were the days. If anyone's seen the first War Games film, the 'hacking' shown then (1983) was very advanced compared with what we started out with in the 1970's.
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  18. #18
    Fanatic Member Delaney's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    I also remember the saving/reading of files on audio tapes and as you said, sometimes having to rewind the tape and try again the reading and hope that the saving was correct.
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    Fanatic Member 2kaud's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Yes - for personal computers. My Acorn Atom of 1980 used this to store/load programs.
    Last edited by 2kaud; Oct 6th, 2020 at 09:45 AM.
    All advice is offered in good faith only. You are ultimately responsible for the effects of your programs and the integrity of the machines they run on. Anything I post, code snippets, advice, etc is licensed as Public Domain https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

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    New Member Doc.AElstein's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker View Post
    .... sometimes think that, when it comes to UI, change is done for the sake of change, not to improve anything. It seems to be more an exercise in looking busy rather than providing substantive improvements. ....
    A couple of people who are a lot smarter than me, at least certainly in anything to do with a computer, have told me that Microsoft, for example, seem to employ a lot of people nowadays whose main job seems to be to just change things, for the sake of changing.
    I have been an Excel hobbyist for about 7 years, ( after learning it to help me speed up an important personal project, then getting a bit hooked on it as a Hobby), and a logical progression seemed to me to be to learn some basic VBA.
    I don’t understand the policy of Microsoft with their new Excel versions which often seem to include new functions which do what easily could be achieved with some basic VBA programming.
    In the meantime I help at Excel forums, and see an increasing number of problems with version compatibility as a result of things being changed.
    A small number of people seem to get very excited by the next new function, like a child with a new Matchbox car, but for the majority of people, more than half the changes seem to be more trouble then they are worth.

    The “ribbon” thing which came in at about 2007 was already there when I started. So I got used to it from the start. I wish I had started at about 2003. I probably would have stayed there. Now I am standardising on Office versions from about 2002 to 2013. That seems to give me the best stable results. A few bugs with the newer versions, which don’t seem to be likely ever to be solved, for example Clipboard Bugs, are really for me too much trouble.

    Alan

  21. #21
    Junior Member wossy's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Are people still under the impression that companies like MS are in existence for the benefit of the users?

    Sizable tax deductions are often available for simply having an R&D department over a certain size that produces demonstrable output. It matters not that the output is bewildering tripe.

    They don't want clever users casually learning VBA because it a) puts their R&D development on a rocky footing and b) they have been trying desperately to phase it out for the last 15 years.

    But those ribbons are pretty badass though.
    On the bright side, I've still got pessimism and despair to fall back on.

  22. #22
    Junior Member wossy's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    This line of thought reminds me... does anyone remember "The Visual Arc" principle of GUI design, back from the early 1990's?

    If I recall correctly, MS's behavioural psychology department took credit for "discovering" that when people see a new computer system for the first time they tend to look up at the top-left corner first and scan along the screen looking each icon in turn rapidly as if they were reading the words from the page of a book. Consequently they justified certain parts of their modern GUI designs with this in mind.

    Everyone else (Xerox, IBM, Bell...) had been doing this for 30 years already because it is simply computationally less expensive to start drawing stuff at (0,0) and going right a bit each time.

    MS's share price hockey-sticked at that revelation. I don't know how I've made it this far without being bitter about it.
    On the bright side, I've still got pessimism and despair to fall back on.

  23. #23
    Fanatic Member Delaney's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    The Visual Arc come from the clockwise. Our western mind is programmed to go from left to right, top to bottom.
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  24. #24
    Junior Member wossy's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Slow down professor, I can't handle this knowledge.
    On the bright side, I've still got pessimism and despair to fall back on.

  25. #25
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    I'm not very clock wise.
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  26. #26
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Everybody who maintains a large enough piece of software has a nontrivial maintenance cost. MS has a pretty high maintenance cost for Excel. Back around 2000, they had a reported 12 software engineers on the Excel team, and that wouldn't be including QA, customer support, sales, and so on. Therefore, there's a significant ongoing cost to any large piece of software (any piece of software large or small, really, though the cost can get pretty small if the software is simple). For a company that sells software, the one thing they really can't have is people buying one copy and never buying anything else again. They have to get people to re-purchase, so they have to keep selling new versions.

    MS is breaking out of that with Office 365, in which case they have stuck a straw into the user base (or at least into their wallets). Rental software has always been the dream, because the users keep paying for maintenance whether or not you actually add anything new.
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    Fanatic Member Delaney's Avatar
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    Re: vBulletin - Current Forum Version and Latest Version

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker View Post
    Rental software has always been the dream, because the users keep paying for maintenance whether or not you actually add anything new.
    Your are kind because I know a couple of softwares, you have to pay every year just to use them, not just for the maintenance
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