I am scott.This is my first .lol..:D

Thanks for the great, insightful article.

It's Michael "The Law Professor" from http://www.thelaw.com/forums/ – one of the oldest free legal advice forums online. I began using vBulletin way back when it was just hitting version 2.0. It was poetry through version 3.x and I used a number of add-ons to create a community like many of you have.

The problem is that version 3.x is gone and is a dead product. As PHP marches onwards (and LAMP for that matter), it will not be supported. We have not moved to version 4 as continued problems with styles and other aspects lead me to believe that moving now, if at all, would be a very poor decision. We'd need to redo all the integrations of our scripts with vBulletin 4.0 and that will just not happen without a discernible benefit from moving to vBulletin 4.

I have 2 custom hacks in vBulletin that have kept us there. I am still toying with the idea of switching over to Invision Power Board but am still hedging on what to do with almost 10 years of search engine indexing and site backlinking. Some of you are managing and this will be my next step – investigating the pros/cons of moving. As it stands right now, several of our favorite mods are not available in vB 4 (such as vB Experience) and if we can hire a programmer to modify the two necessary addons and find a way to permanently redirect our traffic without losing our draw in search engines, I'd move and never look back, unfortunately. I think that IPB has a far superior vision as to what a community site is and vBulletin is playing a long, long game of catch up.

And most of all, I don't want to be caught paying for vBulletin version 5 when I haven't been able to use vBulletin 4 at all almost a year after I bought it in the presale. I'm remarkably impressed by everything at IPB, including the software architecture, flexibility and process thus far.

My current website is using phpBB with custom portal to pull stuff from it onto the main page. I’ve always wanted a CMS for my website and ip.content just got me really, really excited.

rofl

What I like about VB.
3.8 is like an old reliable truck. It just works. I have no issues with it and the issues that do come up are usually user created. I also love the large community which provides free mods at VB.org.
What I don't like about VB.
First all the drama. Life has enough drama in it without getting more from a product/service which is supposed to be providing me with a product. Next, by nearly all accounts 4.0 is not all it is cracked up to be and appears to be a rushed product.
What I like about IPB.
They seem to have built the better mousetrap. The software seems sleek and very intuitive for the end user. The reviews of IPB have been impressive. This is one of the things that originally led me to VB 2 years ago.
What I don't like about IPB.
Well there doesn't seem that many of the mods my members enjoy are available (or reasonably similar ones), but I figure those will come shortly. Nearly all the IPB sites I've visited seem to have the same, or very similar, look. Being different through the look and use of mods can be huge in the eyes of someone visiting a site for the first time. It goes with the branding of your site. I found some info on an IPB site I wanted to go back to, but couldn't because I couldn't tell the difference between the 4-5 sites I'd been to, but if one had a distinctive style I probably could have found it easier.

When IPB has a few more resources I use and I have the cash I will make the jump, but for now I'm sitting tight and praying 3.8 doesn't reach EOL too soon.

Warren

I have very little experience with VBulletin, but my time with IPBoard has been very positive. I opened a ticket with them today, a Sunday, and they had a response to me in 2 hours. I don't expect that it's typical, but at least it's possible.

But there is abselutely nothing revoltionary about it, i just like a product that has everything
i need, and makes the job easyer. There are many free products availible with much better
capabilities, and more userfriendly, when require some work to get them to work together
and if one of the products get a sercurity patch, it might not connect with the other products.

Enters vbulletin, 1 engine, that combines products, and is extremely easy to modify,
costumise and developer additional products that just “plug and play” installed.

Martin from
http://www.Evisystems.org

We have started new forums despite the RC being out and still prefer the 3.8.X tree… an example:

http://www.nexusoneforum.net

That is basically what you are getting. I can not express my disappointment enough about vB4. A complete and utter let down.
I myself am now leaving vB and moving to IPB. Since having a look at IPB I now notice that vB have really tried to make 4.0 a lot like IPB but failed massivley. To be honest I can see why vB tried to copy IPB, their software is much better looking and the front end is alot more user friendly.

IPB on the other hand has always been looked at as 2nd place to vBulletin just because of the features offered over the past few years. I predict a shift from vB to IPB as time proceeds because of the staff differences of each company.

Personally, I will always be faithful to vBulletin because that is what I grew up on! I just hope they get their act together before their customers and competitors realize there is a place for new competition to take a piece of the pie in the forum world.

I don't particularly think Internet Brands are too interested in their own network though, because let's be honest, the software would be better if they really were. Most of their sites run well out of date versions of vBulletin, and hardly any of the features they need get added, so it's probably a matter of trying to rush the software rather than developing it purely for themselves.

Would I use vBulletin 4? Not at this time. Too expensive, and too many problems with bugs and HTML validation. I wouldn't use Invision Power Board 3 for similar reasons either. But I do plan to try it (vBulletin) in the future, see if I find it easy to customise myself, and if not, maybe then try IPB 3. Because hey, vBulletin 3 worked in the past, it has most of the mods I need, and it's what the members prefer.

Instead of staying ahead of the technology curve, vbulletin/jelsoft fell behind. And now, they have to play catch up.