Hey everyone! vBulletin has just release their latest version of this software, and it's fantastic! It has so many features that I've had to program manually and many more that I was planning on adding soon. So they've done all the work for us! Unfortunately it will mean that we may lose some unique features that I've added to the site, so I'd have to reprogram those. I'm also not sure if our "theme" will still work either. We are using a version that's a few years old so there are many things that will change. But the advantages of this software will be immediately apparent. Basically they've moved the software closer to Facebook or Myspace with enhanced profiles that you can modify yourselves (background, colors, fonts). There's a whole group system built in that let's our members start their own groups which ppl can join. So we'd need to dump our existing group system, which needed improvement anyway. For a complete list of features go here: http://www.vbulletin.com/go/37features I especially like the spam controls which you'll see are very advanced. That would make my life and the mods' much easier. I've held off on upgrading the forums all this time because I was staying ahead of their development by doing my own. But at last they've past what I've done, so it looks like it's a good time to upgrade... What we might do is put a new forum system on the MJGuide to test it out there first before implementing it here. Of course then we'd probably move the mj forums over to the MJguide, but we would try to keep the login the same. So what do you think? Should we go for it?
Progress marches onward, whether we want it to or not. I say go for it, if they've managed to outstrip the work you've been doing, Skip, then I see no point in doing work they've already done for us.
Go for it, the new version is alot easier to develop with as well. Just thought you would want to know.
Yes, so I've heard. But we use another piece of software for new development, the CMS program called Vbportal. That's allowed us to do a whole lot more, like the videos, groups, links, reviews, free school, etc. I've looked at the lastest version of vbportal that goes with the vB update and it too has some very useful new features, so that too will be upgraded so we can keep those unique programs I've created for the site. The things that will be most affected are the look and feel of the site, our pull down menu, and lots of little features I've programmed around the site that will disappear. Like the gallery interface that lets you place images in your posts. Like the guestbook (they have their own version). The vBulletin upgrade has its own gallery system, but we probably won't need that as vbportal's upgrade includes photopost integration (our gallery system). So perhaps we can integrate the galleries even better now, we'll see. So there is a LOT of uncertainty regarding what this upgrade will leave us with. I have no idea of what will work and what won't. Hopefully what no longer works will be something new in the new version, so I won't have to re-integrate those features. The worst part is that due to vBulletin's licensing system, it's nearly impossible to work out these kinks in advance on a test system. You pretty much have to jump in blind and keep your fingers crossed. If the whole setup doesn't work right away, I'll have to restore the old version and see if I can figure out the problems without a live system. Or is there an easier way I don't know about? I don't think so... One thing that bothers me a bit. VBulletin went and included a lot of features that third parties developed, possibly putting some of them out of business. That's not nice. That's the kind of shit Microsoft does. Like the gallery and guestbook applications. But if their version is better integrated with far more features, then perhaps it's worth it.
No way to know until it's installed and tested. Good news is vBulletin will let us install a second copy of their software for testing purposes. So it might be quite a while before the new version goes live for you to see. I'll try to make sure we don't lose too much before we go live.
The update sounds okay, I already like the forums but that info looks like it would be pretty nice to use. Will it mean a complete reset of the forums - including having to re-register? I recall a few years back having that be the case... just curious there, not that it matters really. Also, Im guessing it will have zero effect on the hipchat? anyhoo, thanks for the good work skip, we always dig the hip-forums!
No it won't be necessary to re-register. That was due to a switch in software. This is the same software, just an upgrade. It might affect the Hipchat, but that won't be hard to fix.
I say go for it Skip! I have grown somewhat bored of the same background patterns... that, groups and profiles are all I see that needs some tweaks.
Sounds very interesting, do you know of any other types of forums that are running this in production, so we can get a look and feel (even if we don't care about their topic!).
Xaos, obviously the vbulletin forum itself is running the latest version. The look and feel should be similar to their site, initially. I will try to keep our existing look and feel. Some of it should carry over via .css files, like the colors and colored bars. I hope they have nice new graphics for the buttons, if not, I'm sure I can put ours back in. I really want to keep this site looking unique and not an out-of-the-box clone like every other vb site. I haven't checked around, but this version has been in beta a long time, so it should be pretty stable. However everytime they mass release a new upgrade, there's always a quick patch or two required as new users find bugs. We're going to be doing the server upgrade first, which should happen by this weekend, if all goes well! There isn't even enough room on the existing server at the moment to perform the upgrade!
