Will upgrading to vBulletin 5 Kill your traffic??

LOL. I've been administrating vBulletin forums since 2000.
I'm working on several vBulletin 5 forums right now.
I haven't recommended it to anyone.
I'm not even sure what is being argued here.
The thread topic answer depends on something because people have answered the question both ways.
I'm simply trying to narrow down what it depends on.
Since everyone is apparently convinced vB5 is just garbage and nothing about it is right there's no sense in continuing the conversation. At least no sense in my continuing it.

 

Anytime your url structure changes, if you are not re-directing properly, you will lose traffic from search and other static links, however I can't see any Admin in their right mind not ensuring links are re-directing properly. Something doesn't add up on that traffic chart, without knowing the source of the traffic before the upgrade, it's hard to tell.
The owner of that site should be able to pull that data however to paint a clear picture and cause for the drop off.

 

Thing is, you might not like people banging on about vBulletin 5 negatively. But when you see things like this still their in it. I mean.. come on.. it borders on amateurism seeing stuff like that. What going on with that drop-drown box, and why does there appear to a rough curly bracket? This is on the registration page viewed with latest version of FF. Also, why the hell are they still using that old vB3 Captcha method - which was cracked by bots 5 years ago - in vB5?

 

of what relevance to this thread, or you, is the image verification used on vb.com ?

 

To stay on topic, how is it possible to lose traffic do to a software upgrade, if your still indexed and redirecting as it should, and the server is as fast as it was before the upgrade, I don't see why you would lose any traffic, but what digitalpoint said, to me that makes the most sense.

 

He says traffic is getting back to normal again now on vBulletin.com in that thread you linked to. But strange the site should take such a massive drop in traffic, because read vB5 has routes already built-in to point URL to right place after upgrading. So shouldn't have lost traffic due to broken URL paths.

 

No matter what you do , when you change existing URL structure your rankings will get hit and you'll loose traffic for some time.

 

vbulletin.com is proof enough that vBulletin 5 kills traffic, it's become a ghost town. Finding and reading new content there is a horrible experience and it's been like that for nearly a year. It defies belief that anyone would allow their site to remain in such a sorry state for so long especially when it's effectively a showcase for the product they want to sell.

Does SEO really matter when the software is so poor that virtually no one wants to use it?

 

You know vb.com was upgrade in February right ? Thats five months ago.

 

You are probably right, it just seems like it's been that way forever, that's how bad it is. However the forums ran slowly long before they were upgraded to vBulletin 5. There's something fundamentally wrong with the infrastructure there.

 

Correct. I read people often complain in past that they change forum software and lose traffic, blame on the forum software they bought only installed for a few days. What do they expect, it's going to happen?

 

If you installed an early version, probably.

With recent versions, depends on what you were using as URLs previously.

But that's the least of your problems, really. Whether or not it kills your traffic, it will almost certainly:

• piss off your forum members enough to lose many of them to your competitor(s)
• be slower, lacking in features, and more confusing than vB4
• suck your will to live
• make you wish you were running other software

If you doubt any of the above, have you actually visited and tried to find information on vbulletin.com lately?

 

Oh come on now. There is ALWAYS room for a pothead and a lawyer.

 

ROTFLMAO

 

Disclaimer by Paul M on vb.com.

It speaks volumes.

 

They only thing this post shows is what a total and complete waste of space you are.
What the [****][****][****][****] has my signature on vb.com got to do with this thread, or anything posted in it, by anyone.

 

I don't see your point here?
He works for a company, does that mean he can't have his own opinion?

 

Paul's signature is pretty much self-explanatory.

Big Al's comment makes no sense and is nothing more than a gratuitous slur.

 

Of course not, he is allowed to post his opinion, it is HIM that is deleting others posts and denying them the same opportunity to voice their opinions. (Yes even I am allowed to voice my opinion)

The point is that as an employee in a quite senior position, he is distancing himself from speaking on behalf of the company. Purely my opinion, but this indicates a lack of confidence in the actions of his employer when he declines to represent them on the forum.

Up until now in many ways, he has backed them up, and if memory serves me right even supported the propaganda that VB put out about VB5 being so good, now it seems he is not prepared to speak as an employee, but only as an individual.

This is how I see his disclaimer. Why not ask him to explain why he does this!

 

I think THIS is a gratuitous slur. and some of the other unfounded comments he has made. As has been voiced, I too am entitled to post my opinion.

If posting what I see as the facts, show him up, then this is only as a result of his actions.
It is not I that is misleading members and customers on VB.org and VB.com and it is not I that is stifling valid comments from said members. And it was not I that posted derogatory comments about members after deleting their posts knowing they cannot reply, as they would then be banned.