The 'Who's Actually Using vBulletin 5' list!

vBulletin 4 might be a decent vBulletin version, better than vB5 even. But there is a problem you miss, XenForo is marching on adding feature after feature with each new release - while vB4 is getting nothing done to it now and is effectively pretty much EOL. Because IB are mainly only interested in selling vB5 to the masses now, and it will be more so the case now they offer hosting running vB5 as well.

 

And this is the reason people left in their droves ... Because it was "Great"

 

So the amount of sites running each new version has gone down massively with every new release.

And the number of mods for each version of vB is falling ever more of a cliff.

Yes, that's really success.

 

No it means I'm not here to discuss whether vBulletin is/isn't any good. I have zero interest in changing anyone's opinions.

I came to post details of the site I helped out. Which I've done. Nothing more to add unless anyone asks any questions about it.

 

Good that you helped somebody out for a change, although don't get why you feel the need to keep telling us about it all the time? You after a pat on the back or something?

 

x.100

 

Hmmm...maybe it is in the name Joe, that stops you from seeing the big picture everyone else is seeing? I say that because the other Joe in your company sees things similarly and just as strangely poor.

Yes, vB4 gained back a lot of the market. Yes, they are fairly strong numbers, but this market recapture took way too long to happen. The amount of market share vB4 should have recaptured should have been a whole lot more and it should have been the stepping stone to a fantastic vB5. NONE of that happened! Contrarily, IB lost a whole load of trust.

So to say vB4 was a market leader and is successful product because of that one single fact is like saying you've been swimming out in the ocean alone, you are tired and getting cramps, but damn, your can keep your nose just above the water to breath. You are successful at staying alive, but not living! Just great.

Keep on sniffing that salt air Joe (aimed at the other Joe too), while the online community market is sailing away at full speed from you.

Scott

 

vBS stated around the release of vbulletin 4 that there were over 100k vbulletin licenses but a year later that number was down to 70k. While that's still a massive number and good for the title market leader it's also a huge drop of 30% and it is certainly no rise to market leader as Joe describes it. Vbulletin 4 it's crappy state and the lousy way customers were treated has affected vbulletin it's reputation on the net.

 

Another good metric to judge a software's popularity is a healthy 3rd party ecosystem. I'd hazard a guess the vB ecosystem is practically nonexistant compared to the 3.x days. How many active commercial theme developers are there for versions 4 and 5 these days?

 

Yes, I agree. The third party developer scene depicts a platform's success (or failure). vB's 3rd party dev scene has sadly dropped to almost non-existence.

For a product that is just starting, this is a hard core chicken and egg scenario though. Theoretically, you'd need some popularity to also gather enough dev interest. But you also need dev interest to gather popularity too, especially for a platform.

vB had tons of popularity. So why did the third party devs lose interest?

Nope, not going to do it. I am not going to post the head in but picture again....LOL!

Scott

 

I'll do it for you then because it is soon to be or already is the new logo for vB/IB

 

Well, if you use a little imagination, you can definitely see it being a vB logo:

 

When I posted that I was trying to find the "vBulletin gold release" which vBulletin 5 has never been released as gold so that's why I found the vb4 release.
To bad it took almost 2 years for the vBulletin 4 release to even be considered a finished product. Is that what everyone should expect with vBulletin 5, 2 years from it's "release" for it to be considered a finished product? It certainly isn't in its present state, that's for sure..lol

 

Can vB 4 be considered a finished product? From what I've read over the years vB 4 had so many issues that needed fixing they thought their time would be better served to drop the ball and work on their next greatest screw up vB 5.
I mean even today many consider it EOL and it is still not really finished.

 

30,000 is a MASSIVE loss of customers. It says it all.

The fortunes of VB can still be turned around but it would involve them ADMITTING they made mistakes.
So it will probably never happen. And so VBTitanic continues to sink.

 

I think this tells the whole story...

vB 4 modifications at vb.org. The mod with the most installs is ibproarcade with 8433 installs.

vB 5 modifications at vb.org. The mod with the most installs is vbshout (released 10/2012) with 89 installs.

90% less, give or take.....

 

vB4, the forum part, is a very usable bit of software. The CMS is, well, I won't go there.

It will be interesting to see, what the new vB5 "CMS" uh, no, um...."Article System", uh, no actually "CMS", uh, hmm..... whatever you want to call it.......will look like from a quality perspective. I mean they can't even standardize the name.

The release will be very interesting and will certainly be fuel for more discussion and it will certainly either be the final straw to break the camels back or the version that could be the Phoenix from the ashes. I bet we'll see soon enough.

Scott