Too many versions!

What I do not understand is WHY they are releasing so many different versions.

The support staff will have a terrible time keeping track of which version did what, and the only way they will be able to handle that is to tell people to 'up grade' to a version they are currently supporting.

And of course that may not be possible depending on what modifications are being used.

Same goes for the vb.com forums. How to help someone, or get help, when there will be 20 versions of v4?

It makes no sense at all and, to me, it appears that is a 'time bomb' of confusion that will eventually render the software (almost) unusable.


What do you think? Am I misunderstanding the number of intended versions?

 

I think so...

There are only two versions of vB4, Classic Forum and the Suite.

You don't need to really know which a person is running to give them support, seeing as the Forum Portion is almost identical between the Suite and Forum products.

If a user needs support for vB4, then they post in the vB4 support forum. If they need it for vB3, then they post in those respective forums.

Or, they need to specify as such in the Support Ticket they opened.

If you are running a lower version than the latest one in your branch (4.0.1 for vB4, 3.8.4 PL 2 for vB3), then you will be instructed to upgrade if your issue is one that was fixed in the latest version.

vBulletin 3.7 and lower are EOL, and support is no longer provided for them, so of course you will be told to upgrade, that's pretty standard in Technical Support.

 

I was referring to versions of the 2 products, suite and forums.

4.0.0 gold worked one way
4.0.1 worked *differently* and broke skins and plugins
4.0.2 in 2-3 weeks ???
4.0.3 a few weeks later ???
4.0.4 a few weeks later ???

There is no assurance at this time that a newer version will be an "upgrade" at all. Newer versions could easily break many skins, products, and plugins.

I believe the term used to describe a product that has unpredictable future behavior is "unstable".

 

I didn't say any of that, I just stated the times they will tell you to upgrade.

 

The forum version is obviously only there for the old people with the old licence. That's why cms was cheaper than the forum version. It's going to be closed once vbulletin 5 comes out.

We all wanted vbulletin 4 come out fast. We got it. Now they are providing us with bug fixes every two weeks which is fantastic. I do like that.

IB told us to not do skin work until 4.1 as the 4.0 series styles are going to be changed more often.

 

I dont get what the issue is here, software (whatever it is) is always releasing updates. vb 3.0.x reached about 3.0.17. Im already on v4.0.10 on one of my vb4 modifications. How is it going to make vbulletin "unusable", I completely fail to see the logic in that.

 

Actually it seems like this leapfrogging they are seeming to do is whats confusing.

4.0 comes out, has some issues, as does any x.0 version of any software, two teams get to work, on on 4.0.1 the other on 4.0.2, not all fixes in 0.1 are in 0.2 and 0.1 team is now on 0.3. 0.2 comes out, fixes more stuff, breaks a few things, 0.2 team moves to 0.4 version.

So does one follow the even or odd updates?

They are really making this confusing.

 

That's why I'm sitting on the sidelines and simply avoiding the 'fixes' that are happening with vB4.x (pro beta )

Once the guys and gals get it right, I'm sure that they'll focus on making improvements to queries and making things simpler for styling, etc.

Maybe at that point we'll see folks (like me) move 'up' to the 4.0 or 5.0 software versions.