vBulletin 4 - Preparing your forum for it.

On the major forum updates, I usually wait until the main modifications that I have installed have been updated. That means it will probably be a month or 2 before I update.

But - there are rumors going around that VB4 will not be free to current license holders. That even if your license is current, it will not apply to VB4. Some of the rumors say that jelsoft will be ending the yearly subscription fee and will start charging on a pre incident basis with only a 30 day support period. If the rumors are true, then I "might" buy one VB4 license and convert my other 2 VB forums to Invision Power Board - or something else.

So before I say whether I am going to upgrade or not, I need to see the new license and support information.

 

Rumors are just that, rumors. They are based on stolen material that wasn't ready for publication. If we had concrete and factual information available as well as any pricing changes in place than we would have made announcements.

Even with that, say the rumors are true...

If a suite product is released, it comes with free support for the life of the major version and includes all "addons" for less than would pay for them sold separately even today. vBulletin Owned License is $180.00. Plus $120.00 for the two addons and $40.00 every year for upgrades. Say vBulletin the vBulletin 4.X series lasts 3 years and gets to vBulletin 4.5. The total cost under the current scheme would be a minimum of $420.00. If the leaked prices are true then it would be $285.00. A savings of almost $120.00 and you get access to the CMS.

Or you buy the Forums Only... Okay. $195 + $80 for a year of support for a total price of $275 for the first year. Might as well buy the suite for $10.00 more. Or if you don't need the ticket support (remember the rumor says forum support is still free) or addons than you pay $195.00 for three years of the use of the software. Which today would be $300. So you would save over $100.00 over the life of the license.

Now, I am not confirming or denying that any rumor is true. It is just a rumor. However you have to look at everything in a complete picture, not a sentence here or a sentence there. Most of the rumors are people getting so upset over the nickle and dime that they forget to see the big picture. If the rumors are true than over time, both licenses will save the average vBulletin owner money.

 

As Wayne Luke says below, rumors are simply rumors and should not be taken as a solid basis for making any sort of decisions.

Before it becomes too late, I'd just like to ask that extensive discussion and speculation of these rumors remains on the vBulletin support forum in the Licensed Customer Feedback area where questions can be properly addressed and answered. Continuous speculation won't get us anywhere anyways.

Wayne, honestly I wouldn't have ever took the few minutes needed to figure out what kind of impact the price-changes would make in the long run. So I thank you for posting this as it clearly demonstrates that money can be saved with the projected price changes.

One quick comment though is that the people who only want one add-on (i.e just the Blog) will be spending more money with the new system than they would with the old (If I'm not mistaken).

 

Owned License + Blog is $240.00. Add in 2 years of upgrades at $40.00/year and you're at $320.00 for a 3 year period.

My numbers above in my first hypothetical post are incorrect though as currently a three year period would be 2 renewals and not 3 as I calculated. Even so, I think the hypothetical bears out in the long run. You would have to remove $40.00 from the totals to correct them.

The hypothetical also doesn't account for late renewals or any possible future products being included. The hypothetical is also from a new customer experience but the rumor never even mentioned the cost of existing customers to upgrade. It could be free. It could be $100.00. It could depend on your current investment level. Probably why an official announcement hasn't been made yet.

 

Which is exactly why unproductive speculation is discouraged.

 

I am very jazzed by the good things I'm hearing about vb 4. It is not easy to take such a giant forward step from a platform that's been around for a long time. And a stable platform at that, imo. I really respect the decision and the awesome amount of work that is going into it.

A big question I have that would help me thinking forward -
It drives me nuts that vB currently captures new registrant age but doesn't offer promotions, filters or queries based on age. If one moderates new members it even dumps them in the same queue with COPPA members - and nothing distinguishes which is which on the display. :doh: :idiot: Age-based member management tools are fundamental, critical, basic ... trying to think of more words ...

Will the very first shiny new feature be aged-based member management tools and queries? :yes: I'm excited about the other cool new fizzy wizbangs, but I'd upgrade for that alone.

 

I'm looking forward to 4.0 but it's reserved excitement due to the upcoming licensing changes and lack of a public beta. I'd really like to play with 4.0 on a test board to learn the ins and outs before going live. I don't think I'll bother upgrading until all my mods are updated to support 4.0. There's only 3 or 4 (Post Thanks, Arcade, Display Unread Posts & Rep, and finally WebTemplates) major ones that I must have the rest we'll see what happens with.

One of the things I don't like about this 'private beta' is that who's to say Jelsoft just doesn't invite devs that have free products competing with vB's current or future add-ons suite. That's the problem with closed doors.. it makes people wonder why the door is closed and what's going on behind it.
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As for the pricing changes I'll wait and reserve judgment until we get an official announcement.

 

I just don't see why they would have a closed beta.

What was wrong with the old way? They got hundreds upon hundreds of bug reports (good thing) and people got to prep their boards up for once it went gold.

 

I definitely will be spending a lot of playtime with vB4 before going anywhere near live. If the upgrade for current license-holders isn't gratis I will be spending a lot of time with the Admin Demo. I'm hoping they update it immediately with the release of a Gold version of 4.0

 

This is something that does have me wondering.

The public beta was a very good way to release the Gold version, well, Gold. And give designers and coders a chance to rewrite their work before it became the official vB release.

 

18 month beta periods are very difficult to manage. That is how long vBulletin 3 was in beta.

 

Most won't though. Each iteration in a beta can break their addons and designs so they wait until a final release.

 

3.0 was in beta for 18 months!?! Holy hell, I'm glad I didn't come along til 3.4 something-or-another.

 

What is coming out in Q2? The private beta? Or the first public gold version? Or the first public beta?

 

Good point - something I didn't even consider.

Well, from the leaked photos, it doesn't seem like we will even seen vB 4 until July 15, which is when the Gold version is supposed to release.

Wayne, I hope you don't mind me saying that here. :p

 

leaked photos eh....?


How do I not know about these ?__?

 

I've been looking at those on a daily basis... waiting for vB 4.

 

I don't understand where all of you find this stuff.

Do you idle some sort of IRC channel or something? lol..

 

I've gathered most of the information from this very thread.

 

Apparently someone at vBulletin.com accidently allowed members to view their staff-only forum for about 30 minutes. During this time, the dirty work was done. We haven't posted it here yet, so we will continue not to, but I will provide you with a link to where you can see all of this.

vBulletinSetup has had no problem hosting them for anyone to view, so here they are: vBulletin 4.0 is going to cost even more? (vBulletin Leaked).