When Would You Upgrade/Convert Your Current Forum Software

There comes a time when the forum software version you use becomes EOL (end of life) and support & upgrades are no longer provided, so when this happens, would you think about upgrading to the next feature or major release or even completely convert to another forum software?

 

I tend to upgrade when the X.Y.1 version comes out, just so that they can fix a few things that come out when they go gold. That's unless things actually are very stable (ie. XenForo 1.0 or MyBB 1.6).

What I don't understand is the people who stick with, say, vBulletin 3.8.0 when seven bug fix releases are out. Now that's a stupid idea.

 

so you only update for bug fixes??? and not for any feature release cycles or major release cycles???

 

I do. It's just sometimes going from, say, 3.1 to 3.2, I wait until 3.2.1 comes out as sometimes, 3.2.0 might not be stable enough. I also am able to see the reception of how good the new version is. This way, I won't make the mistake upgrading to vBulletin 4 (especially in its infantry).

 

ahh I see now, that makes a lot of sense

 

I think I want to convert to MyBB but not my other staffs. I'm currently on phpBB. I already know the conversion will be success because I've done it 5 times from phpBB > MyBB.

 

Ya, that's why I upgraded to vBulletin 4. Because vBulletin 3.8.0 was finished.

 

That wasn't quite the point. What I meant was since right now, you have vBulletin 3.8.7 out, it's just ridiculously stupid to be using 3.8.0 specifically. Likewise, it's not wise at this point to use vBulletin 4.0.0 or XenForo 1.0.0 when maintenance releases have come out.

 

I typically upgrade on all releases unless they become an absolute disaster *cough* vB.

 

I have converted from MyBB to IPB and it was a nightmare. I went from 150+ google searches per day to a big fat 0! From now on unless a software goes out of business I am sticking to the software that I started with.

 

I always update instantly if they're minor bug fix releases, but tend to hold of on big updates (eg: vB3.8 -> vB4.0) for a while til lI see if I actually want to update at all. In the case of vB going to 4.0, I decided I wanted to update and did so, but then changed my mind after realising how poor the software was. That's when I switched to another forum software (MyBB).

 

Yea that was a bad move, I wouldn't swtich that fast.. next time you should probably ask people for advice or not convert if it something that's not really needed.

 

If there would be no new updates and support,I would convert my forum to another forum software immediately!