Who's excited for vb4 ??

is anyone testing it right now? how it is? I'm going to give my site a new overhaul once I install 4. only a few more weeks!

 

i applied for beta but have yet to hear anything honestly if they change the structure of the pay too much to where i cant afford it i may have to stick to 3.8 but from what i have seen on vb.com it looks awesome

 

I'm excited, but I can wait - I don't plan on upgrading immediately due to the tremendous amounts of effort that will be put into the conversion process.

 

I'm excited. I'll probably use it for the forum I'm working on now (not AA) right away.

 

so assuming vb4 is released sometime in july...when would be a good time to install?

 

No one is testing vBulletin 4 yet. The Alpha hasn't been released yet. About 50% of the new templates have been implemented and about 8% have been certified and marked as completed by developers. We won't ship until all templates have been certified. Some of the templates also require PHP coding to be implemented to work with the new style and to introduce elements that were'nt shown on the templates in the past in order to make them more user friendly. Could be as simple as adding in a new phrase cache for the page or as complex as writing new data retrieval routines. Hopefully this will be done in the next week or two for the most part and we can start working on the templates for the CMS, Blog and Project Tools which will ship to testers later.

Alpha testers are already chosen and should get their copies as soon as possible. Choosing beta testers will happen as soon as the Alpha is determined to be stable.

There will not be a general release in July. Simply not possible at this stage.

 

So it's not too late to apply for beta? Wayne, what do you think my chances would be considering the two semi-small forums I run?

 

Everyone should apply...

There is nothing in the application announcements that suggests otherwise. Yes, we are looking for people with high load forums and who own multiple licenses but everyone should apply. I can't guarantee you'll get picked but if you don't apply you never have a chance.

 

cool thanks wayne

 

Honest opinion? Not at all interested. The whole thing's been spoiled by the periphery shenanigans that's been going on (and still is). But even taking that out of the equation, the changes to the templates are just so enormous that for boards like mine, it is as monumental a change as migrating to different software...which if leased licences are really being scrapped, is exactly what I'm going to have to do anyway.

It's all a big sorry mess and a TOTAL betrayal of small board owners who have religiously and faithfully supported Jelsoft by renewing their licences year after year after year. To now be told the company is happy to lose us...indeed, WANTS to lose us....because we aren't profitable enough is a real kick in the teeth, and so no matter how good vB4 is, I can't pretend to be even remotely interested any more.

Continuing to use vBulletin (even 3.8) beyond February 2010 is going to cost me *significantly* more than the $85 I have paid previously, sites like mine simply cannot justify that sort of price rise...so it's goodbye!

 

I hear ya. but aren't renewal fees going to be gone with vb4 ? and its probably easier for smaller boards to upgrade then bigger ones? just a guess, I'm really not sure.

but I see where you are coming from. I'm on 3.7.0 and cant decide if I should go to 3.8.x and be done with it or wait until 4

 

I dont think "excited" would be the term id use, I dont get excited about any software, but I'll certainly be interested once we get to the alpha testing.

Who has told you that ?

Until any announcements are made, thats just speculation.

 

Not remotely excited, interested or otherwise. It's out when it's out. And, like paul, I don't get excited about software. I won't beg either to apply for beta testing (personally, this option should have been available to all customers). Maybe, they haven't this time because they think their 4.0 line won't go down well and will give away too much about the end release with the thinking that people will remain with the 3.8 line.


We'll see though. I don't plan on upgrading and if I want to see 4.0 that badly I know of plenty of beta testers. But at this time, I'm not remotely curious.

 

The "no more renewal fees" just refers to the renewal of download access every year for owned licence holders...but even this is tempered by the idea that your owned licence is no longer for life, just for the life of the major version. So if you have an owned licence for 3.8, when 4.0 comes out you'll have to buy another one.

There's a line in the "leak" along the lines of "our financial people have analysed this, and the amount we'll gain from increased fees outweighs the amount we'll lose from customers leaving".

Well, what's reasonably certain is that leased licences are being scrapped, so unless there will be a new equivalent owned licence for the same price as an existing lease, it's clear there'll be a big price jump. It's obvious I won't be able to continue using vB, and the blogs and Project Tools, by simply paying another $85 in February as normal. It's likely to be at least double that - and my site cannot afford that.

 

I wouldn't describe my feelings as "excited"; I'm interested to see what it will be like, a little apprehensive about the template thing, but no one's forcing us to upgrade.

 

Fair enough. I took the plunge and submitted an app a little while ago.

 

When the accounting department runs the company, something is wrong. That means that the company is more focused on the profit line and less on the quality of the product.

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I'am not really "excited" about vb4. There is too much drama and rumors going around that is spoiling the release.

Its about like a car warranty - for decades car and truck manufacture have offered some kind of 1 - 3 year warranty. Some are even offering a 10 year warranty. But all of a sudden, one car company says they are going to stop doing extended warranty work. All you have is 30 days. And after that there will be a charge for any warranty work.

Uh, NO!!! Any car company that offered that type of warranty - I would not buy that brand name. There are too many makes and models out there to have to deal with the BS from one company.

But we will have to wait and see. I will say this, its my money and I will spend it on a product that fits my needs. And I need a warranty, service and support.

 

Honestly, people are putting to much focus on the templates. You should not even be contemplating upgrading 3.8.X templates to 4.0. The tactic you should be taking is applying your customizations to the new code using the new syntax.

If you're a style designer, you'll probably just want to create all new styles for vBulletin 4.0. Yes, there will be a learning curve if all you have worked with is table-based layouts. Semantic HTML is a little less forgiving of syntax errors and improperly closed tags but its not completely different. Most will use the structures already developed in the existing CSS to style something.

HTML:

{vb:raw $stylevar.htmldoctype}
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="{vb:raw $stylevar.textdirection}" lang="{vb:raw $stylevar.languagecode}" id="vbulletin_html">
<head>

{vb:raw $headinclude}
<title>{vb:raw $pagetitle}</title>

</head>
<body>

{vb:raw $header}

{vb:raw $navbar}

<h1 class="pageheader">Page Title Here</h1>

<div class="block">
<h2 class="blockhead">Block Title Here</h2>
<div class="blockbody">
<h3 class="blocksubhead">Block Description">
<div class="blockrow">Content here</div>
</div>
</div>

{vb:raw $footer}

</body>
</html>

That is the basics of a template. You can do other things. Want a footer, then you can add that easily. Want right align buttons, then just add the class of action buttons and any <A> tag becomes a button. Have list information that use UL and OL lists as needed. Forms? Just add the form control.css and the class vbform to your FORM tag and add the elements as you need. vBulletin will style them appropriately. Change the entire look of all forms by editing a single CSS file.

Yes, I feel for anyone who tries to convert vBulletin 3 templates to vBulletin 4. Same thing happened when the style system was rewritten between vBulletin 2 and 3. However if you customize the default template you will find it much easier. Color changes including gradients just with CSS. Button color changes. Defining your own stylevars if needed without knowing PHP. Etc... There will be a learning curve but if you know XHTML and CSS it will be minimal.

 

I'm excited for it but afraid of the changes that may come with the price change. I mean they already did one price change, why do another so close to the last?

 

That's the problem right there: in many cases I rather like the design of my forum, and don't want a new design. But we'll see what happens. I'm hoping the new system will blow me away