TECH6.0

First of all I am not sure if I like it even a bit. I don't find it professional at all, its more of a cartoon seriously. I am talking about their new logo.


I have been silently reading the recent posts at vbulletin.com sales forum and it looks like people are going crazy over the new licensing structure and price hike. I don't own a license yet, but was about to.

I'd like to know your views over this. Do you think the new pricing structure is reasonable at all? If you ask me, then I am not very happy.

I loved new vB look and layout! Thats why I am purchasing new vB license from your Admin ( He has extra ) Eagerly waiting for vB 4

The super-V graphic signifies how powerful vBulletin community software is. There's nothing wrong with it, IMO. I think it fits well.

TBH, I am okay with the pricing but I guess thats because the new structure did not affected ME much (I just got lucky).

So scenario is like this, correct me if I'm wrong somewhere.

Upgrades to Suite:-

Active license Upgrade:

• Case 1: 130USD (while discount is going on) IMO is just fine. It includes all 4.x updates. And I am sure vb4 is going to last atleast 2 years. And we'll even get the Blog and CMS.
• Case 2: After discount period i.e. after 30th October, 250USD upgrade price is horrible.

Non-Active license Upgrade:

• Case 1: For licenses that expired in the last 12 months, an extra $45 discount for advance ordering, in addition to the publicly available pre-sale savings of $50. This means the all new vB 4.0 Publishing Suite will cost you only $190, a total savings of $95. They did warn you to keep your licenses active but oh well, atleast they are giving some discount on so much request.
• Case 2: For licenses that expired more than 12 month ago, an extra $25 discount for advance ordering, in addition to the publicly available pre-sale savings of $50. This means the all new vB 4.0 Publishing Suite will cost you only $210, a total savings of $75. hmm just what I think for Case 1.

New Suite license:-

• Case 1: 235USD (while discount is going on) is fine considering the fact that there is no other fee for atleast 2 years. Also you get the all new CMS, Blog and Forums for whole 4.x branch. But I do think its a lot of money to give AT ONCE.
• Case 2: After discount period i.e. after 30th October, 285USD. Dunno what to say lol.

Forums Only license:-

• Case 1: Free Upgrade to vBulletin 4 Forum as long as your license is active. You'll have to upgrade to the new license for 175USD (20$ discount) to continue with 4.x updates.
• Case 2: 195USD for a new license. Its just a 15$ increase which is perfectly fine. It also includes all updates in 4.x branch.

Reasons for Choas:-

Not price increase, as most people say.

• People who bought Blog and Project Tools each for 60USD are totally pissed off. I see nothing has been done about them.
• No release dates, short discount period, no roadmap, no vb4 demos, product is not even BETA yet ughh. People are required to pay for something they don't know anything about.
• People whose licenses expired few days back are pissed off.
• People who have leased licenses are pissed off.
• People who bought new licenses few days back are pissed off as they have to pay more now.

All are valid concerns really. I wonder how any company could fail to foresee these points.

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Exactly

Exactly what lol.

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Thanks for the detailed reply man! It clears most of my doubts.

I don't own any license yet. What do you recommend? Should I go for Forums only or the Publishing Suite? I mean there is a price difference of 90$ between Forums and the Suite, so is it really worth it? What one requires is basically the forum software after all.

If you are going to buy before 30th October, then you can get the suite at discounted price of 235$. So considering its now just 40$ difference, then buying Suite sounds a fair deal to me.

If Forums only are important to you, you can turn off the CMS and Blogs completely. But I bet you'd use them.

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hmm ok. I guess I'll have to rethink. 235$ to give at once for something I haven't even seen is not really comfortable to me. Or better I go with any free forum software as I am just a hobbyist anyway. Do you suggest any?

It was pretty shaddy all around for how they did it.

No public demo available, no word from alpha testers allowed, it was just poorly thought out all around.

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Hey everyone! I'm David McHenry and I run a Nintendo Wii Forums

That's the first I've seen of the new logo, but who cares?

A logo projects the image of the company. It does matter, and people do care.

It fits well to the image I don't feel they've promoted well. It fits well, don't get me wrong, vBulletin is a very powerful system which can go beyond just a forum, however I am left to question such a large (vertically) image?
I agree with the Cartoonistic features of it, I think that degrades the image just a little but if used in context it could do alright.

I, for one, am not impressed by their current pricing. I understand that its a commercial piece of software, but I had no idea what the vb4 looked like, where-as IPB3s style was everywhere. I just don't think VB is justifiable at that price, they've set their product placement wrong by the price imo, but then again I can kinda understand it.

It's just unfair for the smaller groups who use it for it's features or ease-of-use...

PHPBB is quite powerful, however editing the software can take it out of you. IPB is well established, it's not free but it's really powerful and better than vBulletin in some aspects.
If you're not a fan of phpBB or IPB, than you can search up myBB which I was close to actively supporting and developing for, before I went off my little "help open source people" kick and just went back to tinkering with my own code.
punBB is great if you're looking to code your own forum and want something as a base, it's code can allow for some good customizations but it appears as though it's not longer actively supported.

opensourcecms.com has some great ideas, but a lot are kinda shit.. Good for demos

Thanks for your helpful post eL3. repped

I think I would go with MyBB.

I personally would go with phpBB. I think it would be best to install and test both then see which one suits your needs best.

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vBulletin.com Forums are upgraded to vb 4.0 Beta 1. Looks like its getting hit hard with traffic.

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I still can't decide between phpbb and mybb. I'll have to do more research.

And vb4 is looking okay to me. Nothing special, atleast not with that kind of price tag.

What you're paying for is security, stability and access to one of the largest modifications and best themes databases available.

Install MyBB and install phpBB, both are available through Fantastico. If you need hosting temporarily, send me a PM and I'll see what I can cook up, but yeah, I really like MyBB because it's always felt like a vBulletin alternative, however it feels a little childish to me. phpBB is a wonderful system pre phpBB3, however even then I've never really liked it. Prosilver just destroyed my interest in the system.

Edit: looking at the vbulletin homepage, a very nice move in terms of website desig, however the current layout of the forums is VERY disappointing. A few are buggered, and it's not as lightweight as I'd have liked. The postbit is unorganized and looks ripped from IPB. Member profiles aren't too bad I guess.. still not worth my money. I'm actually very happy sticking to 3.8.

Thanks again el3. Hosting is not a problem for me but thanks a lot for the offer, I appreciate it.

Totally agreed with what you said about vbulletin's homepage. The forum homes is HEAVY, it seems like it has become quite processor intensive with that loads of PHP. It has even started lagging while scrolling up or down. Sheesh

I am glad I didn't bought this 250$ script yet, I would have screwed myself if I did. But again, lets see how gold version comes out to be.

I was using MyBB few months back. I lost all MyBB interest when my MyBB 1.4.6 was hacked. lol - http://community.mybboard.net/thread-52215.html.

Pros -

1) Installing MODs - Very easy task.
2) Features - Like vBulletin.

Cons -

1) Freeware.
2) Nowadays many developers are releasing MODs for their subscribers only.

hey admin webwizzy,

i don't know if this is an obvious question, but i'll ask it anyway.

Are you 101% sure that you'll use vbulletin 4.0 for your forums, tech6.com and indiatalks.in??