Vbulletin 3.x to 4.x is not really surprising. (Vbulletin 2.x to 3.x was major deal)

Hello,
This is our own opinion after looking @ demo of vbulletin 4.0 Beta 1 on vb.com
This did not really suprised us, asto any new stuff implemented (anything new can be easily acheieved today via external code).

We were very much surprised with release of Vb 3.0, where we migrated and launched more then 9 forums in all powered by vbulletin.

Are they moving in wrong direction ?

Beta3 is out now, and it's starting to clean up. What do you think now? same thing?

tbh... yes, really. the markup (html) looks pretty nice, so thumbs up for the developers.
as for the rest, it's beginning to look more and more like vb3.x

also, I like the attachment manager, but this would currently be for me the only reason to make the switch.

to be honest, I was hoping they would hire some awesome graphics designer and used ie. the Jive platform or Wordpress as their inspiration, instead of vb3.x

I like the improvements, we can only hope for the best

I only just missed the 2.x-3.x release, but from playing around with the 2.x, 3.x wasn't exactly a quantum leap in terms of anything.

Really, I don't think the majority of forums would be overly happy with a complete design/functionality change.

Originally Posted by Brian Cummiskey

Beta3 is out now, and it's starting to clean up. What do you think now? same thing?

Brian,
It does really makes any sensible functionality improments overall.
A change in design/theme is definetly not a major requirement,this can be acheived on any version

Core improvements which will be helpful to existing customers like
search, load balancing, etc. are still a dream

Including useless functions (according to my personal view) like blogs, albums, etc. wont really help a community.
its just like copying the trend from market sites like myspace, facebook, etc.

My comments.

Originally Posted by Future

Hello,
This is our own opinion after looking @ demo of vbulletin 4.0 Beta 1 on vb.com
This did not really suprised us, asto any new stuff implemented (anything new can be easily acheieved today via external code).

We were very much surprised with release of Vb 3.0, where we migrated and launched more then 9 forums in all powered by vbulletin.

Are they moving in wrong direction ?

Originally Posted by Brian Cummiskey

Beta3 is out now, and it's starting to clean up. What do you think now? same thing?

I'm going to have to agree.

Prior to the public appearance of vB4, I was eagerly awaiting it, and expecting to see something that would just make me say, "wow, what an amazing product." I was also ready to make the upgrade, and fully willing to make a massive number of custom templates and custom plugins to complete the conversion.

Once vB.com switched over to vB4, however, I was greatly disappointed. The web 2.0 styling is more of a gimmick than a feature in my opinion, and it's ending up to be much uglier than expected. Other than that, nothing seems new. Even the phrases are recycled!

Obviously, vB was bought out, and their vision and priority shifted from the forum product to the 'suite', but that doesn't justify vB4 being this disappointing. I sincerely hope that I'm reaching this conclusion just because vB4 is still in Beta, but as things are looking right now, I won't be upgrading my board to vB4. Since I've always been a big fan of vB, though, I haven't lost hope-- yet.

IMO, vB3.8 and it's template and plugin system is more than a perfect forum solution when coupled with vB3. I'm even considering starting a new forum site for support & discussion of vB3 once 4 is out and 3 starts being ignored.

/endrant