OcUK Forums - Upgrade imminent! :p

[Van Hellseek]

As we move towards a new generation of vBulletin, it is necessary to re-evaluate the forum structure on this site. Over the years with numerous version releases, it has become quite complex and entangled with multiple archives and forums for version support. In order to facilitate a smooth transition and to assure we provide the best support for active versions of the software, I am closing all support forums for vBulletin 3.7 and earlier to new posts. We will maintain these forums indefinitely as archives of information. All of these versions are end of life and no longer supported with bug fixes or security patches. The multiple forums for these legacy versions and products are being consolidated into a single forum per version/product as well.

If you are still running one of these old versions and need support upgrading to a new supported version, please post in the forum for the vBulletin version that you plan to use.

The vBulletin 3.8 forums will remain active for use for the foreseeable future for support purposes. However please note that vBulletin 3.8 is considered end of life. This means that it will not have further bug-fix release or new functionality added and may not have any future security patches. We will evaluate security issues if they are received.

So, looks like OcUK have a choice...

A) Stay on the 3.x series which could be a security risk, as no more fixes are being released (particularly for 3.7, which is the current OcUK version iirc).

B) Upgrade to 4.x

C) Upgrade to the soon to be released 5.x

D) Switch to a different forum software (Invision/Xenforo most likely).

And since 'A' seems foolish (and 'D' seems unlikely), it looks like this place could finally be getting dragged up to date.

 

[Van Hellseek]

Go 5.x. That's my vote.

5 does look very good, but I doubt a big forum like this will trust the stability of the early versions of 5.x

4.2.x(+) may be more sensible, as it's out of it's 'teething phase'.

 

[Van Hellseek]

I may be in the minority but I like the way it is now, simple , quick and easy to consume

Yeah, except remember that whole issue of getting hacked before? Could be that all over again if security patches are no longer released... It's beyond stupid for a large forum to remain on an unsupported version of the software.

 

[Van Hellseek]

Yeah, that did cross my mind and it is indeed sensible. But on the basis that vB is paid software, it's not like a *.0 release of something like phpBB so you're likely to get a decent piece of software with a fair amount of kinks worked out.

Well you'd think... But the early versions of 4.x were broken (the stylevars didn't work, amongst other things).

Version 4 has a blog system. Would be useful for product reviews I guess.

So has 3.7... It just isn't enabled on OcUK.

why change?

what benefits would it bring?!

Well you havnt read the OP... Staying on 3.x could be a future security risk.

 

[Van Hellseek]

Guessing the biggest issue for OcUK and the part that must require the most work is making the trust system work correctly in a new version of the forums? I could be wrong but certainly seems like a lot of work to me.

Isn't the trust system just a slightly customised "iTrader"?

 

[Van Hellseek]

I go with earlier suggestions - support for mobile browsing. It is very hard to use on a mobile phone as it is now.

4.2 onwards come with a mobile theme by default.

 

[Van Hellseek]

I'm not sure (and no one has volunteered a reason) why the forums "need" upgrading, tbh.

Security?

 

[Van Hellseek]

They are also bloated and offer almost nothing over version 3.

Things are easy enough to disable via the adminCP if desired.

 

[Van Hellseek]

So upgrade and disable things, yes?

Yes (if desired). The point of upgrading isn't primarily for new stuff, it's for security and performance reasons.

 

[Van Hellseek]

Well the performance of vB4 is not as good as vB3.

And that statement is based on?

 

[Van Hellseek]

There is a certain attraction in a new nuke.

Well it would certainly solve this problem...
http://tos-dr.info/

(scroll to vBulletin)

 

[Van Hellseek]

Does this not look gorgeous or what. Friendly, Sleek & Delicious.

This looks sexier tbh

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150877652752843.412779.153782527842&type=1

 

[Van Hellseek]

OP

Dont ask, just do, your forum, your choice.

(I would upgrade to 4.2 for now)

I'm not asking you clearly didn't read the OP very well.

 

[Van Hellseek]

There's not going to be YouTube buttons.
There's not going to be a mobile theme.

It's just a matter of time. All you're doing is delaying the inevitable.

Once upon a time you staff said the same thing about the quick reply box....

(and the spoiler tags + youtube embedding)

 

[Van Hellseek]

I don't care about tapatalk, but a mobile theme would rock my world. Why is this such a bad thing?

A mobile theme is now included by default in modern versions of vB. And so is forumrunner support (a tapatalk alternative).

 

[Van Hellseek]

One thing that would be nice would be if OCUK decided to use an ENGLISH spell checker on the forum.......I am not changing the correct spelling of a word to one that has been messed up by the colonials over the pond. American English.......wrong. There is just English [rant over]

Enable the spellchecker in firefox, and install the British English dictionary?

 

[Van Hellseek]

No real need or rush to change, wait until 5 comes out and see how that goes for 6 months or so and when the main bugs are ironed out upgrade it.

Jumping from 3.x to 5.x would be more than most people around here could mentally cope with it would seem.

 

[Van Hellseek]

We still have a 20kb sig limit in 2012 with people having 100mb broadband sigh.

Many people on 3G mobile broadband would disagree.

 

[Van Hellseek]

TBh, the issue of sig allowances and other blah features is irrelevant to the main issue - which is that the current version of vB OcUK is using is no longer supported. So the only issue is upgrading for security reasons.

Such an upgrade would not necessarily affect things like avatars/sigs/appearence/features (etc) in the slightest. The forum could be 'almost' identical on the newer versions, just with the added security.

 

[Van Hellseek]

I would have thought that a newer version would be able to import the database from an older version.

Of course it can.

A nuke would be OcUK's decision, and nothing to do with database compatibility.