DrCustUmz

Administrator

Seen
Joined Jan 2024
Administrator Post
It's about time vB3 receives an update it deserves! From the useless outdated features, bloat, and broken bits. vB3 was once the greatest forum platform on the internet and for me, still is.

If you are still running vBulletin 3 series and have been wishing it had an update, well its coming, I just can't guarantee how soon as it is a slow process. I work full time, and have 4 children. Needless to say, development is not my top priority these days.

Some changes, some may not like, some will...

I personally feel vBulletin software should not strive to be a social network (dominating social platforms already exist). Therefor I have stripped out a lot of features that try to accomplish this, and have reverted vB3 to true forum software.

Features including:
Social Groups
Albums
Reputation
Promotions
Visitor Messaging

Have all been removed. This not only reduces the size of the software, but allows things to run faster and smoother. Resulting in less queries and page load times.

The social bookmark manager has also been removed. This was not only outdated, it was useless. Codes for social bookmarking make more since in the templates themselves, and should never need to be "managed".

The FAQ system has also been removed, this was mainly because how much space it used with outlining every feature of vB3, the use of it is very low, and I felt needs an update anyway. So a new system is planned.

I contemplated removing the calendar system as well, although I figured out a way it suited my needs as is, and have a few plans to try to implement before making the decision on that.

Oh and how can I forget! The first thing I removed was the outdated networking fields, which have been obsolete for nearly a decade!

Ok, so you removed a bunch of stuff... What have you added?

I went back to vanilla vB 3.8.11 before making any changes, therefor I had to re add some features I added in 3.8.14.

reCaptcha has been updated replacing it's obsolete counterpart, along with some new options.

Time zones are automatically detected and set.

11 Social networking platforms have been added.

Avatars are automatically fetched if user email is associated with a Gravatar.

News & version checks are pulled from here to keep you updated with any changes.

There is so much more in the works, although very time consuming. I don't want to give any spoilers, but know the end goal here is to bring vb3 to todays standards.

Time is something I don't have much of, working full time and raising a family, development is not my top priority these days. I don't have a timeline when this will be available, just know vb3 is NOT dead, and can still compete with the "best" forum software.