vBulletin 4.0 Upgrade Coming This Week

Today I purchased a license to upgrade our current forum (vBulletin 3.8.x) to the upcoming release of vBulletin 4.0 Publishing Suite. vB 4.0 comes fully equipped with applications such as blogging, photo albums, groups, calendars, event management, and of course discussion forums.


Full Feature List Here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=features


Screenshots of vB4.0 Here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=screenshots


Functional Demo Here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/content.php


At present the current theme we use cannot be taken as-is into vBulletin 4.0. Fortunately the creators of the theme will eventually be upgrading it. In the mean time, we will use the default vB 4.0 theme as it is very nice, clear, and easy to navigate. Later on when the new 'old' theme is available, users will have the option to switch between styles.

We may also lose function of current forum features such as the movie and arcade section. I will work hard to try and revive them after the upgrade but I cannot promise anything. There will of course be a video section, but we may lose some old comments and ratings.

More news to come as we get closer to upgrading. The expected release date for vB 4.0 is Christmas week but there is always the potential for the date to be pushed back if bugs and errors are discovered in the beta and upcoming release candidates.


*edit* I forgot to mention one important detail: All current and past discussions/posts will remain in-tact.

Originally Posted by vBulletin Team

Dear Chris,

If you haven’t yet heard, the vBulletin team plans to release the vBulletin 4.0 Forums and vBulletin 4.0 Publishing Suite Gold Release on or before Monday, December 21, 2009.

Starting on the date of the Gold release, vBulletin 4.0 Forums and Publishing Suite will become officially supported products. This means that vBulletin 4.0 will be eligible for both ticket support and phone support.

As we work toward the Gold release, our goal is to get the best possible product into the hands of our customers. To do this, we’ve made huge investments in development resources and have been maintaining an extremely rigorous scrub schedule, identifying and fixing bugs at an unprecedented rate.

Since the release of the first vBulletin 4.0 public beta in mid-November, we’ve already released four additional public beta versions of vBulletin 4.0, including the latest release – vBulletin 4.0 Release Candidate 4 – last night. Additionally, we plan to provide an accelerated post-release maintenance schedule in January that will provide additional updates.

Please keep an eye on your e-mailbox over the next week for official word on the availability of vBulletin 4.0 Gold. We’re extremely excited about this huge milestone in vBulletin history, and thank you for your continued support along the way.

--The vBulletin Team

Looks like we'll be heading for an upgrade soon.

Sometime between now and next Monday I will be upgrading the forums to vBulletin 4.0 . Once the upgrade is complete, you will notice that the forum looks a little different, a little sexier, and a little easier to navigate.

Originally Posted by vBulletin Team

vBulletin Gold Release

The vBulletin team is very excited to announce the availability of vBulletin 4.0 Gold. The release includes vBulletin 4.0 Forums and the all-new vBulletin 4.0 Publishing Suite. As of today, these are officially supported products that are eligible for both ticket support and phone support.

What does Gold signify?
Gold signifies that this version of the software is stable, robust, and ready for production environments, when installation best practices are followed. See Wayne's article on upgrading:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/conte...-vBulletin-4-0

Gold signifies simple forward compatibility with future releases.

Gold signifies our commitment to provide support on the powerful new platform.

As is the case with all complex software, we strongly recommend following installation best practices when migrating/upgrading. We will also offer specific best practices for migrating big boards in the next few days.

How did we get to Gold status?
We have extensively tested the product and are confident that we have eliminated all known “show stopper” issues. During the last few months, we have released alpha versions, five beta versions, and four release candidate versions. Through this rigorous process, we have addressed issues that would interfere with normal site operations. Remaining open issues are essentially cosmetic in nature and will be addressed as deemed appropriate in subsequent releases—as is always the case with our releases. To learn more about how we got to Gold status, see this article by our CTO, Joe Rosenblum: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/conte...etting-to-Gold

Is our release approach different than the past?
Not really. Remember that the last major point release of vBulletin was five years ago—in 2004. It was a major change from vBulletin 2.0.

The releases during the last few years were relatively minor in comparison. This release “feels” different because it is a major update, delivering a much bigger upgrade in user features. Accordingly, there has been much more discussion about UI issues, ranging from functionality to cosmetics. As always, we continue to closely listen to feedback and will continue to make improvements.

When will future releases be available?
We expect to release 4.0.1 in the week of January 7th.
We expect to release 4.0.2 on January 21st.

We plan to keep a team dedicated to releasing packed maintenance releases according to the monthly schedule thereafter. And, of course, we are beginning to work on 4.1 and will be publishing more details soon.

Should I wait?
If you are deciding whether to upgrade to vB 4.0 now or wait for future releases, please read: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/conte...r-wait-article

PS: What else should I know?

You should know... we're pumped. After many months of late nights, we're psyched about delivering the product to you. And there is much more good stuff to come

Forgive me, it will be upgraded within the next week provided there are no more technical issues. I guess we're observing Valve time now, ha.