We have been using vBulletin as the host software almost since day one. After some shitty other testing we eventually moved to vbulletin software in 2003 somewhere? 2004 latest. And then this board, which started in 2007, has been using vbulletin since day one.
I always upgraded when necessary and of course always applied all security patches that may have come out. We're now using version 4.2.5 of the software, which was the last supported version in these series before the upgrade to the 5.x series.
A lot of folks complained at other places and even all over VB's pages in their community support forum. There were lots of various complaints and upgrading issues. So that's why we sit here on the 4.x series for like 4 years now after the 5 upgrade came out. But they stopped supporting the 4 series awhile back. So no more help from them and we've been managing without.
Now enters a few new issues. The version of software that vbulletin 4.x series, the PHP software version used, is being deprecated and will be history. The board apparently won't run on the newer versions. Then it turns into a "Ménage à trois", as the MYSQL version, suffice to say will also no longer be used.
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So this leaves us with a decision to make. The easiest would be to upgrade to the latest version of the vBulletin 5.x series. Seems the majority of complaints/issues have mostly been resolved via all the updates in the past few years. And then as far as any bloat or how it operates - I think it's more about what you do with the software, what portions you enable and utilize, setup the back end and make many many many changes and have it appear mostly like now and mostly operate like now. There would be a lot of new additions to take advantage of. And the appearance, when I say mostly like now, I mean theme wise that I would like similar appearance in military and honor, and maybe additions there too, and make it clear it's about political discussions as well. I'm willing to pay for whatever upgrade is necessary or any other software if that ends up being the choice.
So as far as vBulletin 5.x series. Some examples I can share.
This is vBulletin themselves, default install:
just another example I found:
probably a starter, bland appearance and minimal forums:
I just thought this one looked cool. None of the images tell us much more than various appearances:
the only one thus far I found in full size mode:
Some other software in the mix, of which I'll talk about if any interest, but we are certainly not limited by vBulletin. Quite a few other leading platforms, and many with importers to convert over the software/forum.
I think more are switching to Xenforo than are upgrading.
https://xenforo.com/community/
A few others that look good too. We can discuss and check them all out.
Simple Machines - https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php
MyBB - https://community.mybb.com/
PHPBB - https://www.phpbb.com/community/
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php
https://community.woltlab.com/