vBulletin 4.0!

[Morgalis]

Well folks, the emergence of vBulleting 4.0 is rapidly coming upon us. Current status is Alpha3, release date "in the future" just like the D2 1.13 patch

What does this mean and what can you expect?

vBulletin has gone through some tremendous growth since we bought our license back in the Diabloworld days! 4.0 is a far advanced evolution of the software, moving it from Forums with hacks added in to a fully managed content management system with all of the favorite and requested hacks already included. That = less time for Admins trying to tweak the site which = more time for Admins to fiddle with the new stuff!

vBulletin is coming out in two releases. First is just the forums, with limited support and the second is the vBulletin Suite which contains a Content Management System, lots of Widgets and the vBulletin Blog system which is just excellent in my opinion. vBulleting 4.0 offers the users a better experience, offers more tools, toys and enjoyment. It also introduces a vibrant social networking feel that they have been working on to compete with Facebook, MySpace, Nexopia and such.

In the end, 4.0 is going to change the way that forums look, feel, and behave! Annnnd all this for just a short price of... $grumble.

Here are some new features of 4.0 Suite

Built-in Applications

• Discussion / Forum
• Photo Albums
• Groups
• Calendar
• Events Management
• Polls
• Blog
• Article-based CMS Publishing

Posts

• Video Embedding (YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu, Dailymotion, Google, Metacafe) - New in 4.0
• Supports HTML in post
• Preview-safe Attachments

Member Features

• Member Profile Pages (updated in 4.0). This information can be viewed by other members from the member list. Custom user title, URL home page, date of birth, instant messaging medium, location, occupation, biography, interests, vB version, plus any other custom user fields that may be defined by the administrator
• Allows members to upload pictures that can be viewed in the users' profile.
• Pop-up auto-refreshing buddylist with ICQ-style alerts when Friends come online

And the excellent Blog Features!

Fast Start
vBulletin Blog makes it simple for community members to create their own space within the community. Getting started is as simple as posting the first message (using the same familiar vBulletin editor). There is no lengthy setup process - blog owners are free to personalise their blog at any time by defining a title and a description that will appear at the top of every blog post.

Fully Featured
It is a feature-rich blog application, with support for fully formatted WYSIWYG posts, attachments, comments, trackbacks and pingbacks, draft posts and categories, as well as seamless integration with the overall vBulletin system.

Blog Home Page
Available via a single click from any vBulletin page, the blog home page aggregates activity from all member blogs into a single page – with information about the most recent and highest rated blog posts, recent comments, a featured blog post (selected by the administrator or at random), full support for browsing posts by date and overall blogging statistics.

Syndication and Subscriptions
Site wide and per-blog RSS feeds allow syndication to external readers, and full support for vBulletin subscriptions enables users to join their favorite blogs and receive regular email updates.

Profile Support
Member blogs are integrated with the vBulletin profile system – profile information is displayed alongside blog posts, and existing profile pages are enhanced with information about blog activity.

Blog Control Panel
The Blog Control Panel empowers members to control every aspect of their blogs, from permission controls (who has access to view and comment on the blog), to full management of blog categories, draft posts, trackbacks/pingbacks and subscriptions. Blog owners also have the ability to moderate comments on their own blog.

Fully Customizable
Blog utilises the powerful vBulletin templating system, and will automatically inherit styles and color-schemes from the forums, for total out-the-box integration.

Anti-Spam
Full support for the Akismet anti-spam service stamps out comment spam.


Here are some screenshots of what you can expect. Please note that these show the default template and we'll be upgrading to our own.

The CMS - content management system


New Forum Home Structure


New thread display in Forum


Check out the new Member Profile pages!



I'll keep you posted as we go along. I might switch over to Beta testing, we're a small board no too much traffic.

Oh.. and we'll redo smilies, so any smilie you would like to suggest to put up, attach them to this post.

- Morg

[o0Hubba0o]

Sooo, what are your plans for this, you going to update the site? Probably going to be lots of bug with plug-ins, so lots of updating them lol. I did download it today, one of my licenses is still valid until Feb, so I snagged while I could until I decide what type of site I want to make permanent.

[Morgalis]

I am waiting for Transverse Styles to have a theme for 4.0. They said that in the Gold release that there were still issues with the templates so he was not releasing a version so far. I'd rather make the switch with the style I am used to so that I am not converting all the templates. I'm keeping an eye on the site news, hopefully something soon!!

I can make a separate install on a private subdomain to test, we could fiddle with it and you can see what you like and what you don't.

[o0Hubba0o]

I took graphics anonymous and removed all my add ons and mods and uploaded the 4.0.2 software, though license expired so i won't be able to do any upgrades from there. The skin is default, the only thing is I went and deleted all users with 0 posts. I remember you saying you made an account once...i think lol...but if you didn't post it's gone now.

If you want to check it out, make an account if yours is gone and I'll make you admin if you like, or just check out the member side of it. I haven't had time to do much myself there, I read some threads on vb.com and it sounds like they made it a pain in the ass to modify the skins yourself now. Maybe next weekend I'll have more time to delve farther into it.

[Morgalis]

Nice thanks Hubba!

I made a test install to show my work how valuable having a community is that breeds users helping users.

Transverse Styles that makes our skin is not even bothering right now so it is not just you

No, I'm not even bothering with 4.0 at this point. The style editor has way too many problems to make it reasonable to work with..that and 4.0 is still full of tons of bugs. Mainly it's the style editor. No other commercial skin makers are able to work with it either and have all put their 4.0 development on hold until IB makes corrections...take a quick trip around the net and you'll see what I mean

Silly that they would have made that so impossible to work with!

[o0Hubba0o]

Hmm, that quote says "IB", isn't that invision boards? Or was it a typo maybe, or some abbreviation I don't know? lol

[Morgalis]

He was referring to IB incorrectly. IB is at version 3.0 right now