Upgrade Forums to Vbulletin 4 CMS?

[CMcCane]

Guys,

Vbulletin has said they will be launching their all new 4.0 release on or before Monday, December 21st. This new version of the forum software would open up A LOT of new features!

The cost for me will be about $150 to upgrade us. But below are some of the new features this would give us. There is almost too much to list. Also if I go with the full CMS system we can have front page news articles, featured rides etc.... Also may attract more sponsors.

What do you guys think? Keep it as we are or go for a major overhaul?

Forums
Unlimited Hierarchy of Forums Yes Yes
Private Forums Yes Yes

Threads
Thread Display Options - sort by, sort order, from date Yes Yes
Thread and forum subscription (notification by email optional) Yes Yes
Thread preview on mouse-over (optional, via Admin CP) Yes Yes
Active Users viewing thread shown Yes Yes
New Post Indicator Yes Yes
Printer Friendly versions on threads Yes Yes
Admin tools: edit, delete, move, lock, make sticky, etc. Yes Yes
Email page to a friend option Yes Yes
Similar Threads displayed on all thread views Yes Yes

Posts
Video Embedding (YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu, Dailymotion, Google, Metacafe) - New in 4.0 Yes Yes
Linear, Threaded, Hybrid display views available Yes Yes
Supports BB Code in posts Yes Yes
Supports HTML in post Yes Yes
Smilies Yes Yes
Avatars Yes Yes
Optional WYSIWYG or standard editors for posts and Private Messages Yes Yes
Attachment images (.gif, .jpg, etc.) stored on filesystem (optional, via Admin CP) Yes Yes
Quick reply box (with optional "forced" click on post to quote) Yes Yes
Preview post option Yes Yes
Post Rating Yes Yes
User Reputation Yes Yes
Polls Yes Yes
Post Reporting - report posts to moderators Yes Yes
User post count Yes Yes
Admin tools: edit, delete, move, etc. Yes Yes
Preview-safe Attachments Yes Yes

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 Yes Yes
Allows members to upload pictures that can be viewed in the users' profile. Yes Yes
Member List Yes Yes
Member Search Yes Yes
User Style picker Yes Yes
Private Messaging Yes Yes
Friends List Yes Yes
Member Birthdays shown on Forum home Yes Yes
User Reputation Management Yes Yes
Who's Online Yes Yes
Pop-up auto-refreshing buddylist with ICQ-style alerts when Friends come online Yes Yes
Signature Editor Yes Yes

Avatar Options
Admin Defined Avatars Yes Yes
Custom Avatars - upload from your own computer or specify a URL Yes Yes

Private Messaging
Pop-up notification when new PM received Yes Yes
Private Message Tracking Yes Yes
Private Message filing in custom folders

[RWDsnail]

I say go for it! It sounds awesome!

[CMcCane]

Well good thing I start vacation from my day job this Friday. That'll give me pleanty of time to upgrade the forums to 4.0! It will be really awesome with the new instant messaging PM style user profiles and the ability to directly post all sorts of new media from all of your major video source websites. Less BB code to worry about!

[preston_nfs]

I say go for it! It sounds awesome!

+1

Do it!

[Crooked H]

CMS FTW. I've had to roll out a bunch of Drupal and Sharpoint roll outs the last year and was simply blown away by the stuff you can do now. If Vbulletin offers all those features in it should make for a much nicer experience on the page. Pretty sure none of the other sites will be rolling it out as quickly. CMS will take up a good bit more space in the long run though so make sure you got plenty of disk space free.

[CMcCane]

I agree with you on the upgrade timing on some of the other sites. I think that it should only take me about half a day to impliment. I'll try and start things after 10:00 PM on a weeknight to keep the site available for as long as possible.

The one thing I am worried about is the VBSeo url's conflicting with the new search engine friendly urls that are going to be pushed out in VB4. We shall see. BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP!

I'm excited

[Crooked H]

Should be pretty sweet, and a good learning experience as well. Good luck!

[Codefox]

Will it give us a better calendar? ;)

[Chr1s]

i started using 4.0 for my of my sites and its actually a lot nicer than I thought it was going to be...so definitely get it.

[CMcCane]

Chris any tips for going from 3.x to 4.0? Also I can get the 4.0 forum for free but the publishing suite will be like $165

I'll give it my best!