vBulletin 3.7/4.0 Scattered Information & Confirmations
There are two very interesting threads on vBulletin.com right now that deal with the direction vBulletin is heading with their next minor vBulletin version (3.7) and major vBulletin version (4.0). There have been many complaints over the past few months regarding vBulletins slow development pace which has been further frustrating due to the secrecy that they have regarding future versions/products. The first thread deals with vBulletin’s style and template manager and the direction that it will go with 4.0. We finally got some word from Kier on how 4.0 will look as far as semantics and the template manager goes.
However, moving forward to vBulletin 4, I have (and have always had) every intention of moving to a system of semantic, well-formed markup with a hugely more extensive use of CSS for layout. CSS is now a widely-used and well-documented system and I am confident that both experts and novice webmasters alike will be able to handle it. I am still undecided on how to present the vast number of classes and id-based selectors that this system will require (clearly the current vBulletin CSS editor will not be up to the task) but I’m sure that the system we come up with will be flexible and user-friendly enough to suit just about everyone.
The thing that I was really glad to see was this comment by Kier regarding the amount of information released:
I am looking into methods with which to do a more structured and open information release than we have in the past. Right now efforts are all concentrated on 3.7 but as soon as that is in beta I’ll be putting something in place to help our customers stays apprised of what’s going on and what’s coming up.
One thing that has really annoyed me as a customer is how little I know about the new versions until they actually become available to download. It’s very frustrating because I believe that customers should be given a general idea at the very least in the direction that the software they are using is heading so that they can possibly voice concerns if they feel that is not going in a direction that they feel is appropriate or best for the software. Right now this is impossible to do because we are left out of this loop. I look forward to seeing if things actually change with the way vBulletin deals with customers after the 3.7 release.