ProBoards Version 6 is Suspended

[God is Love]

Awwwwwww. I hope the company will survive. I wonder what drove them to give up for now.

[Nixola]

What in the world happened? Is it the tech industry in general? So sad.

[Syko Nachoman]

To be honest, I'm not super surprised. I feel like V6 never really had a big hook to get people excited for it, unlike the massive upgrades that were introduced with V5 (namely, themes and plugins). Combine that with the lower traffic coming to forums nowadays, and I can see the rationale behind their decision -- it doesn't make sense to invest a lot of money into totally rewriting the entire forum code when V5 is fulfilling 99% of users' needs anyway.

I wonder if they will begin to roll out minor upgrades in small batches in the future, rather than performing a massive upgrade of the entire forum software all at once. That could be a more efficient way of delivering new features to users.

[Ian]

Syko Nachoman, according to Michael on the support forum there won't be any further changes to v5.

@ Michael said -

That is correct, development has been suspended for v5. We will still be working to correct any issues or bugs that may crop up.

oh well

[ThtGyWhoWearsEyelinr]

If they are also NOT upgrading 5 anymore, I wonder what things are taking a priority.

[xea989]

Syko Nachoman Ian
With no v6 updates in a few years, I am not too surprised but the announcement leaves me with more questions. What do you think has priority?

[Penny & Me]

I get not being able to afford to go on to 6, but why give up on 5?

[cloud]

Are they sure they can stay afloat? Why not say more to the customers?

But I'm really happy to keep the shop!

[Syko Nachoman]

Feb 23, 2023 22:36:30 GMT -5 Ian said:

Syko Nachoman, according to Michael on the support forum there won't be any further changes to v5.

@ Michael said -

That is correct, development has been suspended for v5. We will still be working to correct any issues or bugs that may crop up.

Interesting, I missed this part of the original post. That's disappointing, then. It does make me wonder what they're going to do with all the code they've spent the past several years working on, though, because V6 has been in development for several years now.

[bigballofyarn]

I don't have any top secret, insider information. I can relay questions, but I speculate that they will release what they can when they can. My overall hope in whatever they decide to do with upgrades is that everyone's forum can stay online. My forum has been part of my life for 20 years and it's beyond being "just a website" to me. It actually means a lot to me.

[Ian]

Speculation after a bit of Googleing but I can't help but think these events are related.

VerticalScope, who acquired Proboards last November, cut it's staff by 22% (66 jobs) earlier this month to "navigate the current economic environment". A week later Torstar/Nordstar, who have a 40% investment in VerticalScope replaced two of it's representatives on the VS board of directors, which included the chairperson.

If dropping v6 development means more job security for the guys at Proboards then let it fall.

[Those3Words]

^Makes sense and I want them all to keep their jobs. V6 isn't the biggest thing keeping me here or on any PB forum. It's the people and the content.

[オタク otaku]

Better for me not to change because I not always best with new software change.

[Polkowska]

@lbjay,

Febreeze + Owen team to keep tortoise and skunk from the shop.