I think it is worth pointing out that the new owners of vB have treated their users and the original employees (the people whose hard work over many years made vB the best forum software on the market) in a spectacularly shoddy fashion.

I don't dispute that it is technically good software and, of course, when you are attempting to kickstart a community, you want to give yourself the best possible chance, but, looking ahead, they may have killed the golden goose that made vB what it was.

Two years ago, I would have argued for vB over other options because I believed that it was the best investment of my time - the money involved is a very minor consideration when you consider the thousands of hours you will pour into running a forum, anything that lessens the headaches is worth it and, back then, the gap between vB and the other options was considerable.

Then, following the sale of the company, development went in a strange direction. The original developers, based in the UK, had, through supporting and interacting with their customers over many years, formed a clear idea of where they wanted to go with vB4 and the users were stoked about that. Sadly, differences of vision started to emerge, with the US-based management pulling in a different direction. This, combined with the decision to change the licensing structure (screwing their existing users) resulted in the best devs leaving last year and the vB4 project being started entirely from scratch, only now emerging from an insufficient beta period and missing many of the most eagerly anticipated features.

Now, don't get me wrong, it is still very good forum software, but I believe they missed out on two years worth of development and, in the meantime, the competition have caught up. In terms of social feature, which were originally meant to be the main focus of vB4, they are completely outclassed by BuddyPress, especially the impending 1.2 iteration. I understand the doubts about bbPress (another project that has suffered from disruptions and it only now starting to get its act together) but, frankly, if I were starting a community of WordPress enthusiasts, I would use it as my forum, simply because BuddyPress adds so much and has a much clearer future path. The key is momentum and, while vB has thrown away it's vibrant modding community, BuddyPress has gained serious momentum.

I say all this as a vB license holder, but my license will remain unused because I no longer trust the company and will not spend my time developing skills that are locked into their proprietary structure, for which they can change the pricing again at any time - I could become the world's best builder of vB-based communities, but I would be locked into their decisions every time. From a business perspective, it makes much more sense to invest my time in a system that is open.

Jeff, I think that you and your mods have done a great job with the tavern, but I do think that, in deciding to go with vB, you have left a gap for a competing WP-oriented community, based upon BP, to emerge.