Like most people here I have a fairly active forum running and am looking forward to moving to the new version. And like everyone here I want to do this with as little fuss as possible. This is my vague plan for upgrading but I'm not sure if it'll work that well* can you all please pick any holes you can in it?
Background
My forum has a small group of premium members who pay for extra privileges* one of which is the right to view (ie test) any changes if possible
Most of these members have minimal experience and understanding* while a couple are actually professional testers
All my members are incredibly understanding* so I would be happy to start again and add in plugins and fix the design as we go along
Setup
Close the site for the duration of the test site setup
Ensure my current site is upgraded to latest version of 3.8.x
Backup - database dump and copy of all the files in htdocs
Set up web space at my host for an alternative domain (ie my current site is www.abc.com* set up www.abc2.com which I also own but am not using)
Install VBulletin 4 in the new space
Option A
Point to the current site database (can I do this? how can I do this?)
Allow my testers to take a look at the site* all the posts they make would then also be on the old site
Option B
Import the database from the old site to the new
When I want to go live I would re import* losing everything that my testers have added
Option C
Just give my testers a raw site to play with
When I want to go live I would re import* losing everything that my testers have added
Go Live
For go live I would then repoint the DNS for the existing domain to the new test site* update the database and then be good to go