What's stopping me from purchasing...
 

First* let me say that the answer to show some love to those who are not active license holders was a fair one. However* the reason I'm not purchasing myself are as follows:

Design and New Templates

The design* other than concept* is mediocre. I have respect for Kier and like some changes he does* but the design itself looks like it belongs in the 90's. The templates and styling of them are not clean or professional* lacking the basic design principals of web 2.0

Here's an example of something slightly more compliant to design standards (thought maybe not everyone likes the design). Here's an example of the homepage (notice that both don't have modified content areas* just header changes).

http://www.lyrobot.com/view/full/88_dho0d
http://www.lyrobot.com/view/full/89_m6dlh

However* being it's just the default design* which means a lot of work could still need to be done to customize to look decent* it's just a temporary shell and the framework and functionality is what counts* yes? Well* that goes onto my next point...

No Demo of vB4

You're trying to sell a product that has limited information on. One that is "more than the last version/series" but that being a good thing hasn't been established. We'd like to see the functionality* the framework* be able to see how it's better. The screenshots don't do justice. I mean* as another member has pointed out* the screenshot for the CMS seems more like a mock up and not an functional part of the system* the script (due to the same dates* non-consistent categories* etc).

Which leads me to my next point...

Limited Trust

I've been a devoted customer since 2006* but have had experience with vBulletin since vB2 (though helping other sites and what not). What I loved about vBulletin is how things made sense where they were* while having the power you need and even more than just was convenience. The framework was solid and consistent. I loved it* IPB was not very user friendly on the admin side of things* so I loved vB's power and professional use.

This perspective changed with the release of 3.7 and later. Don't get me wrong* I love the adding of social networking as it's useful to even places that just want a forum* since it was a spice of features and not a MySpace clone. But the implementation wasn't consistent with the framework. The ordering of elements and use was clunky* not too much but enough to be an inconvenience. Then came the whole backend system... It couldnt support the changes* the moderation abilities were limited* and it just looked like things were getting out of hand. I mean* new features used CSS which the rest of the framework couldn't or doesn't* thus creating some difficulties in other skins* requiring hard editing ot make it "work". Things that would display right on the original framework* would break with spacing issues on the new templates.

3.8 helped fix a bit of the chaos* but still lacked the interface fundamentals and difference of necessary features/information and repetitive information. I sucked it up and created my own profile and user cp revisions* even if very sketchy* and haven't had any members of sites I've decided to implement these changes on* complain or say the old was better. Either neutral or compliments.

Now* with these concerns of the latest of the 3.x series... You're asking me to trust you with vB4 by ordering it blindly? the screenshots have given me even more reason to fear purchasing* and the fact you limit discounts without even a demonstration is really discouraging. So here I just have the impulse of knowing I could be sorry in the future* when the product is worth the money* or I can bite down my lip and just purchase into the unknown* hoping it'll be worth it.

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How to fix?
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Give us a demo* indepth features* future plans* what's exactly different.... GIVE US INFORMATION. The general audience might like the pretty simple-named features* but there's plenty of tech-minded customers that want to know if it's worth it to upgrade or just buy custom mods.

THIS is one of the two only reasons I didn't renew my license back in August. The other being release cycles. 3.7 was released what* a year or two ago and we're just on 3.8? I'm all for supporting an upgrade by renewing my account* but only when I see things being released. Otherwise I don't need support normally* and security fixes can be taken care of later.

So* please* look into our reasoning* and give up something REAL to see if we want to upgrade. It's not the prices* it's the fact you expect loyal customers to just join the bandwagon of upgrading without knowing if you're really of Jelsoft reputation or just IB making an extra dollar. From my experiences of 3.7+* I am not sure I can answer that question.