I am a bit scared that i screw up my site by using hacks. so i dont.
But i am also scared that the hacks are not the quality they claim they are.
The can come with gbackdoors, they can come with security holes and poor coding could lead to bad performance or even open to dos attacks because they use 50+ queries per page call

upgrading hacks sucks too.

I won't bother either. Like you, I'm concerned with security plus all the extra work on upgrades.

I have a heavilly hacked board and upgrading the files really isnt so bad. Its upgrading the templates I hate more. :) You just need to keep good notes in your files about your edits and make sure you use a comparision tool like winmerge or beyond compare.

On script vulnerabilities, yes its always a possibility but most hacks try to to utilize vb functions whereever possible which helps to the best extent possible.

I also doubt any of the hacks on vb.org would have a back door. Alot of experienced programers tend to look over the code at some point or another and it would be found rather quickly if there was.

As for poor coding... we'll some hacks are coded betters and others aren't. Some hacks by thier own nature just have more queries than a simpler hack. You can kind of tell which coders are more experienced and which are newer to vb coding. If its a major hack, like say the petz hack, I would wait awhile to install just to see what errors other people find and what problems they report.

There is a very simple mod that lets you see how many queries your running per page load. It will help you not only identify what areas are bad but once your acustomed to your numbers - you can see if they shoot up dramatically because of a hack or something you just installed.

Lastly, but probably the most important, you should only add hacks that your site needs.

reeve pretty much summed it up.. i cant think of any better responce.
there really is no reason to fear adding hacks/features to your forum, monkey ;)

is it really necessary to upgrade every time Jelsoft releases a new version? I just finished upgrading to 3.0.6 and the 3.0.7 comes out! It's kinda frustrating

As the latest 3.0.7 is a security fix, yes. It is important to upgrade. Not only do you fix the security issue but you at times introduce new features, optimized code and options and more importantly you get to fix more bugs.

If you prefer to wait off future releases at least patch your current 3.0.x up until 3.0.7.

On-topic more, installing hacks is a matter of keeping track what you have installed, and balance it out. On vbulletin.nl we do not have any hacks installed like vb advanced, arcade or whatever. The ones we do have installed allow us to upgrade without having to re-apply the source code, after upgrade the forum still work and to gain functionality back from those hacks I just re-apply code to 2 files, init and global.

It is not always dangerous, but mostly you'll have problems with upgrading...

I do use hacks and never had problem with security....I guess it's a nice way to customize your forum ;)

The only hacks I have running are the major additions, CMPS, Gallery, Arcade. For the rest it is almost all customized or written by myself or the other board coder.

mines heavly hacked and im gonna struggle to upgrade it

I upgraded a board from 3.0.3 to 3.0.7 using a file compare program. The only problem was having to look at all the files to see if any hacks were made to it.

Well, looking for hack code is the whole point of file comparing upgrades. o_O

My board is mad hacked! I have at least 6 hacks installed, and one is very large and changed many files and templates. like everyone else has said, its just a matter of keeping track of all changes.
And if your worried about bad code and cant pick things out, then you probably shouldn't be messing with the code anyways.

In the process of switching to vB...there are few hacks I will implement.

In the process of switching to vB...there are few hacks I will implement.
What ones? Share with us :) .

With my boards I always install hacks. Some hacks I always install are an article hack, some kind of download system, and those other little hacks which make your forum more attractive and more useful with tools, etc.

DarkWarriorXII,

Below are some of the hacks I am considering...

vBadvanced Gallery (more of an add-on)
MicroStats
vB Statistic
FlashChat or vBChat
Who's Online Last 24h

I'm sure there are a few more minor modifications I'll add.

B

I have to hack, it's in my blood :D But seriously, there are a few things that our boards require that isn't stock in vB, so I have to make them.

I only use hacks from vb.org that are "realeased" and that not requires too many files edit ;)