This chapter has dealt exclusively with upgrading a vBulletin discussion board. This is a process that you will probably need to carry out a few times a year to keep up to date with the latest releases.

On paper, this looks like a long process, but in reality it's quite easy—upgrading a basic board with just a few hacks (or no hacks at all) takes only minutes. With practice, it is possible to upgrade an extensively hacked board in less than an hour. After one or two upgrades, you will start to get a feel for how it works and where things are (for example, which files you've hacked and what other changes you've made). You'll then find that it is a lot faster and a lot easier.