This lifecycle is probably the more common of the two and probably accounts for many of the customized vBulletin boards you've come across.

This is where the administrator installs their copy of vBulletin and gets their forum going as quickly as possible. So, in order to minimize any delay between getting the discussion board installed and getting it working, they simply open up the forums for discussion using of the default style (or download and use another style that they fancy).

Then, with the board open and operational, the administrator sets about making incremental changes to the discussion board. They start off small, perhaps adding their logo, or changing a font color or table background. Then they start to make bigger, more significant changes. Then, at some point they probably install a hack or two onto the board.

By now the board is looking significantly different from the default that they installed maybe only a few weeks earlier. The cycle of development continues until one of three things happen:

This is where the administrator installs the forum and then either opens it with a default skin or keeps it closed while they work on a brand new skin for the site. This is a little bit like the magician's trick where they pull away the curtain. Tada—a dramatic unveiling.

There are several drawbacks associated with this method. The first, and most significant, is the forum downtime involved. If you only planning a few small tweaks to the default style, then you could be up and running in a reasonable period of time, ranging from a few minutes (for quick hacks and tweaks) to a few days (for something more involved).

Prolonged, unnecessary downtime is bad for a discussion board—old members start to look for somewhere new to go, new members can't sign up, and your ranking in the search engine listings start to drop. Keep downtime to an absolute minimum.