For those of you that do not use VBulletin, and may not know - if you have a modification installed and you downloaded it from the vbulletin.org website, you will receive security bulletins via email. If a modification is found to have a security hole - it is removed from vbulletin.org, and if you have it marked as downloaded or installed, you will receive a security notice by email. A couple of months ago I downloaded and installed a shoutbox. I did not like the modification so I uninstalled it. A few weeks later I received an email from vbulletin.org saying the modification had been removed due to a security flaw. I have been a member of the simple machines forum for 2+ years and have never gotten any such security notification from them. I have been a member of the phpbb community for around 3 years, and have never received a security notification from them. I have also been a member of the dragonfly cms, drupal, postnuke and joomla communities for over 2 years and have never received any kind of security notifications from them on plugins or modules. Today, I received a notification that the shoutbox has been fixed and has been restored to the vbulletin.org community. Everyone that has the shoutbox installed should update to the latest version. This is just one of the many reasons I do not recommend other forums and some CMSs as a commercial solution. When the developers of smf, phpbb and joomla offer this same service to their community, then I will consider recommending their products.
True. But what you are pointing out is a paid service with VB. The others do not have an obligation whatsoever to inform you in case of a security flaw.
This index page has 2 google banners on it, one at the top, and one at the bottom - http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php To say that smf does not have an obligation because its not paid, is not 100% true. Every time I visit their site a banner is displayed, this goes towards to total displayed units. Some ad programs will get paid when they reach 1000 displays. SMF also makes money off links on their banners. Whether the service is supported by paid memberships or by banners, it is still financially supported by its membership. VBulletin sells their forum software and does not display banners on their website. SMF gives their software away and displays banners - both sites make money. Because both sites make money, both have an obligation to their membership. VBulletin just does a better job of it. And really, how much time would it take to send out an email every couple of months? Maybe 20 - 30 minutes to type up the news letter and send it out to the membership.
I like vBulletin, however I feel it's somewhat hard to manage if compared with IPB, besides, a headache setting up paid subscriptions and private areas. At least in my personal experience dealing with vBulletin.