Register-globals has been fixed since 5.5 in threads, still has not been fixed in vb, and there's nothing to say it will ever be fixed. vb3 is vaporware and will be for months to come. Sooooo... we are discussing vb2.x.x.x.x.x
I have never owned a vb, so I can't tell you if it is hard on the server from personal experience, I can only go by the posts at vb and their recommendations for hardware based on number of concurrent users. If you wanna be picky, their hardware recommendations are more than for plain ubb boards. Granted, most ubb's do not run as many concurrent users as some vb's do, but some do and the hardware requirements aren't any greater. Post a link to your forums with a test acct if you think vb.org's site is not indicative of the queries on most vb sites
Queries against a database are what determines most server load when it comes php/mysql forum scripts. vB's developer recognizes this himself: "One thing that we've learnt in developing vBulletin for its varied environments is to have as few queries on the page as possible." Why would he make that statement if the number of queries "is irrelevant", according to you? Read your own support forums to see the server requirements for this "optimized code" - everyone of them says you need 2+ servers for 500+ concurrent users online running vb2.
