You know perfectly well managing a website and “leaving it there” isn’t the smartest move. Technology advances quicker than us, and you’ll be left out before you know it. If that’s your goal, then great, carry on. But if you want to stay relevant, you know that is not your best move. You might as well develop a new blog instead of a forum then.
Not if you are running Xenforo (I know this thread is about Invision). How long have we been waiting on 2.4 to be released?
It was announced (over a year ago) as targeted for Q4/2024 Q1/2025. We are now almost to Q4/2025 and honestly it will probably be Q1/2026 at the earliest before we see any official BETA release.
As long as the base is stable that you are running, there is not the overarching need to upgrade if the version you are on is meeting your site needs. The only reason (that has been announced) that I am looking forward to Xenforo 2.4 is the inclusion of a new editor. Actual end-user improvements are few and far between with Xenforo. And that is one of my biggest issues with their software. They are almost solely dependent upon 3rd parties to bring real life utility to the very basic stubs of features they offer.
Invision and even Woltlab are different - they have a faster paced development cycle and look closely at end user improvements.
As for staying relevant... one of the biggest (and busy) forums in my primary niche is still apparently running an older version of Invision if their footer is an indicator.
In the source code it still refers to Invision Power Services, which I believe they rebranded to in the 4.x era.
Staying relevant (with all the latest doo-dads) is not necessarily based upon the script version, but what the site offers to its users. As long as it is meeting those needs, there is not any overarching need to upgrade to the latest & greatest, and in some cases that may cause issues with the interface that the users do not appreciate. There are times that a site may desire to upgrade if features they need/want are offered.
One of the largest (and busy) Tundra forums I visit is still on an older version of Xenforo (I believe they finally upgraded to the 2.2.x line but were on 1.5 for a long time after 2.x was released).
My comment about in 10 years not being worried about it is due to the fact I'll be 73, and I will probably have more important concerns at that age than running a site.