vBDreams/vBSEO/vBHelp == one, general rule of avoidance

I have been using vB products from more than 5 yrs and noticed no contact problems in that time.
From at least 6 months there is no replies from any of the above so called support teams. I even started a dispute with RSLAP department to get my picsals trapped.

I have got an automailer stating that they thanks for contacting and so on.

So the only one rule for the vB product family is to avoid them as their owners are experiencing legal suits. I only wonder whether these suits are results of neglecting support, or vice versa.

I am seriously thinking of moving my forum/s out of vB. Most preferably, I will choose free forum software (myBB, phpBB or sth).

 

Your feedback shouldn't fall in deaf ears because vBulletin is usually over-rated and the software is everyday more buggy to be worth the price they charge for the forum script and vB products.

XenForo is actually the best paid option to choose from, but I wouldn't consider phpBB a good move having using vBulletin first.

Actually there are tons of good open source forum software to choose from besides myBB.

 

Open, free software in my experience of the past 10 years has a major hole. Devs are volunteers and drum to their own beat which more often than not, is out of sink with the others. Projects tend to draw inexperienced programers (nothing wrong with inexperience, they have to start somewhere) but do you want to trust the security of your members and forum to people who change code on a whim that breaks and causes leaks in the rest of it?
In my opinion most of the free stuff is coded by weekend coders who really have not strong loyalty or commitment to the cause.
Because they are volunteers their support attitude goes from helpful, to belligerence projecting annoyance at questions non coders ask.
And my past 3 years experience with abuse from vBull staff and lack of reconciliation from above has tainted me against all that is vBull.
Getting older has its ups and downs (mostly all night long) but with it comes experience and wisdom. The experience is at my own expense which gives me the wisdom to read about others experience first then make a more informed decision based on others experience and expense.
There are lots of choices out there both free and pay. Look for one where the devs are dedicated and committed to you the end user. Support people who know the only dumb question is the unasked one and go out of their way without prejudiced judgement to help you.
Good luck in your endeavors to find what's right for you and good choice in leaving vBull.

 

This is the thing. When the original awesome vB gallery got taken over by Photopost, I decided that I would hire developers to code my own products. With the exception of cmps and vB itself, most stuff is hybrid or 100% unique.

We dumped vBseo in 2006 due to poor customer service. It always seemed dodgy with too much riding on that product.
Even with the work of the vBseo team removed from our sites, we seen an increase in revenue and traffic.

I feel bad for the situation you are in, it is very frustrating. Do not leave vB because of shitty 3rd party applications.

 

I left vBull because the program itself has become shitty. And to top it all off I refuse to spend good money to be abused by the staff. I can get shit and abuse for free, I'm not paying for it.

 

Never thought of this, but you are right, what has made vBulletin go buggy or annoying is the addiction of 3rd party applications.

In fact your post brought to my mind problems I had with vBseo, and the poor results despite its use

However it's undeniable the many bugs is vBulletin built shown recently.

 

For me, based on what I have come to see, vB3 works perfect.
All the sites I ever made money with have been vB3.
I am most familiar with vB3, so yes, biased.
Features I wanted have been for the most part custom coded on dev servers, rolled out and tweaked when needed.
vB3 is dated, but my members like it.
Anyone I have sold a site to preferred vBulletin.

There are certainly cons to vB3 for me as well as features I like on platforms like xF.

What I like from xF I have started to get custom coded into my vB3 site(s).

My bad experiences with vBulletin have been:
- Customer support, steve machol. that guy caused so much grief and its why I stopped buy licenses. It also lead to me having a real shitty attitude towards vB.
- vBseo.
- PhotoPosts.
- vBcover iCart scam / garbage.
- Tons of crappy, unskilled, non communicative or just outright scamming developers who get free reign on vBorg.


Point is, there is a lot wrong, everywhere, on all platforms. Scammy coders migrate from vB to xF (fact), addons are available at xF that may not be supported as fact as something that was built into the software, xF is a startup that has been through some life depleting battles already so how much light is still burning there.

Figure out what you need to work or what is missing and resolve it the best you can. If you are willing to risk irritating people and or driving some people away from your site then its ok, change platforms and go for broke. Any board that has traction with traffic, posting and member growth should be cautious when changing the recipe.

I migrated 4 sites from vB to xF. All died. Yet, people said they liked how xF felt. Something went wrong I am just not sure what.