The comments by VB staff against customers is now becoming embarrassing for VB/IB. Sad to say that the many comments all over the internet about the mental state of some of the VB staff are fully justified. They falsely accuse customers of being crazy, but we have looked into their souls and they are black. Sorry, but the comments that VB staff have made are not the comments of sane people. Perhaps they are the rantings of sick minds. Comments made, like one of them saying that he is fighting for justice are laughable. Many honest customers have tried to point out the shortcomings, so that VB can get back on track but are vilified and denigrated. The closed mindedness and angst from the VB side is pitiful to behold. Once well thought of staff members have squandered any respect they once had and appear to be on a slippery slide to total insignificance. To lie, denigrate, insult and treat with disdain the very customers who ultimately pay their wages shows a total lack of common decency. To have allowed things to get to this stage (nay to have encouraged it) shows them to be totally void of morality. I too hoped that they would see the truth and the facts, but alas it was not to be.
I don't think anyone was forced to buy vB5, in fact the sub 1% installation figure a year after the launch seems to indicate quite the opposite, hardly anybody bought it at all. It's not surprising vBulletin got bashed for not giving refunds though, the product is not fit for purpose which places it in conflict with many consumer protection laws around the world. That would certainly be the case in the UK. It's also unsurprising that the vBulletin gets bashed for putting it on the cloud. A steaming pile of horse manure will always be a steaming pile of horse manure no matter where you stick it. It would have been more sensible to use vBulletin 4 for that purpose. It mostly works and has a fairly decent reputation. As it is I suspect the vBulletin Cloud will be a total failure which won't even cover its costs.
I put "forced" in quotes because for a long time I was hearing about how people were being "forced" (their words) into buying VB5. I of course would ask how they were being "forced" and never really got a straight answer.
I think simply because there isn't an option to buy just vb4 without vb5. I know 4 is included, but the perception is that they are paying $250 for something that is not being actively developed. (since they don't like vb5 and have no plans to use it) Its a mistake on vb's part I think. I believe there are people that forced with the choice, just went and bought Xenforo for $140 instead of being "forced" to buy vb5. If it were up to me, I would offer vb4 for sale for $125. (for those who don't want vb 5) But I've told McGanty all this in several emails which he chose not to even bother answering.
I do think there would be a market for vbulletin 4 only. It is the most stable version besides 3.8.x.
Im talking vb4 only. $249 gets you vb 5 or vb4. Some people have complained they don't want vb5 and don't want to pay for it. vb4 was under $200 before vb5 came along. I would bring the price down as a legacy version to keep it competitive with Xenforo. But your right, McGanty would never do it. It makes too much sense and might help the company.
Yeah, vB4 is still their flagship currently. It's the feature richest version, which actually works for the most part. Scott
Well it makes a difference because when you had vBulletin 4 suite you had access to unlimited ticket support when you buy now vBulletin 5 but uses vBulletin 4 you only have 30 days ticket support.
But for the 35 dollars more you had also unlimited ticket support instead what we have now 30 day ticket support or 40 dollars for an extra month or 199 dollars for a year. So vBulletin 4 suite was cheaper to own the forum only and vBulletin 5.
That included blogs and a CMS --- which vb5 does not. (shove sitebuilder, its not a cms and its in beta) vb4 forum was $195
Get a copy of the database? Not likely. Chances are they have or will set it up like Delphi. You pay for it, you manage it but at the end of the day they retain all copyright to content you paid them to create.
I'm bashing them because your company continues to ignore customers and produce crap software while spending development time coming out with gimmicky shit like vBCloud, which does nothing to address the pile of concerns that customers have been throwing at your company for 4 years now. That is why I am bashing them.
Is vBCloud a smoke screen (cloud) to distract attention away from issues more concerning the remaining vB users?
VB5 has had blogs and CMS since day one and 5.1.0 Beta is already available to license holders with the Article system. It has already been repeatedly stated the customer owns their content on vBCloud.
Wow just read this http://www.vbulletin.com/en/vbulletin-cloud/?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign= First they charge you $249.00 for the software license then they charge you $19.95 per month to host it for you with no control over the site it is hosted on. They do all the upgrades, backups, etc Sounds to me like Delphi only Delphi don't cost you anything and you have all the same admin controls offered by vB. Now really, is this fair? Really? I haven't read that anywhere other than having limited site admin controls, I have not seen any posting by them that they give you phpadmin control or cpanel control. On a similar note, the vB license agreement does not allow you to own anything, they retain the right to shut you down because they regulate software usage and allowable content. In a cloud environment they have more control over their software and the usage of same than you do as a licensee. So now when it is all down to brass tacks, who actually owns what???? vB owns and controls it all if they host your site. On your own host, you own the content but you still only lease the software.