Dear vBulletin Forum Community - vBSEO is Suspending Operations

This is just disgusting to me because i can't tell you how many vBulletin Add-ons, Plugins etc.... that i have purchased licenses to that have gone belly up and it's always the customer that gets screwed in the end. I own a number of VBSEO licenses but i guess i own none now regardless of how much i have invested. I don't know anything about the situation at hand between you and your brother but i would suggest that VBSEO be turned over to a company that is willing to carry on with it or make it an open source project which at that point i am sure there will be many many good developers that will contribute to keeping it updated and moving forward. We as customers can't fix what's broken between you and your brother but we sure don't like getting screwed because of it either.

 

I have been trying to contact Juan for some time now and there has been no response.

At this point, I don't think it matters what did or did not happen. I have sent emails and messages through Skype and Google+ and other avenues to Juan to implore him to address the dissatisfaction that prevails these days on the vBSEO forum. Along with one or two other members, I have tried to do what I can to encourage a peer support forum for vBSEO.

My feeling now is this: It's the product that matters. I don't give a damn about the legalities or about who did what to whom. All I know is that it is getting increasingly difficult to counter the view that vBSEO as a product has been abandoned and it is clear to me that Juan no longer has any interest bin making the effort to save the reputation of vBSEO.

This is the first news I have heard in months that gives me any real hope for the future of vBSEO and perhaps similar products for for IBP and Xenforo, since I share the view that as of vB5 vBulletin is moving in a direction that is of not interest to me. I have stated elsewhere that I will continue to use vB4 until EOL as long as it is updated to be compatible with PHP 5.4 and 5.5, If not, I'll take the hit and probably move to IBP, which looks better and better to me as vB flounders.

So, Ilia and Joe if he is interested, let me say to you that I applaud your initiative and if there is any way that I can help revive the vBSEO project, count me in.

 

I don't see it being resolved.

 

Hi Parabased.

#1 goal is to make sure customers know that the reason they've been abandoned at vbseo.com is because there is no intention of continuing the company.

That's important, don't you think?

My brother never had the authority to release me from my duties. He just had more passwords than I did. We are 50/50 cofounders with equal decision making power.

I have attempted many times to resolve this with Juan. He has made this whole process a nightmare.

Joe and I didn't leave to form another company. Juan locked me out of vBSEO. I always had full intentions of continuing with it.

This is our customer base.

I'll remind you, he sent me a message last night saying he was closing vBSEO, only in response to discussions here about the status.

A decline in sales is no reason to leave a company without telling anyone and never posting a notice to let them know why the CEO and all staff members disappeared, while still accepting payments. Unacceptable. vBulletin is not the blame for the state of vbseo.com.

 

Maybe it's just me...but does anyone renew or buy new licenses anymore? I know I stopped some time ago -

With the destruction of vB4, vB5 being complete crap, I simply and moving everything to Xenforo, and I advise everyone else to as well.

 

I agree.
I haven't spoken with Juan in about a year now.
What happened between you two...or is that too personal?

I have nothing but good things to say about Juan and the same for yourself.
As a former (and one of the originals) team member that Juan hand picked I am saddened to see vBSEO become what it has. I've known it at the earliest stages to it's greatest heights. Now at it's lowest low.

I no longer have any stake in vBSEO or vBulletin.
However, I do respect both you & Juan.
Hope it ends well for you both as a family, and that after it ends, your relationship can begin to heal.

 

Hi AdminofForum,

Being locked out of your company is certainly not a great addition to the CV. Unfortunately, it was a matter of who had the passwords.

I have the vBSEO customer database because I am the owner of the company.

I thank you for your feedback on my approach to informing customers of the status of a company that completely abandoned them. I wish you had been around to provide constructive criticism on the management of the company for the past 4 years.

Your anonymity is perfectly fine. I am comfortable responding to you without knowing who you are.

 

Hi Tech Guy,

Under these conditions, there isn't much room for inflation of ego. The company is not in very good condition.

The lack of support or response is shameful. At the very least, this is the beginning of our full disclosure and being transparent with our customers and the full forum community.

 

I agree, I would love to see progress made back on the vbseo front. I hope it does turn out that way but I'm not even sure who is working on it or has been for the last year?

 

Hi djbaxter,

I thank you for your support and understanding. I want you to know that your contributions to vBSEO have not gone unnoticed. You were one of the last remaining users in our forum that bothered to help other customers at all, after the team stopped bothering to check in at all.

Your experience with Juan is what I have experienced for most of the life of this company, with the exception of when we founded it in an apartment we shared, lol. It was hard for him to disappear in those days.

We agree that our customers priority should be the product. I am only asking for your support and feedback, and appeal to Juan to do the right thing here.

I'll seek you out if we can get Juan to agree to cooperate.

 

vB4 isn't dead yet. vB5 is, I agree, utter crap.

But the technology that vBSEO is built on could be used to provide similar products for Xenforo or IBP. I will probably leave vBulletin when vB4 reaches end of life or is abandoned and, as things stand now, I'll probably move to IBP. But I'd really like to be able to see a product like ipbSEO or xenforoSEO. There is no hope of that if Juan just throws the product into the dumpster.

 

In retrospect, this should have been handled legally from the moment it began. It's hard to start a lawsuit against your sibling. There are many pressures from family members, conflicting advice. That along with a lot of offers that kept being retracted by Juan stretched this whole mess out far too long. I've had to live with the results. Now that customers are abandoned, I will not allow that to happen to them without disclosing the true status.

 

It's unfortunate how VBSEO went belly up like anything related to VB (like others have said. Many scripts I've purchase were very well build and supported for the first few release and then just stopped) .

I agree with the comment right above, continue developing for other scripts such has IPB, Xenforum etc. I'm also one of those who is currently analysing my options with other Forum software sooner rather than later. I don't know what happened between you and him, nor do I care as well, I just want a working product with support .

 

There's a right way and a wrong way to go about airing your business grievances. I opted out of VBSEO related notifications ages ago, and I don't appreciate getting blanket-notified like this - and I'm sure I'm not alone.

It's unfortunate that vB4 is so lousy and that vB5 is worse, and also unfortunate that VBSEO is heading in the same direction. That still doesn't make me want to get an unsolicited email from someone looking to get a leg up in a legal dispute while airing grievances against a family member. I don't like having to unsubscribe from things that I didn't subscribe to in the first place.

This is very poor form and just shy of being outright spam.

 

In your position i wouldn't sue my sibbling. Lesson learned, you are trying to do the best of your capability.

 

+1 to that. In fact if anything, I am more likely to jump ship to IPB, if vBSEO goes EOL and comparability breaks with the new vB4 version. Because if I have to get the URLs changed, then it would only be once!

 

And yet you responded to that spam. I find that rather curious. The prime directive for dealing with what you think is spam is DO NOT REPLY.

No one twisted your arm to respond to that email. All it takes is a simple mouse click to delete it and block further correspondence from the sender.

I, for one, was very happy to receive the email because it's the first response we've had in months from anyone associated with the product.

 

#1 priority here today is to make sure my existing customers know why they've been abandoned.

I would love to develop a new product allowing customers to migrate, if that was necessary, however, product development is costly and time consuming. It's not something you can commit to doing without developing a realistic business plan.

I do like the idea though!

Juan hasn't been acting in good faith, IMO. Remember, he plans to close the company down, not continue making it competitive. That's what he told me in a LinkedIn message last night, the first I've heard from him in a long time.

 

Yes, however if you do somehow manage to take over the code, then how would you actually support it without any funds? And customers who have already subscribed to updates or recently purchased the license, aren't going to be willing to pay again.

One way or the other, you guys will have to start development out of your own pocket, whether on the existing code base or a new one from ground up.

 

The only resolution that is assured at present is the abandonment of the company and its termination. That's what has been happening for a long time (abandonment) and, as of last night, Juan messaged me on LinkedIn to say he intends to close the company.

My #1 goal is to ensure that I am not the only one that this information is shared with. Customers must know.