vBulletin 4 MADNESS

Yep, there are SO many ppl in different situations (lease holders, inactive license holders, multiple license holders, pregnant women/mums running hobby forums, non-profit forums...list goes on lol) that have been priced out of vB, I don't think IB really thought about *any* of the repercussions from the community....

 

Amen....that's a saying I would never bash anyone for, it's said on a daily basis in my house lol

 

I'm certainly not a veteran of the vB community, but your points ring loud and clear. I watched those events myself and I have to say my *spidey* sense was tingling.

for the record....I am a RS (sorta).

I think people have some very legitimate concerns regarding the rollout of the new pricing scheme, even considering (imo egg on face) announcement of the inactive license group.

The presale timeline is just redonkulous, no matter what boat you are in. A rollout that included some sort of proration considering several different levels of licenses. No, I'm not talking about loyal vs new, which I think is just a pile of crap arguement. Sorry if that offends anyone, but it definitely is an immediate division issue.

General question though....there are beta/alpha testers, right? Are they required to contain feedback on v4? (I ask as I'm not familiar w/ the process there, sorry if its an elementary one).

 

Why?

It didn't have to be this way. What was the motivation? The most likely scenario that I can think of is Ray, or whoever he reports to, needs to meet the quarterly fiscal objectives. (not the quarter being announced on the 28th, the next one)

Or they might want to put spin on the 10/28/09 quarterly results with revised yearly profit estimates. Then someone could sell stock when it goes up.

I really don't think I've got a tinfoil hat on at the moment, people do things for a reason. It could also be someones job is on the line "increase sales or else", or even IB fiscal issues.

 

If a company, or even a forum, has excellent leadership at the top then other things will be worked out. Apple computers / Steve Jobs for instance. Everyone/everything else farther down will eventually be taken care of, especially the products they sell.

Going to the main IB site I see a collection of forums they have bought. The only reflection of the IB company itself that I can evaluate the company on is 'what' companies they bought, how well that page is organized and how accurate it is. The stock reports usually do not contain the true picture.

Here is the main IB site:
IB.com

Then clicking on "View the Entire Automotive Network Here" brings up this page:
www.internetbrands.com/autonetwork
Then under "Powersport" it has this site listed:
Biker Forums - Motorcycle Enthusiast Forum - Powered by vBulletin

I suggest you take a look at that link. Horrible.

 

lol^
◣★◢cheap nike,jordan,puma,adidas,timberland,prada,bape star,

 

Interesting you would pick on of their smaller sites. Most of their forums, they have actually purchased second hand and not done much development on because of the vBulletin 3.X style and the complexities that highly customized styles can introduce on upgrading. That is why one of the priorities was a new Style system that is easier to configure and customize. One of the technical writers took a phpBB style today and converted it to vBulletin with minimal effort and without touching a single XHTML template. Primarily the work was with Stylevars. She hadn't worked with vB4 before this week.

 

I think you missed the point of that one Wayne. I think they were commentingon the spam albums selling Nikes and Jordans. That is a lack of moderation, not a lack of style modifications and development.

IB is just looking to make money and I don't blame them, its what businesses try to do. However, they aren't the best at winning their communities over. Look at LS1tech and when they introduced outside advertising other than their forum vendors/sponsors. Pure backlash.

 

The original owners are often paid enough money to live quite well. Do you think James from Jelsoft is bemoaning the fact that he sold Jelsoft to Internet Brands? No he isn't. It is doubtful that he will ever have to work again. And yes, I am a little biased. I made a nice chunk of change when Jelsoft was sold. I'll be honest on that. However it wasn't enough to drastically change my circumstances like the owners.

In the end it is the stockholders that make the ultimate decisions. They are looking at hard facts. How much revenue a site makes. The more revenue it makes, the more resources it gets. Sites like Carsdirect.com, Loans.com, Trekearth.com, and vBulletin.com are what bring in the revenue.

 

No disagreement there at all. Hell, even Nineball from LS1Tech is doing just fine when you take a look at what he must've sold LS1tech to IB for.

I think what they were saying with that link is that the moderation on some of these aquired sites are not there... and I've gotta agree. They aren't losing money on their aquired forums, and I know what LS1tech was making 2 years ago, and its a pretty penny, I just can't imagine where they're at now with that one.

 

Wayne, I did not intend to pick on anyone or anything. That page is just about all I have to judge IB on. I know nothing about the company, you do.

There were extremely good reasons why things were done the way they were done. In a few ways it could be marketing brilliance to offer their top package at a steep discount before it was in Beta or screen shots ready.


Does anyone have any links regarding Ray, his background, or who he reports to? I just re-read what IB has on their site regarding the directors, and Briscoe, they have the background, these are not used car salesmen. The only conclusion is I'm missing part of what is going on. Or they are just not paying attention, which that link to the spammer site could be an example of.


It did not have to be handled the way it was handled. Is the extremely tight upgrade window done for marketing reasons? If it were 3/4 weeks there would be many people that would put off buying and forget about the situation and sales would indeed probably be lost. I'm of course asking rhetorically and am not expecting an answer, just thinking out loud.


For the record I've always thought switching to the new licensing scheme was a good idea. I just makes more sense that way to a simpleton like me.


Edit: I am probably reading way too much into how certain things were handled. The narrow time frame for the presale could be because the upper management at vB are going above and beyond what they need to do with this great offer of the Suite. And because it is such a great offer it can only be for a small amount of time.

I would really like to meet either Ray and/or Bob at some point.

.

 

Just to be clear. vB is an extremely important part of my site at the moment, which is to be quite honest a business as opposed to a hobby. I need to feel at least slightly comfortable that reasonable decisions are being made at the top. Clearly the tech staff is stellar, but if the people telling them what to do is preventing them from doing a good job it is my duty to myself to recognize that.


It really does not matter to me beyond that. I don't type these types of things without reasons, just like the roll out/presale did not happen without reasons.

 

I bet they just haven't done anything with the site. Before vBulletin, Ray Morgan was the Director of Project Management at Experian Interactive Services. He is on LinkedIn and has his resume posted. As to who he reports to... He reports to Joe Rosenblum (CTO, IB) and Robert Brisco (CEO, IB). Joe Rosenblum sits in on every morning's vBulletin 4.0 development meeting. When I was in Los Angeles for the last two days, Robert Brisco sat in a cubicle right near me so he could be available to staff.

If you're going to be in the Los Angeles area near LAX, drop Ray a private message. He is very outgoing and likes to talk to customer face to face. I know he has talked to others and met a few. Robert Brisco will be at PubCon in Las Vegas next month giving a keynote speech.

 

Thank you very much Wayne for that information. I do indeed go to so cal, Mojave desert, and Vegas quite often. Perhaps I will PM Ray to meet in the future.


Peggy Sues is a favorite stop : )

 

If you're ever in the Palmdale/Lancaster/Edwards area let me know. We could get together for coffee or something.

 

Sounds great Wayne. I drink much of that nectar!

I have been in that area a few times this year, not sure when the next trip will be at the moment.

 

I doubt that. I strongly believe that if the upgrade window had been 4 weeks, or even 3 weeks, say until November 4th or 5th, when many people receive their monthly checks, their wouldn't have been nearly as much ruckus as there has been.

Even better, had there been some kind of an announcement made, say sometime the end of Sept, so that people - especially multiple license holders - could have had time to gather the $ needed, there would have been alot less fire as well.

No matter how nice and thoughtful it was of IB to do a presale, the implementation was very poorly planned, and it backfired on them.

 

Ummm, i wish vbulletin had something similar to IP.Converge, Official..not a mod..

I also wish they would extend the discount to after Christmas...

 

There is always a chance it can be extended. Can't make any guarantees though. The previous shopping cart didn't even allow for discounts, coupons or sales like this at all. There is a lot we can do with this one.

However next month a new marketing plan will start for vBulletin as well. vBulletin has never been advertised nor have sales leads been followed up on very well in the past. Well we did do Adwords for a brief period and we did do two stints at InternetWorld in London. But there was no way to track those efforts to see if they were worthwhile.

So starting at Pubcon, a Webmaster SEO conference, in Las Vegas next month, the sales and marketing starts. At least this time the leads will be followed up on and we'll be able to track sales as a result of events that vBulletin is promoted at.

 

Interesting.

Wayne you may want to consider somehow presenting what does or does not work, in generic terms. from these types of marketing campaigns. I'm sure many are quite interested, I am. Not from a vB point of view but as it applies to 2010 business because these things change rapidly.

Going deeper, if you really wanted to focus on the project, and had permission, you or someone at your company could write a hard cover book. There are some unique events occurring at at this time as evidenced by some posts/threads on vb.com.