vB Bashing at a new low!

I have decided to stop posting at vBulletin.com, I have the sh!ts with everything happening on their forums and think enough is enough.

No matter what vB/Internet Brands/ vBulletin Solutions do or say ends up in at least four threads, hundreds of posts of people on the Doomsday Bus ready to shut them down and bash them.

Geez some people need to learn how to get over things - to cop it on the chin and move on - rather than their continued bashing.

So here is the issue I currently have:-

+ People continue to complain about the price/ forced upgrade etc
- The fact of the matter is the price is there, no matter how much vb bashing you do it is not going to change and all of a sudden force them to drop it back down to $40-$60. The price is set. Take a look at the features if you like them pay the price cop it on the chin and enjoy the new features.

If you don't like the features don't upgrade. We were all pre-warned to upgrade over the previous months no one listened and so now there is only the forced upgrade to the new software at the new software price.

+ People complain about how their license is expired and now they have to pay near top price to get vb4.0
- To be fair and honest Ray, and the support staff of Steve and Wayne said on numerous occassions to upgrade now, ensure your licenses are active so you can reap the full benefits - if you ignored those issues you deserve to be forced to pay full price. I don't agree with them extending the pre-sale offer to those whose licenses had lapsed you were for-warned about it you should have upgraded if you wanted the new stuff.

+ The complaints about the support
- For months people were complaining about the lack of support from the staff, the lack of information. vBulletin listened and now Steve and Wayne have been provided with alot more answers they are allowed to talk about, Ray and the development team make almost weekly blog posts now futher announcing features of the CMS and forums, provide style snippets etc and people still complain - what more do you want their support and communication has improved.

+ Wanting to know what lays ahead Product wise for vBulletin.
- Although I know we are all curious as to what the future holds for vBulletin Soluions lets cut the guys some slack and instead of demanding a roadmap (which is due to come in the coming days) and wanting to know each and every product they are working on for the future why don't we allow the developement team time to finish vb4 forums and cms cutting out the bugs and all rather than take their minds of the job.

Product announcement will sure to follow the release of vb4.

+ The constant harrassement
In my mind there are a large number of people who are straight out trolling the forums just to bitch and complain about anything and everything.

There was an annoucnement earlier in the week that by the end of the week the CMS DEMO will be installed on vb.com, and within 2 weeks a public BETA as the company prepares for a GOLD Release well before the end of the year (which is good some have even suggested the end of November depending on what bugs are found in the public BETA).

Instead of having a thread where everyone is excited to see the new stuff finally, and looking forward to being able to run our own BETA tests etc there were a large number of posts that said:
"Why did Ray not announce this - shouldn't he really be the one who announced this bad management really"

I mean really who the frick cares who announced it if it is someone high up enough to make the announcement who cares who it comes from lets just be glad that the announcement has been made.

+ Support team hounding
- Almost every thread on there now has a Steve/Wayne please provide the answer to this - I mean most of the posts are just crap or trolling or starting a negative vibe.

In addition to this Steve and Wayne are limited through company policy as to what they can and can not say. Some people ask a question and Steve or Wayne say what they can/ are allowed to say and finish by saying "More information will be released shortly".

As usual instead of saying ok we will wait to find out, people continue to hound them and say "Steve you have said that much you must have the details so can you share them" and continue to ask - in addition others say "Well that is not good enough, we are your customers you should be trying to keep us happy and we won't be happy until you answer our questions".

= = =

It is rediculous I swear some people are just completely trolling those forums for any chance to jump on the Doomsday bus and complain, argue and start a negative vibe around the community.

I admit I hated the lack of support the lack of answers and the secrecy, however I had faith things would turn out in the end.

After Bob's blog post yesterday I had enough faith in vBulletin, and their additional products, and their plans for the future for products to the CMS etc that I took the leap and purchased the Publishing Suite.

I think it's about time people got over their little gripes, it gets annoying when you look through the threads and you see many of the same people, who have shared their opinions on every other website talking about this, voicing their same griefs over and over.

They start threads and complain, no matter what post is on the forum they reply to voice their complaints, no matter what blog post is made they comment and complain.

Then when they don't get answers they take it to the pre-sales forum and I don't blame vb.com for banning, deleting locking threads in there as you guys are already customers.

= End Rant! =

 

Loved it, Merk. Maybe all the unsatisfied customers should just stop posting. It will cure the heartache.

 

I don't like being forced into anything, and I don't have the funds to buy 4.0; either the upgrade which is the equivalent of a license on the old site or a new license which is even worse. I also don't like the way that they will drop support for 3.x after 4.2-makes me worry about my forum. >.> It's just not a good thing-I bought an owned license for a reason, and if I had thought I was going to have to buy one again after less than a year I would've leased.

 

Not to hijack the thread, but what exactly does trolling mean? Seriously, i have only started seeing this word being used in the last month or so.

 

Let me Google that for you!

 

Why thank you tomzilla, i appreciate the google link. What does fishing have to do with anything? (

)So the term has to do with drawing more baited lines through the water? You were very helpful sir, thank you.

 

It was meant for you to go here, not the definition of troll.

 

Well shoot, i am a dang troll.........wowza, that sucks.

 

All easy things to say if you haven't been treated like garbage by the company and staff.

Also, they were 100% irrefutably caught lying to theregister in official statements... doesn't that scream that there is something wrong with the company/management?

If you seriously do not see justification in complaints or problems with how the company is still handling things, I don't see how anyone can take your post seriously. They've certainly taken some steps in the right direction, but they aren't anywhere near where they should be... and despite the massive amounts of negative press, they still won't budge... that isn't normal, especially for a company whose product's success can be attributed almost completely to word of mouth.

 

wow, well said.........very well said.

 

Everything has a warranty, yourse runs out when 4.2 is released - you can not expect a company to continue to provide upgrades to you for your life - hell my Playstation One doesn't work any more it's what 10+ years old I can't send it back to Sony to be fixed.

Your owned license is still valid you can use your current license, and whatever version it released when it expires for as long as you want.

I have been treated badly, but you can not hold a grudge forever and some times you need to suck it up and take it like a man and move on.

I don't see anyone having the justification to continue to act like little whimps, and sooks and turning everything positive into a negative just to continue the vB/IB Bashing.

I am entitled to my opinion as much as you are and I think it is bordering on the edge of childish, immature and out right pathetic the way some people are acting in regards to IB/vB now.

And there is no reason for them to budge, what because some people whinge and moan at everything they do you want them to collapse and hand everyone want they want - I applaud them for standing their ground.

People were given plenty of warning changes were coming and instead of acting on it they just took to message boards moaning and bitching anywhere and everywhere.

Obviously changes were going to happen when IB brought out vBulletin, they have brought on more developers and other staff and had to do something to dis-assemble the previous management and make it there own. They needed to do something to get their licensing system into place, and they have publically stated that their new main focus is the CMS with the forums being an official addon - which shows a clear change of pace.

I just think it's time some people got over it and stopped acting so childish instead of turning every single thread on vb.com into a vB/IB Bashing thread it shows how pathetic and childish some people are.

Sure vent your anger and displeasure then move on no need to continue moaning after six - seven months that is just plain out SAD!

 

Your credibility = 0

They have no reason to budge? You applaud them for it? 6-7 months?

You have just shown your opinion as being completely detached from reality.

This all happened less than 3 weeks ago... Where are you getting 6-7 months?

And you applaud the company for flat out lying about stuff in order to save face?

You heard it here first guys, vbulletin should be applauded for their outrageous behavior...

 

merk_aus,

I'm not as enraged as some of the people here as it depends on their situation, owned, leased, expired, etc.

A couple of points though I'd like to mention that only refute some of your OP rant....

1. You acknowledge yourself its was a forced upgrade. Since when has that ever been acceptable in the software industry? Show me? (for sake of discussion, my context is for Owned License only)

2. Oct 13, 2009 was the announcement of the new Suite Pricing, Upgrade Options, and timeframe. Per my email, it was 2:10Pm pacific time. Just to be extreme on this, what about the person that just happened to purchase v3.8.4 not 10 minutes before that announcement and revamp of the .com page? Are you one of those people and are happy? What's the math there....

Flawed logic. No features to be had to review to base a sound judgment on upgrade. Even had people taken the pre-warning, which was to those that had leased or expired owned licenses, they would still be forced to pay another top dollar, albeit discounted fee.

These are the type of things people are infuriated about. These are the things people ask about for clarification. The results of the inquiries are around here on AA, and this now increasing list of Articles, separate from AA.

I'm not sayin there are no trolls and there is no beeeching, but there are legitamate claims. Not everyone is quite as faithful as you are.

I will close in saying....I hope your thoughts of vBS stepping up comes true. Right now, they are not for me and my community.

Can anyone provide an example of a professional software has licensing terms, maintenance and such, that charges prior to a Demo is released to the public? I'm sure there are some, I just can't put my finger on any.

 

GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT BEFORE YOU RANT

Who was warned to upgrade? where? i didnt get any emails from vbulletin. nobody got warned. the only thing i saw just now are statements that people were spreading rumors in the forum which is insane. they didnt send out emails on purpose so that most customers wouldnt know and pay even more money if their maintenance expired.

and now it looks like the ceo said so himself admitted that vbulletins plans were to screw the customers. this was in teh forums today and it makes perfect sense and from the ceos blog.

You may have noticed that we’ve priced vB 4 products to strongly encourage adoption of the Suite by offering a much larger discount on the Suite. This is very intentional. We now view vBulletin Publishing Suite as our core product. As we add new functionality, it will continue to be fully integrated with the Suite.

so this dirt bag has the balls to admit that he screwed every customer who wanted to stay with forums only or even just version 3. if you want to stay with version 3 the only way to get maintenance is forcing me to upgrade and if i wanted to upgrade i had to pay 190 for the suite or 175 for just the forum. he made sure to make upgrading my forum way too pricey because he wanted me to use his stupid all powerful, joomla-conquering suite. they are discontinuing the forum so all of us with forums are forced to pay for his developers for products we dont need or want.

so until you get your facts straight, you should quit your rant and be happy in your little corner that you blew your money prematurely. we have a right to be incredibly mad and no reason to pucker up and pay. END RANT.

 

This sort of thing is exactly what some people have been complaining about, and I think it is totally uncalled for.

Can you not make your point without this needless personal abuse? This really is NOT that sort of site.

 

what personal abuse? WE are the abused.

if you are getting all bent out of shape because i called someone who is not a member in this forum a "dirt bag" for admitting he screwed us over, then id say that you have already paid for your upgrade and completely unsympathetic because none of this affects you. thats actually a kind term for what happened but thanks for letting me know that this offends you and i'll just keep it to a minimum. it just bothers me to read someone ranting like they did above without thinking. thats the problem or these responses wouldn't have happened.

 

Banger;

You're confusing personal opinion with a dislike of abuse.

The point of this site is for admins to have discussions about matters pertaining to running a forum, and for many of us vB certainly fits that. And many people are extremely cross about what's happened, and it's good and right that this site is providing a very good and respected outlet for that anger to be channelled.

But there's a difference between anger and abuse, and in my opinion you crossed the line. Kick the ball, not the player.

Incidentally, yes I paid my $130 but not without a complete vb.com ban along the way. It's just that I got the issues with them resolved and got unbanned. So I'm hardly some sort of fanboy. I'm not trying to stop you expounding your strongly felt views - sheesh I'd be the world's biggest hypocrite if I tried, given some of the strongly worded posts I've made in the past - but there's just no need for personal abuse, and calling Bob Brisco a "dirt bag" is certainly that. Plus, it hardly helps your case to be posting that sort of thing.

 

Hence the new forum to house such content and be moderated, if needed, by the AA staff.

Use the report post button Mark.B, or just ignore the forum altogether.

People were very sympathetic to your situation.

The OPs rant is the thread here.

 

calling the ceo for a dirt bag for admitting he intended to force liceneholders to upgrade to v4 at exorbitant prices was so clearly over the line of abuse. get real. its not even close to abuse. lets say you are clearly over the line of sensitive here but i'll keep that in mind with further comments.

as i said, the op's rant is what caused the heat to rise. telling all of us not upgrading was our fault? you should be complaining about someone who just added kerosene knowing a fire would erupt.

mark, i think that once you had your little talk with ray morgan and got your upgrade and worked it all out with them, something they said to you has you now with vbulletin pom poms. and what you should take realize is i am hardly the first one that commented on this. not a personal attack, just an observation. no need to continue this conversation so i wont.

 

Thats alright be a complete clown - I am entitled to my opinion just as you are. What because I don't see them as having anything to budge on as they have made a business decision I have no credability.

Those still crying after 6-7 months since the leaked information have zero credability.

And talk about taking part of the arguement to back yourself up - really naive from you I said the changes they had made in regards to their communication from the past to what it is now should be applauded.