Now I'm starting to get worried...

Taking the recent events with vB 4.0 and IB in the big picture I'm starting to get worried and I'm an optimist, cynical, but an optimist nonetheless.

I make..well until recently..a livable wage from working with a team that creates vB mods and does a little vB consulting work for folks. I also fun a few vB based forums, both alone and in partnership with others. The direction I see all this going is one heaping bowl of notgood.

I've seen first hand the way IB has run a few sites into the ground simply by listening to the user community. There was a time I was a paid admin on one of their sites. I saw support requests for basic things grow cobwebs. The admin staff was locked down in the adminCP to the point we were just glorified moderators that could move posts across sections. I've seen first hand how a site owner was treated before and after the sale of site.

Seeing now how this new division of IB, vB Solutions, is handling things is really getting me down. So much so that I wanted to share this. I'm not one that easily throws in the towel and really really really really do not want to go out a get job in a cube someplace but as of late I find myself practicing....would you like fries with that...and... Welcome to WalMart.

Sure, the look of vB 4.0 can be changed, and lord knows it needs it. But if quality of work I see on the front end is just as tenuous on the back end...well the stampede to other products will be swift.

Guess I'd better scrape up the funds for an IPB license and get to learning that too...

 

I actually have a similar business to yours.. I do customization for a large photo site--and make a nice living off it. Ultimately, my livelihood depends on them making good decisions. Luckily for me, the owners are fantastic people and they really live by the motto of "Do no evil". IB seems to have overlooked that.

Large, successful companies like Amazon, etc. all share something in common; they treat their customers with respect. They understand that their livelihood comes as a direct result of the people who choose to spend their money there.

While you can't please everyone, all the time, there is something seriously wrong when hundreds and thousands of your paying customers revolt. Big companies fail all the time as a result of bad decisions. IB/vB may live through this episode in their history, but they will never be the same. IPB will come out ahead, and the door will be open wide for another competitor to gain notoriety.

IB has shot themselves in their foot--and when their next quarter results are posted, they'll show a profit for sure. But, they've just mortgaged their future. In 18 months, when they demand another $250 from each license holder, their income will go down. Their stock will suffer. 18-24months after that, and ANOTHER $250 later, you'll see even less income. Bottom line, IB/vB is now on borrowed time. They will fail. They chose their path already.

 

Need any documentation or Q/A assistance

 

I really feel for you guys that make a living off of this right now. I know i have said it before, but this could all be fixed if Bob Brisco was a bit more openminded. Him trying to force his will on those of us that have used the software for years, is getting allot of people down. Jelsoft was able to make money off of the vbulletin forum software without advertisement, and along come bob brisco who thought he could make a fortune off of this software. Well this dang sure isn't the way to continue growing the company.

 

Well, I occasionally have need for a good JS programmer, but, the problem is that the site is so convoluted that you need to be pretty familiar with the site to make your code work.

We currently have my wife and I, plus two other people working at doing the sites. I'm actually the largest customizer for this particular site in the world It's kinda cool actually, meet lots of neat people.

In fact, I just finished a blog for the photographer who's shot the weddings of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and Trent Reznor (NiN). It's a fun job!

My wife is supposed to be keeping our internal wiki up to date :waiting: but, uh, doesn't always happen. (She's also trying to learn HTML/CSS so she can help with some of the work I do.. But, it's a slow process.)

 

You're absolutely correct in that statement, and IB is most definitely on the road to failure.

I think, honestly that they know this. I wouldn't be surprised if it took less than 2 years, and vB4 is more of a massive failure than we expect. We've already seen some major backpeddalling (vb4 will be a complete rewrite, the skin), and the quality of the release so far (albeit beta) is quite horrible.

I don't expect to see much of vBulletin/IB after this vB4 fiasco. One company that comes to mind that did this, and I've said this a couple times here now, is modernbill.

Before MB5 came out, modernbill was the best in the billing industry. Everyone, but everyone used them. They pulled this same stuff that Ib is now, and 3 years later, they're but a footnote in the billing client history. THANKFULLY some much better solutions came out of that, which is what I'm REALLY hoping for here (maybe something from former devs), but I dunno yet.

 

And that's exactly what I uncovered after doing some intense searching about them a few months ago. I was coming across a number of horror story's were large vBulletin board owners sold their car sites to them with promises they would still be kept on as admins to run it, along with vast improvements made once the sale goes through to improve things even further. It didn't turn out quite that way though - exactly like you say above.

They talked about IB messing the site up and members fleeing to other competitors because they didn't like what IB was turning the forum into with there ideas for change. In some cases the admins that sold out to them - wish they never had in the end! Because they were destroying what was a good community before they moved in, that they spent years building up. Saying it was really sad to see it happen and members complaining like never before!

Oh and all these promises they promised to get the sale - never came later, or came as half baked ideas with problems.

Lets be honest here, IB have done nothing since taking over vBulletin, but show themselves to be first rate amateurs. They should never have bought Jelsoft in the first place and stuck with making money from ads and sponsors on forums they run. They are well out there league in running vBulletin and have showed it from day one!

And that "PR STUNT" Blog post that Bob wrote on vBulletin thats caused all the fuss today with that DMCA notice. What a joke that was, they really have no idea about Public Relations at all, and must think we are all brain dead and buy into their pathetic Bla, bla, bla bullshit!

That's the most insulting thing of all, that they actually believe we all fall for it. Yeah right! Does a CAR SALES MAN ring any bells here, you know, you listen to them, but can't wait to get away from them at the same time. Because your sick of the crap coming out there mouths to sell you the car.

 

I think too that no replies to his blog there are negative or asking questions. They did a really good job of moderating that blog so it looks 100% positive.

 

I have to say that I'm glad I sold my design business when I did.
This is all just too much of a mess to deal with.