Demonstrating the massive lack of interest in the vBulletin 5.10 release....

I am sure I am not the only one that has noticed the lack of posts in & the lack of views of the official vBulletin 5.10 release discussion thread on vB's site, but even I was surprised when I noticed the comparison with the interest shown in the similar thread discussing the xenforo 1.3 release on their site.

vB 5.10 thread first posted 25th Nov. 2013 - almost 12 weeks ago:

Posts: 293 - Views: 7,261

xF 1.3 thread first posted 22nd Jan. 2014 - almost 4 weeks ago:

Posts: 346 - Views: 69,050

Looks like further evidence of the 'dodo bird' path that is being taken by vB.

 

It is a very, very simple answer.

Marketing!!!

This is all the marketing done for vB5.1.0.

They are even using the same thread and just changing the title for each beta release. I call that extremely lazy and showing no interest at all themselves in showing off what is good and any hard work being put into vB5.1.0. The language in the thread has a huge ambiguity too. Is a CMS or an Article system coming?

And this is the marketing being done for XF1.3.0.

Smiley Management Enhancements
Various Moderation Improvements
Custom BB Codes
Google/ Twitter Log-in and other new stuff
EXIF Rotation, ACP search and other new stuff
Editor Toolbar, Spoilers and Multi-Quote
Assorted other Improvements

The two marketing efforts are worlds apart.

And when you see the guys, who are doing the marketing for XF are actually the guys doing all the programming work too (including bug releases of the current version at the same damn time!!!!!!!!!!!!), you see the difference between people just working 9-5 and it would seem quite unmotivated and "just doing a day job" (IMHO poorly led) and people working with tons of passion and emotion to make a real living for themselves and also make a small dent in the universe.

Scott

 

Spot on !

 

A VERY revealing post. Well done and great research.

 

5.1.0 is an important release for vBulletin. It's the version that reinstates the Article System which will allow vBulletin 4 suite owners to upgrade to something that caters for all of their content. That alone should be a reason for vBulletin to market the socks of the product but they won't of course because vBulletin 5 is so dreadful.

 

I am not exactly amazed that virtually no one cares what vbulletin releases any longer. Unless some freak miracle occurs, its going to be complete crap until the end of time anyways. And I am not saying this because of any negative feeling, but its simply a logical expectation after seeing IB release crap after crap ever since they took over and with things getting much worse as time goes on. The only thing I trust IB to successfully do is to tank the websites of its customers while charging them in full.

5.10 is not going to be production ready with only a few part time coders working on a foundation of spaghetti code.

Maybe its time for another amazing marketing video for CMS disconnect to showcase the 125 new features including a new SEO suicide version 2.0?

 

There wasn't exactly any research involved, the figures just jumped out at me.

 

I think IB has learned not to talk up new releases because nothing works right out of the box. They get a whole bunch of angry customers anytime they talk up their half baked implementations.

You'll probably get a CMS in 5.1 but it won't work decently until 5.2-5.3, if you're lucky.

 

I totally agree with this opinion.

 

Say it ain't so. Oh wait! It seems we have a few years grace at least before VB connect is stable (if ever)

 

I liked your post, because I am sure that is the plan in their mind.

However, I am not actually sure there will be a vB6, because of the lack of sales for vB5, the market-share nosediving and the general level of bad PR across the Internet, I think it's more likely they will close up shop.

 

I don't know about that. Look at how far behind their installs are. I'm guessing IB has their in house devs patch up the old versions to maintain compatibility with the latest PHP. Why continue to develop a product with lackluster sales that isn't even being used in house?

 

Basically what Dan says above.

Hardly any IB sites 'upgraded' to vB4, as far as I am aware none have downgraded to vB5, so why would the fact that the vast majority of IB sites use vB3 be a consideration in developing vB6?

And, if they can't flog vB5 licences in the volumes required to cover the years of development time & costs spent on it, why on earth would they bother with yet another version?

I may be missing something here, but I doubt it.

 

Ran into something interesting. The Google trends graph below.


There are several interesting points here....

"G" - is when IB bought vBulletin. Talk about a downhill slide.
"2015" - is when Google forecasts that Xenforo will overtake vBulletin in interest.
"IPB" - has flatlined in 2012, compared to the others.
"Xenforo" - is the only one constantly gaining interest, but is still miles away from the vB interest of 2006-7 and the rate of increase is shallow and opens the question, is the paid forum application world losing a lot of speed in general?

Scott

 

Problem is that Invision Powered Board is not the only search entry people try IPB and IPS are also used.

 

Yeah, I know. That was the search term with the best results though.

Scott

 

I honestly don't trust any of the trend data that has been published all around for some time now ( including digitalpoints tracker )