Crackdown on vbulletin.com

An announcement by Steve:

Forum Moderation Announcement - vBulletin Community Forum

I already had one quite innocent post removed, though no infraction as yet. Quite a few people already banned.

I was just going to order my $130 suite this week as well. If we're going to now have a Customer Feedback forum where only positive feedback is allowed, that decision will need to be revisited.

 

wow.
I suggest they rename the feedback section to "if you can't say something nice, you're banned" section
I can't see where they are coming from with the 100's of recent post, but honestly.. what did they expect would happen when they demand people pay for and update they can't even test or they can pay twice as much for it later
#epicfail

 

Wow, Dictator Ray must really be having fun over there now.

Goodbye, vB and IB, you just put the nail in your coffin. If you can't handle constructive criticism (and most of that was), then you need to just pack it in now.

 

In other words, if your gonna flame jelsoft/vbulletin - your gonna have to go to another site.

 

Not necessarily. That can be construed as "If you're going to say ANYTHING bad go to another site".

IB/vB wants only happy thoughts on their forums

This is just funny though:

Are these people even thinking? This is an epic fail, quite literally, yet "the vast majority" has pre-ordered? Good god!

 

Non-constructive rants? Arent rants supposed to be negative and not constructive at all? Ive never once ranted my head off constructively, its always been a case of me saying my piece and then people replying with the constructive solutions.

 

Amazing they give a notice of increased moderation, but couldn't give a notice of license changes and more important changes.

Astounding...

 

Actually, this decision wasn't Ray's. It was put forth by the one person who always fought hardest for the customer and has over 100,000 posts on that site. He is the only reason there is a Customer Feedback Forum at all.

 

I don't have a real problem with it, I just don't trust the setup over there now. The company deserves not one iota of trust, and anything they say and do should be treated as suspect until it can be proved otherwise.

 

So much for the thread title. I say it was the best thing to do other than have people b*tching over pricing.

 

No, the best thing to do is listen to your customers, which IB have again globally failed to do.

Telling people "You can't give feedback here" is an inappropriate response. Of course, it's the response that IB has been leaning towards since they picked the ship up, but that doesn't make it appropriate, at all.

 

Indeed, for once I agree with you.

 

Well they are still welcoming feedback as far as I can tell. The only thing they've put an end to was the pointless rants, the numerous threads that were basically a "call to arms against IB" and the garbage that was polluting all the forums making it difficult for people with legitimate concerns and questions to get answers.

If you post a thread like "OMG BREACH OF CONTRACTS ZOMG LAWYER WAAAHAHAHAHAAAAHHHMBULANCE" its going to get deleted. If you post a thread acting civil, and a decent human being, I can bet it will be there for a long time.

Give it a shot sometime and see if it works

 

Naah, they're not "welcoming feedback", they're welcoming praise. True feedback isn't all ass kissing, it points out positive as well as negative and points to better ways to do things. THAT is what they're getting rid of.

I have no need to do anything more on any of vb's sites, they've pretty much told me to kiss off as a customer, because they can't handle appropriate feedback. I guess they're going to be doing a lot more of that to people over the next few months, as opposed to fixing the problem.

You can only shutdown real opinions and act like a tyrant for so long, and in limited fields. This just makes vB look even worse, honestly.

Sure, letting threads continue wasn't the solution, but when it comes down to it, IB hasn't listened to a single reasonable solution since these leaks were released, so what makes you think they're going to start now?

 

I don't see anything in there that is not something most of us probably already expect as a code of conduct on our own sites.

:shrug:

We don't allow pointless bashing or repetitive stupid whining either.

 

twhiting9275,

I really don't want to get involved here, but I really would like to know: What would make you happy?

 

Sorta agree. It was getting way out of hand, and I applaud Steve for not simply shutting down the forums, of course that would hurt sales.


But Carrie is getting a little carried away by answering 1 post threads with the official answer to the question then locking the thread. No behavior issues at all and being able to post could help others. But I'm sure there was a reason.

Steve closed a few of the longer threads regarding pricing, but in those threads it was more of a rant as opposed to confused people not understanding.

 

Oh true. I have always found it troubling to have a thread answered and then closed as if no one else would ever want to expand on the topic or seek further clarification.

It's all so confusing. I guess they want us to make a leap of faith, which I probably would make if I had $$$, but I don't so I can't.

 

I do get really sick of people who think the licensing changes are good running around accusing everyone who doesn't of "whining".

Many people are in a sticky situation because of this and may lose their entire sites. Others are having to pay again for something they have already paid for. The company's handling of the whole thing has been at best incompetent and at worst sly and underhand.

Now, I am perfectly ok with people who disagree posting that view, but I am *heartily sick* of anyone who does NOT like the changes being accused of "whining". To those who are doing this - kindly stop seeing your own opinion as the only reasonable one to have, and start accepting that others have differing, but equally valid, views.

And the analogy of our own sites is usually inappropriate. Most people's sites are hobby operations, where the "customers" do not have to pay any money. Therefore a "take it or leave" attitude can be appropriate. Even then, I wouldn't speak to my members as vB are doing to us, and yes, when my members aren't happy, they rant. And I let them, as far as possible. Business boards may be different, but vB has a unique history of connection with its customers which it is now disposing of, and they must accept the backlash if they won't listen.

 

It really wouldn't take much.
For years, not a peep out of me was heard on the .com forums. Why? Things were handled professionally, I was given a fair deal, as were all customers, and things went on.

Then along comes IB, effectively killing off all that. Communication went to zilch, professionality was abandoned, prices were arbitrarily increased, and the last stunt of "pay now or pay much much more later" was created.

What would it take? I want to be treated like every other customer here. If I purchased something a year ago, under the premise of "this is a one time purchase", I want that to be respected. If I come in and purchase a leased license, I expect that to be respected, instead of being forced to upgrade at a much higher cost just to keep my license "valid". Who cares whether it costs me more money or not, who cares whether it costs THEM more money or not.

IB comes in and shakes everything up, yet they expect everyone just to kiss their ass and say nothing? That's not the way that professionals deal with business.