New Blog: "Our vision for vBulletin"

I wasn't trolling - I was stating my views at the time. I haven't suddenly decided everything's always been wonderful, I've simply decided to move on and focus on the positive and stop fighting other people's battles.

 

Just one comment that seems to be public on the blog.

I am seriously considering setting up a new domain for those who remain aggrieved, who have not updated or who's maintenance subscription remains inactive. And who refuse to bow to pressure. It would be running vb3 forums of course. My only concern is the level of support for such a site??

In 1660 Duchess Ann Hamilton said "A given up battle is never won"

 

It matters not what IB says or when they say it at this point. There is a very vocal group that is now disagreeing with anything that comes from IB. Bob Brisco could be holding a red rose, point to it and state the rose is red. Some of these "IB is always wrong" people will quickly point out the rose is not red but is a shade of red citing Pantone discriptions. Others will point out it is some sort of rose hybrid and not a true rose.

We have reached a state where no matter the action there will be detractors. At what point do you reach for the positive and try and move forward instead of looking back over missteps.

I am by no means an IB lover, I've seen how they can kill a site by inaction mixed with hubris. I resigned as a paid admin and created a competing site using vB knowing full well that IB owned JelSoft, now vB Solutions, and I was still placing eggs in their basket.

Each of us needs to look at how to move our own communities forward whether it be with vB or some other product. We now know where IB is headed and until we have 4.0 to work with we really can't make any firm decisions if vB is your intended game plan. Monday morning quarterbacking every nuance of IB's actions is only going to lead to more vitriol and indecisiveness.

Dare I say...a timeout until we have an actual product is in need.

 

Why can we not thumbs up a post cause what Gnatster just said is correct - no matter what IB/vB/vBulletin Solutions do or say now people just go trolling to bash them.

 

I appreciate their efforts.

 

so Internet Brands knows how much traffic vbulletin sites get for a fact? they wouldnt happen to be monitoring vbulletin sites are they? I wonder if there is some type of ping mechanism that may allow them. and isn't it a coincidence this company buys vbulletin sites on the cheap that they want to convert to more revenue??? SERIOUS conflict of interest.

Bob... kindly go $crew yourself. You have the gall to admit that you are forcing every user to use your suite by $crewing anyone who used your forum product and your forum product ONLY. THIS is why you priced the forum upgrade at $175. To make it impossible for forum owners to keep up only their forum and use a content management system that might compete with yours or any integration or bridge. Internet Brands wants to make people leave joomla and the rest by making us BUY the suite. What a dirt bag.

HUGE CONFLICT OF INTEREST. they have no desire to compete. they want to identify and buy your sites on the cheap, especially during a bad economy and find desperate site owners. i would guess they might stick in some indirect way to monitor sites.

if there was ever a reason to be afraid of the new vbulletin, it is now.

 

That was my feeling too. And saying "trust us, we have an excellent vision for the future" is fine, but I would have an easier time doing that if they had given some specifics about what the plan is.

 

and the first post is by the cto. nothing like company employees posting their own phony crap in a moderated setting to create a false vision. internet brands is a phony. they are the enemy of the forum owner.

 

Well said. and the part about their competition, if they look at invision, they sell everything separately too. So you can buy the parts of the software that fits your site and don't have to buy stuff to fit internet brands pocket book.

 

This is specious to say the least.

You don't like the complaints so now you are trying to frame all of the complaints as illegitimate in order to discredit them. I guess you could say there is a new wave of people who are saying that all complaints are invalid even if they aren't... and you are one of them.

Internet Brands continues to make very bad mistakes. Lying to press, "extending" the presale but raising the price, bans are still in place, etc.

They have improved a tiny bit, but they are still deep in a hole and aren't trying to hard to get themselves out of it.

 

I really don't think that is so. From my take on things, people are only asking Internet Brands to change how they are doing things right now. Not everyone wants a suite, it's just that simple. I have said a hundred times, all i want is my forums software and my blogs software. I too want to continue receiving updates for these. Internet brands has flat out refused to look at offering options. I have no clue why and I would think the owner of the new vbulletin would see what members are saying. I don't hate vbulletin, nor do i really want to see it fail. I only wish we could all get along and continue to build our sites, with new software, that meets our individual needs. Offering forums only or a suite, isn't offering this. The answer i used to get from vbulletin staff is: "you can shut off what you don't want". This my friend is missing the point, I still just don't want certain pieces of software, period.

I am not sure about anyone else, but my type of site doesn't need Project Tools. If it did, i would have purchased it when it was first place up for sale. I too, do not need a cms at this time, down the road i might, and at that time i would look at buying it.

All internet brands needs to do is offer choices:
1) Vbulletin Forum Software
2) VBblog Sofware
3) VbProject Tools
4) VbCMS
5) VBSuite (Includes all of the above) This could be priced to make it look more appealing to new potential customers.

Internet Brands competitors offer choices, and jelsoft had always offered choices.

Like i have stated, this has all fallen on deaf ears and has lead to unhappy customers being banned for life. Which didn't need to happen.

 

Well said!

vB debuted a good new product with excellent customer pricing - but they so screwed up the terms and the communications that what gnatster describes is the unfortunate result. Further unfortunate in that once a knee-jerk sniping pattern is established ... well, it's much easier to start than it is to stop. I see some remarks in this thread as picking picking picking just to sustain a bad temper and sense of injury - but I see also fault on vB's side for still not recognizing how specific they need to be about the future vb 4 positives to get their customers focus on that, instead of the past. To feel as if their money may have been well spent in spite of everything. But I do think vB is now trying to do better.

Once a mistake is made it can't be undone, one can only make every day Day 1 and go from there. The blog post is a good first start. It may be late ... but nothing the author can say or do will change that. What counts is that vB learned enough to at least do this, that's progress.

I have always appreciated the knowledge and comment on Admin Addict. But really, some people are posting in this thread as if they themselves have lived perfect lives and could never forgive anyone else for making a mistake. Although at the same time they see the problem with vB's likewise attitude that ban-able mistakes are unforgiveable and permanent. (Hey I wonder if the bans are permanent or if someone forgot to fix an automatic default message?)

Everyone is free to look at every vB statement and action with a knee-jerk snide attitude - but what is that accomplishing? Mostly for yourself?

For myself it is time to evaluate where I am as of today - what kind of product I have for the cost of the pre-sale + the renewals I paid back in July. Given that I intend to use the CMS. That's my cost for vb 4, regardless of how it is packaged and marketed. That's what I'm evaluating completely selfishly. So far so good ... but there are a lot of unanswered questions, including date of gold release, that means I can't make a final determination of whether I'm happy or not. So I'm not going to make a default assumption that I'm unhappy, I'm going to wait until I know for sure. And take a chance on being ultimately happy.

 

Mine is permanent. I attached pictures of it in other posts.

 

Questions for permanent bans: (assume y'all don't mind since you are publishing them)

- What previous warnings of individual rules violations did you receive? How many, what nature, and summary of the message. That is, just an infraction with/without a comment, and/or a pm or email from someone, etc.

- Were you given a link to the forum rules that highlighted your violation, and reminded to read all of the rules?

- Were you advised that a ban was forthcoming if you did specific things, which you then did anyway?

- Did the ban come as a surprise to you?

On my forum no one can claim to be surprised by a ban. This is why we tightened our policy and made enforcement more routine and consistent. Miscreants are informed that the 2nd warning is suspension and the 3rd is an indefinite ban. We made banning like a member pulling the ban lever themselves - no surprises, they know they are ejecting themselves.

They will have been warned and counseled about other means of whatever they were doing, and told specifically what outcomes they can expect. During this process they will have had the rules stuck to their faces for mandatory reading, being told that participation on the forum is an agreement to abide by those rules. If they argue some reason they should be able to violate that rule that time, they are told that is another step toward the door.

Does this happen on the vB forum?

 

You attached a picture of a computer-generated message. No way of knowing if that is a default or if someone did select the "permanent" option.

No way I would let a computer screen be the last word when there is a person that has power over the computer.

It's one thing to be pushed under the bus. It's another thing to then just lie there when you could get up.

 

Well i think some of you are kissing IB's ass... You forgot about the leaked thread from the admin area that brent posted about on his blog. They KNEW they were going to screw us... they KNEW it, yet most of you are going to take it in the ass and forgive them? Im not doing a damn thing until they apologize and FIX the damage with the licensing and that is on the real.

 

Well said my friend, well said.

 

I really like what RazaSharp's comments are on page 3 of Briscoe's Blog. That is insightful and does give me a personal bit of relief in my potential use of vB.

@3Phase -- Apologies if my posts here were to you a detraction per the points you state. I didn't voice very satisfactorily that really the Blog post by itself came off as genuine to me in explaining something that really should have been done long ago. I'm not looking for everything to nit pick and sorry if that came off in that manner.

 

Where have I said all the complaints a illegitimate? I haven't at all. I said I believe most of the posts on vb.com now are just aimed at vB Bashing no matter what is said or done.

It's ok to voice your complaints but not in every single thread, and not turning any positive discussion into a VB has done this and this wrong blah blah blah.

I am entitled to my opinions as much as you are and it is my belief that most people still vB/IB Bashing on vb.com who have been at it for the last six months need to learn to grow up.

Nothing you say or do will be changing what they have decided. They have their new system in place now and no amount of bashing will change their minds.

Ok first of all sorry for bolding so many things to respond to but hey it's life.

I agree there is still room for vBulletin Solutions/ Internet Brands to change things however things recently have changed, the communication between developers/support staff and the community has improved and they are providing us with further information and more details.

I posted on vb.com about the turn around and said it a burst of fresh air and congratulated them on improving that side of things and within 3 posts it had turned into yet another vb bashing thread.

You may have voiced your concerns one hundred times but in how many threads - were they all negative threads or have you gone into a somewhat positive IB thread to post your thoughts?

I have no issues with people voicing their opinions or concerns but some people are just taking it way too far.

I to just want us to all get along so we can all continue to build our sites etc however Internet Brands can not please everyone and can not give everyone what they want and that is what is resulting in alot of the bashing I believe.

And in regards to my final bolded section - yes it has fallen on deaf ears, and some great forum members have been banned however many people have had countless warnings/infractions before hands for a range of things including:
+ Deliberately posting negative and unwarranted comments in a Pre-Sales forum for the world to see instead of the Licensed Customers Feedback section.

+ Continued posting of snippets from the "leaked" information

+ Ignoring an administrators request to cease posting in certain areas, or continued slanderous posts without any evidence.

It is ok to voice your concerns - no issues in that what so ever - however vBulletin Solutions were required to make changes to dis-assemble all previous managements decisions that they did not see practical as a result changes were made.