The Burning Question

The only people who know what is going on at Xenforo are the people who run it. We must keep that in mind and understand that anything else is opinion or speculation.

With that in mind, this is my take. Mike has not posted since 20 March. That speaks volumes. Not just about the fact he is no longer active in the community (I note also that Jake Bunce is now replying to bug reports) but also about the attitude of the staff there. Because if he has left, why are they not telling us? Are they so arrogant they think this is not critically important information for those who have or are looking to buy this product? This is just the Kier MIA saga all over again but playing out with the other developer.

As for Kier, I note with some incredulity the number of fanatics who rushed to buy new licences when he posted a sentence. But has he actually returned? I mean seriously, take out the waffle, the "put the sheep at ease" phrases and look at what has happened. Have there been any Have You Seen? posts? No. Have there been any announcements about specific, real world, tangible developments? No. Any word about Resource Manager? No.

Ashley continues to pop in from time to time and spectacularly fail to post unless he really has to.

We have new moderators and their purpose is quite clear. It is not a sign of the product coming back to life, it is a sign of the Xenforo company wanting the customer revolt to be extingushed. Slavik is slowly but steadily closing off the relevant threads; remember this is nothing personal to him, he's just a company directed censorship gimp.

None of the disruptive and frankly quite unsulting fanbois - all those people who jump on genuine customers saying "Hey! Something's not right, CAN'T YOU SEE IT?" - have been removed from the community. Slavik pays them lip servcing with silly posts saying people are welcome to an opinion but keep it civil (translation: I'm also a fanboi and quite agree with you jumping on the thread, but as a moderator I have to appear to be compassionate and interested in free speech).

Take away the smoke and mirrors and what do you get? The sad loss of Brogan and the censorship of his subsequent posts hinting at the real truth. The apparent loss of Mike and the definite lack of him posting or appearing on-line for nearly TWO MONTHS. The alleged return of Kier who hasn't actually done a lot other than spend a week migrating Space Battles (note to fanbois who insist product development is ongoing: If Kier himself posts the SB migration is slow due to him having to juggle that and babysitting a load of kids, where, in all that, do you suggest Xenforo development is taking place? It isn't just because he says it is - WAKE UP).

Time after time after time customers are expressing concern and pointing these things out. In response, Xenforo as a company is just ignoring it, either on purpose or not, but this is no way to run a company. Every day this goes on, another customer loses that all important trust or faith that the staff are doing anything except pulling our chains and fobbing us off.

IPB must be rubbing their hands. They will inherit quite a few communities by the time this is done. Except even they are missing a trick. They should be working on a fully working (not a part working) Xenforo importer that does a properly good job of making customer transitions easy and painless. If they did that and announced it, I'm sure they would get quite a lot of interest.

 

Yes they do. I initially didnt really care much about the lawsuit until reading their incessant BS on the subject. Now im rooting for IB to win just to shut them up.

 

Well, there's no real point me repeating twice over what I spent a long time writing on my Blog covering the same subject, but posted days ago and was even in hidden draft format for 2 days before being publishing live. So instead I'll just link back to it saving time and you can read my feeling aired there in much more detail: Does Mike Sullivan still work developing XenForo.

 

Well there sure are some slime-balls on the web I've discovered this morning. Not only have I now spotted that "Private Conversation" has been deleted in twitter telling me they knew Mike Sullivan had left XenForo, but they've also stopped following me at the same time also. OK, if that's how we're going to play things then, fine two can play that game!

The person who told me was Lisa (Azhria Lilu) from Admin Extra, who claimed she'd been told by another person that Mike Sullivan is gone from XenForo!

 

This from Lisa on your blog:

View attachment 2174

 

I've replied to it on my blog now.

 

Mark, was just reading this posted by you on Admin Extra.

View attachment 2176

I don't know why you waste time replying back to some people like that, because many like that have made it very obvious they're frighten to death of opening their own mouth asking questions on XenForo, instead leaving it to a select few to do it for them like Me, You and one or two others. Even now that they know Mike Sullivan has been reported as left XenForo, still not one single person has the balls to post there asking for confirmation one way, or the other from Kier and Ashley. What does that tell you, either they don't care or don't have the nerve to do it themselves.

XenForo - now have customers running scared of asking questions for fear of being banned, they've got rid of the ones that would like me. And due to threads getting locked and threats made about bringing it up any further there. That forum has become nothing more than a - censored dictatorship!

You've got Kier and Ashley running around on the quiet "editing or removing" threads and posts they don't want listed for reading, pathetic!

 

I can't say for certain that Mike has left XF, I don't know. It is certainly looking likely that he has. It would certainly explain an awful lot that cannot be explained otherwise.

This is a really awkward situation. I greatly support the concept of XF and highly rate the software. Indeed a lot of my site's current vB design is heavily inspired by XF elements. I also greatly supported Mike and Kier in their sterling efforts to establish themselves, and bought a licence on the very day they became available. My site is non profit and I didn't (and still don;t) have the financial means to simply buy endless licences, but I bought a single one because I wanted to support the project (and did intend that one day I might use it).

In short, I placed great trust and faith in a brand new company, to a far greater extent than I *ever* would ordinarily, simply because of the trust and respect I had in the team behind the project.

The sad fact is that trust is now being disregarded by the team and although I still wish them all the very best, I cannot condone or support the way the company is being run. I am never blindly loyal to anything, when I *am* loyal that loyalty is 100% but if it is abused or taken for granted then it is withdrawn. And that's where we are with XF.

I can't tell you how genuinely sad this situation makes me. It isn't just "any company", this is a company in which many of had invested a considerable amount of our hopes and dreams. It hurts like Hell to see it falling apart in this way.

It is very difficult. I feel awful about the things I am pretty much forced to post due to the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

 

Mike Sullivan - has been visiting my Blog a number of times now, I can see that much in Google Analytic coming from "Scotland, Glasgow". Looking at the title of my blog article also (Does Mike Sullivan still work developing XenForo), plus what it's about. You'd have thought looking at how many times I'm seeing them visiting my blog reading it, that if it's wrong Mike would have either posted a short comment there saying so "for the sake of saving some company credibility and to halt false rumours". Or run over to XenForo instead posting something there "putting the record straight", or even Kier or Ashley doing it for that matter. Seeing as both are reading it on my blog frequently the same as Mike?

Hmm, neither has happened. So what I was told privately days ago would appear to be true from were I'm sitting right now. All they have to do is post something to prove otherwise - let's see them do it and I'll know what I've been told is a complete pack of lies? And it's not just ME who been told this, I've been informed a few other people know also Mike has so called left, I was told late on actually.

I know where this has come from originally, he visits this forum a lot logged-in but not posting anything. Just comes reading this thread, but I'm not saying his name though - just that he's a "Born again Christian" playing Judas Iscariot . :doh:

 

I think there is something more. My gut tells me there is a settlement in the works. Its the only thing that explains all this to me. Why would development just stop? Why would mike leave? Why would kier spend a bunch of time coverting his personal forum while Xenforo users clamor for an update? Why so little communication? Why all the deleted posts and closed threads?

If they were giving up and going BK, they wouldnt care about comments in the forums.

If it was about needing to make some money so they can afford to continue on, why not just say that?

IDK - time will tell.

 

Jesus Mark, I can see were you get your Drama Queen title from. You sound like your talking about your pet dog just died. :dog:

 

Referring to me I take it Gary? I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you are going to spread garbage lies, you better have some evidence to back them up. You do know that no one on the internet believes a word that comes out of your mouth don't you? It's beyond funny that you would think otherwise...and you have the audacity to judge me. :rofl:

 

Did I mention any names? Not from what I remember? You got a "Guilty Conscience" maybe? :shrug:

 

Admittedly "hurts like Hell" is a bit strong now I've read that back.

That was a ridiculously drama-queenish post, even for me.

 

Hi Joey. I hope all is well up your way.

I tend to think you might be right. Events do tend to make it seem there is more to all of this than what meets the eye. But, until we actually see what falls out at the end, everything has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Hi John. Good to see you, sir. Gary said I am Lisa, so are you telling me you don't believe that either? I'm having a real identity crisis, trying to decide if I'm a man living in Central Indiana, or a mom living in that wee country located just south of Scotland.

John, I have a question for you. Have you ever seen someone running so far in last place he cannot see the person in front of him and is thus convinced he is leading the pack? OK, have you seen anyone like that participating in this thread?

Anyone remember when the mass exodus took place at vBulletin? What's that been nearly three years ago? And remember how everyone was predicting the demise of vBulletin, because of it? Anyone remember when XenForo opened for business and IB stepped in with their lawsuit? What's that been, 18 or 19 months ago? And remember how everyone was predicting the demise of XenForo, because of it? Now we have people running around stating that Mike might not be at XenForo any longer and predicting the end of XenForo, yet again. For those who are capable of remembering all these apocalyptic predictions, please allow me to point out that only the predictions have changed. The "prophets" have all remained the same.

"OMG, Kier is gone!" What's the panic, is XenForo somehow broken or buggy?
"OMG, Kier is back!" But do you really expect him to be chatty on the forums, when he never was at vB?
"OMG, Brogan quit!" Are you not aware people come and people go, or is this your first day on the beach?
"OMG, Mike is gone!" I remember your same panic when he left vBulletin, a company that is still plugging right along, 2+ years later.

I see people like Gary suggesting someone at XenForo needs to be setting things straight, to ease the turmoil. But I would also like to remind everyone Gary is one of the movers and shakers behind all the turmoil. And whilst he likes to puff out his chest and pat himself on the back for asking questions I am "afraid" to ask, I want to make it absolutely clear he does not speak for me. Nor does he represent me. Not yesterday, not today and not ever.

If XenForo were to fall off the face of the earth tomorrow, it would be disappointing. I left vBulletin back in late 2009, to get away from dead-end software. But with every performance metric of my XenForo site outdoing what I saw with vBulletin and subsequently with Invision, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I've found a forum package that runs fast, presents less load on the server, is easy for me to work with, is easy for my users to figure out and that's really all I need. As I pointed out in another venue, a very popular and active site in my niche is plugging right along on vBulletin 3.0.7 software, which is nearly 8 years old. So I figure if push comes to shove, XenForo 1.1.2 can still be running for me in 2020.

I realize this isn't going to stop Gary from trying to further diminish the XenForo brand in the marketplace, but then again, I'm just a forum admin who has always had at least one forum continuously operating, over the last 8 years. And Gary, can you refresh my memory? How many forums are you currently running, again? And of that number, how many of them are running on XenForo? I just want to know for sure you really do have a dog in this hunt. (And please, only count the public forums and omit the super-secret forum for which only you know the URL.)

Poor Lisa. Gary is doubtless going to take umbrage and start spitting blood at her, since he's doubtless still convinced that's who I am.

 

If your Lisa that's news to me. But hey Mike, feel FREE to put on a flowery dress and pink lipstick behind closed doors - I won't tell anyone! :lol2:

As for SmackLan defending you. He's already advertised his XF skin site for sale once, failed to sell it, putting it back on Flippa again right away. He knows that dark cloud of doom is coming soon - he's the man in the know, or so I hear from others! :yes:

 

You clearly have a very selective memory, remembering only what you choose. But how about you drop the silly comments and answer those questions I asked? You know, the ones you carefully avoided? How many forums are you currently operating? And of that number, how many are running on XenForo?

Defending me? Defending me from what?!?

No way you could be aware, but I've known John for several years, I consider John a good friend and I have both a view and understanding of what John's motivations are. Which allows me to observe and point out you are speaking (yet again) from a position of ignorance.

 

It's none of your business if I'm now running one, two, three or four forums I decide to keep secret these days because people like you and others used to troll them. Will I tell you if I am running secret forums now, nope!

Keep guessing.