The State of vBulletin and What Needs to Change to Make vBulletin Viable Again

While I agree with you, I believe there is absolutely no way IB could code a new product in 12 months.

They just don't have the motivation, corporate culture, or talent for such an undertaking. Getting things done that quickly requires a startup mentality and IB is the exact opposite.

 

Ive been in contact with the higher ups at vB / iB (about 3 weeks ago). I can assure you there is something REALLY BIG coming down the pipe for 2014. REALLY BIG.

 

It's an assumption on my part but I'd be amazed to hear that vBulletin is making a profit. The amount of staff that have been shed over the last year somewhat validates that assumption. If there was something 'REALLY BIG' in the pipeline I suspect it's that vBulletin shuts up shop, sheds even more staff and deploys the rest to service Internet Brands vBulletin sites internally.

The only other possibility I can see is that the parent company bails out vBulletin financially. One thing I am fairly sure about is that there's not enough employees left with sufficient expertise to produce software of any consequence.

 

I think both are wrong

 

You are probably right However if you look at vBulletin's current licensing model, vBulletin 5 would appear to provide their only real avenue for income and that has attracted very poor sales according to one source, an ex-contractor. Therefore I would have thought by now there will be some financial concerns within the company and that must limit their options.

 

In my opinion, I think they've reached the point of no return with vBulletin 5 and it would be a PR disaster to not continue updating that piece. PR disasters cause decreases in stock prices, and therefore investors would be... angry.

I think they'll keep trying to refine whatever they are trying to do with vBulletin 5, and they'll go down that never ending road until they close shop.

 

Yeah right, and they are going to let a noboby in on there plans ...

This makes sense ...

 

Holy moley you do not mean .................VB6!!!

 

Corporate politics makes dumping vB5 not an option. Imagine if you were the project manager in charge of vB5 development... You and your team of 20 or so developers were paid millions in salary over the years, the whole time you are telling your boss how great vB5 is shaping up to be.

Now how realistic would it to be to now go to that same boss that you were telling how great vB5 development was going the whole time and instead be like, "Yeah, vB5 is terrible... I know you invested millions in it and trusted me when I said it was great, but I was wrong... It's garbage and those millions we spent on development was for nothing. Let's start over and try it again.. Cool?"

You aren't going to say that... Instead you will say something more along the lines of, "Yeah it has a few minor issues, but we are working through them and it's getting better and better with every revision."

At least that's what you would say if you wanted to still have a job.

The only way dumping vB5 would be an option is higher ups more or less would need to fire every developer that had anything to do with vB5 purely on principle.

 

I don't think vBulletin will ever be viable again. At least not for me. They have gone too far down the road on so many issues that it just doesn't make sense for anyone to travel back over that bridge. Especially with XenForo being such a good product.

 

The only thing that would get Vb back up and running is if they really wanted to and had a determination to do it.
Sadly all indications are that they want it to fail, probably so they can concentrate on other areas that make more money.

A bad scenario for all the VB customers and employees, some who have already been "let go" how many will follow is open for debate.

 

Most probably should be the CMS for vB5. The real joke. They were unable to release a stable CMS even for vB4. Much more for vB5.

 

But if a manager will not do that that will also means that the CEO is not concerned about sales of the software else they would see a drop, if we go out of your tool that tracks installments of software.

So project manager can't go to upper management to tell what has happened and has no clue how to solve the issues, so quality will always take a back seat in how you explain it.

 

I can't believe you know a diddly squat about what IB is up to. And even if you were spoken to by the high and mighty IB upper management, I remember Joe R. talking about vB5 at Forumcon and some 125+ new features coming in vB5. Everyone knew about the number, but was never given the features, neither in reality or even as just a list of new features. On the contrary, we got vB5.

So, my motto is, I'll believe it, when I see it.

Scott

 

Yeah, in a poor corporate culture, that is what would happen.

In a proper corporate culture, mistakes are allowed and actually wanted, because it is the only way to grow. But mistakes are fixed quickly and I mean really quickly. This is what I've learned.

1. If the mistake was made while trying to innovate, then you simply drop the innovation, before it goes to market. To see a mistake before it actually happens like this though, you have to understand your customers (current and new) very, very well.

2. If the mistake is a process mistake, then you fix the process quickly. You always check the process first too, before you look to #3.

3. If the mistake is a people mistake and isn't a direct violation of rules and policies or if the policy is missing, you consider if the mistake is a one-off or not and teach others how to avoid making the same mistake, by changing/ improving/ adding policy and informing staff respectively. You basically set your expectations for behavior. If the mistake isn't a one off and the same person/ people keep making them, despite efforts of correction and improvement, then you look to measures to let go that person or people.

If this is being done at IB, I'll eat my shoe.

Scott

 

To answer the question asked, it's funny, I just wrote in another thread somewhere else what I think needs to happen.

IB's management needs to catch the virus called....

Changeousofattituditis

Scott