vBulletin RC 4 Released for Download

There is a dedicated group out there that really want to run 4.0 as soon as it goes gold. We are getting questions every day at the day job now asking how soon our products are going to be 4.0 ready.

Can't say I'm at all near ready or willing to make the leap myself. 3.8.4 isn't broken yet...and I have a lot of user that are not savvy in the ways of the interwebz. The thought of all the help documentation I'll need to write for them give me nightmares.

 

You have to say that this is totally crazy, they've gone from like Beta 4, Beta 5, RC1, 2, 3, 4 in the space of about 8-12 days. That's totally unheard off for any software, never mind vBulletin. And now you say you've got an email saying it's going Gold in just a few days. Oh, wow!

What do Internet Brands expect people to think about all this? They must seriously not care what people think at all, and must just have dollar signs in-front of their eyes.

What a complete and utter [****][****][****][****]-up their creating. God help them when it goes Gold and customers start posting their complaints after installing it.

I see Peggy edited her post as well, because I got this in the email sent on her post. Which said that some bugs from Alpha have not even been fixed still. Sorry Peggy, but that information about Alpha bugs still being present deserves to be quoted, seeing as you was on the Alpha team and know. This is something people should be made aware off!

 

^ Yea, saw the news in my admincp as well. Personally I'll be sticking with 3.8.4, possibly for the life of vB4.

 

To quote a few people who are well versed in vBulletin when I brought up vB4 RC4...


"Alex, it's total shite..."

"For once I'll tag along on your anti vb tirade..."

"Alex, you said it enough that it's become true!"

 

From the email.

 

"On or before," that last word, before, makes you wonder what they've got up their sleeve. o.O

 

I shall remember to be extremely careful of what I post here from now on.

 

Peggy :nailbite:

 

LOL! Naw I'm not worried.

 

Bet I have more versions than you :p

 

Do I have to explain EVERYTHING around here? From the same email:

Starting on the date of the Gold release, vBulletin 4.0 Forums and Publishing Suite will become officially supported products. This means that vBulletin 4.0 will be eligible for both ticket support and phone support.

This is taken from the vBulletin Web Site:

A ticket support contract will provide you with immediate support answered by the vBulletin Technical Support team. Most tickets are answered in less than 1 hour. Ticket support is included with the price of the Publishing Suite product. The first 30 days of ticket support is included with the vBulletin Forum purchase.

THE OBVIOUS: Internet Brands hopes to make additional revenues from people who use ticket support. With vBulletin 4 being released in a decrepit condition, free ticket support will be long gone for it to have any value.

Since the release of the first vBulletin 4.0 public beta in mid-November, we’ve already released four additional public beta versions of vBulletin 4.0, including the latest release – vBulletin 4.0 Release Candidate 4 – last night. Additionally, we plan to provide an accelerated post-release maintenance schedule in January that will provide additional updates.

This confirms that they know the vBulletin 4 release is shiite. How can you release a public beta and then do a full release 4 weeks later? Yes... Ray was right. There will be about a year and change from October before vBulletin 5 may be released but only because a reasonable release isn't going to happen until well into 2010 and called "vBulletin 4.2 or something like that.

See the upcoming press announcement discussing the incredible milestone, the incredible work done by developers in record setting time and the report of these records and release to the shareholders who will have faith that this group of Internet pioneers at the helm, destined to show greatness and Google-like hockey stick profitability.

 

My post was rhetoric. I'm well aware of vBulletin Solution's business practices since I would do the same to maximize income, thank you.

 

And I was being completely sarcastic understanding the context.

And yes, I think it's a great way to maximize income by killing your customer base. The only one who got it right was Ray Morgan. He left after a year and right after he reported record sales numbers...

 

Uh huh. They could have kept the customer base while instituting a higher price. It is the sole actions of what vBulletin Solutions has done that caused all this chaos. The difference between what I do and what IB does is a difference of 4 times their yearly net income. Major difference being that they deal in internet media, I deal with a solid luxury good.

Summary version: Changes in licensing is what killed them, and other price related items that are minor, but make a significant impact on the company's profile.

 

Chances are you have a 1.x laying around somewhere. <_<

 

Actually no, but I have a few preview & alpha (non public) releases (vb3/vb4).

 

I bet you got Archives of old vB.org code too, right?

 

I still have backups of vB 2.

 

I have 2.2.6 and onward.

 

For the last three years yes.