vBullletin 3.8.5

vBulletin Community Forum - View Single Post - Is vBulletin 3.8.5 going to be released this month?

No word on this?

 

We wouldn't make announcements on this site. Not sure what you're looking for or if you're just trying to stir things up a little more.

 

Sorry...........

 

Wayne you guys have got SO defensive lately.

Honestly, this isn't trying to make trouble, but you've got to stop seeing all your customers as troublemakers. It's coming across really badly on the main site and it's winding people up.

People are concerned. They're seeing everything that went before ripped to shreds and many don't like what's replacing it. Treating such people as troublemakers really isn't on.

Look at me - openly mocked in public for making the very thing that was asked for, a constructive suggestion about beta testing. Mocked and locked!

We're not troublemakers, we're concerned customers.

The vB 3.8.5 question is a valid one. The series LOOKS like it's been abandoned, the bug tracker hasn't been touched for months. It's a reasonable assumption to come to given that the staff refuse to answer questions about it. Why? What's the issue? Can't we just be told what's going on, it doesn't half shut people up when you do that.

 

:S They released a patch, which I am using. That it looks doesn't mean it is and I really don't think Wayne got defensive there.

You guys are coming across as troublemakers, simple as that, this is not vB.com and this question would most appropriately be handled over there, don't you think...?

 

You'd think so, but they refuse to answer it over there. Pushing the issue gets you infracted and/or banned.

So inevitably people bring such discussion onto other sites. Doing so is not being a troublemaker, people are trying to see if they can get some light shed on their concerns.

Frankly being called a "troublemaker" every time I say something that contradicts the official vBulletin line is starting to grate, I hope it's not going to happen on here as well.

 

I don't know in my mind it doesn't calculate the fact that I said that you come across as a trouble maker adding up to you saying that you were called a troublemaker than stating that you wouldn't want it to happen on AA when as far as I know, I said coming across, ne? o.o!?

If they refuse to answer there, what makes you think they will answer here? Pushing still gets you nowhere.

^_^ Don't you think if the version comes out you will find out...? Or is it that you have some major bugs on your board that you need fixing asap? If not... Wuts da rush?

Maybe I'm used to MyBB's way, when a person asks about the next upgrade they don't give an ETA but they say "When it's done".

 

Well vBulletin used to say "when it's done", but they themselves came up with a release schedule which they now aren't sticking to and refuse to explain why.

It's hardly unreasonable.

I don't expect they'll answer it on here, and I didn't start the thread anyway, I just commented on what seemed a rather abrupt response from Wayne.

MyBB, also, is free, and you take what you're given, which is fine. When you pay increasingly large amounts for a piece of software, that sort of attitude doesn't cut the mustard. vB, remember, is trying to dich all the "hobby boards" and replace them with high-spending enterprise customers. Do they *really* think their current attitude to customer service is going to last more than five minutes in that market? They need to wake up, and sharpish.

I work for a company that provides IT solutions to enterprise users so I do have some idea of what I'm talking about here.

 

Haven't read that from the vB team, can you please point me out where it says that?

 

If you had five vBulletin licenses used for hobby forums, and they threw this 4.0 upgrade with a limited-time (very limited, to say the least) pre-sale, would you be able to come up with the necessary funds in time? Remember, your forums are hobbies, so there's no income.

 

Quite honestly from having to deal with all the crap on the forums. People don't even give us a chance to respond, including you, before they start spreading falsehoods and tearing us up. It gets wearingly thing and you expect us to just take it and be cheerful? Honestly? Stop forcing us into a corner and let us do our jobs. More than that treat the people that work for Internet Brands as people not some megalithic entity. I am not working 16 to 18 hours a day making sure people are happy (and the majority of them are) at vBulletin.com for my health. I don't need to come here to only be used and abused as well.

Linking to one post in a thread out of context has no purpose other than trying to stir up trouble.

Again in all honesty, the first thing when I saw that thread is that you were begging to be in the beta again. You have been since it was declared close. Fine you disagree with the process but your posts come across as begging especially when you continually state the opposite.

Seriously there are better ways to get your views across than ranting in every thread and taking them off topic. In fact if the ranting were to cease and actual posts were made in a civil manner, we might be more willing to listen and not ban people or close threads.

p.s. there is no indication that the original poster is a customer so not sure why she is concerned about the released of 3.8.5 except to again casue trouble.

Anyway, the post I made about 3.8.5 still stands.

 

I'm not abusing you here, in fact I'm not abusing any of the staff anywhere.

I know it's tough at the moment, but the fact is that the company have handled this badly and wound up a lot of customers. When my employer does that, I have to sit and take the flak because I'm customer facing. It's just one of those things. The responses on the forum at the moment prove that the company has handled this appallingly badly, and that's something they're going to have to deal with.

They can shut people up by force of course, but that won't make the basic problem go away.

I've never begged to go on the beta team. My position has been clear from day one - the beta should be public, as it's always been, and I'm not going to validate the process by applying for it, nor will I give the company the satisfaction of rejecting me because I'm seen as a troublemaker.

The purpose of that thread was to point out the potential unfairness that we now face - people who have shown faith in the company and paid a lot of money up front will be refused access to the beta, while people who haven't paid a penny, yet have applied for the process, will be granted access. That's totally wrong in my opinion, and my suggestion was that the beta should automatically be offered to anyone who had paid. I then clairified that by saying that if that still meant I had to apply (as opposed to it being an automatic right by way of having paid), that I *still* wouldn't be interested, but that I was still following the suggestion up as it would be of benefit to other customers even if not to myself.

Then Steve went ahead and inexplicably closed the thread with that rather sarcastic remark implying that I'd applied to be on the beta team. I haven't, and never would, and given how well known my strong feelings are on this, it was not the most sensitive comment to make. It smacked of trying to deliberately bait me - something we rightly cannot do to you guys - and accordingly, it was the final straw for me. I want nothing to do with any company that treats its customers with such disdain. Hence I'm not touching vB4. I'll pay my $130 this week, and that will be done to ensure I can continue running 3.8 forever as I have a leased license currently. Beyond that I'm not interested in betas, RCs, Golds or anything else connected with vB4. And the rationale behind this is that it ensures I *never* have to pay this company another penny, because I do not do business in this shoddy manner.

I don't believe I have ranted. I have tried to be constructive, and have even continued to defend the company in the few remaining areas it's deserved. But I've certainly made my very strong feelings known, and I believe I am right to do so. If the staff want me to stop, then I shall do so because it's your site.

Of that I have no idea, obviously.

Which is fair enough. To be honest, the position I'm in now, I don't actually care if they never release another update to 3.8. I cannot describe the level to which I am completely apathetic and indifferent now to anything that's done. As long as I can continue to run my site as it is, in perpetuity, I'll make do somehow. I'll patch anything serious myself. At that point, as someone else said recently, there is no need for the "mother company" any more.

Yet handled better and they'd have continued to get regular license renewals/upgrades from me with each new major version. As it stands they not only need to replace that lost income, but also spend money recruiting another customer to do it. For just one, that's negligible, but if many go down that route.....

 

Looks like the sympathy card is being played. Wayne is now the victim.

Accept responsibility and move forward. I could point out tons of clashing comments you made here and at vb.com but hey who am I to judge.

And for the record, I agree with mark he never stated he wanted to be on beta only that beta itself should be public. Again, dressing up words.

 

I have a lot of sympathy for Wayne actually. He's at the sharp end of it all, these weren't his decisions, and he's not afraid to put his head over the parapet. No problem with any of that. And I hope he realises my criticisms are always of the company, not him.

 

Which is why you and the staff will be disagreeing untill the end of days. Consistency is key here and as a whole people will remain happy.

3.8.5? who cares when it's released anyway. It's insignificant now.

 

I agree. the company have brought all the negative reaction on themselves, but appears the policy is going to be to try and "brazen it out".

I'd love to be supporting them again sometime but it's too far gone now.

I also agree 3.8.5 is insignificant but the constant refusal to talk about it on the official site is odd.

They would be better being honest - no more bugfixes for 3.8.x, it is now security fixes only.

 

LOL

Believe it or not there was a time when I felt sorry for you and Steve to work for IB. Having to defend their decisions and stuff. Looking at it now ... I'm not sure if I should feel sorry at all. It's IB including you guys and your comments/advice that caused most of the uproar. Simple as that.

P.S. If I'm not mistaken vB 3.8.4 was very late according to your very own schedule; plus it was pretty much a [****][****][****][****]ed up release. So asking for 3.8.5 doesn't seem that remarkable at all to me.

 

I'm with you on this Mark.B, I myself am at "The Sharp End" when it comes to customers, my bosses change things and never even tell us sometimes, let alone the customers and when it all goes wrong it's me in the firing line. I have a lot of sympathy for Wayne.

 

Isn't it possible that a 3.8.x release could be beneficial at some point? Even if you had the skill set to maintain the code would it not make sense to take advantage of vb's work?

 

Yes, I'm sure if they do release 3.8.5 I'll upgrade to it, since my license permits it, but unless it's a security issue it isn't really major for me. My board is quite heavily modified so these minor bugfixes tend not to mean much to me. When they do I can usually fix them myself - I'm getting better and better at php as time goes on, plus I'm doing an advanced course at college on php and MySQL now. Need to get myself better skilled at it. Though I'm by no means a novice as parts of my site do demonstrate.