Yet another vb4 thread

Something I was wondering is how Jelsoft will be dealing with those who purchase vb4 towards the end of its life when vb5 is about to come out, say someone purchases the vb4 suite a few months before they release vb5 wont they be losing out on a rediculous amount of money? I really wonder what will be done to handle this when it comes to it.

 

I'm guessing they'll have to purchase it again if they want 5.0

 

Theyre gonna kill sales completely towards the end of each version then seemingly, it'll be a case of hardly any sales for around 6 months before each major version unless of course they dont tell us when it will be coming out

 

Yes, you'll have to purchase a seperate license. Even if it's 24 hours before they introduce 5.0 licensing you'll be paying the full price.

Before long you'll have a whole bunch of licenses. I'm assuming.

I think once 5.0 comes along the licene grievances will be long forgotton or start up again.


what vbulletin solutions need to do is give the community adavance warning before the new license comes into play so customers aren't paying again for a license like they have done with this current fiasco.

 

Yes they will but, but its like that with everything in life. You buy a PC today, and in two weeks a new upgraded model is released for the same price. Usually that manufacture knows its updating their line-up, but you won't get any special discounts or refunds.

I think a lot of the vB complaints are due to the fact of how it was ran before IB. Before IB, the price for what you got was rock bottom, and they were under cutting themselves a lot compared to other solutions on the market.People were used to this, and no the corporate greed factor. Sure IB could have kept the same prices, its a capitalist country and system, people do things to make money, and make the most money possible in most cases.

I think once this sudden change dust settles, people will calm down and realize that before IB, the value in vBulletin was tremendous. Now though, its probably right about in-line with what it should cost.

Its not really the price increase thats disgusting in this situation, everyone with two brain cells, expected that. Its how its been handled, and the fact there isn't even a beta available for people to see or test that have a lot of people up in arms.

 

That just is so preposterous if that is really the scheme they (Jelsoft) will be moving towards!!

It flies in the face of software tools, that are also licensed based, typical around the world. My example are engineering tools that on purchase of the license its on the order of $5000. Just to use a round number, but also its for business therefore a capital expenditure. (Yes I realize there are users that get a vB for non-business)

Then there is just a yearly maintenance fee, which we all know was just ditched. All future releases are available. So many software suites are done that way or by license type etc. I don't think this is new to any of you.

This pricing model for future releases as described, if true, will truly imo, kill usage.....

am I Nutty now?

 

That's really the only think I can imagine happening... unfortunately.

It means it's all going to be a surprise and kept hush-hush, which is a shame. :frown:

 

Maybe....

Maybe it's like what Apple did w/ the iPhone.

When the 3Gs was announced, they also announced a price drop in the iPhone 3G. So maybe once vB5 is announced vB4 will be at a reduced cost.

Not sure if that solves everyone's concerns or not, but that's one way a company has dealt with newer versions of their product coming out.

 

They will rip everyone off just as they have this time.

 

It'll be interesting to see how they deal with the migration from 4.0 to 5.0. You can bet your Baboons red arse that the arse you sat on for years will be redder after vbulletin solutions give it a good ole kick. I'm not saying a red arse is a bad thing but if that red arse is redder than the un savoury arse of a baboon then you know you just got lashed by the powers of a one great forum script.

For example - Blog Owners - Red arses.
Loyal members - Red arses
Jelsoft employees _ expensive christmas party this year there arses will be fine with all the money padding their behinds.

Anyhow, Never say never I expect my red arse in late november.

 

I think your model is incorrect.

You use enterprise type software with large upfront and not insignificant ongoing support costs that are not optional.

Look at the retail shelf boxed software model for the way IB is moving with vB. Microsoft for example with Office as a standalone 1 PC purchase, not the enterprise versions that have a different license scheme. You buy the product for full retail the first time. MS keeps feeding you updates. The next major version comes along and a discount is offered for those that update.

Now I'm gonna take a leap of faith here and keep thinking that vB Solutions is going to offer me a discounted update of 5.0 as a 4.0 owner in good stead.

 

I would think so, of course how significant that discount would be is the major question.

I really don't think the 4->5 transition will be nearly as bad as the 3->4 transition.


They are a business to make $, I have no problem with that. I want the staff at vB to be around to support the product, that is one of the major reasons I choose vB in the first place.

 

One thing the new shopping cart allows us to do is offer coupons and discounts based on many things from previous purchase habits, coupon codes, license ID, license type, expiration date, etc... There is a lot of leeway in the system now. So we can build sales to handle individual events as needs.

In fact this is the first time the Shopping Cart has been completely updated since 2005.

 

Speaking of the vB.com shopping cart...I'm a little miffed that they don't release that as a plugin or add-on (for $$$, of course).

Or is it not an actual vB add-on, and instead a completely different system?

It's like when Site5 was my host and they wouldn't allow ANY live-chat scripts on customer sites, yet they used a live-chat customer support script on THEIR site.

 

What about Social Groups? Are they going away?

I would like to start dealing with the stuff on my forum that is going away, like blogs and the stupid project tools for which I just paid a lot of money.

Can you tell I am pissed? I will stop saying it after this post.

 

I say at this point you smile and laugh about it. What else is there really to do? I can't say that I share your pain because my situation is slightly different. I will soon loose a license/site but vbulletin just provided the final nail into the coffin. Sure your still wanting to run a board but you learn from that when jelsoft need the community you basically tell them to get lost.

Now, whilst everyone is praising the support staff over there let's take into account they withheld information from people and allowed them to carry on purchasing licenses and blogs when they know they would become useless. They will say different but pricing and license changes aren't settled in a week. It takes months of planning about 5 to be exact about the same time the information was leaked. It's then people should have been aware of the upcoming fiasco.

I did say many times back then people should be allowed to voice their concerns so that it wasn't left to the last minute. And, even the people complaining now even said wait for it and look at this mess now.

Never attach yourself to anything that you can leave instantly. And yes the license I have has many commercial addons attached to it which is now useless. I expected this and it's quite funny to see the theory I had become reality.

 

Will you be switching to another software?

 

No, I will close down one of my 2 vb sites within a few months.

 

I am not understanding these thoughts.

• Yes plugins/products/skins will need work or need re-writing. I'm fairly new to all this but my understanding is the vb2 -> vb3 transition had similar issues.
• If my employees disclosed information that affected current revenue streams they would be fired.
• Yes the licensing structure changed and at least I expected an increase in overall cost. Some have estimated a 30% increase. But there is simply no simple way to compare the 2 licensing costs for all situations.

None of those things should be surprising.

Other things as mentioned many times are worrisome such as no demo/screen shots/narrow presale/ ect.

 

Don't take this personally domination but I couldn't give a shit about anyones grievances. The warning signs where there and the people choose to ignore that back a few months. I'm not angry about it, I just simply couldn't care less and personally I think what vbulletin solutions is wrong but I also think that peoples ignorance to the situation is equally as wrong.

I did my best many months ago and telling staff at the org to allow members to voice their opinions, Most dismissed this whilst staff and co tried to palm people off by saying not to speculate. Oh, read the thread here

I didn't accumulate 320 infractions over the vbulletin.org for nothing. I knew what sneaky shits these people are and no matter how well they dress themselves up with words the bottom line what I stated over numerous sites was bang on the button.

You have the band of vbullein.org staff that follow and try to keep the peace and you have the people that they follow lying to you. I didn't say I didn't agree with you, I will say the warning signs where there months ago on these significant changes. Merley because some of these changes weren't written down in black and white a little common sense and business thinking will/would have told you otherwise.

Don't take this personally to you. You have one group silencing what you say and another lying to you that alone tells you something. Expect the unexpected and expected to be [****][****][****][****]ed in the ass on a perpetual basis.

Not very woman like I grant you but that's the way it is.