I really hate to have to ask this, but what are the contingency plans in case the evil empire win or (more likely) try to litagate you to death with more and more frivolous suits? I've just taken over co-admining a largeish vB4 forum and would like to move to XenForo but my fellow admins are cautious about the law suit.
Contingency plans
- Thread starter therother
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Adam Howard
Well-known member
True. But they also do not have to make an importer that supports a 3rd party.
I personally disagree with a lot of what Internet Brands is doing to its customers and overall as a business model. But sadly, its their business and they'll run it as they see fit.
Bain
Active member
That is funny. IB has invalid software in vBulletin. They wish to go forward with the name recognition created by the former vBulletin developers , most of whom are now here at XenForo in one form or another.
I hope, in time most everyone will wake up and begin to understand the severity of incompetence on behalf of IB and the new vBulletin, along with their developers.
It is only a matter of time. You can't continue riding the coattails of past name recognition forever.
Wildcat Media
Well-known member
If you think about it, all converters are supporting a third party. It just seems like politics to me. I had a bit of a "situation" where, a few years ago, I read they would work with anyone to help them convert their old forum. Fast forward to now--I want to put WebBBS into vB. No, it's Tier 3, and they won't support it. Do they have an older ImpEx that doesn't have the wrong WebBBS converter in it? No.
What the heck AM I paying a license for? vB4 is useless to me. Yeah, I also got caught up in the vB4 excitement and advised the site owner to get the "suite" since we could redo much of the site with it. I disliked the added bloat and loads on the server; the staff and others who tested it just didn't like it, and still don't. We basically paid a hefty fee to keep our 3.8.x license active. (And as most know, they are ending support for anything below 4.0. Nice. Real nice.)
I said over at vB.org yesterday that vB4 has become the Microsoft Office of forum software.
vB still has its fans, but its handling of licensing, the loss of support for the version our big board is running, and ultimately the overall scheme of "suing the competition out of business" is what has turned me against them. I just feel bad for anyone still working there from the earlier Jelsoft days. vB's day as a leader is coming to a close, and as sales drop, they will need to reduce staff.
The question here was about XF being around? I feel they will be. Even if one day they decided to stop development, there will always be other forum software out there. And there will always be a hard-core contingent who will hang onto XF for many years, adding new modifications to keep it alive. Heck, there are still a couple of developers out there trying to keep WebBBS alive...and that project died about ten years ago!
Wildcat Media
Well-known member
Jelsoft reminded me of the "little internet software company that could." IB oozes "big corporation." A world apart. And I'll leave it at that. 
Thanks for the offer EQnoble: you live up to your username. We are fortunate not to be a poor community, so raising the cash should not be a problem (we raised the cash for vB4 in a matter of hours). It just sticks in my throat to have to give it to IB.
The more time I spend here, playing around with the forums and the admin demo, the more I'm convinced this is the right software for our board. It would make the decision easier if there was a CMS and blog, but c'est la vie.
I guess what annoys me most about IB's firm refusal to do anything at all for us is that a) it would be no skin off their nose to give us the new security patch in the first instance. b) They can see for themselves the outpouring of grief on our forums for the loss of our highly respected admin. c) Our hosts can confirm that they believe him to have died and have transferred the access details to us. d) We could ask the family for a death certificate, a copy of his will, and a court order transferring ownership, nothing would make the slightest difference. (*) e) They could just be nice and give us a new licence to mirror the old and slam us hard if our old admin is actually on holiday or whatever (we are a 12 year old community, having been with vB since 2004, so it's not like we are fly-by-night).
I remain absolutely convinced we have worked something out with Jelsoft or indeed any reasonable company...
(*) and yet, if we get his partner or family to effectively "hack" his email and give us the details, they'd be happy as Larry...
The more time I spend here, playing around with the forums and the admin demo, the more I'm convinced this is the right software for our board. It would make the decision easier if there was a CMS and blog, but c'est la vie.
I guess what annoys me most about IB's firm refusal to do anything at all for us is that a) it would be no skin off their nose to give us the new security patch in the first instance. b) They can see for themselves the outpouring of grief on our forums for the loss of our highly respected admin. c) Our hosts can confirm that they believe him to have died and have transferred the access details to us. d) We could ask the family for a death certificate, a copy of his will, and a court order transferring ownership, nothing would make the slightest difference. (*) e) They could just be nice and give us a new licence to mirror the old and slam us hard if our old admin is actually on holiday or whatever (we are a 12 year old community, having been with vB since 2004, so it's not like we are fly-by-night).
I remain absolutely convinced we have worked something out with Jelsoft or indeed any reasonable company...
(*) and yet, if we get his partner or family to effectively "hack" his email and give us the details, they'd be happy as Larry...
XenForo makes use of elements of the Zend Framework, but it's not really correct to say that it was written using ZF. We use our own router, controller, model, view... In fact we really only use the ZF autoloader, its request object and its validation and file transport functions.
Gene Steinberg
Well-known member
In theory. I have a relative who experienced precisely the reverse. He won in one court, only to have the same action refiled in another jurisdiction (that the plaintiff had homes in several states — and tens of millions in the bank to cause mischief — made it all possible). Or they'd change a few paragraphs in the brief, and restart everything from scratch. Theories and realities don't always align.
jadmperry
Well-known member
Theories and realities do not always align. But res judicata is a good defense. If someone doesn't claim it, they may want to look at their choice of attorneys.
I'm not clear what you are suggesting here, as XenForo already has a vBulletin importer.
Steve10
Well-known member
If they win the case then I'm guessing that vBulletin will be forced to repay all legal fees. That tends to be the case when a large company takes on a small company and loses but can't say for certain. Anyway since there aren't a great number of employees I'm guessing they'll keep Xenforo running if they win because it pays their bills.
Reeve of Shinra
Well-known member
I'm pretty sure the XF business plan factored some of these costs in. Any sound business plan would have a misc expenses and legal fees accounted for in some way.
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