Is the Cali Case harming VBSI's reputation?

[jasetaro]

It's not the lawsuit so much as it totality of the company's actions over the last couple -- several years... Starting with VB4, the new licensing scheme, the pre-sale, the rushed not quite ready for prime time release, the stupid little bugs like the broken upgrade script in one release... Yeah, it was a simple fix, but I shouldn't have to edit their code (and beyond that how the hell does something like that get past QA testing?).

The lawsuit -- really it was thinly veiled threat towards customers who might purchase an XF license in their press release that was the last straw for me.

Relationships, whether they be personal or professional are built certain things, among them mutual trust and respect, when those things are broken the relationship crumbles... that's were I think a lot of us are with IB/VB.

 

[steven s]

As far as the poll goes though, I am willing to bet good money that most vB admins aren't even aware that vB was sold and that there is a lawsuit.

Agree.
There are so many vB installs.
I think emotions get in the way with many of the threads here.
It's just a blip on the grand scheme of things under the IB umbrella.

 

[Carl]

In my eyes - no. Why? Because i dont give a .... what vbulletin do these days.

 

[borbole]

I am willing to bet good money that most vB admins aren't even aware that vB was sold and that there is a lawsuit.

I agree. I have 3 clients who almost never log in at vb forums and they are not aware what is going on over there, what vb does or doesn't do. And there are quite a lot of other vb admins out there like that.

 

[Johnny Large]

They're doing their best to tarnish vBulletin's reputation...

Look, many sites were doing okay with the 3.8.X series, and most were in no hurry to make a move to another forum software. Most would've been comfortable waiting for vB 4 to become stable, or maybe even wait for vB5. vB 3.8.X is still popular among users of many forums, and I personally liked it a lot, even willing to pay the over-priced licenses to keep running it. But then they announced EOL, and it became apparent that the need to jump wagons was urgent.

They failed to recognize vb4 is a disaster, and failed to hear their customers who were begging to keep up development of the vB 3 series. That killed their reputation for me, and made me look for other options. But the lawsuit, and the delusional pricing schemes certainly added up strongly when taking a decision.

I'm planning how to smoothly transition to XenForo, and then I hope I won't have to change software ever again. I hope they never sell their participation in the company even if they need investors, because we all know what would happen. XenForo is the future for me.

 

[Jethro]

Agree.
There are so many vB installs.
I think emotions get in the way with many of the threads here.
It's just a blip on the grand scheme of things under the IB umbrella.

Actually the vast majority of websites don't use forum products your point being?

IB's reputation is taking a huge hit as more tech and news sites start reporting on the case, vB might be a blip for IB but it's quickly escalating into their own Vietnam war as they throw further resources into the fray with a very limit end result on the horizon.

There are as you say a lot of vB installs out there, I wonder what their current new sales rates are, and what the fall off has been in maintenance payments since IB took over. Regardless of size of market, vB were at one stage the major player in a profitable market niche, else IB would not have been interested in them to begin with.

From a purely software business standpoint, where maintenance income is viewed as bread and butter, IB have been a complete disaster in running the vB business. They have forgotten about their customers and are paying the price for that.

I've worked for software companies with a million plus products, the champagne corks got popped with each sale, but a lot of people were employed in keeping existing customers very happy and paying maintenance each year. As the adage goes, it's the customers you don't hear from who are your issue. I wonder if the vBulletin help lines are strangely a lot quieter now than previously?

 

[Shelley]

I dunno, but judging by all these vbulletin threads I may mistake this site for vbulletin, buy a license, and become a disgruntled customer all over again. Another I couldn't give a toss if vbulletin rep went down the gutter you get what you give in life.

Am I allowed to talk about the people of yemen in this thread?

 

[Dragapult]

I would say it won't be too damaging unless they lose the case.

I'd go as far to say most people who run vBulletin software are probably unaware that there is even a court case going on right now. And those who are aware of it probably aren't deterred one way or the other.

 

[Paul B]

Posts deleted.

Back on topic.

I don't have time to babysit this thread all night, so if it continues I'll just lock it.

 

[mrGTB]

I would say it won't be too damaging unless they lose the case.

I'd go as far to say most people who run vBulletin software are probably unaware that there is even a court case going on right now. And those who are aware of it probably aren't deterred one way or the other.

I wouldn't like to say either way also, but IB don't seemed phased at all by what people might think.

 

[jörgk]

sometimes i think, i am here on a vbulletin forum................**** on vb and dont discuss, about these ib-freaks.

i hate these threads about vb.........if i want discuss about vb, i can go to vb.com..........

 

[EQnoble]

Besides, as long as you have a thesaurus and a good PR team, you can make any horrible situation sound pleasant.

See I agree this is totally how big business works...but as for the last line I would have to say IB forgot to take into account that the biggest group of people that they are hurting are end users...and the end users in this situation presumably have the means to publish their own view of the situation seeing as they are forum owners and possible forum owners.

 

[Forsaken]

sometimes i think, i am here on a vbulletin forum................**** on vb and dont discuss, about these ib-freaks.

i hate these threads about vb.........if i want discuss about vb, i can go to vb.com..........

This one is actually relating to the XenForo case, just a discussion whether or not it will further damage IB/VBSI's reputation.

I agree for the most part, I'm kind of tired of threads that clearly belong on other sites being posted here. I say we shun those posters .

 

[mrGTB]

I have wondered if this was just one very well planned expensive stunt pulled by VBS to try and force XenForo into a court settlement to get what they want. Make XenForo pay more now while they still could be struggling to meet the legal costs? I have no idea, but it's made me stop and think and consider that possibility?

It doesn't make sense to me putting forward witnesses like they did, then pulling them at the last second and dropping things. Looks like they played a game and it ran it's course and failed for them.

 

[Tempest]

Voted "Yes". I found out vB was sold when I first started my community on phpBB. I was looking to switch to something much better and I did some research and it came down between IPB and vB. I saw that vB was a sinking ship and decided to go with IPB, a decision that wasn't a mistake. I didn't find out about xF until a month after owning an IPB license. I wasn't even aware of the lawsuit between xF and vB/IB as I was very content with IPB and didn't bother looking too closely at xF. As time went on, xF became a more frequent name over at IPB and I took a second look and found out about the horrid soap opera going on. I tried a demo of xF and liked it. I didn't need a xF license but I bought one anyway to support Kier and Co. as they were responsible for the golden era of vB and I had fond memories of that. And now I'm getting closer to putting my xF license to some real use by converting one of my IPB forum. I judge the script objectively but vB the company has lost all my trust it had, not even as a customer but just as a webmaster that happens to be on a lot of forums. I'm much more likely to be active on an IPB or xF forum because I now hold some angst against vB/IB. Might be a bit immature but at the end of the day, I don't want vB to get any support from me, be it direct or as insignificant and indirect as being active on a popular vB powered site.

 

[Fufu]

I have wondered if this was just one very well planned expensive stunt pulled by VBS to try and force XenForo into a court settlement to get what they want. Make XenForo pay more now while they still could be struggling to meet the legal costs? I have no idea, but it's made me stop and think and consider that possibility?

It doesn't make sense to me to put forwards witnesses like they did, then pull them at the last second and drop things.

It would be best not know if they are struggling because I see it to encourage further actions from IB/vBS.

 

[wizzard]

Don't forget Internet Brands don't just run forums they run loads of websites, so this case would have done them some harm, they will be perceived as bullies.

 

[Jethro]

Completely off topic, or sort of on topic, are we talking about Yemen yet?

Any Goliath v David legal battle is only ever going to help out the Davids of this world in the public perception.

 

[Onimua]

See I agree this is totally how big business works...but as for the last line I would have to say IB forgot to take into account that the biggest group of people that they are hurting are end users...and the end users in this situation presumably have the means to publish their own view of the situation seeing as they are forum owners and possible forum owners.

In that case we're all just disgruntled ex-customers who are just making a big noise over nothing.

 

[Shelley]

In that case we're all just disgruntled ex-customers who are just making a big noise over nothing.

you think?

I think this thread has a different agenda though, Can't see what is essentially bashing IB couldn't be discussed in the cali case thread.