The watching 'vBulletin's market share nosedive' thread.

[LeadCrow]

As long as boards using vBulletin will keep being acquired and sold, issues pertaining to the viability of vb's continued use may remain relevant.

Conservative folks don't like imposing radical change upon an ageing audience already acquired they need to preserve, and 'the vB experience' provided just that assurance.
Of course, that experience may be replicated using competing scripts, whose drop-in replacement value for vb3 may exceed the current vb5's and even vb4's.

 

[rudedog]

The way I look at it, even though I'll never purchase another product from vbulletin or trust anything they say. It's my way of getting back the $200+ I wasted on a product they released no where near ready and then all the broken promises and lies they told their customers.

So if I can help educate others by letting them know they should not buy vbulletin then I will keep replying to these thread and creating new ones calling out how terrible vbulletin is.

Call it a grass roots initiative to make sure if/when anyone searches for vBulletin, they find these threads that showcase how their employees interact with their customers, how bad the products are and what lies where told to get others to purchase a vBulletin product.

(Just realized that it may help index these posts by typing out vBulletin instead of vB)

 

[LeadCrow]

Seems there was truth in Steve Machol's warnings from the vb4 memo leak... Goodwill takes forever to build and can be lost quickly, as people wronged tend to be much more active at sharing their (nightmare) stories.

 

[jadmperry]

Seems there was truth in Steve Machol's warnings from the vb4 memo leak... Goodwill takes forever to build and can be lost quickly, as people wronged tend to be much more active at sharing their (nightmare) stories.

The link seems broke for me. Can you check it or attach the memo? I am interested in what it says.

 

[BirdOPrey5]

Seems there was truth in Steve Machol's warnings from the vb4 memo leak... Goodwill takes forever to build and can be lost quickly, as people wronged tend to be much more active at sharing their (nightmare) stories.

Wow. Eye opening stuff I've never seen before. Have to process this.

 

[BirdOPrey5]

The link seems broke for me. Can you check it or attach the memo? I am interested in what it says.

The link says "someboard" now so it should be obvious this forum is using a replacement to censor the real domain name. So search google for the text of the link plus the threadid that was still part of the URL and you'll find the thread. Actually you'll land on page 17 of the thread, go to the first post.

Google: vb4 memo leak t=52182

 

[LeadCrow]

That was a hot topic back then. Discussions referencing these should still be readable on vb.com around may 2009, though a lot were purged or otherwise archived away.
Since the leak was commonly discussed before and features mostly obsolete plans and internal commentary not particularly needing protection, I uploaded a non-exhaustive copy of those just mentioned to Imgur.

vBulletin 4 memo leak

 

[s.molinari]

All I can say is, Steve was very wise and was right on the mark with a lot of his, "if we don't handle things properly, they will bite us in the ass" calls, which actually did happen. I wish I hadn't read that old post. It confirms again the ignorance at play, which is still rearing its ugly head to this day.

Scott

 

[jadmperry]

Steve is and was a customer service genius. He basically saw all that has come to fruition for vB about 5 years ago. Well done, sir.

"My concern is that the potential bad will generated by mishandling this transition could have a far more negative impact on our future business than a
marginal short-term revenue gain. All business studies show that a customer that feels mistreated is far more likely to share this experience with more people than one who has been treated well. And based on my own personal business experience, I have found that accountants generally tend to
underestimate the impact that bad will or good will has on the business. We should not forget that vBulletin has grown to its present leadership position
without any advertising, which in itself is a remarkable achievement that we have all contributed to. Our growth and success has been almost entirely
through word-of-mouth, i.e., 'good will'. And our fortunes can just as easily change via negative word-of-mouth.
For this reason I strongly urged that every consideration be made to make this transition as painless as possible for our existing customers. If there is
any doubt at all about the right thing to do, it should always fall on the side of the customer. While I will support any decisions made, I feel very strongly
about this and will add my voice to help ensure that existing customers and treated as valued partners in our success rather than as numbers on a ledo
sheet. If we want loyalty from our customers, then we should be loyal to them in return."

Among the errors that IB made, one of the biggest errors was letting Steve Machol get away.

 

[DemOnstar]

Steve is and was a customer service genius. He basically saw all that has come to fruition for vB about 5 years ago. Well done, sir.

"My concern is that the potential bad will generated by mishandling this transition could have a far more negative impact on our future business than a
marginal short-term revenue gain. All business studies show that a customer that feels mistreated is far more likely to share this experience with more people than one who has been treated well. And based on my own personal business experience, I have found that accountants generally tend to
underestimate the impact that bad will or good will has on the business. We should not forget that vBulletin has grown to its present leadership position
without any advertising, which in itself is a remarkable achievement that we have all contributed to. Our growth and success has been almost entirely
through word-of-mouth, i.e., 'good will'. And our fortunes can just as easily change via negative word-of-mouth.
For this reason I strongly urged that every consideration be made to make this transition as painless as possible for our existing customers. If there is
any doubt at all about the right thing to do, it should always fall on the side of the customer. While I will support any decisions made, I feel very strongly
about this and will add my voice to help ensure that existing customers and treated as valued partners in our success rather than as numbers on a ledo
sheet. If we want loyalty from our customers, then we should be loyal to them in return."

OUTSTANDING!​

Among the errors that IB made, one of the biggest errors was letting Steve Machol get away.

Did he get away or was he pushed?

 

[s.molinari]

Steve was not "let go" AFAIK. He was basically forced to quit, because he was asked to play along with IB and their lawsuit against Xenforo and he didn't want any part of that BS.

Scott

 

[Kevin]

Wow. Eye opening stuff I've never seen before. Have to process this.

If you haven't see that before then you should also try to seek out all of the documents from the lawsuit as well. Some interesting insights into the mindset of IB.

 

[DemOnstar]

Steve was not "let go" AFAIK. He was basically forced to quit, because he was asked to play along with IB and their lawsuit against Xenforo and he didn't want any part of that BS.

Scott

I get it, they forced his hand.
I think, given the circumstances, I would probably do the same.

 

[esquire]

Wow. Eye opening stuff I've never seen before. Have to process this.

I wouldn't be sarcastic. The amount of eye popping misconduct could fill the Grand Canyon. Getting such a large group of formerly loyal customers this furious takes an extended, concerted effort. It's all still there on the forum if you want to invest the time. Most here could show you many things that would make your head spin.

It's not a great idea to try to change the facts to fit the needs of your conscience in an arena full of angry victims who remember exactly what happened. Anyway buddy, you've heard this too many times already. Good luck whatever you decide to do.

 

[BirdOPrey5]

If you haven't see that before then you should also try to seek out all of the documents from the lawsuit as well. Some interesting insights into the mindset of IB.

The lawsuit documents I have read, pretty sure all of them.

I wouldn't be sarcastic....

Sarcasm not found.

 

[esquire]

Sarcasm not found.

I was referring to the eye opening stuff. Perhaps you weren't being sarcastic. What Steve said and what happened to him really is eye opening. Before you came along at the forum it was also open sport to mock the customers, such as some members of staff regularly placing deriding messages about customers in their signatures. It was Looney Tunes all right.

 

[Cerberus]

Just post the image.. Since the site censors stuffs .. If its allowed.. They will remove it if its not I suppose

 

[PacMan]

As of today, xf 1.3 has a 0.1% market share

 

[GTB]

XenForo 1.3 is still beta? It was only released for download about 1-2 weeks ago.

 

[PoetJC]

XenForo 1.3 is still beta? It was only released for download about 1-2 weeks ago.

Yep. 1.3 Beta 1 was released on the 28th January 2013 2014.
1.3 Beta 2 was just released last Wednesday - the 5th of February.
I'm not sure how many beta releases will happen before 1.3 Gold...

J.