Category: Commentary

In every story, there are two sides. There was a lot of criticism with people feeling that Internet Brands was not given a fair chance to comment in The Register’s recent article on vBulletin. Today, Internet Brands made their comment with The Register in a new article released today, and after reading it, I will have to say Internet Brands has hit a new low. Oh a new low indeed.

Earlier in the week, former core Jelsoft developer Scott Macvicar wrote on his Twitter “So sad to see the company I helped build up screw customers over. Glad I bailed when I did, funemployment rocks”  in a comment to the flood of tweets to the very first Register article on vBulletin.

vBulletin was definitely Scott’s baby. We know Scott for 7-8 years now and vBulletin was his pride and joy. I can honestly say I’ve never known a person like Scott who loves what he did. Let’s not forget he has our admiration and respect for the exact same time period and has been with vBulletin since the beginning.

But this a new low and a new low indeed. Legal council for Internet Brands, Patrick Stack dismissed Scott’s comment earlier today in The Register’s new article, saying that it is “not too worrisome” and that it came from a “disgruntled former employee.”

EXCUSE ME!?!? What are you smoking Mr. Stack!? Have you no shame?  YOU DID NOT JUST CALL SCOTT MACVICAR A DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE.

In my eyes, Mr. Stack has lead Internet Brands onto a powder keg. It will backfire if Internet Brands is not careful. If there’s ever a reason to pick a bone with Internet Brands, this would be one reason.  It’s rude to call Scott disgruntled. It’s disrespectful. It’s uncalled for a number of reasons.

Internet Brands just took a swipe at one of the most respected trio of management, leaders, and developers in the industry. This same trio also have the respect of the competition, including Invision Power Board’s lead developer Matt Mecham.  Let’s also not forget Scott’s extensive resume too. Not only was he a vBulletin developer,  he’s the lead developer of the SQLite3 Extension and the ImageMagick PHP wrapper. Plus he’s a former mentor for Google Summer of Code program.

The man’s a legend in short, and Internet Brands has an audacity to take a swipe at this guy? Scott knows what he’s doing, and he’s done it extremely well for the last several years. I can’t say the same for you Internet Brands. Talk about calling the kettle black. Look in the mirror sometime Internet Brands, and it might surprise you that you’re describing everything about yourself. If anything, Scott’s not a disgruntled employee; but rather he’s a smart and brilliant employee and has a far more comprehensive understanding of a customer than you currently have.

I hope investors are listening to this side of the fence. Internet Brands just lost a ton of respect in my eyes. It was bad enough they weren’t listening to us, but to backstab one of their former employees in an attempt to save face with the public? Wow. That’s just low.

If there’s ever a reason to leave Internet Brands as an employee, we most certainly found that reason. It’s the classic management case study in which employees don’t divorce the company, but rather they divorce management. Many of us wondered why Scott, Mike, and Kier left vBulletin, and I think we have a slightly more clear picture today.

Scott, we salute you. Let’s hope they don’t take a swipe at Kier or Mike next.

Some parting words from Scott in response to Patrick’s outlandish comments:

Disgruntled? I wouldn’t say I’m a disgruntled employee, I left on reasonable terms with the company and was answering questions for them just a few weeks ago. The fact that they’re simply ignoring customers is just shocking and it’s what troubles me the most.

News has come in that a well known on-line Internet “News Paper” called The Register, has written a damming article which highlights exactly what’s been going on over at vBulletin by Internet Brands. This is something Internet Brands will not be happy to see happen, and especially coming at a time when they’re trying to avoid any bad publicity while the pre-sale of their (not yet out) vBulletin 4 Suite is still on-going until the end of October 2009.

The article itself which was written by “Cade Metz in San Francisco” on behalf of The  Register, and quite amusingly titled the: Forum king vBulletin muzzles paid-up protesters. Highlights well most of the key points bothering vBulletin customers the most right now. “The Register” is hugely popular and read by millions of Internet users worldwide, meaning this is bad news indeed for Internet Brands at a very critical time in their sales.

To make matter much worse though for Internet Brands, other Internet users after reading the article are then using Social Networking sites like “Twitter and Digg” to highlight it much further to the World Wide Web masses. And so people can get easy access to read this very interesting article posted by “The Register” about Internet Brands and the troubled sale of vBulletin 4.

Quite an interesting read indeed, I’m sure you’ll agree. To which you can leave your comments below!

Internet Brands – the new owners of Jelsoft and the vBulletin Board software product itself, where planning yesterday on updating their official vBulletin.com sales discussion forums with the new “vBulletin 4 Suite” being offered for sale that’s still in the early Beta Testingstage as of right right now. It now looks however, that things have not gone quite according to plan. Yet another clear sign thatInternet Brands just can’t seem to get anything right were vBulletin.com is concerned.

Wayne Luke, a respected staff member and Internet Brands employee working at vBulletin.com. Tried to cover-up their “Epic Failure” late last night by posting on another forum board that all was well and working perfect behind the scene, and that only a few minor issues remained which needed fixing that were not vBulletin 4 related. “We should all see the vBulletin.com forums back online soon he said“. That was 10-12 hours ago, and still no forums working at: vBulletin.com.

vBulletin customers thinking about (maybe) buying the new vBulletin 4 Suite, had been asking to see a Working Demo of it ever since Internet Brands put-up their new vBulletin 4 Sales Frontpage. Something they didn’t appear that eager to do, instead wanting people to buy it blindly. That was until a leaked “vBulletin 4 Suite Alpha 5″ private testing version was put live on the Internet by some unknown disillusioned vBulletin Alpha Tester for all to see and make full use off!

Leaked vBulletin 4 Suite demo forces Internet Brands hand

Internet Brands later claimed that they now know the person on their vBulletin 4 Alpha Testing team who leaked the demo live online, although they’ve not released any information who that person was. As a result of that leaked vBulletin 4 Suite demo though (which was only an early Alpha 5 testing version). It does seem it’s forced Internet Brands to try and counter-act any damage that early version might have caused in their sales, by releasing a much more up-to-date Beta version of the same vBulletin 4 Suite package.

Some people around Internet even claimed that this new vBulletin leak might just be another publicity stunt being pulled by Internet Brands to try and help promote the sale of their new vBulletin 4 package, and that they where planning on releasing a more up-to-date working Beta version of the same vBulletin 4 Suite regardless officially. In other words, they just wanted a bit of faked publicity posted on some “Larger News” sites first to highlight the starting of the sale.

Epic Failure just isn’t the word

If there is any truth in this, one thing’s for sure. Internet Brands latest “Public Relations” stunt has just come full circle and shot them straight in the foot. Instead now, they’ll get all the negative publicity they didn’t want. 24 hours later after they first said we’d all be seeing this brand new shiny vBulletin 4 Suite installed on their official vBulletin.com forums. Guess what? We’re all still waiting!

This highlights another problem that vBulletin customers may think hard about now. If Internet Brands are having such huge issues in updating their own “vBulletin 3.8 to vBulletin 4″, what does this mean for their customers who will have to do the same thing soon also?

It’s just not good enough really is it

Sorry Internet Brands, but this failure to be able to update your own official vBulletin forums in a timely and professional manner, nor to post any updates on your Frontpage explaining what the problem is in more detail for customers to understand. And then to have your staff posting cover-up stories on other sites to try and smooth things over with “very questionable” reasons = Epic Fail!

Now, two days later after Internet Brands first launched their new look front-page with lots of information posted on it about vBulletin 4, plus full pricing details. And let not forget the rather pathetic 2 week discount time being offered which caused most of the fuss from customers on their official vBulletin forum later that same day. You’d have to say nothing much has changed since!

Yeah! Less customers are having their say two day later, but that’s to be expected really. It would have been hard anyhow to have kept up what went on that first day – which can only be described as “World War 3″ breaking out on vBulletin minus the nukes. Now though it’s all simmered down to be more like an Invasion of Iceland with 20 soldiers armed with French bread rolls and butter.

Sure some customers are still moaning, and talk is still about vBulletin 4 issues in general. But the initial aftermath of that first day which saw the vBulletin beach-head left stained red with IB blood is over. Giving them some breathing space to reflect back on what just happened.

Internet Brands are casting a very dark shadow over themselves, many customers have lost all faith in anything they have to say about vBulletin 4 now or in the future. They could never have planned for the kind of negative reaction they got two days ago, and it’s something they should be very concerned about indeed!

I’ve never seen anything like it

In all my time at vBulletin as a paying customer, I’ve never seen the likes of what happened like that before, with so many customers expressing their anger in no uncertain terms on there hidden forum board. That’s right I said “HIDDEN”, as a guest (none customer) you cannot see what was posted on that forum board at vBulletin. So on the surface all looks serial and calm, which is exactly what Internet Brands want you to see there as a visiting guest.

They’re even venting anger in Twitter

Even in Twitter I’ve been seeing some very senior (customers) from vBulletin, who I just happen to follow. Posting they are now moving over to IPB (Invision) forum software instead, expressing their anger in Twitter for all to see and read. When you start seeing long standing and faithful vBulletin customers doing this who have supported them for many years, it really IS time for Internet Brands to sit-up, take the bull by the horns, and do something now about stopping the rot before it gets worse than it already is.

I can even foresee in 12 months time if things carry on like this, they’ll be left with a company they purchased in (vBulletin), worth a fraction of what they originally paid for it 2 years ago. Here’s hoping this latest WAR on the vBulletin forum teaches Internet Brands a hard lesson:

Never treat your customers like mugs because of greed, they’ll come back and bite you were it hurts most – your profit sales margin butt!

Don’t believe the vBulletin public relations hype

Some staff members at vBulletin are trying to “project an image” that all is going well and according to plan with the sale of the new vBulletin 4 Suite. Keep in mind here that these staff members saying this get (paid) for doing a job, and as such have their own lively-hoods at stake here should Internet Brands (vBulletin) self implode to the bottom of the ocean.

The truth is, many customers have already done a walk and slammed the vBulletin door hard behind them on the way out. Moving over to pastures much greener at IPB (Invision). IPB themselves have posted that they are getting inundated with new angry vBulletin customers, and that they’ve had to take extra measures to deal with the huge influx of extra sales being generated by them jumping ship.

Internet Brands are selling you something that’s not even ready

Remember also, that Internet Brands are trying to sell you something in the: “vBulletin 4 Suite”, that’s not even out yet! In fact, it’s still only in the Alpha testing stage. No time-line has been given as to when they even expect it to go final release, which of course they can’t give with it only being in Alpha.

Now forgive me for saying this, but who the hell is going to buy something that they can’t even see in action on their own official vBulletin forum, let alone be able to download and use after paying good money for it. They don’t even have a working DEMO for people to test before making their minds-up whether to buy or not.

Is it just me, or does this sound a little like: Trying to sell Ice to the Eskimos in summer. I mean really, is it any wonder customers after hanging-on since 2007 (when Internet Brands first purchased vBulletin), have now finally decided enough is enough and are jumping off a sinking ship like rats drowning fast.

The bottom line

You want the truth, I’ll give it you! With Christmas just around the corner, and it being the Biggest Sales period of the year for any company. It’s looking like Internet Brands have not developed vBulletin 4 faster than they’d hoped: “Having it ready for the Christmas peak time sales“.

Because they don’t want to miss this biggest sales window of the year, they now want you to buy something which you can’t download nor even use. This is their so called (leap of faith) which they expect you to take so blindly, just so they can bag the bucks at your expense, leaving you with an empty Christmas stocking!

Well, Internet Brands announced an extended sale. They might as well call it a brand new sale given the fact that new vBulletin customers have to pay $160.00 instead of $130.00. I wonder who would notice.

Here’s my two cents. It’s my opinion they are  loosing customers and fast. To attract new ones or existing ones, they’re extending the sale. Let us not forget the bonus benefits of burying all the negative articles against them in the last few days. That’s most definitely an added bonus!

But like I said, who noticed the price went up?

During this extension period, the price of the Publishing Suite will be $160 for existing vBulletin customers with active licenses, a discount of more than 40 percent off of the regular price of the product. New customers can purchase the Suite for the discounted price of $235 during this period.
Source: Marketwire

So once again, being an original vBulletin customers only gets you screwed over more. Plus we’re now paying $160.00, the cost of the original vBulletin license. How poetic.

Just a small reminder for everyone today’s the deadline for the license. While all this Internet Brands flames keep burning, at least remind yourself that the upgrade deal still closes today.

But let me say for the record, we’re getting screwed. We are being forced to buy new licenses.

Where I stand, this is how I feel how Internet Brands speaks to me as a customer:

All those updates we were promised for blog. Well, they’re worthless We’ve changed our mind. No more updates, unless you buy a vBulletin 4 Suite License

Your owned licenses? We don’t care about security or updates. No more updates after our license download period expires. No more updates, unless at minimum you buy a vBulletin 4 Forum license. But we think the Suite license is better.

Project Tools? You bought it? Well, guess you’re screwed now. It’s being given away for free. So look at it this way, you’re getting added value for your license!

So for those of us who actually are worried about security are being forced to shell out $130.00. For all us older license holders, stop and think a moment. Think how much in reality we’re really spending. We’re spending far more than we should. If Internet Brands truly wanted us as customers, they’d port our vBulletin 4 licenses at minimum for free to vBulletin 4 licenses, plus give us one year for free. Not make us pay our way into license changes.

We paid our $160.00 owned license. We paid our $180.00 license. We want our promise of paying for updates. We want our access to vBulletin.org. Why are you making us pay 72% of our original license cost? Or 82%? Is it because you want more money Internet Brands?

Oh it’s a suite license? Well then, let me remind me you too that we’re paying at least $290.00. Some are even paying $310.00. That’s more than the $235.00 price tag listed on vBulletin.com.

You say it’s a Pre-Sale Price and that price will go away today?

HELLO!? Do you hear yourself talking? Even after the pre-sale, the price tag goes up to 285.00. Furthermore you’re making the former vBulletin license holders pay even MORE after the presale, to the tune of $250.00 more. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS MORE. So what happened to the $160.00 I paid? Or $180.00?

It’s discounted from $285.00 regular price tag?

I’m just sure customers loved knowing they saved $35.00 to convert their original license over and that they know their licenses are worth pennies.

Internet Brands only cares for you…when you have your wallet in hand.

So as I go off now to swipe my VISA card tonight to pay for the poor, stupid excuse of a license update tonight with Internet Brands, I’ll be doing it as one pissed off customer, for being forced to pay for something I shouldn’t, and at the same time, mourning, knowing that my beloved software, my beloved vBulletin, has been raped.

P.S. Don’t forget our support contract changes too! I was reminded the other day when visiting the vBulletin.com Forums. It goes away too. We have to pay a wonderful annual fee for ticket support. But support via the forums are free! That’s assuming if you’re able to access the forums because you’ve been banned.