vBulletin 4.0 is going to cost even more? (vBulletin Leaked)

**Cerberus** · 05-16-2009, 06:19 PM

I think anyone who has been a member for over a year and owns multiple licenses should get a break. You know people like me LOL

**Big Dan** · 05-16-2009, 09:23 PM

The support aspect doesn't bother me much, I think I've used support once or twice and only when told to escalate via the forum. Outside of billing issues (which should still be free), I have no use for support -- My fellow webmasters have always helped me out, at great places like here and FAQ.

Now if it's support due to or about a bug, I think that should be free. It will be interesting to see how they deal with this. I definitely think vB stands to loose some of their best customers who go through and spend the time reporting bugs maybe not loose them in the sense of them not running vB boards but in the sense of reporting bugs and giving constructive feedback.

vB.org worries me too; for me one the biggest selling points of vBulletin was not only the amount of add-ons out but calibre of the people developing them. There are many developers who are happy to spend their time with you fixing/tracking down an issue with one of their addons. If this change in licensing structure alienates the hackers/developers/theme designers and causes them to back away a lot of others are going to follow them to whatever platform the coders go to.

I think with this move, IB/Jelsoft is really acting like and making themselves feel like a 'corporation' and most coders/geeks aren't down with that.

**Rocket 442** · 05-16-2009, 11:30 PM

I cleaned up this thread a bit and moved the MyBB / vB debate into its own thread in the General Discussion Forum.

**Nick R** · 05-17-2009, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rocket 442

I cleaned up this thread a bit and moved the MyBB / vB debate into its own thread in the General Discussion Forum.

Thank you Andy.

**PixelFX** · 05-17-2009, 07:26 PM

will be interesting to see what they do with this, preparing for sleepless nights in july .....

**Hemanth** · 05-18-2009, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rocket 442

I cleaned up this thread a bit and moved the MyBB / vB debate into its own thread in the General Discussion Forum.

Can't find it? Are they deleted now?

Do you have a link?

**rsdworker** · 05-18-2009, 04:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hemanth

Can't find it? Are they deleted now?

Do you have a link?

i think i saw that thread - which was locked - yesterday i think - but only brandon may know what happened

**Brandon Sheley** · 05-18-2009, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsdworker

i think i saw that thread - which was locked - yesterday i think - but only brandon may know what happened

the mybb thread? it was deleted, the user that was trying to fight has been removed

**ohiosweetheart** · 05-18-2009, 02:43 PM

whew, good!

kilcher · 05-18-2009, 11:47 PM

I believe it was leaked intentionally and this is why... The leaked internal documents were being discussed on their own forum for days before anyone from IB even acknowledged it. I highly doubt a company would allow that without saying or doing anything about it.

**Soliloquy** · 05-19-2009, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kilcher

I believe it was leaked intentionally and this is why... The leaked internal documents were being discussed on their own forum for days before anyone from IB even acknowledged it. I highly doubt a company would allow that without saying or doing anything about it.

Yeah, and the way they were conspicuously advocating for the vB consumer while raising prices and cutting support... seemed a bit deliberate.

**Cindyl10** · 05-19-2009, 09:23 AM

Thanks for the heads up on this Brandon. I don't know what we're going to do yet, guess we'll have to wait and see. It will depend on what they do for existing customers really. Since I just bought mine last year, I really didn't think I was going to have to do so again so soon... Oh well, like I said, we'll wait and see. I do appreciate the heads up though. At least now we can discuss it and try to determine what the best thing to do is. I'm leaning toward not buying it right off simply because they don't seem to be doing a beta and I'm concerned about bugs... but I'll wait till it actually comes out and then see what you guys have to say about it. If it's really stable and not full of bugs then we might just go for it.

**scottct1** · 05-19-2009, 12:46 PM

I think vBulletin 4 could be the death of vBulletin. If it comes out and is buggy then no one is going to want to upgrade to it.

The fact that they are not beta testing means the mod writers will not be able to mod it until its officially released.

Also much of what I am hearing about vBulletin 4 is that it really dosent add anything new, why pay to upgrade to something that is essentually vBulletin 3.9?

In addition if I paid my fee for one year of updates then vBulletin 4 better be included.

I dont care about the support, the support sucks anyways. How many times have you guys needed support and get back and email telling you to revert all your templates... then get another one telling you they can't support you since you have mods install from vb.org?

**noppid** · 05-19-2009, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottct1

I think vBulletin 4 could be the death of vBulletin. If it comes out and is buggy then no one is going to want to upgrade to it.

The fact that they are not beta testing means the mod writers will not be able to mod it until its officially released.

Also much of what I am hearing about vBulletin 4 is that it really dosent add anything new, why pay to upgrade to something that is essentually vBulletin 3.9?

In addition if I paid my fee for one year of updates then vBulletin 4 better be included.

I dont care about the support, the support sucks anyways. How many times have you guys needed support and get back and email telling you to revert all your templates... then get another one telling you they can't support you since you have mods install from vb.org?

Not to mention that the support staff are the most condescending people in the business.

**ohiosweetheart** · 05-19-2009, 02:09 PM

I don't believe it was "leaked" intentionally. Forum permissions are easy to mess up. As I've said here before, both Brandon and I have done the same thing.

@scottct1 - It's never been said there would not be beta testing. It said there won't be public beta testing.

If you read the threads at vB.com, you'll find that quite a few mod authors and designers have been invited to test vB 4. This is common knowledge as of 2 days ago.

Further, 4.0 adds alot of new features to vB, i.e. new layout, new (and very attractive, imo) default skin, new templating system, new cms (granted you'll have to pay for that), and more.

Additionally, the support that I've experienced has always been good, and very helpful.

**Brandon Sheley** · 05-19-2009, 02:27 PM

it looks like we got mentioned in the photopost newsletter

Quote:

According to a leaked vBulletin internal discussion memo written by vBulletin's CS manager Steve, regarding vBulletin 4.0 (posted 5/13/09 at vbulletinsetup.com), they have plans to increase the cost of vBulletin and they make no mention of a photo gallery for 4.0. So, there's no point in waiting for photo gallery features from vBulletin, especially when PhotoPost has been doing this so well for so many years:
vBulletin 4.0 is going to cost even more? (vBulletin Leaked)

**Caddyman** · 05-19-2009, 02:55 PM

nice link Brandon!!

**ArnyVee** · 05-19-2009, 04:43 PM

I was just about to post that link Brandon.

I got it this morning.

**Cindyl10** · 05-19-2009, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottct1

I think vBulletin 4 could be the death of vBulletin. If it comes out and is buggy then no one is going to want to upgrade to it.

The fact that they are not beta testing means the mod writers will not be able to mod it until its officially released.

Also much of what I am hearing about vBulletin 4 is that it really dosent add anything new, why pay to upgrade to something that is essentually vBulletin 3.9?

In addition if I paid my fee for one year of updates then vBulletin 4 better be included.

I dont care about the support, the support sucks anyways. How many times have you guys needed support and get back and email telling you to revert all your templates... then get another one telling you they can't support you since you have mods install from vb.org?

That's pretty much how I feel as well. 99% of the time, I've come here for help because I can't get any there anyway. There have been a couple of times times that I got help there but that was on a mod and from the mod developer.

That's true too what you say about having paid the fees for a year of updates too.

**Brandon Sheley** · 05-19-2009, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caddyman

nice link Brandon!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArnyVee

I was just about to post that link Brandon.

I got it this morning.

Thanks, I was pretty jazzed to hear about it

**scottct1** · 05-20-2009, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brandon Sheley

it looks like we got mentioned in the photopost newsletter

That's how I found out about your site.

**Brandon Sheley** · 05-20-2009, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottct1

That's how I found out about your site.

cool

btw, you're welcome to make the links in your sig "live links"

mrgtb · 05-24-2009, 12:14 AM

Well at first I thought the pricing structure didn't look that bad, when you think you only have to pay an extra $15 to get life access to the same branch you bought, But then I read you only have 30 days support if you only buy the forum, meaning they will claw that money back and extra via the extremely expensive $80 for a years support.

All I can say is, I'm so glad I no longer have any interest in vBulletin software anymore. The writings been on the wall ever since IB first took over and started introducing some changes like the Adsense Integration they added to suit themselves.

And reading what's above in that image. It also looks like they are planning to create a closed shop for none vBulletin board owners now. What's ticked me off the most, is I've just read that closed thread over at vBulletin and that Steve Machol has the nerve before he closed it to try and act as though the prices have not been arranged. When here is a screen-shot to prove he's telling lies. So laughable I thought that one, and so typical of the cover-up's and lies that take place there lately!

Who leaked this information by the way, was it Floris by any chance having a grudge for them firing him off? The timing with him leaving seems rather conveniant too.

Of course you know they'll be coming here reading this thread and all our replies in it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sadik

well imho this "leak" is a deliberate and very intelligent ploy by Jelsoft to prepare customers for the tsunami of changes...

Totally agree now I've thought about it more. This is a leak done by vBulletin themselves to see the reponse is going to be, rather than them annouce it and people know for sure it's true.

**mdelcour** · 05-24-2009, 06:45 PM

Well here's my thought. If implemented as stated above, this would seriously open the door for smaller PHP based forum companies to excel (i.e. PhBB). I know that for me, this would be very hard to swallow, and I'm sure it would be for a lot more people as well. The support thing. Well, although I don't think it's a good idea, it really dosen't matter, I can get support from vbulletin.org. As far as the 900 thing, well, again, I don't use it, maybe there are people out there that do, but again, I think I can get the same support from vbulletin.org (and I could be wrong....who knows).

The one thing that I did like however, was the one price for life. That should have been done a long time ago, but it is clear where they want to re-coup that money from. I have a funny feeling that once 4.0 is released there will be A LOT of people that will be stuck using a 3.8x version, and not willing (or able) to upgrade.

Just my thought.

**noppid** · 05-25-2009, 10:13 AM

Despite all this, I just ponied up for another year. I was not happy at all with the 40% increase in price I paid.

The one fee for being expired for more than 60 days is a bullshit penalty fee. Way to show customer loyalty there folks! That's about as boneheaded as I have ever seen!

Oh well. That's the price of doing business for me. But for Joe blow, what a kick in the balls. Too funny.

**Mikey** · 05-25-2009, 07:57 PM

I think alot more people will turn to piracy, in honest truth

**scottct1** · 05-26-2009, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdelcour

Well here's my thought. If implemented as stated above, this would seriously open the door for smaller PHP based forum companies to excel (i.e. PhBB).

I started with PhpBB and when I grew to having 200+ online at a time I had to get rid of the software and move to vBulletin. PHPBB couldn't handle the load.

Now my site has 2000 - 3000 people online at a time and it runs great with no slowdown. Because I am a large board with close to 2 million posts I rely on vBulletin and know nothing that can replace it that performs as well.

For me the future of vBulletin looks scary as a big board owner. I have heard nothing on how vBulletin 4 will help board like mine continue to be the best they can be. Things need to be optimized better for Big Boards and the search engine needs a lot of work.

**Nick R** · 05-26-2009, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikey

I think alot more people will turn to piracy, in honest truth

That's certainly a great possibility. Very unfortunate, though.

I guess with all the extra cash Jelsoft/IB intends to bring in, they will be able to hire more Piracy Reports investigators.

**BamaStangGuy** · 05-26-2009, 09:22 PM

My ban from vBulletin ends tomorrow so I will finally be able to speak my mind on there again. Until I get banned again that is.

**KevinL** · 05-27-2009, 04:21 AM

I know I will probably get some flack from this but...

Are the price increases..if they are even that much...really that bad? If you compare it some other software out there it is still a deal. I understand that if you have more then one license it will cost more but I mean come on! Everything in time goes up! If nothing increased in price we would all still be buying cars for $2500 like in the 60's! Would it have been easier to swallow if it was an actual full re-write like everything they said and a price increase most likely, but this is what we get.

I just don't get why people don't think price increases should ever happen...especially since every company and every product that any of us has ever bought has gone up in price...