Desperation is becoming apparent...

[Martin]

Well, though I cannot say absolutely that it's related, Ted is now soliciting hack ideas to be incorporated into UBB 6.0 for release this summer. I think it's kind of funny becuase they always said that they wouldn't incorporate hacks because of the additional server strain.

I don't know if it's because now there is a serious competitor here or if it's just a scheduled upgrade.

I also have to wonder if it's another bait and switch like they did with OpenTopic.

[werehere]

All I can say is, Congradulations John, and James! Thank you for putting out such a wonderful (and superior product:))

[Music Global Network]

Trust me it is competitor related. Two minutes after I posted the URL to this site in the conversation section via a request from the Lockman, Info-Pop deleted my post and Ted posted a hack of his own (A first in almost 1 year) and then he started a Hackarama post. That was right after he posted the new rules for the conversational forum. It is sooo funny! I would not be surprised if they added VBulletin to the censored word list.

Unfortunately for them I think they are a little too late. The bottom line is that they just blow a lot of wind and do not listen to their customers enough. All the hacks can be added into UBB in just a weekend of coding...hehe it takes them until Summer? Hell I do not even know perl that great and I did it.

Michael Butterfield
Music Global Network
http://musicglobalnetwork.com

[Stallion]

I talked with Michael a couple of weeks ago about vB, and he said that he knew about it, and had checked it out when John was in contact with them.

Competition is really nothing new -- they've had cfboards.com and that other CF forum (forget the name) around for quite a while.

Although I am excited Ted's making hacks again :)

[Martin]

I agree that there is the possibility that the timing is coincidental, but I seriously think it was part of the decision. Remember when they kept so many of us from leaving by promising the SQL back end?

As far as Cold Fusion boards, well Cold Fusion isn't as widely available in ISP's as mySQL and PHP are. There was never really any worry of competition from anything powered by Cold Fusion. With something like this, using technologies that most hosting providers already offer and others are rushing to offer, there is a real threat of competition and decline in sales of UBB as it is now a bloated, under-featured, third generation product.

[Music Global Network]

Since you last spoke with them much has been done on this VBulletin project to worry them a little bit more.

For me Customer Support is number one, I mean if a good idea comes along to hack in, put it in. Add features frequently. Info-Pop has not in my opinion put out anything significant in features for about a half year. I will not renew my license with them no matter what.

I am not saying for sure I will go with VBulletin yet, but I have my eye on VBulletin for now. I will monitor support feedback for a while and then make a decision.

[jimbo]

I also noticed that they pruned the forums for the first time in as long as I was going there. I wonder if that has anything to do with the "speed" aspect of the UBB??

[Ken McCarthy]

I think InfoPop have every right to be worried and I too thought the UBB v6.0 post show signs of worry on their part, especially with the reference to an SQL back-end again.

My licence is due for renewal around June I think, so I probably will buy vBulletin, I had consdidered doing someng similiar by myself anyway, but why build when I can buy and tweak!

I think I started to get peeved with InfoPop around the time of the big scare with postings.cgi, this happened at a time when the OpenTopic debate was just starting. When I saw how poor their customer service was in this regard, first dismissing the possability and then reacting far too slowly I was very disillusioned, believe me when I saw the mail arriving from my server with the entire contents of my Members directory I was in a state of shock. The only funny thing about this was that the sub-routine in postings.cgi that caused the problem was called, wait for it OpenTopic!

[shri]

The problem with Infopop's product is that the presentation layer is built into the code... i.e. its not template based.

This worries me everytime I implement a hack or want to change the layout a even a tiny bit (and it goes beyond implementing headers and footers).

Hopefully with vBulletin there are distinct layers between the presentation, logic and data. If this is the case, Infopop needs to be a little bit worried as it competes with their OpenTopic product (UBB would not take too much to compete with).

Shri

[risestar]

Ted's cgi based program, although offering poor html, was a pioneer in its day as far as functionality.

However, cgi is often not a viable option on large and popular sites due to its server cpu usage.

If vbulletin had not been released when it was, I was going to be forced to pay somone to rewrite the UBB into php or get somekind of load sharing scheme with caching server in place.

Open Topic is not an option for me as I have a dedicated server as do a lot of UBB'ers

Hes still the top dog, Vbulletin is 90% based on his software and still has a go, but he is going to have to ofer more options like a sql backend to remain competitive.

That would be bad business for him though, due to his investment in OpenTopic. Releasing a SqlUBB would definated scuttle it, however I think it would pay off for him in the long run.

Either that, or release opentopic as a off the shelf product like UBB.

Watching Ted and John go head to head promises to be interesting though. :)

[wandrer]

as seen at:

http://beta.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?q=Y&a=tpc&s=1000946&f=7000946&m=43309967

Ars has more posts than this board. There are a few database queries that do not work as well as they should. I am working on to optimising these to make larger boards work just as fast as this one.

I thought that one of the main objectives of OpenTopic was that it was designed to handle large boards in a far quicker and more efficient manner than that of the UBB script? I appreciate that the product is still in beta, but will the product be suitable for large clients on May 15?

[John]

Got a server error when I tried that beta site :(

[werehere]

Yeah they are down half of the time with hosting problems as it seems.

[wandrer]

all i can say is:

"And that is their response to people who maxed out UBB ? All everyone ever wanted was a sql version. Didn't matter if it was Perl, PHP, or C, but a sql backend. And this is what they give them ?"

[Menno]

Infopop isn't listening to the clients...
They do what they want to do

[Kevin]

Reading the number of questions coming up on Infopop's board, all of which Infopop continues to dodge (even critical ones on sites control of banners-ads/hosting cost ranges/the ability of the system to handle X users, etc.) just makes me have pity for those who are still sticking with OT... too bad Charles Capps seems to have gone back to the dark side; hope he comes back soon...

But I did like one feature that they have: Ratings on each thread. I don't think it would be hard to implement on vB and particularly if it was coupled with an Active Topics like display module, it could be an interesting way to allow users to receive a displayed list of the highest rated topics in the areas that they're most interested in.

[shri]

Ratings would not be that difficult to implement if the templates where parseble.

In the showthread template you could call something like

<? require("ratethis.php"); ?>

I gotta follow up with John on this... have been slacking off on the vB integration while I search for new ad networks.

[werehere]

I have a question already posted on this topic. He said they will be implemented in a future version, sometime around summer I think.