vBulletin is not making any progress

[alexi]

I fail to see that "lots of software" you're talking about, alexi. the only product Jelsoft are selling right now is vBulletin, and there is nothing to confirm or even hint that anything else is coming.

What I mean is a large quantity of their single product. If you sell a 100 copies of VB at 150 or 10 copies at 1500 you have made the same amount of money right?

[JakeS]

Doesn't anyone consider Impex a product?

Completely forgot about it.

[Onimua]

I fail to see that "lots of software" you're talking about, alexi. the only product Jelsoft are selling right now is vBulletin, and there is nothing to confirm or even hint that anything else is coming.

There have been hints here and there, though; and made by a couple of developers so far (both Kier and Freddie have said something in regards to future products, as well as some things about vBulletin 4).

[iardon]

That just creates a false hope and in my opinion it would be best if no hints were given at all.

It's not certain that Jelsoft will come out with another product. Who's to say that Jelsoft hasn't changed their mind? I don't know. Do you?

This whole secrecy thing is really over the top and unnecessary.

There have been hints here and there, though; and made by a couple of developers so far (both Kier and Freddie have said something in regards to future products, as well as some things about vBulletin 4).

[Greps]

Doesn't anyone consider Impex a product?

it's an addon which is free to all license holders and it's only maintained and developed to allow people to switch from competitor's cripts to vBulletin. it's no use to any existing vB forums.

[Zachery]

it's an addon which is free to all license holders and it's only maintained and developed to allow people to switch from competitor's cripts to vBulletin. it's no use to any existing vB forums.

Mergers?

[LeeCHeSSS]

Mergers?

Ah yes, what a good sales-argument: We have a product with which you can merge two boards should you manage to obtain another forum with existing members and content...

[Zachery]

Ah yes, what a good sales-argument: We have a product with which you can merge two boards should you manage to obtain another forum with existing members and content...

You wouldn't believe the number of people who use impex to do mergers, or to a lesser extent "clean" upgrades.

[Greps]

people rarely believe anything without proof. just like I find it hard to believe Wayne Luke that vB sales have increased recently, I find it even harder to believe that a merger is a great money spinner for Jelsoft.

[Zachery]

I didn't say anything about it generating more income, that Impex is a useful product and has been developed for the needs and the demands of the community.

[Greps]

it's funny that in this thread, you mention needs and demands of the community.

[Zachery]

Go back to the vB 2 days, look at .com and .org and the immense demand for actively updated importers and merger scripts.

[LeeCHeSSS]

Go back to the vB 2 days, look at .com and .org and the immense demand for actively updated importers and merger scripts.

I was not saying that it is not useful, just hardly a good sales argument. All the competitors worth considering when starting a forum, have the option to import posts from other systems. Maybe not as varied, but you probably only use that once, or twice tops.

EDIT: Anyway, this whole thread can only lead to one conclusion, that a large amount of vBulletin's customers wants more than just vague hints. I myself don't give a rat's arse about features like skype integration, but would've loved a CMS back when the first rumour was initiated by Jelsoft staff. Not anymore though, since I sure as hell was not going to wait for something which was just a rumour, so I installed a 3rd party hack (vBAdvanced) and modified it to my liking. Jelsoft really needs to come to their senses and try to be a reliable partner; inform your customers of your broad plans (you don't need to list every feature of a new product beforehand) and their estimated timeframes. Missing a deadline is not nearly as bad as not having any at all.

You know what, why not name as many large software development studios as possible that do not inform the press about what they are working on? I daresay it's not going to be a large list...

[nuno]

I am slowly migrating from vbulletin to community server. The beta of CS 2007 really is sweet. I run it on my dev server. Run 2.1 live
It kicks vbulletin butt in performance on Windows although the performance gain I attribute to php/mysql and not vbulletin. MSSQL/.Net is more robust.

That's a Windows-only solution. Sounds like a con to me.

[ManagerJosh]

Go back to the vB 2 days, look at .com and .org and the immense demand for actively updated importers and merger scripts.

Consider Impex is free and more to the point, is also used very infrequently, usually once or twice, during the lifetime a vBulletin install, it's rather a small demand for the product in the overall lifespan of a website. Short run, yes demand is huge. Long run, demand is rather small.

A lot of sites are committing to long term survival. In the long run, we're seeing the ramp up in demand for additions to cater to the ever growing communities Jelsoft has assisted to build.

Many of these sites who've committed to vBulletin are turning to Jelsoft right now to assist once more in building these communities further through requests like CMS, Galleries, etc. Why? Because many owe a great deal of gratitude to Jelsoft for helping them out make their communities what they are today. There is a great deal of loyalty to Jelsoft.

Overall, the investment we're talking about is massive, and to the point, all potential revenue for Jelsoft.

But loyalty will only take a company so far. It's now a not a matter of if, but when, people start moving away to other solutions simply because Jelsoft can't help their sites grow anymore.

Failure to further assist in the growth of communities will mean a loss in revenue from license renewals, new license purchases of current and future products, and even possibly phone support