Former vBulletin lead developer Kier Darby to develop new forum software?
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vBulletin - Sometimes, I'm just like, Wow, and then I'm like, Whoa, and then I'm like, Damn.
vBulletin.org's ol' Moderator
I have a lifetime terrorist hunting permit - #091101
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im not sold on xenforo yet.
i still have vivid memories of the kier days of vb3, the lack of communication, resistance to feedback, the stagnation... many of the things people complain about, such as the compartmentalisation of vb, overblown permissions, convoluted admincp, etc, predate IB. i think IBs ham-fisted management has made the old devs into christ figures, but my memory isnt nearly so kind.
reading over xenforo, it seems kier and co are again taking the stance they they know better what my communities want, in effect managing by proxy. it appears many things are done in a way simply to make them different; changes for the sake of change. i am having a hard time with that. imo if an upstart wants to knock vb off its perch it needs to create the board vb users have been begging for for years. the guys at xenforo should know what that board is, if they had ever paid attention. instead they are trying to reinvent the wheel.
i will def keep one foot in the water over there, but i reckon my future is at ipb.
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your doorComment
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im not sold on xenforo yet.
i still have vivid memories of the kier days of vb3, the lack of communication, resistance to feedback, the stagnation... many of the things people complain about, such as the compartmentalisation of vb, overblown permissions, convoluted admincp, etc, predate IB. i think IBs ham-fisted management has made the old devs into christ figures, but my memory isnt nearly so kind.
reading over xenforo, it seems kier and co are again taking the stance they they know better what my communities want, in effect managing by proxy. it appears many things are done in a way simply to make them different; changes for the sake of change. i am having a hard time with that. imo if an upstart wants to knock vb off its perch it needs to create the board vb users have been begging for for years. the guys at xenforo should know what that board is, if they had ever paid attention. instead they are trying to reinvent the wheel.
i will def keep one foot in the water over there, but i reckon my future is at ipb.ManagerJosh, Owner of 4 XenForo Licenses, 1 vBulletin Legacy License, 1 Internet Brands Suite License
Director, WorldSims.org | Gaming Hosting Administrator, SimGames.net, Urban Online EntertainmentComment
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Of course it helps a lot to have been at the core of the vB team (even if this means that the same people are also responsible for introducing many of the things in vB that now needs to be changed). And while features may be simple to add, the thing that IMO could make any new forum software shine would be a user interface (for end users and especially for admins) that would be a lot simpler and not require as many steps as eg. editing/creating skins in vB4 requires. If the XenForo developers work on a solution which makes it easy to change colors/fonts etc without having to deal with both Stylevars and CSS, and which would require all these steps just to figure out which parameter to edit, they'll have a brilliant product.
But it will still take a lot of time before they have implemented a feature set rivaling vB, and who knows what the vB team is working on while the XF team is working on adding all the features vB already has. Since XF has a more or less public Alpha, IB could even add many of XF's features (Follow Users/"Your News Feed", Personal Conversations with multiple users, Static Pages etc) to vB even before XF has reached Beta or a Release Candidate.Comment
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vB5 is unequivocally the best forum software, but not yet...👍 1Comment
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vbulletin already has lots of features, and some of xfs "new ones" are also available in vbulletin, although in a different implementation:
- Static Pages are possible with vbulletin cms.
- The Follow Users workaround is to put the user on your contact list (including friendship system, not sure if xf has that)Comment
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December 2002 - Kier becomes Lead Developer
March 2004 - vBulletin 3.0 released
September 2004 - vBulletin 3.5.0 released
August 2006 - vBulletin 3.6 released
July 2007 - Internet Brands acquires vBulletin
November 2007 - vBulletin 3.7 released
January 2009 - vBulletin 3.8 released
December 2009 - vBulletin 4 released
I've personally witnessed a big communication breakdown around late 2007. But that's my personal observation and takeManagerJosh, Owner of 4 XenForo Licenses, 1 vBulletin Legacy License, 1 Internet Brands Suite License
Director, WorldSims.org | Gaming Hosting Administrator, SimGames.net, Urban Online EntertainmentComment
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The suggestions forum became more or less completely ignored years before that. Not that it's anything but a black hole now, but feature stagnation and lack of vision and innovativeness have been plaguing vB years before IB came along.Former endorsement revoked. You know the saying - one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel...👍 1Comment
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Lots of people went, right. But there are also new people involved in vbulletin as as Adrian, which is nice!Comment
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And I don't think Internet Brands understood all this, and knew enough to realise just what they was getting into really when they first purchased Jelsoft.Last edited by MRGTB; Tue 3 Aug '10, 3:39am.👍 1Comment
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In my opinion, what really put vb to the top was vb.org. Unfortunately they have a strange policy of preventing independent coders to advertise their products, although this could have translated into more sales for them. The world is not made of IB and Xenforo developers only. I think the company that will allow external developers to show users how they can extend their forums will be the winner. I sincerely hope that xenforo will not take the vB stance about that.👍 1Comment
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I had to search for a year to find all commercial addons, coders and desginers available. IB and Jelsoft have been very effective at hiding commercial possibilities for vbulletin from their customers. As such they also hide the potential of their software and take away the breeding grounds for new addons. Limiting growth of new functionality and thereby limiting their own sales.
I believe Lionel is spot on. The company that will allow external developers, designers to advertise their products and services will win. Even if it is a new company like XenForo. But from comments on the XF forum, it seems that XenForo will sail the same route as vbulletin did some years ago.
It's easy to prove that what Lionel says is true. Just take a look at the features that are being requested from XenForo. Its the same over and over again: a feature set that ranges way beyond a forum, or what vbulletin has to offer. Even beyond what IPB has to offer. Market demand is where no company currently is.I buy 420 forums
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I hate to tell you the amount of people that come to my site and had in their mind that vB was just a forum. Sure enough, after they saw my addons, they came back to buy them, and of course had to buy vB first.
And the amount of customers that told me that they don't like vB because it's all the same look. When I pointed out to them some real gorgeous templates, that was enough for them to come here and grab their copy.
Unfortunately I am just one person.Comment
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