Forum Moderation Announcement

[vbulletin]

As vBulletin has grown over the years we have often allowed posts on our forums which frankly are not constructive and which other companies would not allow on their sites. We have done this in the belief that most people can be reasonable and conduct themselves maturely and constructively. We still believe that most people act this way.

However it is clear that this policy has only opened the door for types of conduct and comments that are simply over the top and not acceptable. This is going to change as of now.

Please be aware that we will no longer allow posts with non-constructive rants, inflammatory language and trolling on our forums. We are aware that some people are used to being allowed to get away with such things. But beginning now that will no longer be the case. Such posts represent a distorted picture to current and potential customers and while we would like to be able to trust people to act maturely, events have proven that is simply not possible. We will, of course, continue to respond to real questions.

To the vast majority of our customers that have supported us over the years and that have responded to the vB4 Pre-sales event positively with their record orders, we say thank you and will do everything in our power to reward your faith and vote of confidence with exciting new things for the future.

[Joeychgo]

Okay then.

[Peggy]

yeah that's what I said.

[Big Dan]

hehe, I guess all the detractors on the new licensing agreement are on the short list for banning.:evillaugh:

[Hell³]

Well, this situation has become a complete PR nightmare for IB:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/30/vbulletin_defends_forum_bans/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/28/vbulletin_controversy/

[protoss]

lmao...it's all so pathetic you have to laugh.
It's so unprofessional and is quite evident simply by visiting vbulletin.com.

[Neal]

Deleting posts and comments from customers about how bad they have organised things is disgusting. Do they only want good comments? Letting people vent their feelings as long as they aren't threatening or vulgar on their site was the best thing, people who get banned tend to start sites slating them and they get more bad attention focussed on their product.

I'm not banned, but I hate their new policy and forums.

[protoss]

When you consider that the mess is of their own making.

It's not us that have released a half baked excuse of a beta vB4 style which looks good in Firefox and very poor in IE8.

If this had been done professionally then the style would have been almost completed and not tweaked here and there because of member complaints / suggestions on the forum.

We are talking about a community based software, yet it appears as if the IB team don't realise this. It appears to be more a case of personal taste rather than consumer appeal.

It's little wonder that there was an exodus of Staff this year.

[Neal]

The bad looks and organisation made me change one forum to IPB. Been using vBulletin for years and have owned licenses.

The turning point was seeing all the people that created vBulletin leave, I knew something was going to go wrong.

[Neal]

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php?b=2379

All moderated, and all good comments allowed to post.

I posted that IP has ruined vBulletin, and i'm sure it wont appear.

[Mike54]

Somebody at INET needs some thicker skin.

They have failed by trying to shove the negative feedback under the rug. They've only succeeded in shoving people out the door. They've failed to understand Sun-tzu was right when he said, 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.'

Had they merely acted on the negative feedback, they may have salvaged at least some part of the mess they've created. The more they wanted to ignore customers and swing their ban-stick around, the more they've cut into their own earnings.

They sure enough had a real mess with all the people griping the way they were, but ignoring those people wasn't the solution. Neither was blowing smoke up everyone's bum. Maybe vB Solutions is selling record numbers of licenses, but I seriously doubt it. I noticed an IPB employee made the comment that last week was their best week ever. So you tell me if there's suddenly been that many new people buying forum licenses or if someone is still blowing smoke.

Pitiful management can break the back of the strongest companies and INET is certainly doing a splendid job of illustrating that fact.