vbulletin.org (day after tomorrow)

Which should have really translated as the following.... vbulletin.org (the months after gold). Touching on a few responses made in another thread about vbulletin.org the site, it's contributors and so forth what will be the outcome to this what people find to be the food source of our scripts, addons and other fine resources.

Do you think the top developers will continue developing for free?
Will the org eventually come out of the 3.6 series stage which it's stagnated on for the last several years?

 

I think they will continue to post their hacks for free. Only reason i say that is because allot of coders enjoy the publicity it brings them. Some are very very talented and offer lite versions, which lead to purchased versions. Trying to not go off topic, but after my banning at vbulletin.com, i was stunned when i found i couldn't log into vbulletin.org anymore. I like looking at hacks people are putting together......Hopefully one day, we will share hacks here at adminaddict......

 

What is really needed in my view is a for profit site to come along and out do vb.org.

The premise would be that if a coder wants to post free stuff they can, but if they aslo want to paid stuff they can do that as well without dancing around the fact the free version is a teaser version.

There needs to be much better organization as well. You can't tell what hacks are new there. They get buried in the chatter so quickly that some good stuff get lost.

There are much better ways to run that site.

For one thing it needs to be fully independent of the .com side of things.

 

I personally feel with the recent bannings and such that vbulletin.org (vbulletin solutions as a whole hold ato much of a monopoly on peoples free hacks who they have provided for all but won't reach other customers because vbulletin in the end dictate who and who will not access them. I think scripts being posted and readily available on 3rd party sites would be a good move so people who have been banned can still retain their updates in case security flaws are found and members don't have access to the scripts.

Posted scripts on 3rd party sites is a godsend I expect for some folk. I kow I post all my contributions to all license holders not some because others pissed vbulletin solutions off.

 

Well said Gnaster (i'm quite sure I keep misspelling your name )

 

That would be a great idea.........Hopefully someone comes up with a site like that or maybe nick can look at making a little bit of a transformation of this site and see if people would come over here too for mods.

 

That would be awesome. If people are really interested, I can look into it... Contact me with some ideas, people.

By the way, I would be creating a sister site, not transforming AA, for those who may become concerned.

 

now THATS a good idea brother...

 

In case it makes a difference they were discussing a vb apps store in the comments of this blog
Dear vBulletin Developers... - Blogs - vBulletin Community Forum

 

Yeah, I lost abit of faith in a lot of that happening in a timely manner and without a lot of mis-steps after the "chat with a developer" event today.

 

I did not get all warm and fuzzy inside either.

 

schwinngg!!!!

 

I missed the chat, but read thru the transcript what a disaster vB4 is really starting to look like internally.

How can you not have OpenID integration along with Facebook and social media integration built into the product. This is supposed to be the best forum software and cutting edge, but doesn't provide featues that free solutions ship with.

 

Look on the bright side. Maybe we will see it as a feature in vb5 . Afterall, it would be futile to give the customers everything in vb4. Always keep people wanting more and retain a level of mediocrity which leaves the majority unaware and happy with the product.

Maybe this feature will be a paid addon that vbulletin solutions will offer.

 

I personally didn't see anything in the transcript saying anything new whatsoever, so I'm not going to class vBulletin 4 as a disaster. But personally, I hope vBulletin.org gets scrapped, or at least gets completely new management. The site as it is... is just too far behind to keep, and could do a lot better with more actual paid staff as well as volunteers maintaining it.

So quite honestly, what I think needs to happen is:

1. Impex + vBulletin.org database
2. Drop all modifications made to vBulletin.org. Tough luck. Start from fresh vBulletin 4
3. Drop and completely revamp the style and layout.
4. Upgrade to vBulletin 4, using the new features like built in tags and what not.
5. Hire more paid staff from Jelsoft/vBulletin Solutions/Internet Brands to manage it backend wise.
6. Use the CMS for the articles, modifications, styles, graphics, etc.
7. Use blogs for the developers who make various modifications, as well as the staff team. Basically, it would act like an insight into how the community codes their top notch mods/hacks.
8. Use project tools for the modification bugs and what not, as well as problems with the site. This would unclutter the modification topics, and maybe make it so things like suggestions and bugs get seperate sections.
9. Have forum to post paid mods, as in details, link to where to get them, etc.
10. Profit!

 

Oh, and replace that portal with the vBulletin 4 CMS. Done. Problem solved.

 

Note: Since there are two threads discussing the same topic, the posts related to the CMS and the queries it uses have been moved to this thread: http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/vbulletin/vbulletin-4-coding-quality-4688/

 

I would so love if I were able to make a completely new vB mod site, but I'll stick to IPB for now.

 

A few of us have been brainstorming some ideas for a vb.org replacement and if you would please, share some of your ideas:

What are the strong points of the .org site?

What are some of the weakness's of the .org site?

As a site owner what sort of features would you want to see in this site?

As a developer what sort of features would you want to see in this site?

Any comments?

Thanks...

 

When you say a few of us... who?

The strong points of vbulletin.org is the community, their contributions and willingness to provide for free quality resources. Without them the site is just another board. You take away their creative scripts and thinking the vbulletin.org site is your plain bog standard board

Weaknesses - Lazy staff, The means to leave a (what could be great) a site to stagnate and ride the backbone of the contributors work.

As a developer and site owner my suggestions are plastered all over the feedback area over there and some ideas and brainstorming I have now are kept to myself and a small group of forum script developers.