vBulletin staff posting reviews of own software?

Discussion in 'vBulletin Discussions' started by CM30, Feb 24, 2013.

  1. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

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    http://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.vbulletin.com

    Yeah, look at some of the removed reviews. They're by the development/support staff on vBulletin.com! You can see one by Mark B, one by Wayne Luke, and from what I hear, there was once even one by Lawrence Cole!

    Great job on trying to boost your own rating up guys! It's not quite astroturfing/review sockpuppets yet, but it's seeming awfully close...

    Seriously though, why did they even bother? I mean, some negative reviews might have been removed as well, but from I can tell most of the 'real'/'unbiased' reviews were positive to begin with! All this did is get the usual vBulletin hate squad over lowering the product rating! Wouldn't it have been best just to leave it and be happy with an 80% odd review average?

    What do you think about vBulletin's staff reviewing their own product?
     
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  2. Martin W

    Martin W Regular Member

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    It could be a group or solo person just impersonating them just to try and make the company look worse - never take that out of the possibilities.

    However if it was them it is not a great thing to do.
     
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  3. fattony69

    fattony69 Regular Member

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    They were flagged already.
     
  4. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Regular Member

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    What I don't get is why vBSI makes staff buy a copy of vBulletin... WTF kind of whacky job is that... "Hi, welcome to your new job... your first $400 will be deducted from your paycheck, but at least you own a copy vBulletin now."

     
  5. AWS

    AWS Administrator

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    You get the scratch from wherever you can when sales are bottoming out.
     
  6. Carlos

    Carlos Regular Member

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    I just think that IB has no clue where to advertise vBulletin. As a lot of businesses do make these practices. For example, restaurants, bars, and clubs make promoters/managers employ tactics to make their restaurants, bars, and clubs look really good by posting fake reviews. In the gaming world, major companies pay major publications to make good reviews of the games the company intends to gain 60% of customers on review sites.
     
  7. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Regular Member

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    Sadly it appears they don't have a clue about much of anything... including but not limited to software design & development, marketing, scalability, server administration & configuration.

    Watching vBulletin collapse in on itself is really like watching a Saturday Night Live skit for nerds... it's so bad it can't be real, but it is... lol
     
  8. Brandon

    Brandon Regular Member

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    They are quickly showing the world what kind of joke they actually are!
    I have a free vb5 license but it'll be about a year before I mess with an install again and that's only if there has been a massive line of improvements from what we currently see on vb.com.
     
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  9. ProSportsForums

    ProSportsForums Regular Member

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    vBulletin staff had to purchase their own licenses. That makes them customers. Customers are entitled to review the products they purchase. Mark and Lawrence weren't staff when they wrote their reviews. Wayne says he did not write the review which appears in his name. I think way too much is being made of this.
     
  10. AWS

    AWS Administrator

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    Most, if not all staff, where customers first so off course they bought the license. The problem is once you work for a company, whether you bought the license or not, ethics dictates that you refrain from reviewing the product.
     
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  11. Jessi

    Jessi Regular Member

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    So were these recent reviews or older ones? If they were older, then I have a bit less of an issue with it. Even if they were staff at that point, if it wasn't that popular yet, then they were probably just trying to fill up the ratings to begin with. It may not be right, but it's less of an issue than if it were recent.
     
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  12. DaUnknownAdm!n

    DaUnknownAdm!n Regular Member

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    The reviews appear all in the month of July of 0212
     
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  13. ProSportsForums

    ProSportsForums Regular Member

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    "Work for" is relative. The staff aren't actual hourly or salaried employees of Internet Brands. They're contracted by the job.
     
  14. Brandon

    Brandon Regular Member

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    relevant

    http://www.cracked.com/article_20266_5-despicable-things-people-do-good-online-reviews.html


    Also there is a prior vb.org staff member told me this and wished to remain anonymous, in regards to the link by the OP here..


     
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