vBulletin brand ruined by Internet Brands management

[AnthonyCea]

Over at vBtruth.com there are more security vulnerabilities and comments from customers about the vBulletin version 4 CMS and forum software problems.

[AnthonyCea]

Here is another con game being pulled by Bob Brisco and Internet Brands on webmasters where they buy websites and forums but end up not paying for the web properties !!!

Gotta keep the books cash positive Bob, that or Internet Brands stock would sell off to pennies where it actually belongs !!!

Cook them Internet Brands books by scamming your business partners Bob !!!

After Internet Brands falls into bankruptcy Bob Brisco will be able to find a great job in Hollywood as a magician since he is a master at working with smoke and mirrors, he will not have to travel far, just a few blocks from his current office in LA !!!

[AnthonyCea]

Here is a critical post that gives a real life experience of a webmaster who moved a IPB database to vBulletin 4.

I just hope you know what you're getting into going to 4. I just finished... or should I say never will be finished... with a migration of a mid sized board from IPB to VB4, and can say it has been one of the most miserable and frustrating experiences of my life. Every turn has been nothing but one problem after another due to the incompetence of the vB 4 code. About the only thing that half way worked right was Impex to pull the data from IPB into Vb, and even then that was only half way.

There's no way in hell I'd upgrade either of my 3.8 sites to 4 yet. No way. From a personal perspective, I wouldn't even set up a brand new clean installation of 4. The code is just not ready yet. Search engine sucks. Links break. Tokens constantly expire. The CMS is garbage, blogs are garbage, the whole thing is just bad. The only reason I touch 4 is because people pay me good money to do it although I keep trying to refuse their money for their own good.

Too bad you guys did not listen to me from day one (well that was hard since the morons running vBulletin banned me and deleted all my posts on the official vB forums).

I guess you will have to read it all here now !!!

[AnthonyCea]

Internet Brands has now created a new way to rip off forum owners who are still on vBulletin version 3, they are now charging for "maintenance upgrades".

See the forum software customers respond to this new scam pulled by the folks running vBulletin in this thread:

vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?356497-License-expired-can-I-have-updates-for-3.8-w-o-upgrading-to-4.0

Here is the MAJOR GOOD NEWS !!

Back by popular demand! vBulletin now has a “maintenance package” available. This will provide a 3month extension to your vBulletin 3.X owned license and will enable you to download the latest version of our software for 50 US Dollars, 40 Euros or 30 GB Pounds. Big discounts are available on checkout if your license expired in the last 12 months! Get in quick while the offer lasts!

* Go to vbulletin.com/order/ and login at the top right
* Click on Purchase
* Choose the '3.x - 3 months Maintenance Pack' option in the 'Upgrade Existing' section.

This is displayed next to all 3.x Owned licenses.

.....and here are the customers of vBulletin forum software responding to this "new great offer" from Internet Brands to soothe customers concerns from the above linked thread on the official vB forum.

So let me get this straight... If I want to upgrade my 3.8.x forums, I now have to pay $50 every three months? I have no desire to pay an additional $175 to upgrade to 4.0, but I'm even more unhappy about paying $50 for three months when I used to pay $40 for an entire year of updates.

Not interested either. You have lost me as a customer...

Originally Posted by Kahuna900
but I'm even more unhappy about paying $50 for three months when I used to pay $40 for an entire year of updates.

Originally Posted by iloco
Not interested either. You have lost me as a customer...

same here !

LOL, The morons at Internet Brands will try to do anything to get vB customers off of the old license to avoid future lawsuits !!!

Just move your forum databases to UBB threads folks !!!

PS: Kids, Bob Brisco does not care, he is sitting on around 40 million dollars worth of Internet Brands stock, all he cares about is that the stock does not crash, but that is going to happen soon !!!

On 7/13/2010 Mr. Brisco sold 22,500 shares of Internet Brands, Inc. at $11

http://files.shareholder.com/downloa...1-10-29532.pdf

Mr. Robert Brisco now owns 3,597,135 shares of "INET" (Amount of Securities Beneficially Owned
Following Reported Transaction)

So my guess of 40 million dollars is right on the money !!

More coverage of the new vBulletin 3 maintenance fee scam by Internet Brands.

[AnthonyCea]

Internet Brands has not only ruined thousands of vBulletin forums with their acquisition of vBulletin software, they are ruining the websites and forums they purchased in their rapid acquisition spree.

Here is Randy Petersen who sold FlyerTalk.com to IB filing a federal lawsuit against Internet Brands for defaulting on agreed payments according to contracts signed.

[AnthonyCea]

More critical feedback by vBulletin forum software customers who do not want to buy vBulletin 4 from Internet Brands, Inc.

vbulletin.com/forum/content.php?163-Should-I-upgrade-to-4-0-or-wait-article&page=2#comments

CallieJo - Tue 22nd Dec '09 I gave IB the benefit of the doubt that they would pull through. But they did not! Here are a few reasons why not:

1.High queries on the cms. You've got to be joking! This is not fixed in gold? Who is running the show around here now? I'd like to know why this was not important enough to fix before gold!! Just because many have begged for "years!" for a vb cms, does not mean they want to kill their sites with it. Feature requests could wait, but high queries should have been fixed asap!

2.Missing features from previous versions...now GONE in 4.0. Example: No custom profiles. Have to wait until a later point release. What? This wasn't a feature request. This was a feature already in 3.7-3.8! Now it's gone in the current release?!? What's the point of upgrading if we lose features? That's insane!! I haven't even checked the blog. Is the customize blog feature gone as well? I wouldn't doubt it!

3.The amount of bugs in the bug tracker.

4.The lack of personalization and friendliness for end users is still lacking after all these years. You can read the old suggestion forum and the new suggestion forum for a list. I thought IB hired inexperienced users to test 4.0. Reading the suggestions forum, you can get that type of info for free.

Will I stay with vb? For a while. I love vb, but have very little confidence left! I can't help but feel let down atm. So much so that I'd love to scream on here. Who is responsible for the gold release? It could have been great. It was coming along nicely. But, it is NOT finished!

Shoot me if you may...these are my humble opinions only.

Originally Posted by kateido
vb 4.0 sucks.
its ugly. i will not upgrade.
Not only ugly, but I am the only one feeling treated like crap?

I have several owned licenses...

I pay a yearly fee on top of that to get upgrades...

And now they are telling me I have to BUY the new version...

Greedy bastards, I will switch to another software on my sites before I take it up the rear like that...

NO THANKS!

Speaking of GREEDY, $300 a year for PHONE SUPPORT!!!

Damn... that is included in all other software I bought...

vbulletin.com/forum/content.php?163-Should-I-upgrade-to-4-0-or-wait-article&page=4#comments

LaPiba - Mon 4th Jan '10 I am not going to upgrade to vb 4 because:

1. Several functionalities from vb 3.8.x have been removed from vb 4, for example:
- Members cannot customize their profiles (a LOT of members of my forum LOVE this feature)
- Forumdisplay: where has the list of posters for each thread gone??

2. Mods will not work, some of them are very important for my forum:
- Parachat integration
- Downloads
- Video directory
- Post thanks

3. vb4 searches are PATHETIC:
- I am reading am searching several forums that have upgraded to vb 4.x . to test searches. In
ALL these forums, i cannot find anything most of the times!!
- search of POSTS from user X do not work
- "advance search" interface is really confusing
- searches do not show the first lines of POSTS as in vb 3!!!!
- Where has FULLTEXT SEARCH gone?

Searches work fine for me with 3.8.x (well... they could be perfect if we could search into social groups too!).

Frankly, i do not find serious reasons to upgrade. Which are the NEW features (i am not referring to the style)?

[AnthonyCea]

Jul 28, 2010 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) --

Internet Brands will announce financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, on Thursday, July 29, after the market close.

Participating in the call will be Bob Brisco, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Scott Friedman, Chief Financial Officer.

The conference call is scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm Pacific Time (4:30 pm Eastern Time) on July 29. Participants may access the call by dialing 877-941-2322 (domestic) or 480-629-9715 (international). In addition, the call will be broadcast live over the Internet hosted at the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at internetbrands.com and will be archived online within one hour of the completion of the conference call. A telephone replay will be available through August 12. To access the replay, please dial 877-870-5176 (domestic) or 858-384-5517 (international), passcode 4328711.

Internet Brands is an Internet media company

[AnthonyCea]

(RTTNews) - Thursday, Internet Brands Inc. (INET) reported an increase in second quarter profit. The company also provided revenue estimates for third quarter and full year 2010. For the quarter, net income was $4.6 million or $0.10 per share, compared to net income of $2.5 million or $0.06 per share in the comparable quarter last year.

On average, five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.07 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Total revenues for the quarter were $28.1 million, up 21% from $23.2 million in the same quarter last year. Analysts expected the company to report revenue of $27.7 million for the quarter.

Looking ahead to the third quarter, the company expects revenues to be approximately $28.5 million - $29.5 million. Analysts currently anticipate the company to report revenue of $29.27 million for the quarter.

For the full year 2010, the company expects revenue in the range of $114.0 million - $117.0 million. Analysts currently anticipate the company to report revenue of $114.89 million for the full year.

INET closed Thursday's trading at $10.30, down $0.41 or 3.83%, on a volume of 559,306 shares on the Nasdaq

[AnthonyCea]

There is more bad news for Internet Brands in the vBulletin bad news pipeline now folks.

Kier Darby former lead developer of vBulletin has come out with his new forum software platform called Xenforo

[AnthonyCea]

News is out today that Internet Brands, Inc. has lost the lead style and graphic designer of vBulletin version 4, she took a job with Microsoft and quit.