vBulletin.Org, the end of an era ?

Major bummer.

Someone should put together an effort to back up all of the resources there before IB inevitably pulls the plug. When Invisionize went down all of those years ago it took a huge part of IPB's history and rich mod culture with it. I'd hate to see the same thing happen with vBorg.

Not surprised. VBulletin has been a series of small and large implosions for several years.

I made a case to a long time VB big board client of mine yesterday for rewriting their custom code and moving them over to XF. They said yes after I explained much of VB's history over the years and how much of a pile of poop VB 5 is, and it's lack of aftermarket support.

It is time for a Kickstarter or crowdfunding campaign to set Paul and Lynne up!

Paul M said:

I have yet to decide what to do with all my old mods.

One option is to convert one of my old test sites into a live forum to host them.

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or open them up to Github access ... they get forked and have their own second life

TBH, Github confuses the hell out of me (experience based on when we put the old Impex on it).

Paul M said:

TBH, Github confuses the hell out of me (experience based on when we put the old Impex on it).

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Same for me when i started on Github.. but after a few years it's grown on me and can't live without it https://github.com/centminmod

Though I use graphic gui based git via sourcetree app for managing my git repos in Windows 10 https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/

i.e. https://confluence.atlassian.com/so...ing-repository-into-sourcetree-780870053.html

Paul M said:

https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=325300

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Paul M and everyone else involved. I wish you the best for the future and thank you for your invaluable assistance over the years. Truly a disappointing turn of events.

Paul M said:

That is correct.

Then again, after 5 years, there are only 74 mods for vB5 anyway, and some of those 74 are probably no longer functional.

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Whoah whoah whoah, hold the phone. 74 mods? That must mean someone released a new vB5 mod since I started advising people against upgrading to vB5 quite some number of months ago.

I just looked into it, and it's a re-release of BOP5's mod after a fan update brought it back to life.

So not actually a new mod then.

Last actually new mod release date is still October 2016.

Belazor said:

Whoah whoah whoah, hold the phone. 74 mods? That must mean someone released a new vB5 mod since I started advising people against upgrading to vB5 quite some number of months ago.

I just looked into it, and it's a re-release of BOP5's mod after a fan update brought it back to life.

So not actually a new mod then.

Last actually new mod release date is still October 2016.

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I would argue that as such re-releases currently count in the VB3 and VB4 releases (no one has bothered to subtract for each VB 3.8 or 4.x re-release) the total is valid and stands for comparison purposes. Otherwise you are enforcing a rule only on VB5 releases that isn't applied to earlier versions.

BirdOPrey5 said:

I would argue that as such re-releases currently count in the VB3 and VB4 releases (no one has bothered to subtract for each VB 3.8 or 4.x re-release) the total is valid and stands for comparison purposes. Otherwise you are enforcing a rule only on VB5 releases that isn't applied to earlier versions.

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What I meant to illustrate with my post is that not since October 2016 has anyone actually taken the time to explicitly create and release a new mod from scratch, which to me is indicative of how poorly the development community has responded to the release of vB5.

I completely agree that the re-release should be counted when quoting the number of vB5 mods available, as no-one has time to exclude re-releases from any quoted statistics regarding vB3/vB4/XF/IPS/[...]

Can't say I'm surprised, but it's still a ****ty thing to do.
American companies really do treat employees differently than UK companies, I was "let go" from a US contract job after 2 years and it was like I'd committed a crime, they waited until I had logged off of Skype to go to bed, then removed my access, they told other staff not to talk about it, not to talk to me on skype.
I thought I'd broken some hidden rule, but apparently they do it to everyone, a few months later two work colleagues were let go the same way.

sad news, sorry to hear that

As one of the staff members at vBorg who is stepping down, I just wanted to post here about why the recent turn of events there has left a bad taste in my mouth.

I have only been a vBulletin admin for 3 years, but I have been involved with online forums since 2002. Right or wrong, one thing that will cause me to lose interest in being part of a community is when administrative actions are taken by entities that are not an active part of the community...I expect those running the show to be visible and accessible and contributing to the community in a positive way.

I thought we had all that at vBorg...and in my short time there, I found Paul and Lynne to be a consummate leaders, positive role models who make constant positive, and highly visible contributions to the site. vBorg became an invaluable resource to me in my quest to learn the basics of vBulletin coding so that I could be a more effective admin at the math help site I help run. I became inspired to give back in return in whatever ways I could to a community that was giving me so much.

I am well aware that vBorg isn't as active as it was 10 years ago, but I was quite happy there nonetheless, and proud to have become a staff member. I simply enjoy helping people, and producing a line of mostly simple products that a few folks were finding useful was quite enjoyable. I was being invited to many other sites as a result of my position there, and the more help I gave, the more I was able to give help. I knew this from my experience in the math help community, and of course this formula served me well will vBulletin coding too. Helping others is a great way to help yourself.

But, when I learned that IB came by like a "thief in the night" while Paul was away on vacation and demoted him from the administrative staff, I felt like the site had suddenly became something with which I no longer wanted to be associated. However, and equally as important, Paul has also been very supportive and fostering of my efforts behind the scenes to become a vBulletin coder, and so I would bet my last dollar he has done this for many others. This errant decision to demote Paul, and then act like it is simply the result of a "new policy" suddenly (and suspiciously timed) being put into place, when it is so blatantly obvious it is a personal attack against Paul, makes me feel like I am being treated as if I am a fool.

So, for me it was a two-fold slap in the face. We're now going to have people who are not contributing members of the community swinging by whenever they please to do whatever they please with no accountability, and someone like Paul, whose efforts and expertise have been invaluable to so many for so long being unceremoniously demoted from a position that frankly no one else can likely fill, is outrageous to me. I was under the impression until recently that the people in charge of actually running vBorg were people I see working there day after day, whose long rich histories of community support are to be found in the threads there, and whom I could PM when needed, or speak with in the staff forums. People who actually know what being a forum admin is all about.

For me, it was as much about loyalty to someone I respect immensely and who has always treated me well as it was about having policy dictated by people who have no part it our mission. That's not how I roll.

Paul M said:

I have yet to decide what to do with all my old mods.

One option is to convert one of my old test sites into a live forum to host them.

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You could always come over to the light and convert them to IPS.

Woffie said:

You could always come over to the light and convert them to IPS.

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I actually know nothing about IPS at all, I've never seen the code or used it. I presume its software you have to buy.

The only other forum software ive worked with is XF (back in its 1.0.x days) and MyBB (which I worked on before vBulletin).
I havent seen MyBB for a while now (my last test install was about 8 years ago) but I did really love it at the time (and it was free !).

Woffie said:

You could always come over to the light and convert them to IPS.

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One of many things that has always bothered me about IPB... Why is the logo so similar to vBulletin?



A "v" in a box, generally in a shade of blue... v is a random letter in "Invision" the "I" would be more logical, if not a complete different logo. Was someone trying to milk off the fame of vBulletin at the time?

When you look at vB.org and see such prolific names that are known throughout the vB community space it seems absolutely nuts that IB thought they could do this. I get that they could do something like this and would be well within their right to do so, but the manner in which they've gone and done so is just incredibly stupid and does not reflect well on them.

I never had such a high regard for them anyway but they aren't doing much to change that.

I am confused here....

VB.org says it is a independent site. When I visited vb.com over the last few months, they repeatedly said that vb.org was a independent site which they have no connection with. So, how can a company, IB, sack a volunteer admin from a private, independent site which they have no connection with?

Horizon said:

I am confused here....

VB.org says it is a independent site. When I visited vb.com over the last few months, they repeatedly said that vb.org was a independent site which they have no connection with. So, how can a company, IB, sack a volunteer admin from a private, independent site which they have no connection with?

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This confused me as well. I know it's on the same servers as vBulletin.com, but in theory it's still an independent community. Do vBulletin staff have the required permissions to demote other staff there? Would have thought only Paul and co would be able to demote their own accounts there. Or that said accounts would be protected in config.php

As I recall, even in the vB3 days the powers that be at Jelsoft/vB.com claimed that vB.org was either independent of "semi-official" but when push came to shove they would take over and make the decisions over there when it suited them.