Somewhat Frustrated

Ben Ruset

Ben Ruset

Administrator
Site Administrator
Oct 12, 2004
7,619
1,878
Monmouth County
www.benruset.com
Jelsoft, the company that makes the software that runs the forums, just sent me an email:

We hope your community is enjoying the flexibility and power of vBulletin™. As always, our goal is to offer a great product at a great price, and we are dedicated to helping you build and grow successful online communities.

Over the last 12 months, we have been building vBulletin 4.0 to be the most powerful forum and social publishing software. Today, we are proud to introduce the new vBulletin 4.0 Publishing Suite product that includes the power of the vBulletin 4.0 Forums with a seamlessly integrated content management system (CMS) and blogging platform.

As a preferred customer with an active license, we are excited to offer the vBulletin Publishing Suite at a pre-sale discount price of only $130 (over 50% off regular price). This is a truly limited one-time special offer giving you $120 off the upgrade price but will expire on Friday October 30, 2009.
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What they haven't done is put up a demo of the software, or even any screenshots. In a post on their forums they said that they'll probably have a demo up after the 30th. If you don't go for the $130 now, the price for the upgrade/CMS addon will jump up to $250.

I have a feeling that we'll be changing forum software soon. $130 is a tough enough nut to crack, let alone spending it on software that I can't even try out.

Jelsoft's forums are literally up in arms over it right now.
 
Ben Ruset

Ben Ruset

Administrator
Site Administrator
Oct 12, 2004
7,619
1,878
Monmouth County
www.benruset.com
46er said:
Might take a look at what is used for this forum I also go to, very similar to what you are using. I think its from BHPP or something liike that, I am pretty sure it is free.

http://forums.yellowstone.net/
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Yeah, that's phpBB. We used to use that here, before I switched to vB. Version 2 of their software had security like swiss cheese, and was not really that powerful. I haven't checked out version 3 yet, but it's a strong contender for what we'd move to if we move.

mudboy dave said:
I'll throw in whatever. If we go to a different one I may not be able to access due to firewalls
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Shouldn't affect you like that. It'd still be "forums.njpinebarrens.com" - they block based on domain name.
 
46er

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,144
Coastal NJ
bruset said:
Yeah, that's phpBB. We used to use that here, before I switched to vB. Version 2 of their software had security like swiss cheese, and was not really that powerful. I haven't checked out version 3 yet, but it's a strong contender for what we'd move to if we move.
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Pretty lame of Jelsoft not to have any demo's and be asking for money before hand. Have you looked into their financial situation? I've seen companies do this in the past then either disappear or sell out to someone else that doesn't support what a person paid for. A photoediting product named RawShooter comes to mind; they bulit a great product, got a large user base, began to charge for it and then sold out to Adobe that stopped supporting it.

Count me in if a contribution would help.
 
Ben Ruset

Ben Ruset

Administrator
Site Administrator
Oct 12, 2004
7,619
1,878
Monmouth County
www.benruset.com
They actually released screenshots of the new product:

http://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=screenshots

I have to say, it looks really good. I think I'll end up sticking with vB. Will be nice to have the CMS part of the site and the forums all running the same software. If there's an image gallery that's worth a damn, it'd be nice to get rid of Photopost as well.

As for contributing money, I get paid on the 30th so I can buy the software then. If anybody feels like they want to contribute, the best way they can do that is to write an article or buy me a beer sometime. :)
 
manumuskin

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,673
2,586
60
millville nj
www.youtube.com
bruset said:
They actually released screenshots of the new product:

http://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=screenshots

I have to say, it looks really good. I think I'll end up sticking with vB. Will be nice to have the CMS part of the site and the forums all running the same software. If there's an image gallery that's worth a damn, it'd be nice to get rid of Photopost as well.

As for contributing money, I get paid on the 30th so I can buy the software then. If anybody feels like they want to contribute, the best way they can do that is to write an article or buy me a beer sometime. :)
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put me in for 10 ben if it goes that way
 
bobpbx

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,661
4,839
Pines; Bamber area
bruset said:
If anybody feels like they want to contribute, the best way they can do that is to write an article or buy me a beer sometime. :)
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Okay, I'm down for the beer, but if you change your mind, send each of us willing guys and gals a PM with your address and suggested $ amount.
 
Teegate

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,951
8,695
Ben,

I will send you some money. Give me to the weekend to get it mailed. The post office is never open when I am home during the week.

Guy
 
MarkBNJ

MarkBNJ

Piney
Jun 17, 2007
1,875
73
Long Valley, NJ
www.markbetz.net
I'm in too, Ben. Set up a PayPal account or something. I can also lend some technical expertise if you ever need it, though I am not much of a php guy.

Interesting, I mod on a very large technical forum (200k+ registered users), and we just went through a selection process for a replacement package and chose vBulletin.
 
Teegate

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,951
8,695
bruset said:
I really hate the idea of taking money to run the site.
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Than don't take it. You will have to take mine though which should be in the mail tomorrow late afternoon if I can get there right after work.

Guy
 
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