4 ms·

I own a license of vBulletin. After approximately a year of experience with their codebase I decided that burning off my eyeballs with a hot spoon would be mor

I own a license of vBulletin. After approximately a year of experience with their codebase I decided that burning off my eyeballs with a hot spoon would be more fun. I wouldn't know where to start to describe just how bad their software is. It doesn't end there. The folks who own vBulletin run a whole series of communities themselves: http://www.internetbrands.com/ http://www.internetbrands.com/ At one point into configuring vBulletin I realized they had code in there that would allow them to monitor your site's traffic and performance. Which is genius if you run hundreds of sites yourself and want "probes" out there to discover areas that you could launch sites into. And, it is even more brilliant if you can have these "probes" be people who pay you to use software you produce. Imagine thousands of business experiments actually paying you and feeding you audience data. That really didn't sit well with me and a number of people who were awake while installing and configuring their vB software. The vast majority of folks running vB communities either don't care or don't have a clue. There are other issues. Maybe someone else has the time to chime in. I guess my point is that password security might not be at the top of their priority list.

Revisor 13y ago
Could you please post some details about what you mean with them monitoring your site's traffic and performance? I found the code for the "anonymous survey", but you have to submit it manually. Edit: I think you might mean the news loaded remotely in the Admin CP upon every login. It's injected in the page as is.
- robomartin 13y ago
  I haven't touched the codebase in quite some time. My recollection might be a little off. If I remember correctly, when you integrate Google Analytics through the admin panel you are integrating a flavor of Google Analytics that actually passes the data through the vBulletin mothership. Like I said, I stopped using vB a long time ago. For all I know they've fixed this issue. Please don't take my word for it as current versions might behave differently. If you are a vB user I suggest you ask in their various official and unofficial support forums.
csmuk 13y ago
Some good points there. I've always kept an eye on such business practices. I worked for a SaaS ecommerce outfit a few years ago and they sold their stuff to all the competitors in the same market space. After a bit, they yanked it with 28 days' notice and went into direct competition with them. Assholes. Strikes me as the same sort of company.
- robomartin 13y ago
  Well, just go to their website (link in prior post) and you can see they run hundreds of forums. That always rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't learn about this until much after I purchased my vB license. Had I seen this prior to making that decision I would not have used their software. I wasn't trying to build a large community. I just thought it was a huge violation of ethics to sell people software and then go off and compete with your own customers. This isn't disclosed in the vB site. You have to dig to find who owns vB and then it's kind of in the fine print. The average prospective buyer is unlikely to discover this until much later, if ever.

Revisor 13y ago

Could you please post some details about what you mean with them monitoring your site's traffic and performance? I found the code for the "anonymous survey", but you have to submit it manually. Edit: I think you might mean the news loaded remotely in the Admin CP upon every login. It's injected in the page as is.

robomartin 13y ago
I haven't touched the codebase in quite some time. My recollection might be a little off. If I remember correctly, when you integrate Google Analytics through the admin panel you are integrating a flavor of Google Analytics that actually passes the data through the vBulletin mothership. Like I said, I stopped using vB a long time ago. For all I know they've fixed this issue. Please don't take my word for it as current versions might behave differently. If you are a vB user I suggest you ask in their various official and unofficial support forums.

csmuk 13y ago

Some good points there. I've always kept an eye on such business practices. I worked for a SaaS ecommerce outfit a few years ago and they sold their stuff to all the competitors in the same market space. After a bit, they yanked it with 28 days' notice and went into direct competition with them. Assholes. Strikes me as the same sort of company.

robomartin 13y ago
Well, just go to their website (link in prior post) and you can see they run hundreds of forums. That always rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't learn about this until much after I purchased my vB license. Had I seen this prior to making that decision I would not have used their software. I wasn't trying to build a large community. I just thought it was a huge violation of ethics to sell people software and then go off and compete with your own customers. This isn't disclosed in the vB site. You have to dig to find who owns vB and then it's kind of in the fine print. The average prospective buyer is unlikely to discover this until much later, if ever.