UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums News and Releases Announcements Changelog Discussions New Owner

Thank you for saying that. I kind of know though that the whole reason why my forum URL is important is because if I either don't have a forum or have a very small forum then it will mean to some people that I don't understand the situation and have no right to be saying that people shouldn't be mad.

However I'm not saying that people shouldn't be mad or angry, I'm just saying that if they are then they need to keep their calm and not let their emotions get the best of them.


Exactly. And if everyone starts complaining, phoning him or messaging him it's not going to make things go faster. In fact it's more likely to just slow things down even more.


I can understand why anger and negativity are starting to show themselves here. There's been years of waiting for 8.0 and now there's a new owner and lots of uncertainties about the future of UBB. However, I have seen a situation very similar to this before. Over at vB's official forum after vB4 and it's pricing were revealed a lot of people felt cheated, a ton of negativity started and it led to an unfriendly and unwelcoming environment on their forums.

Trust me, it's not worth it to let out your anger here on the staff or on other members. If you do that then there won't be any winners in any of this, by letting negativity take over you'll just end up hurting UBB. And there's really no reason to damage UBB by discouraging the developers and driving away other members by creating an unfriendly environment. It's the software that you're all using, right? So why hurt it further?

Really, I think the feelings, ideas and fears that members have about the ownership change may actually be doing more harm than the ownership change itself.

Sharing the love

Having the management of the forum software thrown in my lap at some point in time was my reason for having to learn php, my style of php programming is pretty much defined on the ubb way of things.

So I'm here to stay. Any migration to other software would probably mean atleast 6 months of work for me because of everything we integrated in ubb.threads.

Very pleased to login today (with popcorn in hand) and find SirDude in red... and Gizmo and Ruben in blue!!

Encouraging that the new owner took this step to ask you three, and also encouraging that you guys were enthused/willing to accept.

Thank you all.
mig

:snicker: not to mention, we're quite the suggestive group

As always, I'm completely shocked that what was once, literally, the Ultimate Bulletin Board still cannot come back to being even competitive. Since my very first message boards (on the internet) were run on UBB, I'd love to see it come back. There's a very steep hill to climb.

Hey Sal!

Suggestive is good! Go Giz!

We purchased UBB for look and feel, two very important parts of any forum. Yes, some other forum packages have features that we would like to have, but are not of over riding importance in our opinion.

For example, islands. We use the islands to help people get around our site and shout box to help mods keep track of what is going on. Our site is very contentious at times. Marriage and family life can bring out the worst in people as well as the best, so security and moderator activity is important.

And yes, we filled the suggestion box at one point with stuff we would like to have to make our admin jobs easier. I see no reason to go back there and dig it out and repost.

I just looked at the package IPB referenced above and barfed. It is ugly with a U. Kinda reminded me of some of the vBulletin stuff I see. One of our members is a professional graphics artist and she is good at what she does and she likes UBB, so there you go.

We are sticking with UBB. And yeah, there are gonna be transition issues, there are always gonna be transition issues.

Right now we are starting to integrate Word Press with UBB and it is working well for us. And we are gonna renew our license even though the last ticket we turned in got lost.

Larry
www.marriageadvocates.com

I completely agree with you and I too am going to stick with UBB (provided the product is still around) as I have spent a lot of time meticulously designing the skin and integrating that look seamlessly with my website. I rarely use things "out of the box" and have to tinker with them to make them feel like "mine." While my forum users are not picky and like things just the way they are without a lot of extra garbage, new features and usability (like mobile access for example) are part of the natural evolution. I welcome such developments - it is up to the user as to whether they want to implement them. I have had to add features like Flash Chat and PhotoPost because these are things I wanted, my community uses and they have been working seamlessly as well for years as companions to my UBB installation. I am not a code savvy webmaster at all but is a schmuck like me can make things work it says something about the flexibility of the software and the support it comes with. I have always relieved excellent advice and assistance from the UBB forums Rick, and Gizmo.

bleh -- just to get rid of that spammer

<ignore this post>

Wow from the time of this thread til now, a lot of people upset which is understandable but wanting to jump ship over an ownership change, seen that done and done again. I originally owned 4 licenses of vBulletin when it was owned by Jelsoft, when they sold to IB without warning then dumped it on us in a similar way, a lot of people were upset then they threatened to jump ship. I was one that didn't, I stuck with it to see this new version 4.0 they were working on. Once they released that I immediately sold my vB licenses and went to IPB. Bad mistake, I should have stuck it out or came to UBB sooner but overall the situation is similar. I have seen the preview images of v8 and I must say, the look to it has this unique aura that I feel it will set it above the competition.

So I expect UBB to grow even bigger no matter who owns it, as long as the customer remains the main focus then nothing to worry about. IB wanted money and got greedy which is why they lost a lot of business.

I am glad however to see that things calmed down and I do not wish to stir the pot just giving my 2 cents. I'm a developer myself and know the feeling of having to choose and choose quickly.

Hope all is well Rick and Brooks get v8 out when your team feels it is ready.

Welcome aboard Steve

Thanks Gizmo

been away, any new developments? Has new guy showed his face/comments at all?

Not really. Everyone is still pretty much in the wondering mode.

Give him time, he may be working on something with the forum just to show everyone here he knows what he is doing. I don't expect him to disappoint anyone here, he just bought UBB a few months ago and it takes time to get to know something new as I be he hasn't used UBB before and if he has then it should be soon when he pops up with some news and announcements.

One post from this guy could end lots of speculation.

Yeah but look at what happened when the announcement came out, the guy wasn't even given a chance. I can understand the surprise but I say give him another month to get settled and see what happens.

Things may turn out fine. The product may advance and continue. And, I hope it does. I'm on board.

However, there's no way to spin this lack of communication. It's horrible.

I say give him another 12 months.
Or maybe 18 months.
After all, things take time.

Wasn't given a chance? Dude, we're all big boys here!
He should stand up and speak out.

The total lack of communication totally undermines confidence in this product. If it wasn't for the respect I have for SD, I would have bailed weeks ago.

As it is, I am taking my time and studying other products.

I have to agree with driv.

I like the ubb, but I have a business to run and this lack of communication is making me nervous.
It's no way to treat your customers, nor does it instill confidence.

It only takes 5 minutes to craft a response.

Leaving people hanging isn't good business.

+1

Ok I see everyone's point but think about this, if I'm a business owner, I buy a new business from someone else, the first thing I do is notify them of my presence. Then I begin learning the business I just bought. I can't really give any details without knowing the business side of things first and foremost. Once I have that idea then I can give a proper announcement.

With Brooks, it is the same boat, everyone immediately jumped the gun when a new owner was announced and he has made posts about what is going to happen. He said he would need a bit to get to know the product so all I'm asking is give him that time before anyone jumps ship. I believe SD and Giz will keep things rolling with UBB while Brooks familiarizes himself with UBB, so I wouldn't worry too much about things going haywire.

Sorry, but that makes no sense to me. Just my opinion, but who buys a business without having any familiarity with it and its customers?

Anyone, he may have some familiarity with it but not the backend of things. How can he be familiar with the customers when he has never done business with them? This is his first time doing business with all of us and we're not even giving him a chance to step up and show us what he is made of.

We're all still here. We're giving him a chance.

Not buying it.

I've been involved in business buyouts when I was in the corporate world. First you go through a thorough vetting process (learn all you can about the business), then as soon as you've made the decision, you communicate with the internal people involved, and the external (read: customers), assuring everyone you are planning a smooth transition, and explaining what that means.

And if it's a business where customers are concerned about ongoing support and development, you at the very least give them a solid outline of your plans, and stay in communication with them so they don't feel like they've been left flapping in the breeze.

One reply and then ignoring everyone's pleas for information is not how you run a business. If I did that, I'd be out of business now.

PianoWorld, you are correct in saying that. I can admit when I was wrong and you have proven through facts that I am wrong. But I am just pleading with everyone to not give up hope just yet.

Mitch P., yes we are all here but there are a few talking about jumping ship soon. Just a plead as I have seen UBB grow from its classic CGI to now UBB.threads and would hate to see it bomb out all over 1 owner not communicating properly.

Now the number on the top right corner of the UBBCentral site I called and left a message asking Brooks to make a post or update us on what is going on.

Thanks.

No problem, just trying to do my part. I really hope he gets the message and makes a post or at least becomes more active.

Why are you pleading Steve? That appears rather strong language for a new member.

Excuse my cynicism, but I'll say what probably a few people are thinking...

Steve M = defensive new member
Kotonoha = defensive new member

Hmmm....

People will think what they want to think. I may be a new member but I have followed the UBB software for many years. I have used it on various sites but never bought a license till now when I finally decided that other forum software was going off the deep end on pricing.

Why attack the new member? I can't love a product and try to keep it from going down in a blaze of fire?

Kotonoha? I have no idea who that person is and if your accusing me of multiple accounts, the mods can clear that up quickly.

@Driv; new members have just as much of a right to defend, use, modify, comment on anything ubb related that any old time member does; just because they're earning their first stripes doesn't mean they haven't paid the same dues that the rest of us have...

And just an fyi as I've seen some posts in these threads getting out of hand, if anyone starts attacking other members, regardless of how old they are, I'm going to start having to prune posts.

Thanks Gizmo for the post and no problem on the attacking other members, I try to keep things civil so as not to lead to attacking.

I am absolutely aware of this fact; as am I aware that I have not attacked anyone.

You may care to show me where I have done so.

I have simply voiced my own 'cynical' concerns.

If I am to be censored for doing this, well sorry Giz, but you and I just fell out.

Don't forget, I have two unresolved support requests.

Thanks a bunch Brooks for making that announcement and putting us all at ease.

I wasn't talking about you, there are other posts in this thread however where people ARE attacking others and I'm getting pretty tired of seeing it, it's not professional at all to have on a user to user support forum.

I merely stepped in to voice my opinion on what was happening here, an opinion that I must add is based on experience. I've been dealing with other forum admins for over 4 years now, I'm not exactly new to this sort of stuff.

I'm not defending Brooks' long silence, but what is spreading what are essentially doomsday theories and complaining everywhere going to accomplish? Really, that's usually not something that people do when they're trying to help out a software/forum/etc. in fact, it's usually a way for people to subconsciously attempt to make their predictions become reality. I know because I've done it before.

Like I said, I fully understand why some of the members here feel how they do, but the way some are attempting to deal with things is just harming this community and UBB itself. Negativity is toxic, once it enters a forum it spreads, and if it's not stopped then that community turns into an unfriendly and unwelcoming place.

Negativity has already gotten in here, is there really a reason why it should be allowed to spread? Is there really a reason why it should be allowed to make this into an unfriendly and unwelcoming place? I've seen the results of this kind of thing before, and it's never a pretty thing.

I'm sure that most of you wouldn't like to see your own forums be taken over by negativity. Complaints everywhere, new members being scared away, flaming all over the place, etc. So why want to risk letting another community to end up like that?

And Gizmo, it's good to see that there are still some peace keepers like you here. I'm sure that it's definitely not a fun situation for you to be stuck in the middle of though. Good luck.