Bye everybody,

Through 2001 I’ve tried various forum software to get my community off the ground, but was not content with what was out there. vBulletin 2.x was announced and on the radar. At the end of the year (literally 31st December) I was able to place an order and convert my site through the night. January 1st it was online and we received great response. It was soon clear that I was a fan, and I became an active daily poster.

Through the years I got more and more involved, including beta testing version 3, and before it hit ‘gold’ I was invited to join the team. I’ve been on the team until early this year. What I think or feel as a team member regarding company changes and product development is different than what I think or feel as a customer; I think that vBulletin is the marketleader in forum software, it is a good product, and has a big team that can work on it. Price and product changes as ‘good business’ is what I have always wanted. The product is worth more, and they should ask more for it. And if it is a full community package, that is great. As a customer it is not following the path I was hoping it would take, and with the old team not coding it, it just won’t feel the same to me anymore. That is a personal opinion, my personal observation. I am sure it does apply only to me.

What I personally find a bit of a shame (as a customer) is that the vibe on the web site has changed. Certain people are unwilling to be patient, and only willing to be very negative. That, and the different development path, and what I find vbcom community changes (such as stricter moderation) all contribute, that despite that I continued to post here 25 to 50 posts in a day since January, the desire to continue posting has simply faded - to me it has to be fun, and it now does not feel like it. I have been an active daily reader and poster on this site. But I want to let you guys (because I used to be here daily) know that I am going to take a step back and become an inactive user. I am still going to use this great product, and I am still going to read a lot, and I am sure this won’t be my last post ever. But I am going to take a step back and focus on other sites, blogs, social networks, etc.

But I did not just want to disappear as a customer, a user, a friend, former colleague. And (as a regular customer) I wanted to say thank you all for awesome years, I have enjoyed the conversations and meeting new people for many years. I am on twitter as floris and on skype as vbfloris, and mrfloris.com is my blog, and would love to stay in touch with a lot of you.

All the best,

I signed up on the Social Network Ning.com - it looks very promising. Feel free to follow me: http://www.ning.com/mrfloris

Hallo LC,

Jeetje, alweer 20 jaar, gefeliciteerd. Ik hoop dat je een fijne dag hebt. 

Gefeliciflapstaart <3

(hug) van LD

(wait, there’s more)

Yes, it’s a fact, today my access has been removed from the community forums and company sites. So I can now also blog and tweet about it. February 2004 - February 2009; version 3.x of vBulletin. I’ve been blessed to have a great hobby as being part of the support team helping those with questions.

# 01 - Mr Floris says: “Spoil yourself” - April 2009.

When I am asked by other Freelancers how I think they can best improve their advertising network, or their web site, or how to deal with the many topics they cover, I inform them of a few options. Since this is also common knowledge, I feel it might be nice to share it with others who are freelancing and might have the same questions. Because as a web developer / designer and/or graphic artist you might wish to optimize and improve your advertising income as an additional revenue stream.

Time for a rant .. because I am a little bit tired about my dirty kitchen. It seems the damn thing is never clean! It always looks like a mess. And I know, it’s probably my own fault

Last months I have been trying to do a week of <something> and they have been going great. I have repeated a few of those things in march and April, But now it was time to find something new. I have therefor decided I would buy some more biological products, less meat, and more fresh fruit juices instead of sodas. I have also supported local farms by buying their products that they are trying to sell on the market and our local stores.  Spoiler alert: It has been great, but .. I also cheat.

Today (April 17th 2009) we’ve come to learn that the old media is not giving up, and that new media has a revolution ahead of them. The team is  found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail. The Pirate Bay (thepiratebay.org) [ one of the biggest torrent search engines ] got a blow, but of course, people their nature will not change, nor will the site, nor will the distribution.. why? Because they are not the ’scene’ they’re a search engine!