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, etc. 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 florismac, and mrfloris.com is my blog, and would love to stay in touch with a lot of you.
All the best,
Floris