IP.Content 2.3: What To Expect

I know what you mean. That was an irritant as well. I actually mentioned that to them. I used phpBB, a free forum software that many premium forum customers perceive as "crap" for a short period of time before my jump to IPB for a site which i originally just intended as a hobby site. I still can't understand how a free forum made up of mostly volunteers can have such nice, tidy and clear documentation while IPB has such scattered crumbs. Just Look at the phpBB Documentation. Can you guess what they did with that thread i created about their documentation? Yup, they deleted it.

To stay on the IP.Content bandwagon. Here is another amusing thread with the same exact issues over at the IPB Forums. Clearly, this isn't an issue of just one user suffering from sour grapes here.
http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/353274-ipcontent-docs/

What did piss me off was that criticism of their product was met with censorship and legal threats. Now, they have (somewhat) changed their stance on some of the same issues i complained about.

Regarding the vbulletin and xenforo sense of community. I am a very long time vbulletin user. I offered criticism and ideas regularly.At the time, i had many successful message boards all running vbulletin since the early vb 2 days. Vbulletin staff never deleted any of my posts, prevented me from posting on the forums and never once sent me a threatening message stating that I am at risk of being sued for libel.

vB are quite good on the "no censorship" thing, except that they get round this by hiding all the negative comments in the Licensed Feeback Forum, so that by the time a customer realises what a corrupt, inept company they are dealing with, it is too late.

And then, they threaten you with an infraction when they realise you're onto them.

I could honestly care less about infractions and the like. IMO thats childish forum nonsense. As a paying customer, all i care about is the proper support and for someone to have an honest and open ear when i post my concerns. What IPB is currently doing, the legal threats, wiping the board clean of criticism in licensed and unlicensed sections and even blacklisting certain search terms makes vbulletin look tame by comparison. I honestly wouldn't doubt that eventually IPB would make good on a promise to sue a customer for libel once they post their complaints on an open forum and they cannot get it deleted. They can then expect their customer base to shrink into extinction.

I think we heard you the first time you said they infracted you.

I really don't have a problem with anyone having a "breaking point". Heaven only knows I have my own. If a company feels a critical thread is providing more heat than light, then I even understand it being locked down or removed. But that company needs to understand this is where real customer service begins, not where it ends. If a customer is howling about something in front of other customers, it is time to move that customer off the soapbox, pull them aside and address the problems they are having.

But I spent enough time in sales and customer service to understand there are always going to be those individuals who are only happy when they are griping about something. There's nothing in this world that will satisfy them, other than continuing to gripe. Which is really unfortunate for all parties involved, when you stop to think about it.

I look back at my decision to migrate from vBulletin to Invision and I seriously regret spending the money. But I'm big enough to admit I spent the money based on my own decision. No one forced me to buy all those licenses. I could pull a page from Mark's book and waste my time griping and complaining on the IPS forums, but that's not going to change a thing. I simply cannot see what is to be gained from needling the very people who had already kicked me to the curb. I'm just not going to allow my frustration and disappointment with IPS make me a slave, the way Mark's frustration with vB has enslaved him.

The problem is that people like myself ARE slaves to vBulletin, in effect. Switching platforms isn't something I can just "do". I'm not a prolific coder like, say, DigitalPoint, and my forum isjust a hobby.

It took me three whole months just to upgrade from vB3.8 to vB4.0, and that wasn't even a platform switch!

However I have given up trying to pressure vBulletin into delivering anything, I have now come to accept that they will never deliver ANYTHING, and so I am again stuck on 4.1.3 with no hope of moving on.

At some point, it will be XenForo for me, but the amount of coding skills I'll need to pick up in order to achieve what I want is mind boggling. I would hope that in twelve months time I will have made the switch, but frankly, the whole forum market is so flat now that I may not even bother. The activity on the site simply doesn't justify it, there are sites like mine running on ancient versions of forum software and perhaps I should accept that growth is over and we may as well just leave it on the platform it is on and never move forward. There's some validity in that approach.

Bump from the grave. holidays kept me quite busy.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. However, threatening paying customers with legal action because they are unsatisfied with their service is 100% unprofessional and uncalled for. Especially when they have begun to back off from their false claims their SEO. I've actually fallen in love with a great website that deals in consumer fraud and complains called Ripoff Report and i've been considering sending a few emails to those that i know that have had problems with IPB and having them file a report there.