As most of you know, Wayne and I went to the IB offices in LA yesterday to meet with them regarding the status of vB4 and numerous changes to the product and license structure that will be announced to customers shortly. My overall reaction is that IB has a lot of very good people and ideas and I left the meeting having much more confidence in our direction and future than I did going into it.
Among the people we met with are:
*Ray Morgan*, _General Manager_
*Jennifer Rundell*, _VP, Content_
*Edwin Brown*, _Developer_
*Kevin Sours*, _Developer_
*Michael Anders*, _Project Manager_
*Allen Lin*, _Quality Assurance_
Here is a summary of that meeting. I'm sure I don't have to say this but nonetheless please note that all of this information is highly confidential and not to be shared with anyone outside of the vB Staff.
*Product and Licensing Changes*
vBulletin is being converted into two products:
1) vBulletin (Forums-Only)
- This is the Forums only with existing features in 3.8 - Social Networking, Albums, etc.
- The new price will be $195, $15 more than the existing cost.
- The good news for customers is that there will no longer be any renewal fees. The license is good for the life of that version and will include access to all new versions released for that branch regardless of how long ago the license was purchase. For instance if you purchase a license while vB4 is the main branch, you will have access to all future vB 4.x Releases at no cost. However upgrading to vB5 will cost extra when it's available (no upgrade pricing determined yet.)
- All customers will continue to get free support via the vB forums. However a major change is that customers of vBulletin (Forums-Only) will only get access to the support system for 30 days. This will likely be a point of contention with some customers but studies have shown that the vast majority of new customers only need support for the first month. One issue I mentioned is that many customers do not immediately install vB upon purchase. This can sometimes take place weeks, or even months later. Because of this I recommended that the 30-day count-down does not begin until the first ticket is started, with possibly an overall cutoff of 90 days after the purchase. Ray agreed and it appears this is something that can and will be implemented.
- If a customer does require ticket support, this will be available at an additional cost. The price mentioned was $80 for one year but I do not know if that is the final price as of now.
- One thing I thought of later and did not get a chance to bring up is how we can determine which customers on the forums have access to the support system or not. This will have to be worked out since up to now we can assume that any licensed customer can fill out a support ticket and we often ask them to do just that. We do not want to be in the position of telling people who do not have this access to fill out a support tickets.
2) vBulletin Suite
- This will include everything in the Forums only version plus the CMS, Blog, Project Tools and future products.
- The cost will be $285, which is only a premium of $90 - the cost of one-and-a-half current add-on products. This is a good deal for any customer who wants more than one product. Conversely those who will only want one product will complain, naturally. However as more products are developed I suspect even some of those people will recognize this is to their advantage.
- As with the forums-only product there will be no renewal fees and this will be good for the life of the version.
- vB Suite customers will get free ticket support, as well as continued access to support on the forums
- One item we suggested was to offer a discounted price for the Installation service with the purchase of the vB Suite. Ray liked the idea and will present the proposal.
3) Lease licenses
- There will no longer be a leased license. Because of the compressed time and scheduling we did not get into any details regarding what options will be available to existing leased customers, but I would encourage and expect that we will offer a fair price to upgrade those customers to Forums-Only or the Suite. If you have any thoughts on this, please share them.
4) Branding Free
- There will be no changes to the Branding Free option or price.
5) Phone Support
- We discussed possibly changing this to a per-call or '900' number service. Ray liked the idea and will discuss this proposal further.
*Other Changes and Discussions*
1) MVC
Ray gave an overview of the basic concept of MVC (Model-View-Controller) and how it is being applied to vB development from version 4 onward. For the purpose of this summary there is no need to cover MVC. I think most of you are familiar with the concept (probably more so than me.) If you want a refresher here's the Wikipedia article on it: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller</a>
2) Shopping Cart rework
IB has analyzed our current ordering system and rightly concluded it is too cumbersome and inconsistent. They believe that we are 'leaving money on the table' because some people get frustrated and do not complete the order process. Wayne and I have no doubt that's true. IB has now added Google Analytics to our sites and will be able to track how many people start the ordering process but don't complete it.
They are currently working at streamlining this process to make it far easier to use and expect that we will be able to capture a significant number of sales that are being lost with the current system. The plan is to complete this rework in time for the vB 4 release.
We also discussed the Phone and Fax order situation. Currently about half of phone and fax orders are rejected, resulting in a lot of unnecessary work and frustration for the customer. One of the factors in this is that people try the online order method, it gets rejected, then they use the fax/phone option. They do so without realizing that if the card was already rejected once, it's likely going to be rejected when we enter the info for them. They do not realize that we do not have the ability to make the card processor suddenly accept a card that they have already rejected. Because of this and the fact that the shopping cart process is going to be updated and streamlined, we may consider dropping the phone/fax order options.
3) Main site rework
- The main site is also getting an overhaul and will use the CMS. This is also scheduled to coincide with the vB 4 release.
4) Admin CP
There is a recognition that the Admin CP needs a complete overhaul but this will not happen until version 4.1 at the earliest.
Note: I showed my wife Marlena the Admin CP for the first time yesterday. She looked dazed and confused. She said if she has just purchased vB and saw all of that, she would give up and not even try to understand it. And she's a bright lady, having been a Mensa member and all. I have no doubt she is not alone and that many potential customers that try the Admin Demo have the same reaction which in turn results in lost sales. For this reason I strongly recommend that a reworked Admin CP be given the highest possible priority after the Gold release.
5) Knowledgebase
We discussed a Knowledge base application for vB with two primary applications:
- Internal usage
This would comprise of articles related to common vB functions and questions. This could supplement or even replace the existing FAQs and Quick Tips forums. We could even pull Knowledgebase articles base on page content into threads (something like Similar Threads works now) and even into the Admin CP. For instance if you go into the Usergroup section of the Admin CP, the ACP would query the Knowledgebase and return several articles that may be related to what you are trying to do. I see enormous potential with this.
- A vB Suite Product
This could also be developed as a possible product for the Suite. Customers would be able to develop their own Knowledgebase content and incorporate this into their forums, CMS, Blogs, etc.
6) UTF-8 and full multi-language support
This will not be in vB 4.0 and possibly not be ready for 4.1. But there is an understanding of the importance of doing this as quickly as possible. The problem is that a lot of underlying code will need to be changed to accommodate this.
7) Suggestions
We also discussed the current suggestions system and possible ways to improve this. As currently configured, this is just not working. Suggestions do not get fed into the development process and customers get no feedback at all concerning their suggestions, some of which are very well thought out and articulated. Internally we had already discussed some of these ideas as per Wayne's thread here: <a href="http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=269093" target="_blank">http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=269093</a>
Ray agreed that something needs to be done and will give this matter more thought once we get over the vB4 release.
8) Arabic and Spanish Support
We discussed the possibility of adding both official Arabic and Spanish language support. Already Arabic customers are among the most loyal customers we have and the sheer volume of those customers means that it's time to seriously consider having an official Arabic support site or person.
Spanish language users are one of the largest untapped markets we have. With so many Spanish language speakers around the world, this is one of the great opportunities we have to expand vBulletin market share.
Both of these opportunities will be explored for the future.
*vB 4 Timing (highly confidential!)*
As it stands right now, here is the expected Alpha, Beta and release schedule for vB4:
June 1: Alpha released to Staff, select customers and vB product Developers (25-30)
June 15: Private Beta released to , Staff, Alpha testers and another 50 or so customers.
July 1: Cleanup the code and implement bug fixes over the next two weeks
July 15: Gold Released
Every 2-3 weeks thereafter: Bug fix releases
Sept-October: vB 4.1
I'm sure most of you are probably shocked by the fact that unlike previous releases there will be no public Beta or Release Candidates prior to the Gold release and also by the lack of a lengthy Beta and RC phase. This is no doubt a major change. We will also undoubtedly get complaints from some customers that expected to have a Beta available. The one thing that will mitigate this is that the Gold release will come so quickly that the electrons will barely have time to dry before Gold is available to them. (Okay, electrons don't get wet or dry but you get the point.)
The important thing we need to know as staff is that we have to be prepared and ready to support vB 4 much quicker than we have had to do on previous releases. Because of this it's important that each of us install and fully test the Alpha and Beta versions as soon as these are available to us.
*Unresolved Issues*
1) Existing Customers
One thing that has not been decided yet is how we transition existing customers to the new product and license changes. This is a major change that could very well come back to bite us if not handled correctly.
For instance up to now we have always told customers that if they purchase vB now they will have access to all future updates for one year. Because we've had no reason to suspect otherwise, we have always assumed this would be the same for vB 4. However there are some proposals that will require all customers to pay to upgrade to vB 4 Forums-Only or the vB Suite. The financial people have done analysis comparing potential customer losses vs. potential revenue increase and have come to a conclusion that customers should pay to upgrade one of the vB 4 products. And if the numbers I saw are correct, this may not be a nominal charge.
My concern is that the potential bad will generated by mishandling this transition could have a far more negative impact on our future business than any marginal short-term revenue gain. All business studies show that a customer that feels mistreated is far more likely to share this experience with more people than one who has been treated well. And based on my own personal business experience, I have found that accountants generally tend to underestimate the impact that bad will or good will has on the business. We should not forget that vBulletin has grown to its present leadership position without any advertising, which in itself is a remarkable achievement that we have all contributed to. Our growth and success has been almost entirely through word-of-mouth, i.e., 'good will'. And our fortunes can just as easily change via negative word-of-mouth.
For this reason I strongly urged that every consideration be made to make this transition as painless as possible for our existing customers. If there is any doubt at all about the right thing to do, it should always fall on the side of the customer. While I will support any decisions made, I feel very strongly about this and will add my voice to help ensure that existing customers are treated as valued partners in our success rather than as numbers on a ledger sheet. If we want loyalty from our customers, then we should be loyal to them in return.
2) Announcement Threads
Ahhh, the bane of our existence. One thing that has set us apart from our competition is that we allow our customers to give critical, sometimes even caustic, feedback on our forums. One of the reasons we accept this because we realize that attempting to 'censor' or remove such content is likely to simply blow up in our faces and cause even more bad will than simply letting them have their say. Also it turns out that much of this gets self-corrected when other customers disagree strongly with the complainers and often put them in their place. While it's often difficult to read some of these comments, I believe this has served us well up to this point.
However that does not mean this is not without it's faults. For instance the most vocal complainers tend to keep reposting the same complaints over and over again and, if truth be told, these people do not represent the vast majority of our customers. They tend to be the most technical users and are often programmers themselves. While what they say is often important and may contain valid criticisms, their comments can also give the false impression that there are a lot more complainers than there really are.
Another fault in the current system is that the Announcement Discussions forum is open to non-licensed users. This leaves it a ripe target for trolls, the smartest of which are very good at casting aspersions without overtly doing anything that would get them banned.
The reason I bring this up is because the changes that are coming from a customer perspective are far greater than anything they've seen before. So if you think the previous price changes and Google Adsense reactions were bad, we are likely to see something of a tsunami this time around.
There are several ways we can deal with this. The obvious one is that we need to have a complete FAQ explaining all these changes, why they were made and how this can benefit the customer. However no matter what we say, the truth is that these changes will not be good for all customers, although they very likely will benefit the majority. Also change itself fosters it's own reaction. Many people simply don't like change, even when it is to their benefit. Nonetheless a good FAQ and preparation can go a long ways towards dealing with some of these issues.
Another thing to consider is not even posting a Announcement Thread and certainly not 'stickying' it. One advantage of having a single thread like this is that such comments will remain in that thread rather than expand to multiple threads. On the other hand, we've seen how these threads can easily spiral out of control with negativity feeding on negativity. I don't have a clear sense of what to do and would like to hear from everyone else what they think.
One thing I am clear on is that I do not think we should keep the Announcement threads open to posting from non-customers. I do believe that this has encouraged trolls and helped fueled the negativity. What I propose to do is change the permissions so that unlicensed customers can no long post in this forum well in advance of the vB4 announcement so there is no direct correlation to it. In fact there isn't, since I would propose the same thing anyway whether these changes were coming or not.
*Your Turn*
I think I covered everything of importance from yesterday's meeting. Ray told me there was nothing we discussed that could not be shared with all of you. Of course it's important to hear your own thoughts regarding this so feel free to let us know what you think.
