vBulletin Support Attitude Is A Turn-Off. Any Alternative BB suggestions?

NP41215 · 01-28-2005, 05:13 PM

I've tried to find out if it is possible to export, in CSV format, vBulletin members' email addresses, along with other associated fields such as member's referral credits, bonus bucks, date of registeration/signup, etc.

The sales people at vBulletin said "No, only emails addresses, and nothing else are exported, and no other fields may be included." That was very surprising as vB's export function proved so restrictive and rudimentary after all these years. I was told it needs to be hacked to do what I wanted.

So I asked vB's sales people if there is already a third party hack/script that will do this. Sales said don't know but to sign up at vBulletin.Org and ask.

So I went to vBulletin.Org and signed up, only to find that I cannot post my question there that the vB sales people earlier couldn't tell me on the phone because I was not yet a licensee/owner of a copy of vBulletin. In other words, I had to buy vBulletin first to find out if there is a third party hack/script to do what vB cannot do -- a very basic export feature. That's truly petty and annoying.

I could see that there was thousands of messages in vBulletin.Org on vBulletin modifications but I cannot ask there. I was told to go to Pre-Sale forum where messages are sparse and answered largely by vBulletin staff who had no answer to my original question in the first place.

So after all these run around and waste of time, I'm really pissed off. Whether they realize it or not, vBulletin is being very petty in not granting even a prospective buyer the courtesy to ask for third-party-provided features which vB cannot provide but which are essential to the buying decision. When a company gets big, the low-level sales and support people can actually become unresponsive and bureaucratic and drive customers away by specializing in saying "NO", while earning company salary. I've seen this happen time and again and the business owner is no wiser.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I want a BB software that provide these two(2) important features (built-in):
(a) grants member registration referral credits and other bonus points or rewards automatically by a configurable, pre-set rule(s);
(b) allows export of the membership list, with all data fields pertaining to each member, to an ASCII text file. Ideally, this will be one member per line, in CSV format, with various fields included, such as email, referral credits, bonus points, date of registration/signup, etc.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/programming/67230-vbulletin-support-attitude-turn-off-any.html

Any suggestions of a BB software that already does this? Any help will be appreciated.

Alternatively, has anyone done this in vBulletin or any other BB software as a hack?

armstrong · 01-28-2005, 05:29 PM

Exporting member details is a relatively painless process that can be done outside VB. If you are hosted on a cpanel account, it should have phpmyadmin that can do this export in a snap.

Have you tried phpbb.com? phpbb is open source, and you can look around places like phpbbhacks.com to see if the hacks you need have already been invented.

AdoptableDomains · 01-28-2005, 06:50 PM

The phpBB community is very responsive and open. I'm pretty sure most of what you ask can be done by existing phpBB mods. It's also free, so you can experiment without a loss of money.

I have several phpBB forums and am very pleased. However, I've never had a vbulletin one to compare the admin features.

axilant · 01-28-2005, 10:09 PM

ok not too many people heard of this but
http://icebb.kenkarpg.info/

Since IPB went paid, this is a new project. IT IS not a copy of IPB it has the same exact coding technique, and people like me and a friend are working on modules for this script at this time. We are making a system that you upload the zip of a ipb skin, and it will email you the skin in icebb format, it uses the same coding structure, and this has a nice community.

This has lots of updates all the time

Thanks,
Cody Selzer

superprogrammer · 01-29-2005, 03:42 AM

Wow, iceBB looks cool

01-28-2005, 05:13 PM	THREAD STARTER #1 (permalink)
NP41215 NamePros Regular Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 343	vBulletin Support Attitude Is A Turn-Off. Any Alternative BB suggestions? I've tried to find out if it is possible to export, in CSV format, vBulletin members' email addresses, along with other associated fields such as member's referral credits, bonus bucks, date of registeration/signup, etc. The sales people at vBulletin said "No, only emails addresses, and nothing else are exported, and no other fields may be included." That was very surprising as vB's export function proved so restrictive and rudimentary after all these years. I was told it needs to be hacked to do what I wanted. So I asked vB's sales people if there is already a third party hack/script that will do this. Sales said don't know but to sign up at vBulletin.Org and ask. So I went to vBulletin.Org and signed up, only to find that I cannot post my question there that the vB sales people earlier couldn't tell me on the phone because I was not yet a licensee/owner of a copy of vBulletin. In other words, I had to buy vBulletin first to find out if there is a third party hack/script to do what vB cannot do -- a very basic export feature. That's truly petty and annoying. I could see that there was thousands of messages in vBulletin.Org on vBulletin modifications but I cannot ask there. I was told to go to Pre-Sale forum where messages are sparse and answered largely by vBulletin staff who had no answer to my original question in the first place. So after all these run around and waste of time, I'm really pissed off. Whether they realize it or not, vBulletin is being very petty in not granting even a prospective buyer the courtesy to ask for third-party-provided features which vB cannot provide but which are essential to the buying decision. When a company gets big, the low-level sales and support people can actually become unresponsive and bureaucratic and drive customers away by specializing in saying "NO", while earning company salary. I've seen this happen time and again and the business owner is no wiser. Anyway, to make a long story short, I want a BB software that provide these two(2) important features (built-in): (a) grants member registration referral credits and other bonus points or rewards automatically by a configurable, pre-set rule(s); (b) allows export of the membership list, with all data fields pertaining to each member, to an ASCII text file. Ideally, this will be one member per line, in CSV format, with various fields included, such as email, referral credits, bonus points, date of registration/signup, etc. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/programming/67230-vbulletin-support-attitude-turn-off-any.html Any suggestions of a BB software that already does this? Any help will be appreciated. Alternatively, has anyone done this in vBulletin or any other BB software as a hack?

01-28-2005, 05:29 PM	#2 (permalink)
armstrong Man from Manila Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Net Posts: 6,025	Exporting member details is a relatively painless process that can be done outside VB. If you are hosted on a cpanel account, it should have phpmyadmin that can do this export in a snap. Have you tried phpbb.com? phpbb is open source, and you can look around places like phpbbhacks.com to see if the hacks you need have already been invented. __________________ Apollo's excellent 3-letter .BIZ auction; $1 starting bid!

01-28-2005, 06:50 PM	#3 (permalink)
AdoptableDomains Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 4,027	The phpBB community is very responsive and open. I'm pretty sure most of what you ask can be done by existing phpBB mods. It's also free, so you can experiment without a loss of money. I have several phpBB forums and am very pleased. However, I've never had a vbulletin one to compare the admin features. __________________ AdoptableDomains.com ~~~~~Finding Good Homes for Good Names~~~~~ FuelPrices.mobi - Fish.us - ManhattanNewYork.net - Salesmen.info - SoundSystems.org Dickering.com - JobPlacement.biz - LotteryTickets.ws - Deleted.cc - Names.im - MP3.hn

01-29-2005, 03:42 AM	#5 (permalink)
superprogrammer Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Washington Posts: 4,327	Wow, iceBB looks cool __________________ Download youtube videos at www.HugYouTube.com -NO LINKS TO PARKED PAGES- Anonymous access at www.Banned.net

01-28-2005, 10:09 PM	#4 (permalink)
axilant Account Closed Join Date: May 2004 Location: /etc/passwd Posts: 2,178	ok not too many people heard of this but http://icebb.kenkarpg.info/ Since IPB went paid, this is a new project. IT IS not a copy of IPB it has the same exact coding technique, and people like me and a friend are working on modules for this script at this time. We are making a system that you upload the zip of a ipb skin, and it will email you the skin in icebb format, it uses the same coding structure, and this has a nice community. This has lots of updates all the time Thanks, Cody Selzer

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