Foo - BFs new owners are on a ROLL...

Anyone who runs a forum of any size (like me, for example) knows the name Jelsoft. They make vBulletin, the piece of software that keeps BikeForums (and the forums I admin) alive and happy.

IB bought Jelsoft outright. I guess they'll save some cash on licensing for all these forums they're acquiring, eh?

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1383883

Wow....that is big news. Not that licensing was very expensive, but it allows them to tailor how they see fit. Maybe they'll fix vBulletin's crappy search.

Wow, that's certainly the brute force method.

Wow, that's certainly the brute force method.
That's the new mentality. Buy everything up and squash anybody else. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IB, etc

Walmart...:p

Walmart...:p

here here:D

ROLL

http://www.rhodesbread.com/SeasonalPages/images/CloverLeafRoll.jpg

Damn. Just damn.

I wish I better understood this stuff. That's getting pretty ridiculous. Stir Crazy, might you care to elaborate on this? I can't help but wonder how this benifits internet brands.

Obviously it's a huge undertaking and they're not doing it merely out of the kindness of their hearts. Ad money perhaps? Domination of a market? What's the deal?

Just convenience and stability, I'd think. If they need something done, bam, they can do it. No threat of someone else buying up the software that runs the forums their business relies on, or any other kinks.

Yeah, to tell you the truth, I only found out about this today myself.

It makes sense, however, as we are planning on moving many of our forum sites to vBulletin software. They'll more than likely remain an independent entity, operating on their own, for the time being, but our developmental resources may eventually begin to work more closely with them as time goes on.

I was a bit surprised to find this out, but I think it's great, as I like vBulletin a lot.

Ryan,

Having used vBulletin for a while now, and breaking this DB more than once, I would hazard to guess that it's simply going to be easier for Internet Brands to run all their forums on the same platform. It would certainly simplify things for whoever places the creatives.

Outside of the advertising aspect, it can only be a good thing for forum users. Obviously, IB has a financial interest in vBulletin now, but just as important, if all their sites are running it, they would want to make sure it's the best product out there.

I think I might have just stepped on John's toes.

That's the new mentality. Buy everything up and squash anybody else. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IB, etc
It's a time honored tradition in this country going back at least as far as John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil in the 1800's. Except he was better at it than any has been since.

ROLL

http://www.drugs-forum.co.uk/ecstasy%20tablets.jpg

Yeah, to tell you the truth, I only found out about this today myself.

It makes sense, however, as we are planning on moving many of our forum sites to vBulletin software. They'll more than likely remain an independent entity, operating on their own, for the time being, but our developmental resources may eventually begin to work more closely with them as time goes on.

I was a bit surprised to find this out, but I think it's great, as I like vBulletin a lot.

FYI, Ryan, if you guys need some serious UNIX/Linux talent with a focus on security and experience in distributed computing, distributed MySQL, etc, let me know and I'll link you to my resume. ;)

I even have quite a bit of experience with this new software you guys just bought, as well as managing the technical meat 'n' taters of large forums.

I used to be the admin of a political debate forum years ago, I started using vbulletin when it was 1.x

I shut the forum down and got rid of the domain shortly after 9/11, everybody was getting way too nasty, and a lawyer for one of the posters contacted me about defamation issues (not because of anything I did, but what I didn't do: remove another posters comments), and I decided it wasn't worth the hassle anymore.

ROLL :)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c399/WillworkforWag/seven11.jpg

It's a time honored tradition in this country going back at least as far as John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil in the 1800's. Except he was better at it than any has been since.Yeah, at one point Rockefeller owned/controlled up to 20% of this country's GDP. :eek:

I think I read the other day that Rockefeller's fortune would be worth something like a hundred billion dollars in 2007 dollars. For comparison, I think Bill Gates is worth somewhere around forty.