Suggestion - make vBgallery support equal to PP support

ludachris · November 26th, 2006, 01:22 PM

Just a little constructive criticism:

Why is it that ever since vBgallery was purchased by All Enthusiast Inc. it has never fully been integrated into the product lineup? When you go to the members (downloads) page for vBgallery there is no link for version 2.0. When you go to the purchasing page, there is no option for vBgallery. If a customer is using Photopost but wants to convert to vBgallery, there is no import script. So one could go from vBgallery to PP but no vice versa. Why is there such limited feature additions to vBgallery compared to PP?

Many of us who left PP went to vBgallery because it was a better platform for those of us who use vBulletin. We wanted a script that integrated tighter and had certain benefits that PP didn't offer. But now that you guys bought the script new feature development has become very limited. It's almost as if you want to convert everyone over to PP by limiting feature development and avoiding making the script easy to purchase. Why not proudly treat the script as part of the PP family? Give those of us who paid for the script the type of product support and new feature development we deserve. If you have to raise the price a little, please do so. But don't just let it sit idle. Keep it growing so that those of us who made the jump can look forward to some new features and new versions.

It's very frustrating to have done all the work to move to a script that better suits your needs only to have it bought out and have the feature development slow way down simply because the company who bought the script doesn't want it to compete too much with their other gallery script. Just offer us the same level of support that you offer the customers who buy Photopost Pro. The features don't have to be the same, but we should be able to see some good feature development like those who use Photopost Pro enjoy.

Michael P · November 26th, 2006, 01:52 PM

Personally, I think Z has done a great job of getting updates out for each new version of vBulletin; kudos to him for his efforts.

Keep in mind, AEI is not a huge company with a staff of developers and we don't market two similar products side by side because of the confusion it creates to our buyers.

AEI has continued to support vBGallery development, provided support to customers and even kept the product available at the same price as it was previously.

ludachris · November 26th, 2006, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael P

Personally, I think Z has done a great job of getting updates out for each new version of vBulletin; kudos to him for his efforts.

Keep in mind, AEI is not a huge company with a staff of developers and we don't market two similar products side by side because of the confusion it creates to our buyers.

AEI has continued to support vBGallery development, provided support to customers and even kept the product available at the same price as it was previously.

My comments were not posted to undermine the efforts of Zachariah. They were directed to the owners of AEI, the people who chose to buy out vBgallery.

I'm not saying that there is no development and no support. I'm simply saying that it doesn't appear to be up to par with the development and support of your other products. I mean, if there was no intention of supporting or marketing vBgallery at the same level of the other AEI products (or the resources weren't there to do so) then why did AEI buy vBgallery? The only other reason I can think of is to corner the market and try and push vBgallery license owners to move over to PP - which would create some very bad feelings towards AEI to say the least.

I'm glad the product price remained the same, but it seemed that there was more development going on before it was purchased, and now that it's owned by AEI I'm guessing any features that might compete with PP will not be developed for vBgallery, which would be very disappointing. If it pushed the price up $20 I'd be willing to pay it if it meant we'd get a few more features PP has or other innovative features.

Michael P · November 26th, 2006, 03:44 PM

I have no reason to believe that vBGallery won't be upgraded in cycle with our other products. It was last December that PhotoPost Pro got its last "big" upgrade and the 5.5 and 5.6 releases over the past two month reflect our catching up with updates to it.

As in any business our efforts start with our most popular products and trickle down from there.

ludachris · November 26th, 2006, 04:46 PM

In any case, I'm sure other vbgallery license owners feel the way I do. I'm just giving some feedback in hopes that someone will listen and hopefully vbgallery will be treated more as a legitimate product like it used to be before the rights were purchased.

The fact that it's still not even being marketed on this site is enough to cause some concern about the fate of our investment in the script. We paid for licenses for a script that worked better for our needs and we expected it to someday have many of the same features as PP. There isn't even a page here on this site explaining the feature set of the script, just a comparison to Photopost Pro, which seems more like a way of promoting PP over vbgallery, not a way of explaining vbgallery capabilities.

If vbgallery were properly marketed a little more here on the site that sells the licenses for it I'm sure it would become a little more popular, thus the trickle down wouldn't take so long. People want this script. Why not make it a little more accessible?

0ptima · November 27th, 2006, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ludachris

I mean, if there was no intention of supporting or marketing vBgallery at the same level of the other AEI products (or the resources weren't there to do so) then why did AEI buy vBgallery? The only other reason I can think of is to corner the market and try and push vBgallery license owners to move over to PP - which would create some very bad feelings towards AEI to say the least.

AEI acquired VBA Gallery through a legal dispute.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ludachris

In any case, I'm sure other vbgallery license owners feel the way I do. I'm just giving some feedback in hopes that someone will listen and hopefully vbgallery will be treated more as a legitimate product like it used to be before the rights were purchased.

I feel the same way. No admin demo, still not on the front page of this site, updates to fix bugs are slow, etc. I love the product and I would like to see it mature over time, but I dont feel that is the direction AEI wants it to go.

myuption · November 28th, 2006, 01:54 PM

Well, sure vBGallery has taken some time to move forward. that's thanks to Zach, of course.

Suddenly everything starts to move, of course vB has moved a lot faster than vBG.

What do i mean, well, program structure has changed a lot this year. And some features in vB are totally different from vBG, which used to be really similar in it's functionality.

I thin it's a matter of time... ^^

OH! and Flash file support would be nice in vbG

StuntfactoryX · November 28th, 2006, 03:09 PM

i like vbgallery. i own a few copies of pro and 1 vbgallery. all my sites are vbulletin. i understand the support and direction because pro has a much bigger market outside of vbulletin.

im really impressed w/ vbgallery. i wish i could import my pro sites. i hope they continue keeping it available and supported for years to come.

igneous · November 29th, 2006, 02:15 AM

I totally support what ludachris said there. how do you think the customers feel about all this if after over a year you weren't bothered to add vBG to your store?

for now vBG is the best gallery software for vBulletin. but the updates, fixes and new features are somewhat rare. it seems to be the odd one out. if everything continues like that, more and more people will start switching to PhotoPlog instead.