vBulletin 3.8.0 Released

[vB.Org System]

vBulletin 3.8.0

Today, the vBulletin team is proud to declare version 3.8.0 to be our stable, supported release.

vBulletin 3.8.0 is available immediately from the Members' Area (http://members.vbulletin.com) to all customers with active vBulletin licenses, and will be offered as the primary choice to those making new purchases (https://www.vbulletin.com/order/). We recommend that all customers with active licenses upgrade to vBulletin 3.8.0.

Google AdSense Integration

vBulletin 3.8 features a control panel to allow you to quickly add Google AdSense advertising units to your forum and monetize your site traffic!

To get started, please visit the members' area and either sign up for a new Google AdSense account or assign your existing account with vBulletin.com. Once you have linked your members area account to your Google AdSense account, all vBulletin downloads will include the advertising control panel. (It will not be included unless you do this.)

From the control panel, you can choose an advertising package that contains the amount and type of ads that you want to feature - and deploy it instantly with just a couple of clicks. The positions and ad unit types chosen for each package are designed to give the maximum possible revenue for your site. Text-based advertising units will automatically inherit the color schemes of any styles you have on your board. Should you wish to experiment with the different ad packages, you can change your mind on deployed package at any time, including the option to remove ads completely.

For more information about this feature, please visit the vBulletin members' area (http://members.vbulletin.com).

New Features in 3.8


There are many new features and improvements to existing functionality in vBulletin 3.8.0 over vBulletin 3.7.x. Here is a brief list of just a few of the highlights.
Social group discussions (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php?b=2329)
Social group categories (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php?b=2329)
Private message sorting and filtering (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php?b=2332)
Private message history (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php?b=2338)
Quick edit for newer types of content (visitor messages and picture comments)
Social group icons
Social group transfers
Private message quick reply
Private message throttling (limit messages sent over a time period)
Private message reporting
Profile privacy (limit blocks to a subset of users)
Lightbox navigation
Thread prefix permissions
Dismissible noticesA full and detailed list is available in Darren's blog (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php?b=2334).

Support for 3.7

This release supersedes the 3.7 branch as our primary product. Active maintenance of 3.7, including fixes for functionality breaks and security problems, will continue for approximately six months (to 1st July 2009), after which only security fixes will be released. Upon the release of vBulletin 4.1, the 3.7 branch will be end-of-life'd and no further security fixes will be made available and customers will be advised to upgrade to vBulletin 3.8 or newer in order to gain fixes.

PHP and MySQL Requirements

vBulletin 3.8.0 requires at least PHP 4.3.3 and MySQL 4.0.16 (These are the same requirements as vBulletin 3.7), but we strongly recommend that all customers run PHP 5.2.8 with APC and MySQL 5.1.30 or later. Major performance benefits can be had by taking the recommended route rather than simply satisfying the required versions.

What is a 'Gold' Version?

When talking about software, the term 'gold' is not related to the color of the application. Rather, it refers to the practice of burning the final version of a software product to a CD-R so that it can be sent to a large scale CD press for large-scale distribution. It is used to indicate that the code is ready for deployment to customers. The official name of this new version is vBulletin 3.8.0.

Installing or Upgrading vBulletin

Anyone who has installed or upgraded any version of vBulletin 3 before will be familiar with the process, but for those who are new to the system, the vBulletin manual has all the details for installing (http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/install) and upgrading (http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/upgrade).

Template Changes

A large number of templates have been changed when compared with vBulletin 3.7.x. It will be necessary to revert affected customized templates or otherwise carefully integrate the changes into your custom versions or new features and existing functionality will be adversely affected. A complete list of the templates you have customized whose original version has been changed by the 3.8.0 upgrade is available within your Admin Control Panel after the upgrade is complete.

Bug Reports

As with any software, bugs will appear. If you find a problem that you believe to be a bug, please don't post about it on the forums where the development team may never find your message, but instead use the dedicated bug tracker (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/project.php?do=issuelist&projectid=6&issuetypeid=bug) to make a report that can be tracked through to completion.

Before reporting a bug, please ensure you are able to reproduce the problem on a board using a default, uncustomized style with all plugins disabled.

Please do not use this thread for support questions.

More... (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=295860&goto=newpost)

[MandarS]

Great! Keep up the good work :)

[ry215]

upgrade now!

Thanks vBulletin Team.

[RedeemedWarrior]

very nice indeed

[crYme]

Wow vBulletin 3.8.0 stable version has been released! thanks a lot, i'm gonna upgrade my forum right now! :up:

[yahoooh]

thank u

[christicehurst]

Upgrading it now.

[Forum Lover]

me too.. :)

[Battle_Ring]

Would of been better if they would of added rotating banners instead of the google adsnese for those of us that have more than google ads

[nexialys]

having to enter my AdSense info on vb.com is pathetic... to receive that addition to the file, this is cheating the engine... VB.com will now have the ability to add partnership to AdSense, which i refuse to do so... this can be debated i suppose...

or we continue to use the Mods released here that do not do this.

[steve1966]

Thanks

[christicehurst]

Yeah I'm not sure what VB are doing with AdSense. It's odd for them to be working with Google.

[Brandon Sheley]

having to enter my AdSense info on vb.com is pathetic... to receive that addition to the file, this is cheating the engine... VB.com will now have the ability to add partnership to AdSense, which i refuse to do so... this can be debated i suppose...

or we continue to use the Mods released here that do not do this.

they're asking what!:eek:
hmm, I'm not very happy with this either
but than again, I need to renew my license to even get to 3.8..lol
with a little research I seen this.

To get started, please visit the members' area and either sign up for a new Google AdSense account or assign your existing account with vBulletin.com. Once you have linked your members area account to your Google AdSense account, all vBulletin downloads will include the advertising control panel. (It will not be included unless you do this.)
So what happens if your banned from adsense? or don't want to make an adsense account? or what if your working on someone else's forum... I'll have to enter a madeup pub-XXXXXXXXXXX if I need to dl the script for someone else.

That is a stupid move jelsoft IMHO ;)

I guess I'll just have to check out this ads CP, are you able to use other advertisers?

[Wayne Luke]

You can associate your vBulletin Customer account with your Google Adsense account or if you don't have an account, sign up for one from in the vBulletin Member's Area. This allows people to quickly and easily include Adsense ads from the Admin CP of your vBulletin installations. It is a standard basic implementation developed in cooperation with Google. This is a quick and easy way for forum owners to place advertising if they do not have advertising already and want to monetize their forums.

It however is not the only way to include advertising and you can continue to use the advertising templates or other methods to insert your own advertising.

Associating your vBulletin Customer Account with a Google Adsense account is not mandatory but just another service that we felt would be beneficial to our customers.

[punchbowl]

Have google bought IB?

[Brandon Sheley]

You can associate your vBulletin Customer account with your Google Adsense account or if you don't have an account, sign up for one from in the vBulletin Member's Area. This allows people to quickly and easily include Adsense ads from the Admin CP of your vBulletin installations. It is a standard basic implementation developed in cooperation with Google. This is a quick and easy way for forum owners to place advertising if they do not have advertising already and want to monetize their forums.

It however is not the only way to include advertising and you can continue to use the advertising templates or other methods to insert your own advertising.

Associating your vBulletin Customer Account with a Google Adsense account is not mandatory but just another service that we felt would be beneficial to our customers.
Thanks for clearing that up

[bleros]

upgrade now nice

[cheat-master30]

Upgraded my own forum to 3.8 now. Overjoyed at the idea of 38 template edits required (not).

[WreckRman2]

The adsense is a nice addition but my own mods work much better. I edited the postbit template to show my ads like follows: one after the first post, and one before and after the last post in the thread. This keeps the ads in the readers eyes and not simply lost at the top and bottom of the page.

[dlan]

I'm really curious about the vb-google deal, probably vb will get several new referrals. Hopefully there will be some hot stuff behind this (Can't get enough of conspiracies and bribes :P)

[mastertek2000]

just updated evrything went great thanks guys :up:

[ahmad sami]

i will download now
Thanks vBulletin Team

[Shishir]

Upgraded my own forum to 3.8 now. Overjoyed at the idea of 38 template edits required (not).
I am currently updating, in upload queue. Hope to get Killed in 38 Template edit. :D

It will be necessary to revert affected customized templates or otherwise carefully integrate the changes into your custom versions.OMG, I did so many edits. I'm gonna die.

Enough kidding, Lets see what are those.

Shishir

[Marco van Herwaarden]

or what if your working on someone else's forum... I'll have to enter a madeup pub-XXXXXXXXXXX if I need to dl the script for someone else.

You should never have to download from someone elses account. You should not even have the login details of the Members' Area of others.

[chooky]

in the last 3 days were 3 big vbulletin forums hacked (3.7.5!) from shit noobs, there is everywhere a big security risk in the vb-script !

[Marco van Herwaarden]

If you have information regarding vulnerabilities in the default vBulletin software, then please address this in a support ticket.

Posting on the forums "there is everywhere a big security risk in the vb-script" does not get anything solved if there is a real issue (which i doubt), it only will make others nervous for no reason.

[alehawk]

its a shame what they are doing with the adsense thing.
Why people should send private information to vbulletin staff? to help then to earn more money from google?
They should have released the adsense feature for everyone and offer licence owners to sign up for google adsense but not coarse people by giving you the product if you sign up to adsense or provide vb staff with private info.

[intensecool]

I am still confused....Should i update the 3.8 Version or not...

[BozzaJos]

Great to see that another vBulletin version is out! I do have to say, with my limited knowledge on all of this, it's very hard to keep up with all of these releases.
I am running a big forum with a lot of mods and a customized style installed. Are you saying that it won't be usefull to use this style when I upgrade to 3.8.0? If I revert all templates, I bet the style and some of the mods will stop working right? Is it better for me to change styles (a 3.8.0 made style) when upgrading?

Sorry for the many questions but I hope someone can give me some clearity.

Thank you in advance.

[ragtek]

its a shame what they are doing with the adsense thing.
Why people should send private information to vbulletin staff? to help then to earn more money from google?
They should have released the adsense feature for everyone and offer licence owners to sign up for google adsense but not coarse people by giving you the product if you sign up to adsense or provide vb staff with private info.
You don't have to use this feature.
The ad location templates are still there, so you can use them.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

its a shame what they are doing with the adsense thing.
Why people should send private information to vbulletin staff? to help then to earn more money from google?
They should have released the adsense feature for everyone and offer licence owners to sign up for google adsense but not coarse people by giving you the product if you sign up to adsense or provide vb staff with private info.
You are mistaken by the above. The google account-id is only used to generate the files needed so you can implement AdSense easy on your forum, so you can make money.

No private info is ever requested on vBulletin.com. We do not get access to your Google account.

PS Strange that this assumption has now been posted twice in this thread on vB.org, where it is not even asked once on the only place where a full answer can be given: in the release discussion thread at vBulletin.com.

[Shazz]

Features I would never use...

[alehawk]

You don't have to use this feature.
The ad location templates are still there, so you can use them.

Yes I know that and I am not going to use it, I'm only expressing myself.
Maybe the next release the will ask users for their bank account numbers and passwrods to integrate it to the forum.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Please do not spread wild rumors that are not based on any facts.

[alehawk]

You are mistaken by the above. The google account-id is only used to generate the files needed so you can implement AdSense easy on your forum, so you can make money.

No private info is ever requested on vBulletin.com. We do not get access to your Google account.

PS Strange that this assumption has now been posted twice in this thread on vB.org, where it is not even asked once on the only place where a full answer can be given: in the release discussion thread at vBulletin.com.

Come on, any google adsense user knows how to start a google ad campain. There are some mods that allows any user to add google banners to their forum and they dont ask for any data.
In my opinion no user data is needed to release a tool for placing google adsense ads.
Is only my opinion, it is something I want to say and regerdin the place where I wrote my complian, I also worte it in vbulletin.com.
Cya

[Marco van Herwaarden]

You can have your own opinion wether this is a needed new feature or not. But it was added because of massive demand from maybe less experienced users.

What i do have a problem with is that you, without basing this on any fact, are posting that Jelsoft makes money out of your advertising instead of yourself, you are insinuating that we request information that would give us access to your google account, you are insinuating that we will request additional private and sensitive information like bank accounts and passwords. Unless you can base this on any facts, then please do not try to insinuate such things.

PS Could you link me to your post in the vB.com release discussion thread where you raise these question, i just quickly read the entire thread and could not find it.

[Wayne Luke]

Come on, any google adsense user knows how to start a google ad campain.

This is actually designed for the 10s of thousands of vBulletin customers who don't know anything about adsense or placing advertisements in a forum. This allows them to deploy ads in a few clicks with no hassles or configuration issue on their end.

As stated in your other thread and elsewhere, if you already have advertising or want more advanced options then this program and featureset is probably not for you. There are a wide range of people using vBulletin to power websites from advanced programmers who don't even look at manuals to people who did not even know what a web hosting company was before they started.

[Paul M]

Why people should send private information to vbulletin staff? to help then to earn more money from google?
What private info exactly ?

Surely all they ask for is your adsense client id - which is freely viewable in the source of any page you have adsense adverts on.

[veenuisthebest]

What private info exactly ?
adsense client ID, postal code, and last 5 digits of phone number.

[Paul M]

Hmm, you're right, I just looked ....

Dont understand why either of those is needed myself, surely all you need is the client id.

Oh well. Not something I will be using anyway, so it doesnt really matter to me. :)

[Ted S]

adsense client ID, postal code, and last 5 digits of phone number.

Your AdSense client ID is viewable anytime you use AdSense code no matter if you insall it through a mod, through vB or by hacking the template its self. What's the problem with an admin tool collecting data you already publish to the world for use in publishing it back to the world? An AdSense ID is hardly useful to anyone but the account holder.

[veenuisthebest]

The feature is currently in its very basic stage, ofcourse meant for newbies, so after testing it I disabled vbulletin access from my adense account as I am more than happy editing Ad templates myself.

Strange thing was that even after disabling access, my adsense pub-id was still showing as associated in vbulletin members area. I opened a support ticket and thanks to the staff, they removed it in 5 minutes, saying that at this time it can only be done manually at their end.

[Golzarion]

If you have information regarding vulnerabilities in the default vBulletin software, then please address this in a support ticket.

Posting on the forums "there is everywhere a big security risk in the vb-script" does not get anything solved if there is a real issue (which i doubt), it only will make others nervous for no reason.

Exactly the same happened to me before! When I was using vb latest version 3.7.3 ( in that time ) just I was told to open ticket ... The vb support and vbulletin moderators insist on " There is no security bug on vBulletin default !! "

After that I found the security bug (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/project.php?issueid=26898#note71781) and report it .....Now I see the same sentences as above ...

One more thing vbulletin.com/org never used 3.7.2 or 3.7.3 ..3.7.5 versions !

Hmm, you're right, I just looked ....

Dont understand why either of those is needed myself, surely all you need is the client id.

Oh well. Not something I will be using anyway, so it doesnt really matter to me. :)

Please take a look at this matter . Collecting your customer private data because of new features on 3.8 version make the customers confidence on vBulletin weak ...

Thinking about this tow thing ( denying the bugs + asking unnecessary data ) is not good for us as customers...

[Lizard King]

You can have your own opinion wether this is a needed new feature or not. But it was added because of massive demand from maybe less experienced users.

What i do have a problem with is that you, without basing this on any fact, are posting that Jelsoft makes money out of your advertising instead of yourself, you are insinuating that we request information that would give us access to your google account, you are insinuating that we will request additional private and sensitive information like bank accounts and passwords. Unless you can base this on any facts, then please do not try to insinuate such things.

PS Could you link me to your post in the vB.com release discussion thread where you raise these question, i just quickly read the entire thread and could not find it.

Hello Marco ,

As your post makes it clear you know a lot of information about this adsense option , can you please kindly respond to http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1676846&postcount=189

[nexialys]

i can answer you on both situations in your reply there...

a: even if IB claim they have no way to use that information at their own profit, they do. they have a deal with Google to release this engine on vBulletin... the deal is simple: "we release an integration, you help us spread the word" ... if ANY IB guy will say the opposite, i will have to spread the word myself that they lie -- for one reason, All of Google DEALS are made the same way, i know about it, i dealth with Google a lot of times on vBlog, Wordpress and some other scripts.

b: they announce it's a deal with Google to have an integration, it's indicated in the announcement. Why in hell would they work with the guys at Google if the script itself is a 3 lines script that was released on vb.org about 3 years ago ?!... they have to make commercial agreements. Jelsoft never copied a hack for no reason.

[puertoblack2003]

well i applied for the hell of it and upon registering it did ask about the account details.allowing vb to access to access code and performance..see for yourself.


http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/3369/gmancj0.gif (http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gmancj0.gif)
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/gmancj0.gif/1/w1002.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img220/gmancj0.gif/1/)

I just dont like the idea that i have to give them a percentage when the price of vb to renew went up or the purchase....:o

[nexialys]

good link:

thanks Puerto, this shows up that the script is doing what i told from the minute ...

you have to know how to block these ads revenues though... any noob would not even have an idea he can change that...

they provide this solution for noobs, and they are proud of it... sure, because real coders know how it works

[puertoblack2003]

lol..i noticed it and fixed it:up:

[Wayne Luke]

I just dont like the idea that i have to give them a percentage when the price of vb to renew went up or the purchase....:o

Did you look at the percentage? We take 0.0% percent of the revenue you generate. However if you generate money in the first 180 days, then Google pays us a fee. That is all we get out of it.

By the way, any website owner can implement the same thing on their site using the Adsense API. It isn't a special deal between Google and vBulletin.

[nexialys]

it's not a special deal, but i don't see why it was added "hiddenly" to the latest version, as there was already a dozen of similar solutions. Jelsoft added it to save time for newbies who do know nothing about coding... so you cheat on their back... funny fact now...

[Lizard King]

Did you look at the percentage? We take 0.0% percent of the revenue you generate. However if you generate money in the first 180 days, then Google pays us a fee. That is all we get out of it.

By the way, any website owner can implement the same thing on their site using the Adsense API. It isn't a special deal between Google and vBulletin.
Yes , any website owner can do that but you are missing the important point Wayne.

Internet Brands own vBulletin , Internet Brands are competitor of many vBulletin customers.

Internet Brands include a new option to vBulletin , which will allow them to track customers adsense statistics and they never care to inform their customers about this important part at all. Which is a very important privacy problem.

[Wayne Luke]

I am not missing any point.

Its an OPT-IN program. If you feel that there is not enough information than do not opt-in. It really is as simple as that. It isn't required to associate a Google Publisher ID to use vBulletin 3.8.0. The functionality isn't even included unless you opt-in before downloading. You still have complete control over your own Google Account and you can Opt-Out at any time.

By choosing to associate your account, data is only shared based on what Google provides under their privacy policy. Which is agreed to when someone signs up for that program. You can re-read it here:
http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html

Google still controls all the data about your account. If you Opt-in then you agree to share it.

You make it sound like you can't even use vBulletin 3.8.0 unless we get your publisher ID. Even if you gave it, you still have control over it and it isn't associated until you give vBulletin.com access through your Adsense account manager.

[puertoblack2003]

Did you look at the percentage? We take 0.0% percent of the revenue you generate. However if you generate money in the first 180 days, then Google pays us a fee. That is all we get out of it.

By the way, any website owner can implement the same thing on their site using the Adsense API. It isn't a special deal between Google and vBulletin.


yep, i did see the percentage! it's a new account that i created, but my thing is after the site start generating revenue, then vb gets whatever percentage it was agreed upon or however that works.And that's my issue...:down:

[Wayne Luke]

yep, i did see the percentage! it's a new account that i created, but my thing is after the site start generating revenue, then vb gets whatever percentage it was agreed upon or however that works.And that's my issue...:down:
Yeah.. the agreed upon percentage is what is being shown to you. Not what has been earned to date.

In return for you opening an Adsense account through vBulletin.com we agree that revenue should be shared with 100% going to the website owner and 0.0% going to Jelsoft. In return, Google agrees to pay us a referrer fee based on the amount of money you make in the first 180 days. This fee ranges between $5.00 and $250.00 per customer that opens an account. At no time do we take any of the actual adsense revenue that you accrue.

This is actually specified on the Google Adsense page within the member's area when you go to create a new account or associate an existing one.

[nexialys]

the point is not the %... if Jelsoft want to receive 1% of the revenues, or 10, they can change the deal... actually if it would've been announced that "FOR THE DEAL, JELSOFT will receive 1% of your own revenues as a deal with Google" i would be ok with that... the point is not the %, but the tracking of information, InternetBRAND will receive... not Jelsoft -- which is now a slave to IB, something i do not care either...

[Wayne Luke]

Then don't use the integrated Adsense... It is as simple as that. Go to Google.com and create your own Adsense account and copy and paste the code that Google gives you into Advertising templates.

[Lizard King]

Then don't use the integrated Adsense... It is as simple as that. Go to Google.com and create your own Adsense account and copy and paste the code that Google gives you into Advertising templates.
Wayne ,

Why not all these key privacy information not made into announcement ? This is my main concern.

If nobody will noticed it , you had no intention to inform your customers. Thats not the correct way to deal with your customers and Jelsoft never acted like this in past.

[nexialys]

Tell us if you need a Public Relation consultant, i'm all up for the task... ROFL!

/me runs behind Mert to be protected from any projectile coming from the Jelsoft HQ!

[Wayne Luke]

Because the privacy of the Adsense account is controlled by Google and your Adsense Account manager. You would have to ask them what information they share with referring websites. Looking at the Adsense API, it isn't much. We can tell how much revenue your ads make when they are placed on our websites. That is about it.

Anyway, I am done as everything is laid out in the agreements when you sign up. Need more information then you can contact the main offices of Jelsoft.

[Reeve of shinra]

I agree this is borderline sleezy

[nexialys]

strangely, when i see a post with "agree" at first, i always think the word "nexialys" would come next.. lol

btw, i hate betas, so welcome official release!

[Shelley_c]

just one question.

1. Can I still download 3.8 upgrade without signing up to adsense?

Edit: I just read the thread at .com that it is an opt-in thing. And the files will only be included if people choose to opt-in. Ignore this post.

Edit: Okay, I have another question. What is stopping Jelsoft in the future from adjusting Partners share of revenue? to say 10%. They are stating now they are not taking or making any revenue from anyone that opts-in but never stated in the future if this will be the case? Also, because the staff at .com have emphasized that this feature is for people who are new to websites that don't know what they are doing and jelsoft decide to take a slice of the percentage won't this affect existing members who decided to opted in from the start and decide they don't want to share their revenue and opt out?

For people who arent aware of the in and outs of setting this if jelsoft decide to take a slice of the percentage it's worrying to think that many people that opted in will be looking for other alternatives and loose revenue and are left in the lurch because they don't know what the heck they are doing which jelsoft have claimed for the reason of setting this feature the way they did.

[briansol]

I agree this is borderline sleezy

borderline? no.. 100%.

[skierjosh]

I think borderline would better way to describe it, it's quite clear what it does.

[MarkoP]

Great to see that another vBulletin version is out! I do have to say, with my limited knowledge on all of this, it's very hard to keep up with all of these releases.
I am running a big forum with a lot of mods and a customized style installed. Are you saying that it won't be usefull to use this style when I upgrade to 3.8.0? If I revert all templates, I bet the style and some of the mods will stop working right? Is it better for me to change styles (a 3.8.0 made style) when upgrading?

Sorry for the many questions but I hope someone can give me some clearity.

Thank you in advance.


Would all you quit whining, moaning, defending and hating this adsense crap and answer BozzaJos question...quoted above...

[Golzarion]

it's not a special deal, but i don't see why it was added "hiddenly" to the latest version, as there was already a dozen of similar solutions. Jelsoft added it to save time for newbies who do know nothing about coding... so you cheat on their back... funny fact now...

Wayne ,

Why not all these key privacy information not made into announcement ? This is my main concern.

If nobody will noticed it , you had no intention to inform your customers. Thats not the correct way to deal with your customers and Jelsoft never acted like this in past.

The next concern is what are the more things that hidden behind new releases ?

I never thought Jelsoft do such things hiddenly in order to get more money !!

The confidential of customers on your company is NOT important for you ??

What kind of deal is this ?

[punchbowl]

wow - I was wondering why this super new feature that there hasn't been many requests for was suddenly implemented.

This is how it feels to be monetized!

[nexialys]

i'm sure there was no real need to implement it, that's why it's an opt-in... but due to the number of download of all these AdSense hacks on vb.org, i would say Jelsoft needed a solution, and IB found it... Jelsoft itself would be too small to have a need for this integration, it is time consuming,,,

[Digital Jedi]

I agree this is borderline sleezy
It would be sleazy if they took any of YOUR revenue. It would be sleazy if you where required to have an Ad Sens account to download 3.8. As it is, it's entirely optional, and not really any different that what you have to do to set up an adsense account to begin with.

Seems you guys are looking for deceptiveness around ever corner.

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Since 3.7 is will see End of Life fairly soon, will vB.org be upgrading to 3.8 in the near future?

[skierjosh]

Some people (some more than others ;) ) Just like to stir up the pot about everything. I honestly don't see what the big deal is about this. If you don't want to use the new feature you don't have it, it's pretty simple.

[Digital Jedi]

Some people (some more than others ;) ) Just like to stir up the pot about everything. I honestly don't see what the big deal is about this. If you don't want to use the new feature you don't have it, it's pretty simple.
There seems to be this consensus that if a new version comes out, and if it doesn't actually loose features, then it must be a secret plot to either steal people information.

[MandarS]

its a shame what they are doing with the adsense thing.
Why people should send private information to vbulletin staff? to help then to earn more money from google?
They should have released the adsense feature for everyone and offer licence owners to sign up for google adsense but not coarse people by giving you the product if you sign up to adsense or provide vb staff with private info.

What are you talking about buddy ? you think vb staff will earn money from our ads ? I think they require that info to get access to our account ... thats all .. ( thats what i think .. please correct me if i m wrong )

[christicehurst]

I know what the secret plot is! Obama is working with Google, Jelsoft and other forum companies to take a cut out of all the ad profits to save the stock markets. It makes sense!

[Digital Jedi]

Don't forget Jelsoft's secret connections to William Ayers.

[Lizard King]

If i have access to hundreds of boards adsense statistics ( keywords , high paying adds etc ) , i can build the most succesfull forum out there for advertisement revenue very easily with a little investment. Internet Brands's main revenue is from advertisement. When you put these 2 factors next to each other you can clearly see that the strategy has nothing to do with helping members.

Plus the important factor me and other members are complaining about is , Internet Brands tried to hide this very important truth. Which is a huge privacy concern as everyone trusted Jelsoft ( at least till IB took the control ) . They may not read the Google warning so they would not be aware of such important thing.

They surely can try to make affliate money. There is nothing wrong about it . But they should at least tell the customers the truth of it. Trying to hide is not a trustworth company act.

[Digital Jedi]

If i have access to hundreds of boards adsense statistics ( keywords , high paying adds etc ) , i can build the most succesfull forum out there for advertisement revenue very easily with a little investment. Internet Brands's main revenue is from advertisement. When you put these 2 factors next to each other you can clearly see that the strategy has nothing to do with helping members.

Plus the important factor me and other members are complaining about is , Internet Brands tried to hide this very important truth. Which is a huge privacy concern as everyone trusted Jelsoft ( at least till IB took the control ) . They may not read the Google warning so they would not be aware of such important thing.

They surely can try to make affliate money. There is nothing wrong about it . But they should at least tell the customers the truth of it. Trying to hide is not a trustworth company act.
If it was hidden, you would have never figured it out in such a short period of time, nor would the staff have even responded to questions about it. You see, real deception involves carefully concealing information so that it takes a great deal of investigation and time to uncover. This wasn't hidden, it just wasn't written out in big letters because they don't consider it a big deal. Not broadcasting is not the same as hiding. And I'm of the same opinion that this isn't anywhere near as big a deal as some are making it out to be.

[nexialys]

i figured it out because i'm aware of the behind the scene... a newbye would never imagine such structure...

[punchbowl]

If it was hidden, you would have never figured it out in such a short period of time, nor would the staff have even responded to questions about it. You see, real deception involves carefully concealing information so that it takes a great deal of investigation and time to uncover. This wasn't hidden, it just wasn't written out in big letters because they don't consider it a big deal. Not broadcasting is not the same as hiding. And I'm of the same opinion that this isn't anywhere near as big a deal as some are making it out to be.

vb will now potentially make more money out of adsense referrals than they will out of selling their software. That's a big deal and they way it was flown under the radar was at the very least disingenuous.

[nexialys]

making money from aff or refs is not a problem, i do not care if they profit from the engine... the point is to manipulate the information without the regular users knowing. they say "do not use it if you are not happy"... the point is that the ones using it are not aware of the structure, that's why us, good guys, report this situation so everybody is aware of the hidden structure.

Jelsoft just have to make a change in the announcement and everybody will be happy...

[Wayne Luke]

vb will now potentially make more money out of adsense referrals than they will out of selling their software. That's a big deal and they way it was flown under the radar was at the very least disingenuous.

This is doubftul. The largest referral is lower than the average sell price to a new customer. Maybe if someone bought only the leased license and did great advertising the first six months but this would be an exception, not the rule.

[punchbowl]

This is doubftul. The largest referral is lower than the average sell price to a new customer. Maybe if someone bought only the leased license and did great advertising the first six months but this would be an exception, not the rule.

Fair enough and tbh I don't begrudge vb any ref fees but when I first started on adsense I got the referral from one of my members and he got $100 (or he said he did)

As Nex said, it's just a pr issue rather than vb becoming the great satan:D I've had a similar thing on other non forum sites with affilliate codes like affilliate.com&aff=999 and people removing the &aff=999 because they think it'll cost extra.

[WreckRman2]

I just noticed that if you post a smilie in the social group posting it won't show up. I don't understand why vB did just create a new forum for social groups and link it somehow.

[G0F0RBR0KE]

Here we go, with more templates changes. Just what I needed ><

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Strange thing was that even after disabling access, my adsense pub-id was still showing as associated in vbulletin members area. I opened a support ticket and thanks to the staff, they removed it in 5 minutes, saying that at this time it can only be done manually at their end.
Unfortunatly we need to manually remove AdSense data from your member account as Google never report back if disabled from their side. This was something that was never discovered during sandbox testing. So if you have entered your data and need to have it removed, please for now open a support ticket. I expect our developers will look into a solution for this somewhere in the near future. But i don't know if it is feasible or not.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Hello Marco ,

As your post makes it clear you know a lot of information about this adsense option , can you please kindly respond to http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1676846&postcount=189
I leave responding on vB.com to the vB.com staff.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

@all

If you have concerns about the new AdSense integration option, then please use vBuletin.com to ask your questions. Staff at vB.org has no more information then a regular user of vBulletin and will not be able to answer any questions regarding this.

Also i don't expect real answers to these questions until this week. The release was done at the end of the week and the first questions regarding the AdSense integration came just before the weekend. Support staff has also not been briefed about the backgrounds of this new feature and are unable to give a definite answer to these questions. I expect more offficial communication and answers regarding the issues from our office early this week.

[Infopro]

How many times have we heard over the last eight years, news on a Friday that's drowned out by news on Monday? Is IB a republican company from the US (http://www.internetbrands.com/ib/contact)? Hmmm.

"Compliment. Criticize. Question. Contact"



I know what the secret plot is! Obama is working with Google, Jelsoft and other forum companies to take a cut out of all the ad profits to save the stock markets. It makes sense!

I would be for that, but not to help the stock market.
http://investors.internetbrands.com/stockquote.cfm

[nexialys]

The release was done at the end of the week and the first questions regarding the AdSense integration came just before the weekend.

actually, this entire statement is false... the announcement came on thursday, at 8:30 am... and MY first question came 3 hours after -- ok, it was more a statement than a question...

that makes your evaluation of the week-end very large... lol (Brits may work from monday to wednesday after all, we don't know) ...

that's all... we wait for the guys who know why this crap was installed without the knowledge of the team itself.

[motoxer311]

For some reason I can upgrage to the final version, it keeps going from 3.8.0 Release Candidate 1, 2 , 3 and so on.... Any ideas?

[Lynne]

For some reason I can upgrage to the final version, it keeps going from 3.8.0 Release Candidate 1, 2 , 3 and so on.... Any ideas?
Just keep hitting continue and it will finally upgrade to 3.8.0 Gold. It has to go through the upgrade in steps in case you have already upgraded to an intermediate version.

[nexialys]

For some reason I can upgrage to the final version, it keeps going from 3.8.0 Release Candidate 1, 2 , 3 and so on.... Any ideas?

you did not read the text above the version number, it indicate a process thru versions...

[meissenation]

Great to see that another vBulletin version is out! I do have to say, with my limited knowledge on all of this, it's very hard to keep up with all of these releases.
I am running a big forum with a lot of mods and a customized style installed. Are you saying that it won't be usefull to use this style when I upgrade to 3.8.0? If I revert all templates, I bet the style and some of the mods will stop working right? Is it better for me to change styles (a 3.8.0 made style) when upgrading?

Sorry for the many questions but I hope someone can give me some clearity.

Thank you in advance.

Would all you quit whining, moaning, defending and hating this adsense crap and answer BozzaJos question...quoted above...

Agreed - one of the MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS in this entire thread (hell, one of the only questions, for that matter) and everyone's too busy whining about something that is so minuscule and isn't going to be changed in this discussion. Atleast they didn't roll out a new security token feature... my site still doesn't work right because of that horrible idea.

Is anyone willing to comment on the template changes yet? For those of us with customized styles and modifications, are we basically starting from scratch with this new version?

[nexialys]

It was commented already. 3.8 is a major upgrade... you have to rever your entire site...

the best thing to do is to export your actual style, and compare it to the default style... you will then see what's different between versions.

This is basic to all major upgrades, and you are informed of that in the announcement. If you do not want to revert your templates, you live with it.

[Digital Jedi]

Agreed - one of the MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS in this entire thread (hell, one of the only questions, for that matter) and everyone's too busy whining about something that is so minuscule and isn't going to be changed in this discussion. Atleast they didn't roll out a new security token feature... my site still doesn't work right because of that horrible idea.

Is anyone willing to comment on the template changes yet? For those of us with customized styles and modifications, are we basically starting from scratch with this new version?
You always have to update your templates whenever you do an upgrade. It's on a case by case basis.

Technically, this isn't a support thread and we were instructed in the first post not to use it as such, but to ask those kinds of questions on vB.com.

[kingvillain]

I updated today, interestingly even though it says I have 5 templates that need to be reverted I have so far not found any issues in the forum. So far so good then :D

[Digital Jedi]

Upgraded the demo board and it seems to have some interesting new features. I like the new view in the ACP for viewing old a new templates. In some ways, it's easier to read.

[Phaedrus]

I am not missing any point.

Its an OPT-IN program. If you feel that there is not enough information than do not opt-in. It really is as simple as that. It isn't required to associate a Google Publisher ID to use vBulletin 3.8.0. The functionality isn't even included unless you opt-in before downloading. You still have complete control over your own Google Account and you can Opt-Out at any time.

By choosing to associate your account, data is only shared based on what Google provides under their privacy policy. Which is agreed to when someone signs up for that program. You can re-read it here:
http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html

Google still controls all the data about your account. If you Opt-in then you agree to share it.

You make it sound like you can't even use vBulletin 3.8.0 unless we get your publisher ID. Even if you gave it, you still have control over it and it isn't associated until you give vBulletin.com access through your Adsense account manager.
Once you set it up, you can "grant" or "deny" access at any moment in your Setting.

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It tells you how much vB is getting, 0.0%

Nada, Nichevo, Nothing.

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I do have a quick question as well...

Several of my members who use the Social Groups function are a bit disappointed with the new look as it makes it difficult to tell where new activity happened in the Social Groups.

I don't know quite what they are talking about because I barely touch them, but some that are complaining are on the mod staff so there are people that do that can effect changes.

Anyway, is there something, a way to inform them or a way to change its appearance so they can see new activity?

--------------- Added 1231901462 at 1231901462 ---------------

Question resolved. I figured out that what they wanted was the "View All Groups" to be easy to access and I added it to the Community dropdown menu...

[MarcInJapan]

I am new to this and just updated to 3.8. The heading colors are similar to here, but on the old version it actually faded from one blue color to another. I can't find where to change the header colors and what color option would that be?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

If you need support, then please post in 1 of the support forums.

[MarcInJapan]

Sorry. New to this...I will look for the proper support forum.

[Brian Layman]

You can associate your vBulletin Customer account with your Google Adsense account or if you don't have an account, sign up for one from in the vBulletin Member's Area [..] Associating your vBulletin Customer Account with a Google Adsense account is not mandatory but just another service that we felt would be beneficial to our customers.

I can certainly see why this would be an advantageous feature & relationship for you. And I love the idea that you can sign up from this site and that Jelsoft gets a finders fee. However, you really should provide a local way to do this. In this day and age, not providing the option makes you reek of big brother and it seems strange that you wouldn't expect a backlash. This private information really has no business being in your databases/logs.

I'm not upset as I won't likely ever use the feature. However, so very rarely do you guys do something that wouldn't make me proud of your product, I thought it worthy of a reply.

[Jaxel]

The more I use 3.8.0... the more I think that the guys at Jelsoft are off their rocker...

1. The new pictures & album section is prone to users gaming the "update" system; as well as the valid updates only reading permissions from the primary usergroup, instead of the total permissions of a user (so if only secondary usergroups can upload images, then you will NEVER have updated albums)...

2. The new social groups section is constructed poorly. The code for this page is different from all other pages; I was having style incompatibilty problems with this page that I never had on any other pages.

3. Not to mention, there whole idea of a Category Cloud in the social groups is just assanine. Only certain groups should be put specific categories; because you may want to hold those categories as "prestigious". But you know what? With the cloud system, these prestigious categories are so small that you can barely even read them. Wouldn't you want the prestigious categories to STAND OUT?!

4. Let me also not forget that the social group discussions are BACKWARDS (just like the picture album comments).

5. Having to signup for google adsense on vbulletin.com BEFORE you upgrade. Now this is just stupid. I just upgraded, made all my edits... then I find out that it has Google Adsense support... but I need to upgrade again?!