[Boosted Panda]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

I doubt the closed Alpha/Beta will cause more issues with the final release. On the contrary, the quality of the testing might improve.

I'm sorry I have to respectfully disagree with this comment. While I understand having what you all feel is the best testing candidates testing the Beta, I think you are also forgetting that most of the people who have had vB for years and have been active testers, designers, and programmers are now left sitting and waiting. I have a site hinged on the release of vB4 and tons of things to convert from 3.8 to 4 including mods I have posted here on vB.org. I would love the ability to get ahead of the game and start coding and getting familiar so that I know what to expect. Now I am forced to just go running out of the gates with 4 when it is released and quite frankly I will have limited confidence in its quality upon release (kind of like how people say never get the first rev of something.)

This thing that has always made vB the best is its community and IB has totally stripped the community away from vB. All we are now are customers who give them money, we no longer have a say in the product, and its quite clear that they don't want our feedback either.

I know the vB vs IPB thing comes up all the time but maybe IB should take some lessons from IPB's new customer service. Like there open Beta and there Skin contests.

Just some advice from a long time user who sees a lot of familiar faces here fed up and frustrated with the "New vB".

Also one more rant... I know its a dead horse but this delay is not fair to us. You guys made a commitment to your customers and instead you have closed down all discussions on vb.com for things like this and have left us almost totally in the dark about the development of vB, the testing, pricing, and now the release.

Business is business, but this is not good business guys.

I mean this as respectfully as possible.