I have a few questions about vBulletin

[ectoplasmaticgo]

Hi,
I have several questions regarding some technical, erm, issues about the vBulletin forums.
I'll try to explain what happened.
I am a registered user on a site which uses vBulletin forum software. Well, that is, used to use it. Recently, something odd started to happen. 1st troubles occurred at the end of 8th month. Huge amount of the posts on the forum got a very strange addition in the end of the message. What I mean is, there was a post, it had beginning, middle and the end, and at the end, a strange code or tag was place. It looked like an add code, but it didn't work how it supposed to.

It looked something like this :

/message/
Hi, I am Doc, 18 years old
/end of the message/
but, after the issue occurred, the message looked like this

/message/
Hi, I am Doc, 18 years old <"beginning of the tag" link, some more letters, "ending">
/end of the message/
I don't remember exactly what it said, it happened more than 2 months ago, but it contained some strange words and icons.

The tag was for ads. Well, at least we think it was. The tag contained add word and a link to a different site.

The 2nd issue occurred recently. Forums went offline, for unknown reason, and when they get back on, my ESET would report a virus after every "post a reply", "make a new thread" or "what's new".
I have never seen anything like it.
People on the forum claim that forums were hacked, but personally I doubt it, so I am hopping I'll find some answer here. Answer to as many questions as you can.

My questions.

I think admin panel has an add tag generator, is that true ?
If so, can it generate a non working add tag ?
Why did ESET reported a virus when I was browsing forums ?
Is it possible to add a virus on the forums ?
Is it possible to "hack" forums and add a non working tag and virus on forums ?
In your opinion, who's problem is when it comes to non working tag and a virus ? A certain admin or someone
from outside ?
Lastly, they said, when the virus occurred, people's privacy was compromised, what about that ?

People who run this particular site said how they are not going to use vBulletin anymore. I personally think that's a crap. vBulletin software is the best forum software out there, so that's why I am asking all those question. I'd like to know the answers so I can try to convince admins to continue using vBulletin. Personally, I don't think it's vBulletin's fault, I think it's admins fault and that forums never were hacked but screwed by someone with 0 knowledge about this things.
I just hope I won't be buzzed off from this forum as well.

Thanks in advance
-Doc

P.S. My ESET only reported a virus on the forums, not on the actual site.

[Lynne]

Define what an "add tag generator" is. I have no idea what that is.

As for a virus and what happened to that site, it sounds like either they were hacked or else they added bad code. Only they can look into that and find out which it was.