vBSEO is an addon Forum owners like me plug into their vBulletin forums, and it gives things like user friendly URL's, and some SEO enhancements. It's the sort of thing you setup, switch on and forget, so was surprised to get an email from the co-founder.
“vBSEO is Suspending Operations
I'm Ilia Muriente, co-founder of Crawlability Inc. We created vBSEO in 2005 to enhance the SEO positioning of your forums
Unfortunately, I was forced out of my role as Vice President in 2009 and have not been permitted to be involved with the company at any level since. The company has been fully under the control of my co-founder, Juan Muriente.
Since my departure, the company has been in sharp decline. Recently, our customers have been abandoned without any support.... blah blah, blah”
I'm Ilia Muriente, co-founder of Crawlability Inc. We created vBSEO in 2005 to enhance the SEO positioning of your forums
Unfortunately, I was forced out of my role as Vice President in 2009 and have not been permitted to be involved with the company at any level since. The company has been fully under the control of my co-founder, Juan Muriente.
Since my departure, the company has been in sharp decline. Recently, our customers have been abandoned without any support.... blah blah, blah”
She finishes off with a video, slagging off the company, and then asking for everyones support to help her fight a legal battle to regain control.
It sounded like a marital dispute off a soap opera, but turns out they are bruv and sis
vBSEO was a well respected product, and it's owners Crawlability perceived to be a big player in the forum world.
There are threads everywhere, but they all point to this one if anyones actually interested in the saga:
Dear vBulletin Forum Community - vBSEO is Suspending Operations
We'll carry on using it, as it works, although I guess we'll have to keep an eye on security if it's no longer being supported, but what a bizarre way to run a company into the ground??
Maybe they had all their eggs in one basket, and when vBulletin brought out its next generation, version 4 (which I think is terrible) they incorporated a lot of vBSEOs features. But a bit of forward thinking could have giot them developing other features, or making it available for different forum versions.
The morale of the story, don't employ family!!!
