==vBulletin 4 Release and Controversy==

'''May 3, 2007''': Jelsoft staged an exhibitor's booth for vBulletin at [[Internet World]] 2007.<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=228616</ref>

'''July 4, 2007''': Jelsoft was acquired by [[Internet Brands]].<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=235378</ref>

'''January 27, 2009''': Ray Morgan was appointed General Manager of [[Jelsoft]].<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=298059</ref>

'''May 13, 2009''': the Administration section of vBulletin.com accidentally became accessible to the public for 13 minutes. Documents and discussions containing a detailed analysis of plans (and expected customer reaction) for vBulletin 4's new pricing scheme were revealed.<ref>http://forum.vbulletinsetup.com/f23/vbulletin-4-0-going-cost-even-17392.html</ref> A response was posted by Ray Morgan indicating that these were preliminary discussions and that customers should not make decisions based on leaked documents.

'''June 19, 2009''': Kier Darby, lead developer of vBulletin since early in the development of version 2, leaves the company<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311251</ref>, as well as Mike Sullivan (joined Fall 2000)<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php?37-Mike-Sullivan</ref> and Scott MacVicar<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311214</ref>.

'''June 27, 2009''': Floris Fiedeldij Dop (Floris) is forced (due to a contract change) to stop working for vBulletin<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311791</ref>. Floris was a long-time advocate of vBulletin and moderator at vBulletin.com.

'''July 2009''': Peterska2 (Kerry-Anne) and Ashley part company with vBulletin<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1751009&postcount=30</ref>. Jelsoft offices in the UK were closed shortly thereafter.

'''August 19, 2009''': Alpha testing of vBulletin begins with a selection of licensed customers under a [[Non-disclosure Agreement]].<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=315870</ref>

'''October 13, 2009''': Ray Morgan announces new vBulletin.com website, new vBulletin licensing structure, and pricing<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=320055</ref>. This announcement was nearly identical to the May 2009 leaked documents.

Replacing the annual renewal of $60, the new vBulletin Forum license was priced at $195, with the Suite costing $285. With an announced release cycle of 18-24 months for each point release, this was a cost increase of 200%. Customers with an inactive license were offered a small discount off the Suite and had less than 3 weeks to upgrade. Ironically, customers with the smallest investment in the product -- Leased License customers -- received the most cost-advantageous deal.

'''October 23, 2009''': Prompted by a public leak of an Alpha test version of vBulletin 4, the vBulletin.com website is upgraded to the vBulletin 4 software including a new splash page and FAQ. vBulletin.com is down for an unprecedented 28 hours during this upgrade, with visitors to the site being redirected to a maintenance message at [[Internet Brands]]-owned http://www.best-forum-software.com/. When the site returned, it remained sporadically inaccessible due to high loads for several days.

'''November 12, 2009''': vBulletin 4.0 Beta 3 is made available to licensed customers. Previous betas were made available to the alpha testers<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=325115</ref>. Beta 4 and 5 as well as 2 [[Release Candidate]]s would follow in quick succession.

'''December 7, 2009''': Ray Morgan retires to the tropics<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329672</ref>.

'''December 22, 2009''': vBulletin 4.0 Gold is released to the public amid customer concerns that it met a predetermined release schedule rather than getting a stable product<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=332171</ref>. Substantial display issues in browsers including Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer 6 are documented. The Content Management System resulted in over 100 MySQL queries even in the default configuration.

'''January 12, 2009''': vBulletin 4.0.1 is released with over 200 bug fixes and style tweaks<ref>http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=336681</ref>.

==vBulletin 4 Release and Controversy==

I have undone the removal. CellarDoor2001 works for InternetBrands [[1]] [[2]]. Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view and should not act as a press release.

The section in question is a historical timeline with 14 references to verifiable announcements at vBulletin.com. Please refer to all the other references in the vBulletin article. They are all forum links to vBulletin.com. If forum posts are not usable, then the entire vBulletin article should be deleted.

If you feel that the material is too granular, I suggest cleanup. Release history with dates and published strategies are not only relevant but prevalent on software articles throughout Wikipedia. Examples Mac OS X Windows

This article was extremely out of date, containing speculative rumors about vBulletin 4 under the "future development" section. If a section needs work, I suggest improving rather than deleting.