Lately I have been spending more of my time volunteering than I have in recent years.  This has brought me much happiness and I have met a lot of great people.

So what should I do?  Attempt blogging yet again or change the format of the site?  And if I change the format of the site, what do I change it to?

Decisions, decisions.

I’m giving away Starbucks gift cards to random followers on DailyBooth, Facebook & Twitter.  All you have to do is follow me on those sites and you’re entered to win.  On Monday January 24, 2011 I’ll select two people from each network and mail them a gift card.

Be sure to follow me on each network to increase your chances to win!!

dailybooth.com/chimpie
facebook.com/chimpie
twitter.com/chimpie76

Good luck!

I have new ideas on what to do with my site.  It will be changing in the very near future.  Be sure to follow my Facebook and Twitter pages so you’ll be in the know.

http://www.facebook.com/chimpie

http://www.twitter.com/chimpie76

Later!

I’m not a blogger.  I feel like I’m standing at a podium, forcing my words upon you.  That’s not me.  Oh, don’t get me wrong.  I like talking.  Ask my friends.  They can’t shut me up.  But I’d rather engage in discussions, debates, chats.  I enjoy networking and blogs, to me, are not good for that.

I’d rather spend my time on discussion forums.  Online communities.  Someplace where I can be more interactive with my fellow members.

I do want to thank everyone for taking the time to help me tweak all my WordPress settings.  Blogging and WordPress are powerful tools and anyone interested in blogging should give it (WordPress) a try.  You won’t be disappointed.

So where will I focus my attention?  xenForo!  The more I play around with the software the more I’m intrigued.  Now that I’m giving up my (personal) frustration of blogging I can spend more time developing my new platform.

Please be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.  I will update them both when I have exciting news to share as well as post my progress with my xenForo software and chimpie.com!

Chimpie

The suit is simple: we claim that Kier, Mike, and Ashley have infringed and violated contracts they signed with us to gain unfair business advantage. As such, Xenforo’s software unfairly stands on the shoulders of more than a decade of development by Jelsoft. Internet Brands owns this intellectual property.

What are you really afraid of IB?  Are you afraid of the success of the Kier, Mike and Ashley?  Are you afraid that they will build a product superior to yours?

Are you afraid that you will lose customers to Xenforo?  Well, you should be.  This action is childish.  You’re running to tell on them, saying that they aren’t playing nice.  Yes, I know.  That’s what we have courts for.  So you do have the right to do so.

But what’s going to be the fallout of this?  You are already being seen as the ‘big bad bully’, attempting to keep the new guy from playing with your friends (customers).  Are you that scared of the competition?

It wasn’t more than a few years ago that vBulletin was known as the company to go to if you want a solid performing forum.  Heck, I even bought four licenses from them.  This site (chimpie.com) used to run on vBulletin.  But about two years ago everything went down hill.  Updates were few and far between and customer service, well, that went right out the window.  Getting a root canal was less painful that dealing with their customer service department.

Of all that was said in IB’s post, this part blew me away:

Kier’s and Mike’s work as Jelsoft employees was the exclusive property of their employer, and the former owners of Jelsoft not only paid Kier and Mike well during their employment, Kier was paid a handsome bonus when Internet Brands bought the business, although no such payment was required.

Really?  You’re bringing up money?  Are you saying that because you were so generous that Kier and the gang should have rolled over and died?  C’mon now.

Matt Mecham, a lead developer for IP.B said it best, via a tweet,

IB suing XenForo – … this is exactly how to alienate the shattered remains of your customer base. What farce.

You said it Matt.  And others agree with you.  In fact, in the past 24 hours several hundred people have joined Xenforo’s community, testing out its features and functionality.  You can read through their forums to see their comments for yourself.

We consider Kier and Mike to be talented developers, but ones who potentially fail to grasp the implications of their actions.

No, Internet Brands.  You failed to grasp the implications of your actions.  You have given Xenforo free advertising.  You have shown your true colors.  You have driven your die hard supports away.  Including this one.

Over the past two weeks I have given Xenforo a pretty through test from an end user’s point of view.  There is one word that I keep saying over and over about my experiences with it… Smooth.  This has to be the smoothest running forum software I’ve ever used.  No hiccups.  No hangs.  Just read, type, submit and then I’m moving on to the next topic.

If anyone is in the market for a solid performing forum software, I strongly recommend that you give Xenforo a try.