Fahad Ashraf aka XenBulletins Banned On XenForo

[Ozzy47]

Fahad Ashraf is a somewhat popular developer of addons and especially custom addons on XenForo.

He has been recently banned and had all of his addons removed from XF. This is fue to a few things.

• Insecure coding
• Not following XF standards
• Stealing code from other developers
• Asking people to pay for bug fixes
• Asking people to leave positive reviews for addon updates

Not all of his code was insecure or stolen, but much of it leaves nothing to be desired.

If you are running any addons written by him, it would be in your best interest to get them looked over for vulnerabilities and updated yo proper coding standards.

 

[PGen98]

Yikes, those are some sketchy tactics to employ, I'm glad XF decided to remove his add-ons if that's how he treated his customers.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

The problem with this is that the only people that lose out are the people using the add-ons.

 

[Ozzy47]

That’s the chance you take. But this also protects every XF user current and future from being taken advantage of by him anymore.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

That’s the chance you take. But this also protects every XF user current and future from being taken advantage of by him anymore.

Surely he could just make a new account and start again. I don't think someone would walk away from that kind of business when it makes money. I mean if he was a top add-on developer, he'll be back.

 

[Ozzy47]

He have to buy a new XF license, with a new name and email.

Then he could try to start over again. But anyone that would throw money to a newcomer is crazy.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

He have to buy a new XF license, with a new name and email.

Then he could try to start over again. But anyone that would throw money to a newcomer is crazy.

Why would he need to buy a new license, have they deactivated his licenses while banning his developer account??

 

[Ozzy47]

I’m sure they did, but if they didn’t, his account and any users associated with it are unable to be contacted on XF or conduct business there.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

I’m sure they did, but if they didn’t, his account and any users associated with it are unable to be contacted on XF or conduct business there.

Well, that goes to show you should really stay clear of premium software that you don't need to buy. Free forums offer just as much functionality as XF. It comes down to this "my house my rules" thing which is fine most of the time, but the consequences are you lose out on a lot of money.

 

[Fait]

I learnt months ago, You have to be careful who you trust, People are very dodgy and it’s developers like this that ruin it for everyone.

 

[Ozzy47]

Yeah, that kind of developer makes it difficult for sure.

 

[Fait]

Yeah, that kind of developer makes it difficult for sure.

I had a ‘best friend’ now ex-friend scam me so this doesn’t surprise me.

It’s a shame these people let their potential go down the drain though 🤔

 

[Page]

He will go elsewhere or maybe make his own site and steal his crap there or another marketplace site. I never did know his addons and whatnot anyway as I do not use the software. But then he will find another way to make an account and get back into them..

CRAZYY

 

[Jay™]

He should have been removed long before this.
The last guy lost $300.00 just a few days ago.😡

 

[Ozzy47]

That last incident there was no evidence to support that claim of being scammed.

 

[Brad P]

I also got caught out over by this chap, unfortunately I didn’t do anything at the time. I’m so glad he has been removed. It shocks me that you see all these other random members supporting or thanking his work but I’m sure it’s him or his team signing up and giving himself credit over the years.

 

[Forsaken]

I honestly hope that XF re-thinks the policy for handling problematic developers; it's been an issue off and on since 2010-2012, and the fact that skirting the rules as much as Fahad did was allowed to go on while he continued to offer services is alarming.

I wish they would just do a verification program like was asked for in 2010-2012 so that developers have an incentive to join the program, and also have something to lose by offering bad work or scamming. There were offers by most of the original resource provides to provide curation to some extent, and even to help write documentation and a million other things that never went anywhere.

 

[Ozzy47]

I wish they would too.

All of the sudden just after Fahad was banned, a new user suddenly shows up on the scene and start doing custom work for people and getting positive reviews. As a coder that does custom work, and having done over a hundred jobs, we’ve only had two individuals reply with reviews in our thread. So think about it, a new user registers at XF, has no portfolio of previous work, snd inside of 30 days has two positive reviews left.

So this all seems a little suspicious to me and others.

By vetting developers and awarding them with some special kind of badge would help this situation out some. XF has had plans to do something (dunno what) for over two years but hasn’t implemented anything yet.

 

[Forsaken]

I wish they would too.

All of the sudden just after Fahad was banned, a new user suddenly shows up on the scene and start doing custom work for people and getting positive reviews. As a coder that does custom work, and having done over a hundred jobs, we’ve only had two individuals reply with reviews in our thread. So think about it, a new user registers at XF, has no portfolio of previous work, snd inside of 30 days has two positive reviews left.

So this all seems a little suspicious to me and others.

By vetting developers and awarding them with some special kind of badge would help this situation out some. XF has had plans to do something (dunno what) for over two years but hasn’t implemented anything yet.

It seems as if people are less likely to review now (unless it is negative) than it was pre-2014 or so; I also know Fahad and some other people will actively request reviews and sometimes offer discounts or perks in exchange. Fahad offered to fix a severe exploit for 'free' at one point for a review, but the client just blocked him and moved on to someone else I suggested to them (they were someone who was a client of mine for XF1).

I just hope whatever they do includes direct feedback/suggestion from resource providers. I won't touch XenForo styling to release anything until I can do per-theme template modifications; maintaining and updating styles between major versions was a nightmare, and I didn't even have to do a XF2 upgrade.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

I wish they would too.

All of the sudden just after Fahad was banned, a new user suddenly shows up on the scene and start doing custom work for people and getting positive reviews. As a coder that does custom work, and having done over a hundred jobs, we’ve only had two individuals reply with reviews in our thread. So think about it, a new user registers at XF, has no portfolio of previous work, snd inside of 30 days has two positive reviews left.

So this all seems a little suspicious to me and others.

By vetting developers and awarding them with some special kind of badge would help this situation out some. XF has had plans to do something (dunno what) for over two years but hasn’t implemented anything yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same guy that was banned. If you've made a living from XF and suddenly are banned. You wouldn't want to leave and find something else. You'd want to stick with it.