To further diminish piracy...

[filburt1]

You could disable here the ability for users to send/receive PMs. That way they can't get requests along the lines of "I'm poor and my pet parrot just died and my life's a message, oh, and can I get a free copy of vB?"

[Raz Meister]

Just say No kids!

[megatest]

For the love of Satan, i think it's a VBI. Very Bad Idea.

[andrewpfeifer]

Absolutely not. If you aren't strong willed enough to resist that, you have problems.

[filburt1]

I mean PMs only for unlicensed customers, of course PMs for us would still work.

[andrewpfeifer]

That wouldn't be a bad idea, but there would still be people who need to use PM's and can't then.

[The Prohacker]

One of the reasons why this forum is here is to act as a demo for the product, it has always been unmodified... Except for the license image :D But we can't see those...

[JungleMan]

Furb you're really overdoing the piracy thing here...OK it's bad, leave it at that...

[filburt1]

Originally posted by JungleMan
Furb you're really overdoing the piracy thing here...OK it's bad, leave it at that...

Ironic...

[Chen]

Hey, I suggested locking license owners in a dark cubic room a long time ago!

[Raz Meister]

Did they listen?

[filburt1]

Well they did lock us out of beta.jelsoft.com, that sorta broke us ;)

[bigmattyh]

Seems to me that licensed customers have a built-in reason not to distribute their vB anyway -- the fact that they paid for it. You know, if you're the kind of person who respects the system and ponies up the dough to get a license, how willing are you going to be to distribute your paid-for product to grunts who wouldn't do the same...? (and yeah, I know it probably happens anyway. It's just not as likely coming from licensed customers.)

What I'm saying here is: what purpose would this serve, other than to cut down on an occasional annoyance?

[LanciaStratos]

Originally posted by The Prohacker
... Except for the license image :D But we can't see those... ...what's that? :confused:

[The Prohacker]

Originally posted by LanciaStratos
...what's that? :confused:


Well when your marked as a licensed member via the members section.. You get a little image or something either in the member list or in your post saying that your eligble for support :D

[LanciaStratos]

Originally posted by The Prohacker



Well when your marked as a licensed member via the members section.. You get a little image or something either in the member list or in your post saying that your eligble for support :D Oh, really? I didn't know that... :cool:

[DirectPixel]

Maybe we can do something like that vB.org does and not let unlicensed users view all the topics in a forum?

[JamesUS]

Originally posted by LanciaStratos
Oh, really? I didn't know that... :cool:

Only we (vBulletin Team) can see who is and isn't licensed though :)

[Kaizen]

Originally posted by JamesUS


Only we (vBulletin Team) can see who is and isn't licensed though :)

What does it look like ?

[Chen]

Now I must kill you...

[Kaizen]

Originally posted by FireFly
Now I must kill you...

So i'm a Licenced Senior Member

Bow to me ! ;) :p

[DirectPixel]

Hey FireFly, how long is your password to beta.jelsoft.com?;)

[Chen]

As long as yours.

[DirectPixel]

Originally posted by FireFly
As long as yours. 8?

[nuno]

Originally posted by JamesUS


Only we (vBulletin Team) can see who is and isn't licensed though :)

why? :confused:

[DirectPixel]

Originally posted by nuno


why? :confused: So we can't descriminiate against unlicensed users.

[LanciaStratos]

Originally posted by eiSecure
So we can't descriminiate against unlicensed users. But, wouldn't that be a good thing? I don't want to help out someone with something they stole and I paid for.

[nuno]

and that is exactly my point :)

[DirectPixel]

Originally posted by LanciaStratos
But, wouldn't that be a good thing? I don't want to help out someone with something they stole and I paid for. Oh, I mean descriminate as in have prejudice against, not as in tell apart.:)

[LanciaStratos]

Originally posted by eiSecure
Oh, I mean descriminate as in have prejudice against, not as in tell apart.:) But, I would be prejudiced against them...they stole what I paid for! What's wrong with that?

[DirectPixel]

Originally posted by LanciaStratos
But, I would be prejudiced against them...they stole what I paid for! What's wrong with that? That's assuming that they're using pirated copies of vBulletin.

What if it was just a regular person, that didn't own a vBulletin, and doesn't have a warez copy? Not all unlicensed users are running warez.

[nuno]

What about leased licenses?
I mean, when license expires, is member status Licensed or Non Licensed?

[DirectPixel]

Originally posted by nuno
What about leased licenses?
I mean, when license expires, is member status Licensed or Non Licensed? Licensed... I think...

Because they still have access to member's area, and everything... just can't download.

[nuno]

If they can't run the software after expiration date, there's no need to ask for support don't you think? :p
Therefore, status should be Awaiting renewal :cool:

[JamesUS]

Just leave us to worry about what users show up as when the license expires :)

That information is private and will remain private as it would be an abuse of users' privacy if everyone knew who was and wasn't licensed.

[nuno]

By knowing forum permissions we know who is licensed and who is not ;)

[JamesUS]

You do :) Anyone who posts in the vBulletin 2 category (except for the pre sales forum) can be assumed to be licensed.

[nuno]

Bingo :) Thank you for letting us know James :)

[MyMatchmakerCom]

Lower the price down to earth. That way the forum would sell in huge volume.

The idea that if the price were lowered "the team could not get paid" is STUPID plain and simple.

Everyone who sells on high volume make more money. It is not like there is OVERHEAD involved in selling each copy. It is NOT A TANGEABLE PRODUCT.

So lower the damn price. IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE!
PHPBB is FREE and just as good, so the more people find out about it the fewer people will want this one.

Personally, I own several copied of vBB and am comfortable with it. BUT, if it comes between payin $199, vs. FREE I go with free.

BUT, if the price was REASONABLE, I'd buy a few more licences for the next few sites I am launching. But to pay more than $40 bucks for a forum like this is simply stupid.

Like it or not, team, this is the new reality, and if you don't face up to change and adapt, you will loose your clients, like myself.

I know over a dozen popular websites who have dumped vBB even after paying for it, simply because the price to get new licences is ridiculously high. YOU ARE NOT SELLING A OPERATING SYSTEM, NOT A SERVER SOFTWARE. It is just a discussion forum.

You do NOT have millions of dollars invested in R&D, so your sky high price cannot be justified.

[nuno]

$160 - 1 own license - is it too much to ask for? :confused:
Plus $30 for upgrading?
If you can't afford that, how will you be able to afford your next few sites? :confused:
If you don't like it, then go with phpBB or whatever and stop bothering us with your problems :rolleyes:
You are buying the software plus support, things you won't find in any free BB :o

[Kaizen]

To the vbulletin staff:

Do something about this plonker spamming your forum. This is getting silly. Your customers come here to see the forum software in action. I think they (I would) will be slightly put off if all they can see is this wally and his closed threads repeating the same thing.

He has already been told here: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48800 and yet he posts again.

[DirectPixel]

Originally posted by MyMatchmakerCom
Lower the price down to earth. That way the forum would sell in huge volume.

The idea that if the price were lowered "the team could not get paid" is STUPID plain and simple.

Everyone who sells on high volume make more money. It is not like there is OVERHEAD involved in selling each copy. It is NOT A TANGEABLE PRODUCT.

So lower the damn price. IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE!
PHPBB is FREE and just as good, so the more people find out about it the fewer people will want this one.

Personally, I own several copied of vBB and am comfortable with it. BUT, if it comes between payin $199, vs. FREE I go with free.

BUT, if the price was REASONABLE, I'd buy a few more licences for the next few sites I am launching. But to pay more than $40 bucks for a forum like this is simply stupid.

Like it or not, team, this is the new reality, and if you don't face up to change and adapt, you will loose your clients, like myself.

I know over a dozen popular websites who have dumped vBB even after paying for it, simply because the price to get new licences is ridiculously high. YOU ARE NOT SELLING A OPERATING SYSTEM, NOT A SERVER SOFTWARE. It is just a discussion forum.

You do NOT have millions of dollars invested in R&D, so your sky high price cannot be justified. Just because it's intangible doesn't mean that it has to be $20.

What you're doing is writing, rather unpolitely, may I add, to get a company to change its pricing.

Would you do this to a company like Microsoft? They're charging upwards of $1500 for an intangible product. Does that mean they're overcharging? No.

Also, they're selling their operating system for about $100 more than their Linux competitors. Are they overcharging? Would you write a letter like this to them because you believe that they're price is higher than the free price of their competitors?

Chances are, you won't, so quit complaining. If you want to go with the free option, then go ahead. I can guarantee you that you won't have as much features and flexibility as with vBulletin, but to each is own.

Nobody is forcing you to buy this product. If you don't want to, then don't, but quit acting like a baby and quit posting these useless posts.:mad:

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by MyMatchmakerCom
Lower the price down to earth. That way the forum would sell in huge volume. I seriously doubt the increase in volume would make up for the lost revenue. Nonetheless this has nothing to do with the topic on hand and you have already been told:

"...this has already been discussed and vBulletin's price will NOT be lowered. Period. We are cheaper than all of our competitors (and no, free boards are not our competiors) and we feel we provide good value for money. If our price was lowered, the team wouldn't be paid. And if the team wasn't paid you wouldn't see another version of vBulletin.

If you don't like paying $85/$160 for vBulletin, then don't. No-one is forcing you."

Please do not continue posting this over and over again. Thank you.

[Andy Z]

Not to overdo it but,
Jelsoft competes with companies like InfoPop and other companies with forum packages that can cost US$10,000+ per month. Your opinion is that the free boards are the same in feel & features as vB. If you really believe in that go use phpBB, and don't ask Jelsoft to lower vB's price. When you do ask(/demand/shout), you are admitting that vB is a superior product. You may not believe but the vB Team and Developers need to some compensation. It's not like this is a weekend hobby for them.

I'm sorry if you disagree, I'm sorry if you think I'm mean, but those are your opinions.
NOTE: Some comments above are my own opinions, some are what Jelsoft has stated (e.g. their target market) and some is fact.

You may now disagree with me. :p

[Steve Machol]

This seems like a good time to close this thread befores it continues spinning wildly out of control. :)