Lock most of the forums to unlicensed users?

[Scootertaj]

Thing is, this forum is NOT an html help forum or php help forum.

But it has a HTML help category...
I agree with andrew, allow to reply, but not make new threads.

[MrNase]

But it has a HTML help category...
I agree with andrew, allow to reply, but not make new threads.

Don't you think we get than spammed with questions like 'why can't I request help' in the regular threads?

[Scootertaj]

IMO, not really.
The majority of the threads I have seen in the HTML forum come from people who have licenses, I personally don't see too many that are from just random people.
But that's just what I've witnessed.

[MGM]

IMO, not really.
The majority of the threads I have seen in the HTML forum come from people who have licenses, I personally don't see too many that are from just random people.
But that's just what I've witnessed.

How would you know? Who does and doesn't have a license isn't accesible to the public...

MGM out

[MobayNation]

I'm here, with a Lifetime License.

[Onimua]

I'm here, with a Lifetime License.

But we haveno visual indicator or can tell right off the bat if you do or not, which is where the problem of such a case arising.

[C_P]

Quote by MGM: We only want to limit it as far as non-customers. If you own a copy of vBulletin, you'll have all of the help you'll ever need here. If you don’t, then why should we help you? There are thousands of other forums that have better help for issues like HTML, CSS, PHP, etc. And if you want vBulletin help, then be sure you have everything setup correctly, otherwise we wont help you. And I see no reason why we should...

Your thinking is flawed to me. "If you don’t, then why should we help you?" I thought the premise of this site is to help others even if they do not own a vB site. Think about this for a second and put yourself in a person's shoes who knows very little about coding or forums. This person sees a site and hears how nice this forum software is but their help sucks unless you’re registered and pay them. Sounds like Invision to me. Time to move on to a helpful forum software where I can get help before I purchase or may purchase to see how really helpful they are.
I agree the vB version help threads should be hindered from members who are not licensed because if I gotta pay to get help for my vB, then so should you buddy!
"And if you want vBulletin help, then be sure you have everything setup correctly, otherwise we wont help you. And I see no reason why we should... "
This also does not make good business sense. Not all of us are as brilliant as you MGM.
Nothing against you or your opinions MGM, I think my ideas of helping people differ because I make a living in tech support supporting people and yes, we require you to be current on maintenance payments to receive help but we are not going to hide our documentation from you nor are we going to let your company go down because you missed an invoice payment. We still help, just not as much.
I hope you understand?

[Andrew111888]

There are literally hundreds of other sites and forums far larger than this one that specifically cater to PHP, MySQL, and HTML needs. I don't understand why if you don't own a vBulletin license why you would ask such questions on the vBulletin support forum. Honestly, I can't understand it.

[MGM]

Your thinking is flawed to me. "If you don’t, then why should we help you?" I thought the premise of this site is to help others even if they do not own a vB site. Think about this for a second and put yourself in a person's shoes who knows very little about coding or forums. This person sees a site and hears how nice this forum software is but their help sucks unless you’re registered and pay them. Sounds like Invision to me. Time to move on to a helpful forum software where I can get help before I purchase or may purchase to see how really helpful they are.
I agree the vB version help threads should be hindered from members who are not licensed because if I gotta pay to get help for my vB, then so should you buddy!
"And if you want vBulletin help, then be sure you have everything setup correctly, otherwise we wont help you. And I see no reason why we should... "
This also does not make good business sense. Not all of us are as brilliant as you MGM.
Nothing against you or your opinions MGM, I think my ideas of helping people differ because I make a living in tech support supporting people and yes, we require you to be current on maintenance payments to receive help but we are not going to hide our documentation from you nor are we going to let your company go down because you missed an invoice payment. We still help, just not as much.
I hope you understand?

I think it's your thinking that is flawed. I see no reason why the support forums for a forum script should be used for anything but support for that product. The HTML, etc. forums are there for extra but that doesn't mean everybody should be able to use them.

I have no clue why I said that quote, but I think I meant it towards people who dont own a license but are asking for help. If they dont own a license, they're doing something illegal and there should be no reason for us to help them.

I still see no reason why vB's forums should be used to "help people" in things other than vB itself, especially, as I have stated plenty times before, since there are hundreds of forums out there geared far better towards that purpose.

Andrew seems to be the only person who's understanding me here...

MGM out

[Colin F]

Andrew seems to be the only person who's understanding me here...

I agree with you as well

[MGM]

I agree with you as well

Sorry Colin, you understand me too And MrNase too and... bah, anyone else who understands me

MGM out

[Black Tiger]

Well I don't agree. Maybe close only the newest ones, like 3.5 now and leave the others open.

The support pages and also being able to read how people got helped and what kind of answer were given to them to help them, was one of the major reasons for me to decice to register my copy at the time that I was running a pirated copy years ago.
If you close the support forums, you can forget about that. If I was at that time not able to see the support and how it was given without having to have payed 180 dollars, I would never have registered possibly.

Next to that there is another reason. You pay yearly 30 dollars for support. And thats beneath the fact that you already payed 180 dollars for a license.
What if you decide to stick with the latest version f.e. 3.0.8 and won't go any further. This would mean you can't see support anymore.
You again have to pay 30 dollars maybe for 1 or 2 questions you have which might already been answered? Because i presume you would also block users who's support time is passed?
If you do that, you can wait for the moment that more users will go to pirated copy's.

I think best idea is to keep things open. People of vbulletin just answer questions to uses who have their licese code in their settings like it's asked.
Other users can see for themself if they want to answer somebody else or not.
Remember there are lots of good phpcoders around, it could well be somebody else starts a support forum without looking if somebody has a license or not. It's not forbidden to give phpsupport to people. So if you close things up, there is a good possibility all kinds of things happen which vbulletin rather might not see to happen.

[Fusion]

What if you decide to stick with the latest version f.e. 3.0.8 and won't go any further. This would mean you can't see support anymore.
You again have to pay 30 dollars maybe for 1 or 2 questions you have which might already been answered? Because i presume you would also block users who's support time is passed?

Not so. Having an owned license still entitles you to full support and full access to this board. The annual fee is just so you can download the new versions as they become available (and in some small way continue to support the team which develops the software), You can let that fee lapse for as long as you like, just as long as you have an owned license. Leased licences have to be removed if they aren't renewed.

[Terminator1138]

Has anyone thought of just creating a special rank or user group with access and privies? I have even seen a vb member base that showed who was licensed user so one could then help those who are identifed as owners etc. Perhaps they ask here as just a way that they can find help since the members here are so great. I don't post much here and I run several forums etc. I understand ppl that just come by and post what they will and sometimes just to spam a board over and over. IMO, whats the big deal. You don't have to take it upon yourself to answer it. I can understand it can take up lots of real estate, but that is where mods come in to help clean out the gutters ever so often.

Closing down the whole board to registered users to only view is a solution of many. I'm sure the person that was helped was appreciative of the advice etc. You can always point them to another forum also.

[Black Tiger]

Thanks for the explanation Fusion.
But still.... there are good people out there, who let the possibility to view how support is given, be important for there buying decisions, at least I know it was important to me.
Just letting them view, is no pain. Let them register but revoke their posting rights until they've got a license. Also that is a reasonably easy possibility which vbulletin can make use of.

@Terminator1138: hear hear. Ik can agree with you on that.