vBulletin Multiple Forums

[Zeneron]

no no no...
i meant...

If you have a Art Gallery discussion , you want them to click
on only the Art forums.

But if you have a gaming discussion, you want them to only click on
the gaming forum.

2 forums on one website forum.

[Andy Huang]

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/ <-- this setup you see here requires only one license.

http://www.yoursite.com/art-gallery/forum

http://www.yoursite.com/gaming/forum

^--- this setup you see here requires two licenses.

http://gaming.yoursite.com/forum

http://art-gallery.yoursite.com/forum

^--- this setup you see here requires two licenses.


Each time you create the database / tables via install or restore or any other method, without taking the previous one off completely (IE: delete the files, and remove the database) will require an additional license. However, on each forum installation, you can have as many categories and as many subforums as you wish / as your server resources can sustain.

Modifications to the Software or database to circumvent the one-license-one-board rule are prohibited.

Please review the license agreement here; it out lines everything as clearly as possible

http://www.vbulletin.com/go/license

[keisko]

correct

One forum for every license.
So no, you are not incorrect.

One license = 1 forum
two licenses = 2 forums
... and so on.

correct

[lgh]

One forum for every license.
So no, you are not incorrect.

One license = 1 forum
two licenses = 2 forums
... and so on.

Thank you.

Greg

[AVC]

A vB forum owner asked this very question about setting up sub domains and I questioned the legality of it in regard to vBulletin licensing.

Can you guys look at the above let me know and confirm if I gave correct data in this situation ?

[peterska2]

A vB forum owner asked this very question about setting up sub domains and I questioned the legality of it in regard to vBulletin licensing.

Can you guys look at the above let me know and confirm if I gave correct data in this situation ?

No you did not. The correct answer is to submit a support ticket and ask us directly.

In addition, from the license agreement

vBulletin license grants you the right to run one instance (a single installation) of the Software on one web server and one web site for each license purchased. Each license may power one instance of the Software on one domain. For each installed instance of the Software, a separate license is required. Modifications to the Software or database to circumvent the one-license-one-board rule are prohibited.

[AVC]

I thought I did tell him to start a thread here and come to the official forum.

[ManagerJosh]

One forum for every license.
So no, you are not incorrect.

One license = 1 forum
two licenses = 2 forums
... and so on.

That's partially correct; it depends on what your definition of a "forum" is. If it's an installation, then yes, that is totally correct. If your forum is merely a forum which you create in the forum manager, then that's incorrect.

[Nick]

Yeah, I noticed some people were getting confused about this in another thread.
Forum has two meanings:

1. An installation of vBulletin (or any other forum script); the entire board
2. A specific area/category or individual discussion area. I.e.: General Discussion, Support, Feedback, etc.

You can have as many forums (definition 2) per each installation (definition 1). But you can only have one Installation (definition 1) for each license.

Hopefully that will help clear some things up.

[AVC]

You can have a thousand forums if you like, it is dependent upon the way your domain name (sub domains/folders) are set up on if you have to purchase separate licenses according to Andy Huang's post.

[Andy Huang]

You can have a thousand forums if you like, it is dependent upon the way your domain name (sub domains/folders) are set up on if you have to purchase separate licenses according to Andy Huang's post.

I've read this post a few times, and each time I read it, I get a stronger feel that this needs further clarification...

Each license allows one public active installation of the software. That is to say: one database, one set of vBulletin related tables, one set of vBulletin files. On each installation, you can have as many categories, subforums, threads, and posts as your server(s) can handle...

Each installation can be accessible from more than one location, granted that:
1) They are unified through out -- IE: you're not styling sitea.com different than siteb.com, even though they're pointing to the same database and same tables.
2) There are unified branding through out -- IE: you're not branding it as "sitea.com forums" for those entered from sitea.com, and "siteb.com forums" for those entered from siteb.com
3) There is no content hiding based on entry url going on -- IE: if a visitor enters your site from sitea.com, your site cannot discriminate this user and not show contents visible on siteb.com; same thing vice versa. User must be able to see same contents, regardless of where they're coming from.

This is in place because a lot of customers have more than one domain for their site; a completely valid (but not real) example could be:
My site is called "My Awesome Site", its default URL is http://www.myawesomesitewithanunfortunatelylongurl.com ; however, I also have the .net version of that URL, as well as "mas.com" because people call it mas on my site. I'm allowed to have all three domains pointing to the same installation, with same content through out.

Keeping in mind that the purpose of the license is to allow you to run one installation on one site for the purpose of one unique community. This is NOT in place so people can avoid purchasing additional licenses. So, for example, this here is NOT valid with just one license:
I run three sites: Site A, Site B, and Site C. They're unrelated other than the fact that I run all of them. I want to avoid purchasing additional licenses, so I have the forum running on: siteA.mylicenseddomain.com, siteB.mylicenseddomain.com, and siteC.mylicenseddomain.com

So, finally, to bring it all back to what Zeneron asked:
Does vBulletin have multiple forums?
- Depends on your intended setup.

If you are intending to have ONE single installation, in ONE database, with ONE set of vBulletin tables, with MANY categories (IE: here on vbulletin.com it'd be "vBulletin Announcements and Discussions", "vBulletin Sales", "vBulletin 3.7", "vBulletin 3.6", "vBulletin Project Tools", "vBulletin Blog", "Customizing vBulletin", "General", "vBulletin 3.5 Legacy Version", "vBulletin Legacy Versions (2 and 3.0)", "vBulletin.com Web site", and "Archives"), with MANY forums (IE: here on vbulletin.com it'd be "vBulletin Announcements", "Announcements Discussions", "vBulletin Pre-sales Questions", etc. etc. etc.). Where "MANY" is as much as your server resources can handle. Then you can use just one license.

If you are intending to have MORE THAN ONE installation, in any amount of database, with any amount of vBulletin tables; then it is not allowed with just one license.

In closing, keep in mind that the license is to allow you to run a single installation for a single site. The software license entitles you to run one installation on one site for the purpose of one unique community entity. If your intention is anything else other than that, you will need a license for each of your installation.

If you are ever unsure about your intended configuration, don't ask other communities on what is allowed or not, as they don't have the official answer, contact us via support ticket: http://www.vbulletin.com/contact_sales.php . If you are ever asked about whether or not something is allowed in the license, don't give an answer regardless of how sure you are, or else they can hold you responsible for license violation, direct them to support ticket: http://www.vbulletin.com/contact_sales.php .

I hope this wraps up all questions and doubts. I'm also closing this thread so no more further confusion would come up. If anyone have any question about the licensing, please do feel free to contact us via support ticket: http://www.vbulletin.com/contact_sales.php .