$250 to remove brand removal?? Is this true?

[zenzenzen]

Before I buy XF, I saw that on top of the $140 licensing fee, it's an additional $250 to remove the copyright brand:

" Branding Removal - $250*
This allows you to remove the visible XenForo copyright notice from all pages."

It seems a bit high, since I'm already dropping $140 upfront

Do you guys remove the this brand/copy logo?
Are there other ways to remove the brand after spending $140? via CSS coding for example?

 

[Mr. Jinx]

xenforo copyright doesn't bother me what bothers me is to have 10 copyrights from different addons

Exactly! I understand that addon makers need some advertising, but putting the copyright at the bottom of EVERY page is pure spam.
Proposal: Make a dedicated page in the help section called 'Addons'. This could be a central place where all installed addons are listed with copyright and link.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Make a dedicated page in the help section called 'Addons'. This could be a central place where all installed addons are listed with copyright and link.

That would never be seen by anyone.

 

[Mr. Jinx]

That is true, but I don't think my forum users really care what addons are installed anyway. They will never order a xenforo addon so that is not the target group. The target group is xenforo forum owners. And google will find it anyway, so it is still good for backlinking.

 

[DragonByte Tech]

That is true, but I don't think my forum users really care what addons are installed anyway. They will never order a xenforo addon so that is not the target group. The target group is xenforo forum owners.

Sorry, but none of this is true.

Many a time has a forum split itself in two because of disagreements over the way the forum is ran, and in such a scenario the people setting up a new forum will want to replicate the old one as much as possible.

Even if drama isn't the cause, sometimes people get the inspiration to become XenForo forum owners because they see cool features on their favourite forum. They click the footer link, notice other cool things in the store and that gets the gears in their heads turning, as they realise their idea could actually work after all.

The idea that we're only marketing to existing XF administrators is pure nonsense.

If you disagree with me, please feel free to show analytics statistics from your addon development company that shows you receive practically no traffic from copyright footer backlinks and you used this information as the foundation for your claim that you believe visitors to your site are not interested in what addons are installed.

Proposal: Make a dedicated page in the help section called 'Addons'.

Considering the fact that I had to spend a full 30 seconds hunting for the help link should be an indication that burying something in the help page is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt at appearing reasonable. "I'm not saying we should ban addon authors from adding copyright footers, look, there's an entire page just for them." Sounds reasonable on paper, until anyone reading your proposal realises the proposal would decrease visibility by 99.999~%.

I think you're perfectly aware of that too, but if not, you are now


Fillip

 

[l3ta]

About a year ago when I started getting acquainted with forum software and stuff, I would browse forums just to see wut they were using. Xenforo software, along with PixelExit as a theme, would always come out on top. So, when I made the decision to have my own site, that's wut I chose. So at least for me, the branding(s) on the footer helped me a lot.

 

[webbouk]

I'll be honest with you all, I wouldn't want to make life easier for anyone who wanted to create a near copy of my forum.
Time, energy and money got it to where it is now and to provide a ready reference to add-ons in use so that it can be replicated is not going to happen as far as I'm concerned.

My forum has retained the XF copyright but I have no interest in displaying others.
That's not to say I won't use add-ons but I will choose carefully which ones and if required will pay for their copyright removal as long as the cost is not disproportionate.

 

[Kirby]

If you disagree with me, please feel free to show analytics statistics from your addon development company that shows you receive practically no traffic from copyright footer backlinks and you used this information as the foundation for your claim that you believe visitors to your site are not interested in what addons are installed.

I'd have to dig out old data, but from what I remember the branding I had on TMS (which was a pretty popular Add-on on vBulletin since 3.6) generated virtually 0 referral traffic.

 

[Mr. Jinx]

Sounds reasonable on paper, until anyone reading your proposal realises the proposal would decrease visibility by 99.999~%.
I think you're perfectly aware of that too, but if not, you are now

It's like showing an advertisement to 99.999~% of my visitors who are not interested in addons nor what forum software I'm running.
I think they have a word for this ... spam
That's why I always choose to remove branding, although I think it's a weird business (for paid addons).

 

[DragonByte Tech]

I'd have to dig out old data, but from what I remember the branding I had on TMS (which was a pretty popular Add-on on on vBulletin since 3.6) generated virtually 0 referral traffic.

That's certainly not the case for us, roughly 10% of our traffic comes from referrals.

It's like showing an advertisement to 99.999~% of my visitors who are not interested in addons nor what forum software I'm running.
I think they have a word for this ... spam
That's why I always choose to remove branding, although I think it's a weird business (for paid addons).

Ignoring most of my post where I show that this sentiment is false, okay then.


Fillip

 

[tajhay]

That's certainly not the case for us, roughly 10% of our traffic comes from referrals.

How many of those 10% go onto convert to sales?

I know I have clicked on footers displaying that big ugly dragonbyte copyright notice before...to only peek at what that forum is using...I have no interest in buying that add-on or to join the chorus of having that big ugly footer displayed.

I would think that devs that do not display those footers get more sales. I know I don't think twice to click buy when their product description says no visible branding. On the other hand dragonbyre had the black Friday sale recently...I went again to their site to browse...and I think it was 40% off...But that footer branding....couldn't do it.

 

[webbouk]

Here is the footer on a vb forum I visit occasionally...

Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO v2.0.40 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2018 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
vBulletin Optimisation provided by vB Optimise (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2018 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
​

I certainly wouldn't want it on mine

 

[DragonByte Tech]

How many of those 10% go onto convert to sales?

I don't have numbers for that unfortunately, as I haven't gotten around to implementing the ecommerce features of Google Analytics just yet. However, I'd say even if just one of them converts to a sale, that's worth

Here is the footer on a vb forum I visit occasionally...

Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO v2.0.40 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2018 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
vBulletin Optimisation provided by vB Optimise (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2018 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
​

I certainly wouldn't want it on mine

And you wouldn't, not on XenForo

Even if you had every single XF2 mod from us installed, this is all you'd see:



(XF copyright included for context.)


Fillip

 

[Mr. Jinx]

Even if you had every single XF2 mod from us installed, this is all you'd see:

That is very nice but I think you are totally missing the point here. You are only looking at your own business, and whether or not the copyright notice is effective or not.
I'm looking from a user perspective. This is what triggered the discussion:

xenforo copyright doesn't bother me what bothers me is to have 10 copyrights from different addons

This does not mean 10 different addons from you, but different companies. What would be a good way to deal with this?
I still think a central place for all copyright notices, and that place should not be on every page in the footer.

 

[tommydamic68]

Many a time has a forum split itself in two because of disagreements over the way the forum is ran, and in such a scenario the people setting up a new forum will want to replicate the old one as much as possible.

Lol, one time this happened to me many moons ago, it was with Vbulletin however, a few angry members ran off and had a go at their own forum, bought the same software and tried to replicate all of my mods and forum style, as someone mentioned before a few threads above, you can attempt to replicate any forum, including using that particular forum software as your competitor, its the content and the way the forum is run and managed and the communities unique style that defines the end result. You can't copy that.

You can go out and buy a Facebook script, looks and feels like Facebook but good luck in it ever being Facebook. The members who started their own forum lasted about a year and then failed, and just because I could, I then bought their domain name and it now directs you to mine.

www.sphynxforum.com is now www.sphynxlair.com

 

[tajhay]

don't have numbers for that unfortunately, as I haven't gotten around to implementing the ecommerce features of Google Analytics just yet. However, I'd say even if just one of them converts to a sale, that's worth

Fair enough point but remember there are people who don't like footers or the idea they have to pay 1.5x+ the price of the add-on to remove the footer. So I hope you take into consideration that you are also losing potential customers with your approach. For example I would have for sure bought 1 or 2 of your add-ons during black Friday sale....but I just can't allow that hideous footer you put on all the pages of your customers sites on mine

 

[Matt C.]

So I hope you take into consideration that you are losing customers with your approach

This is true. I don't buy DragonByte add-ons because of how expensive the branding free is. $75 per add-on or $399 for all add-ons. Don't get me wrong, it's fully his decision how he prices his add-ons. I support all add-on developers. But I'm also a consumer, and I can't afford those high prices.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Here is the footer on a vb forum I visit occasionally...

Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO v2.0.40 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2018 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
vBulletin Optimisation provided by vB Optimise (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2018 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
​

I certainly wouldn't want it on mine

Nor me , there's another:

vBulletin Security provided by vBSecurity v2.2.2 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2018 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging v3.2.2 Patch Level 1 (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2018 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Digital Point modules: Sphinx-based search

It's a reason I wouldn't buy a Dragonbyte addon

 

[RobParker]

This is true. I don't buy DragonByte add-ons because of how expensive the branding free is. $75 per add-on or $399 for all add-ons. Don't get me wrong, it's fully his decision how he prices his add-ons. I support all add-on developers. But I'm also a consumer, and I can't afford those high prices.

The branding removal is targetted at people who make a lot of money from their forums. Spending £400 on branding removal is nothing for a forum that might spend £50,000 on custom development otherwise (and yes, that's a real example from XF) or thousands a month on server costs.

If you're complaining about the cost of it, it's not intended for you. If branding removal was $40 instead, do you think he'd get 10x as many sales? I'd be highly dubious of that given that very few people really need branding removal.

 

[Matt C.]

The branding removal is targetted at people who make a lot of money from their forums. Spending £400 on branding removal is nothing for a forum that might spend £50,000 on custom development otherwise (and yes, that's a real example from XF) or thousands a month on server costs.

If you're complaining about the cost of it, it's not intended for you. If branding removal was $40 instead, do you think he'd get 10x as many sales? I'd be highly dubious of that given that very few people really need branding removal.

Yes I'm fully aware of that.

 

[Sim]

I find the arguments about the price for removing the XF branding amusing. It is completely optional - you don't have to pay it.

I have 8 XF licenses, 6 of them with branding removed because they are commercial sites and I wanted a clean footer. The other two I don't care about the branding.

The same argument applies to addons - you don't have to use them! If you don't want to pay for branding removal - then just go ahead and have your own addon developed instead. Too expensive? Well then go and pay for branding removal for one of those addons already built - it will be way cheaper than having your own addon developed. Still too expensive? Then don't pay for branding removal and put up with the branding in the footer. Don't like the branding in the footer? Then don't use the addon and make do without.

People have a lot of choices here.