Branding Free (split from 'Version number?')

MilesDB

Well-known member
it's mainly keeping "junk" out of the template that doesn't give anything to the end-user experience.
I never understood why we have to pay for branding free option either. We pay for the product dearly. It's not free. So please no free ads on our backs. I hope XenForo at least won't charge a ridiculous amount as vBulletin or IPB do.
 
For business applications and the like, there needs to be a branding-free option. 4x-6x the normal price is a pretty good area to consider. Still, some people need this option.
 
I'd agree with cedivad. I think that a cheap price is just unreasonable, since it's how XenForo will get known. I've never seen that point of removing the copyright, I mean since anyone that know's what they are looking for will most likely know what your using Xenforo anyway. I will be purchasing a license as soon as I can and I am going to gladly keep the copyright at the bottom.
 
The point is that you can do whatever you want with the stile. If you don't remove it you can't. Quite easy.
When you have a really customized skin this problem is an important point
 
Branding free is also important for sites that are developing a brand of their own. We've *always* bought brand free, and have avoided buying mods/extensions that do not offer it, as there's nothing worse than seeing a whole string of "Powered by" and other credits at the bottom of every single page in your system.

And while security through obscurity is NOT security at all, it does lower your profile a bit and avoids the casual exploit seeking spammer. It wouldn't matter a hill of beans against someone that is targeting your site specifically, but when there are thousands of sites that can be readily targeted via automatic script looking for a simple text string, it lowers your profile a bit if you don't have that text string on your site. We have never been hit by a number of exploits that have cropped up over the years, and while that's largely due to the fact that we keep up to date with important patches, keeping a lower profile certainly doesn't hurt.

I know that as the designer, Susan vastly prefers to not have to deal with attribution/credit links as well.

What it comes down to is that there are lots of different reasons to want to go brand free. Different sites/communities have different priorities. Just because you don't share them does not make them wrong or mean that people with those priorities are somehow unprofessional or lacking in support for the products they use.

Personally, we're major evangelists for the products we use, and gladly provide word of mouth recommendations to our peers and associates. But we DO use brand free, all the time.
 
Heh.
Consider it 2X :p

Actually, on topic I'd like to purpose a possible compromise? I'm sure we all want XenForo to succeed, and would like to do what we can to assist with that. I imagine the critical time period is going to be 6 months to year after launch? How about offering a Brand Free option as part of the early adopter's offerings, but have it have a built in delay?
IOW, those that want Brand free can buy it for a decent price, but it doesn't take effect until 6 months to a year after XF's initial public offering?

That way XF gets an initial extra infusion of cash, AND gets the promotion of having all those credit links out there, but the folks that want brand free can buy it and know that it'll go into effect on X date? That might remove some of the difficulty of making the decision... Just a thought. :)
 
Heh.
Consider it 2X :p

Actually, on topic I'd like to purpose a possible compromise? I'm sure we all want XenForo to succeed, and would like to do what we can to assist with that. I imagine the critical time period is going to be 6 months to year after launch? How about offering a Brand Free option as part of the early adopter's offerings, but have it have a built in delay?
IOW, those that want Brand free can buy it for a decent price, but it doesn't take effect until 6 months to a year after XF's initial public offering?

That way XF gets an initial extra infusion of cash, AND gets the promotion of having all those credit links out there, but the folks that want brand free can buy it and know that it'll go into effect on X date? That might remove some of the difficulty of making the decision... Just a thought. :)

I'm not sure there's a lot of people who'd be willing to hand over money and then trust they will get what they paid for at a later date. That was something that didn't go so well somewhere else. ;)

If they're concerned about getting the word out, I think they should just not offer the option at all until a later date.
 
I would never pay for a branding free license. The reason I wouldn't is because in the first place I wouldn't purchase the product in the first place if I didn't believe in it (at the time of purchase of course). Sometimes to be taken seriously, (as supificial it may be from others) a serious board reflects on your site.
 
I'm not sure there's a lot of people who'd be willing to hand over money and then trust they will get what they paid for at a later date. That was something that didn't go so well somewhere else. ;)

If they're concerned about getting the word out, I think they should just not offer the option at all until a later date.

True, but there's a very big difference here. You see, I trust Kier and Mike, I never EVER trusted IB. :)

And I totally agree that $1000 is significantly too steep for brand free. Esp for owners of networks of forums, that gets way to pricy way too fast. Being realistic, while we all have great faith in XF and it's devs, asking for that much money is a significant barrier for a new product when you're looking at multiple licenses.
 
True, but there's a very big difference here. You see, I trust Kier and Mike, I never EVER trusted IB. :)

I didn't argue that, as a lot of us wouldn't be here in such support of XF if we believed otherwise, but from a business perspective (and from an outsider point of view) it really doesn't make sense to pay now and get something later like that. I think it invites more trouble than it's worth. Can you imagine all the "I paid for this, now where is it?!" posts? Even if they are told it would be coming later, I'm sure some may claim they were unaware of this and want a refund, and may even not give XF a second glance (or worse, tell others to stay away).

Extreme cases above but unfortunately they're not something I can say wouldn't happen or hasn't yet happened.
 
An affiliate program :) where folks put an actual banner at the top of the site in exchange for branding free! :)

I have no problem with the copyright, to be honest if you have users complaining about a tiny bit of text at the bottom of your website then... well... issues :)
 
If and when we offer a branding free option, it will be at a significant premium. You have to understand that the primary means by which forum software is sold is by people visiting a site, liking the way the forums operate and then finding out how they can get something similar for their own site. Therefore, a large site running branding-free may be at the expense of many referred sales, so it's really not in our interest to make it a cheap option.
First of all, I don't really think XenForo needs to worry about not being exposed to potential customers. Good news spreads quick as it was proven again and again in the last 12 days. Secondly, a really high price for branding free option could easily backfire. For multiple board owners and professionals like photographers, IT people, etc it can be a turn-off, resulting in lost sales. Besides, it just don't make good sense to charge to hobbyist sites such an inflated fee for a chance to be exclusive. Let's not forget what IB did to vBulletin's goodwill in the pursuit of a big fat $$$.
Just my unimportant two cents.
 
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