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.
 
It's about protecting MY brand.
I work hard to promote MY brand and I will do everything in my power to ensure it's success.

If you believe that having multiple "branding" in your footer is good for YOU then power to you.
In my opinion such branding (in footer) takes away from the overall brand that you are trying to promote.

Branding-free options are available because developers understand the need to protect one's own brand.
With that said, we (customers) understand that a branding-free option can cost more than that of the product.
 
It's about protecting MY brand.
I work hard to promote MY brand and I will do everything in my power to ensure it's success.

If you believe that having multiple "branding" in your footer is good for YOU then power to you.
In my opinion such branding (in footer) takes away from the overall brand that you are trying to promote.

Branding-free options are available because developers understand the need to protect one's own brand.
With that said, we (customers) understand that a branding-free option can cost more than that of the product.

Exactly! I would personally never buy a product or addon that I could not purchase branding-free. It's not that I don't appreciate or respect the developers. I do. And that's why I pay them for the product and pay them for the branding-free option as well.

IMHO I do not think those who oppose branding-free should be suggesting the price either...no offense intended. In our business I would not ask those who aren't willing to purchase something to give a price opinion on it. We would determine that ourselves based on the current market and see how well it sells or not and go from there.

To add to this also is the fact that some do not want to link back to unrelated sites in their footer. Webmaster sites have nothing to do with most of my sites' content and I prefer not to have them in the footer.

There are other ways you can help spread the word about a product and help support it too.
 
I will spread the word big time, but I will get branding free like always for my main site. And if it comes out too expensive, then this will be a factor that I will have to take into consideration whether or not I will get the product straight away. Of course having an early adopters fee might be an incentive.
 
I don't care much about a small 'this forum uses this software', however, including version number, copyright statement, a link to the software website and so on gets ugly and annoying. Just my personal opinion.
 
Personally,I've never understood the issue of not wanting that very small link at the bottom of the page.

In certain business-areas, you do not want your competitors or users to see which software you are using.

Also very important:
When having the wording "Ltd." (Limited) in the footer of my website, my users will think that my website is not run respectfully or perfectly legal, because the term "Ltd." gives a very bad taste to some people.

Nowadays, many companies from foreign countries set-up a Ltd.-company in the U.K, because it only costs a couple hundred dollars to incorporate a Ltd.-company in the U.K.

If you understand how many hurdles and costs (minimum EUR 20K to 30K) are associated to incorporate a Limited-Liability-company in some other countries like Austria or Germany, then you will understand that a U.K.-Limited-company does not give much of a trust to users (thinking of users living in other countries than the U.K.).

So to summarize:
Just having the words "Ltd." or "Limited" in the footer of my website, this will give a very bad taste in the mouth of my visitors.
They will think: "this is just another small website-operator who wants to ripp me off and screw me".

Just because the liability of a U.K.-Ltd. is a few hundred dollars compared to a much higher liability $$$ in other countries.

The U.K.-Limited has not a very good reputation in some countries.
If you are aware of "laws of incorporation" in other countries, you will understand what I am saying.

I m actually perfectly fine to have the word "XenForo" and a link to the xenforo.com website in my footer, but the words "Ltd." and "Limited" I am not able to use as this will turn-off my users.
 
I always found that having vBulletin's name in the footer actually helped my site, as it was such a sign of a quality site that could be taken seriously, rather than some silly teenage site that would disappear in a week.

Obviously that's been less true recently. :rolleyes:

Actually that's a bit of an urban myth, the largest board on the net is running phpBB, a free option. If you have content and a site that shows difference from the 1001 other sites covering the same ground then you will grow regardless of software options. One of the things that attracts me to Xen is the ease of use and intuitive nature of things, older members who can't be bothered learning about x amount of bells and whistles are going to really appreciate that. In the movie world invariably the biggest fan sites are running SMF, or appear to be, in the face of both vB and IPS being clearly more professional options. Maybe Xen will change that niche market?

We charge a premium for branding removal, big marketing tool is people liking what they see and clicking through the branding link to check us out. I would imagine Xen is not going to give up that tool without charging a nice price for it. Solid business sense, if you want to remove the branding then be prepared to pay for it, personally quite happy to keep brands of solid software around my site, if it helps others find top of the range options for their sites then that's cool.
 
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.
I completely understand a high price for branding free. If I would sell software I would ask even more for branding free than for the software itself. Especially if I was starting up a new company that needs all the publicity it can get.

As a customer we have to understand that their success is our success, therefore by leaving the copyrights in the script we are actually helping ourselves.
And our competition unfortunately :D

Example: I was already using vBulletin for years and our competition never started using it during that period. Then we installed vBSEO, and one month after that they installed both vBulletin & vBSEO. It helped them grow a lot actually. I never believed that was a coincidence.

Also, buying a branding free option sends cash flow to software companies, so it's not that bad, and with a high price tag, it will always be a small portion of the customers anyway.
 
In certain business-areas, you do not want your competitors or users to see which software you are using.

Also very important:
When having the wording "Ltd." (Limited) in the footer of my website, my users will think that my website is not run respectfully or perfectly legal, because the term "Ltd." gives a very bad taste to some people.

Nowadays, many companies from foreign countries set-up a Ltd.-company in the U.K, because it only costs a couple hundred dollars to incorporate a Ltd.-company in the U.K.

If you understand how many hurdles and costs (minimum EUR 20K to 30K) are associated to incorporate a Limited-Liability-company in some other countries like Austria or Germany, then you will understand that a U.K.-Limited-company does not give much of a trust to users (thinking of users living in other countries than the U.K.).

So to summarize:
Just having the words "Ltd." or "Limited" in the footer of my website, this will give a very bad taste in the mouth of my visitors.
They will think: "this is just another small website-operator who wants to ripp me off and screw me".

Just because the liability of a U.K.-Ltd. is a few hundred dollars compared to a much higher liability $$$ in other countries.

The U.K.-Limited has not a very good reputation in some countries.
If you are aware of "laws of incorporation" in other countries, you will understand what I am saying.

I m actually perfectly fine to have the word "XenForo" and a link to the xenforo.com website in my footer, but the words "Ltd." and "Limited" I am not able to use as this will turn-off my users.
I'm pretty sure you won't have the XenForo copyright in your footer. Look at the footer on this site. The "©2010 XenForo Ltd" is there because that's the company that owns and runs this website. Your footer would look like:

Now, I could definitely be wrong about this, but I have a feeling that there's only a XenForo link, and no XenForo copyright. :)
 
Actually that's a bit of an urban myth, the largest board on the net is running phpBB, a free option.
Gaia left the copyrights intact as a sign of respect and nothing more. A guess would be there is little native phpBB code left for gaia. I am very sure that the owner of the site posted about it back in the day.
 
I'm pretty sure you won't have the XenForo copyright in your footer. Look at the footer on this site. The "©2010 XenForo Ltd" is there because that's the company that owns and runs this website. Your footer would look like:


Now, I could definitely be wrong about this, but I have a feeling that there's only a XenForo link, and no XenForo copyright. :)
Good point, that makes sense... I share erich's concern about "Ltd" in the footer. For serious German companies that could be a big deal.
Because as erich pointed out, scammers here in Europe tend to go for "Ltd" legal forms when setting up companies. Over the last few years that has given the Ltds a very, very bad reputation.
In every program about scammers and financial rip-offs and such, they tell you: if it's a Ltd, be very, very careful and don't give them money unless you have to.

The reason is that a Limited Liability Company in Germany (for example) cannot be formed until the owner can prove that they have at least €25000 starting capital. Then, in case of the company going down the drain, that starting capital must be available to pay any outstanding debts and so on. So that makes for a very tall hurdle for scammers and criminals (as erich pointed out), so they go for Ltd rather than (for example) a German legal form.

I have explained this because I don't want the British members to think it's something racism related or something. lol
 
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