Not planned Powered by Page

[Slavik]

Just a simple idea to tidy up avertisements from mods, but still credit the authors.

Im sure youve all seen forums on VB.

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On top of that some authors also include credits on the mod pages and elsewhere.

I think we all agree it gets messy. So why not have a "powered by page"

Any mod installed gets a link in to that page by default just by title from importing it, and then if people want to see what addons you use, they can just go look for themselfs.

Simples.

 

[FredC]

I like the idea, but can see both sides of the story.. I will not use a mod regardless of how good it is. if the link back is ridicules.. lol some have them plastered everywhere.. Ive purchased several mods branding free option just to cut down on the clutter in my footer.. Some i leave others i pay to remove.. Ive even agreed to link a few in my links directory just to work out a deal to get rid of some brands.. Funny that i still have far to many credits in my footer..

 

[Fred]

This a very good idea, i agree

 

[nestor718]

Here's the solution to make everybody happy.

1. Make the credits page/section an ajax pop-up like on the topic titles in the forums.
2. Make the link go to a complete page that credits the mods or plugins line by line with company info, what the mod does and an thumbnail with a screen shot or a company/dev logo.
3. Make sure link is SEO

Face it, most people ignore the credits links except search engine spiders. And yes, some of the requirements by some mod makers to place their link on the footer of a site look darn awful and to the average reader, cryptic and therefore, USELESS.

The only "powered by" line I'd like to see on xF is 'Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010 XenForo Ltd. - Additional software by the following vendors' as it is placed nicely and strategically and is aesthetically pleasing. I don't want to see a jumbled up mess on my footers.

As for the freebies, they'd benefit being posted on an credits page rather than a simple cryptic link in a footer. As for the paid guys, we'll you're getting paid already and compensated for your software. I rather not be used by you as an advertising vehicle but a PAYING CUSTOMER.

I think the time has come to begin to exert some community pressure that if you don't agree to our term, then we don't have to use your product. Simple enough concept, no? Once this is began to be accepted as the norm the rest will fall in line.

Regards.

 

[Kier]

I think the time has come to begin to exert some community pressure that if you don't agree to our term, then we don't have to use your product. Simple enough concept, no?

You have it completely backwards.

If you, the customer, do not agree to the terms of the vendor, then you have no right to use their software. That's how simple it is.

 

[Peggy]

I think the time has come to begin to exert some community pressure that if you don't agree to our term, then we don't have to use your product. Simple enough concept, no? Once this is began to be accepted as the norm the rest will fall in line.

Regards.

I would imagine that they would be happy if people with this attitude do not use their product.

 

[nestor718]

You have it completely backwards.

If you, the customer, do not agree to the terms of the vendor, then you have no right to use their software. That's how simple it is.

Exactly. I do not have the right and I also have the option to shop elsewhere and that is what I'm calling for. In other words if the EULA calls for citing a company on a footer to one of my websites and I find that to be unreasonable, I should look elsewhere for a competing product that doesn't have this requirement. For too long as customers we've allowed these EULA to dictate these terms without much thought. And yes, in the early days of the Internet this was the way a awareness of a product was spread. But today there's so many newer methods to do that.

A good example would be the plugin system for WordPress. Most developers do not require their mods to be cited anywhere on your site. Instead when you're looking for a good plugin they are listed conveniently in the plugin section of the admin panel and displayed where the person who will make the best use of these links, the admin. Also, the system has ratings, screenshots and other useful admin info. This is a far more organic approach.

So as a paying customer, I'll no long be supporting a product that requires it to be cited on any of my footers on my sites. When the rest of you as paying customers engage in that same behavior (community pressure) then we'll see this requirement dropped en-mass.

But a credits page on xF would be only a start. If xF developed a plugin/rating system like WordPress and officially recognized xF mods to be added to the system with the condition they not require any kind of footer citations you guys would probably have developers stepping over themselves to develop for xF.

Think about it.

 

[TimeWizardCosmo]

The absolute best addon/customization community I've ever come across is the way Drupal's. Instead of individual coders releasing individual closed-source addons, theirs is an open-source collaborative community experience. I would LOVE to see xenForo take this approach.

 

[Tanax]

I'm gonna quote myself so everyone can read this again. This "solution"(which isn't really a solution, it's just common sense) will make everyone pleased.

So just add a powered by page. Let the mod authors write on their mods like "Credits link in pb-page"(powered-by page). This way admins can decide if it's a mod that requires the credits in the footer or if they agree to have it in a separate page. If they want it in the footer the admins can then make up their mind if they want to "waste space" in the footer for that mod or not - essentially making up their mind on how much that mod is worth to them.

 

[Kier]

Exactly. I do not have the right and I also have the option to shop elsewhere and that is what I'm calling for. In other words if the EULA calls for citing a company on a footer to one of my websites and I find that to be unreasonable, I should look elsewhere for a competing product that doesn't have this requirement. For too long as customers we've allowed these EULA to dictate these terms without much thought.

I'm not making a judgement as to whether a powered-by page or a footer copyright notice is preferable, I'm simply stating that it is the prerogative of the software vendor to require whatever copyright notice or credits they choose, and any consumer who objects to those requirements invalidates their right to run the software.

 

[Xarcell]

Yes!

I would rather some type of credits page, or something, besides a bunch of links in the footer.

 

[Slavik]

I'm not making a judgement as to whether a powered-by page or a footer copyright notice is preferable, I'm simply stating that it is the prerogative of the software vendor to require whatever copyright notice or credits they choose, and any consumer who objects to those requirements invalidates their right to run the software.

Maybe not, but why not make the powered by page something that would be attractive to use over a footer notice.

Footer notice - SEO optimisation by XFSEO
Powered by page - SEO Optimisation by XFSEO, Company Logo, Short description of the product, contact details, link directly to the product.

 

[Kier]

Maybe not, but why not make the powered by page something that would be attractive to use over a footer notice.

Footer notice - SEO optimisation by XFSEO
Powered by page - SEO Optimisation by XFSEO, Company Logo, Short description of the product, contact details, link directly to the product.

As I said, I'm making no comment either way as to the desirability of either scheme.

 

[Paul B]

If xF developed a plugin/rating system like WordPress and officially recognized xF mods to be added to the system with the condition they not require any kind of footer citations you guys would probably have developers stepping over themselves to develop for xF.

Think about it.

So a system whereby only the admin can see who designed the plug-in, arguably a person who already knows that information, is better than x thousand visitors seeing a footer credit who would otherwise have no idea who designed it?

Explain to me how that works?

 

[dartho]

This is entirely what im saying. The only thing I leave on my VB forum is the powered by vbulletin notice. If I didn't remove the others id probably have 8 more lines of junk there.

Hense my suggestion. This is a solution I would be happy with.

You're just making more coders/designers think twice about releasing things for free. For how many of those add-ons from which you've stripped the copyright or credits notices of the author/copyright owner did you actually contact the author in advance to ask if it was OK?

Also - why do you stop at removing the copyright form the forum software itself? Or do you ....

 

[Slavik]

You're just making more coders/designers think twice about releasing things for free. For how many of those add-ons from which you've stripped the copyright or credits notices of the author/copyright owner did you actually contact the author in advance to ask if it was OK?

Also - why do you stop at removing the copyright form the forum software itself? Or do you ....

Beacuse I need my forum licence to be somewhat un-revoked, where as if an addons are for the most part, just a bonus over the core product.

 

[dartho]

Here's to you learning to design/code and releasing unbranded free mods to the world. Hell - here's to me doing the same!

 

[Slavik]

As I said, I'm making no comment either way as to the desirability of either scheme.

Maybe not, but I think myself and many others would like to see such a feature implemented as an option at least, that if addon authors take it up, fantastic, if not, then sure they can add things into the footer anyway

 

[Tanax]

So a system whereby only the admin can see who designed the plug-in, arguably a person who already knows that information, is better than x thousand visitors seeing a footer credit who would otherwise have no idea who designed it?

Explain to me how that works?

Most people who are viewing a forum is not interested in viewing the credits. I didn't even look down there before I got interested in forum softwares. And those who actually are interested can just view the powered by page.

 

[nestor718]

So a system whereby only the admin can see who designed the plug-in, arguably a person who already knows that information, is better than x thousand visitors seeing a footer credit who would otherwise have no idea who designed it?

Explain to me how that works?

Have you ever tried the WordPress plugin system? Out of the thousands of visitors, if .01% click the footer links on the current forum schemes, that is too much.

Now, ponder this. Where do most vB owners get their mods from? Do they look at the footers of various boards or do they join vbulletin.org? Now imagine a vbulleting.org as a section of your admin panel! That's how the WordPress system works and to my mind no commercially available forum software currently has this feature. You have to google or join various groups to keep current on new mods. In that sense, by the chance occasion you bump into a link at the footer of a forum then and only then would the link be relevant. For the most part this is just unless information that will routinely be passed by. A system or credits page would specifically target those who are really interested.

 

[Forsaken]

All I can say is good luck in getting most developers or designers to agree to this; and agreement would be needed, otherwise you'd be pirating .