Should be the first with a referral program and be like WeBull/Robinhood in that both parties get something in return.
Imagine 1.1m subscribers and 5500 new license purchases in the first 7 days (1/2%) of just the basic XF ($160). Say each of them would get 10% off while he'd get 10% in commission. XF essentially loses $32 per new customer.
However, I mentioned it'd only apply to XF alone. So, the full price for the gallery, etc. This is where the $32 could become more of a playing field... and brand free is the icing on the cake.
Only XF knows how many renew licenses each year. So if you took those 5500 purchases and assume that even 1/4 renewed yearly at full price, they are renewing the full cost of it, which replaces some that don't renew (you could even make it a renewal subscription each year in PayPal).
In my opinion, it doesn't sound like a bad idea and XF should crunch the numbers to see if these sorts of sales from influencers like this could crank out a lot more customers, year over year as the video would rank and continue to be watched.
We as paying members (the first time, unless we went with a 2nd forum and used a referral link [if possible]) should just suck it up and shut up if they did allow it because 5500 sales is a minimum of $704,000 with some obviously adding more in 1st party add ons as well as brand free (could top $1m in net revenue).
I don't know at which region that'd be a profit or a loss (strictly speaking the 1st year alone), but, that does give XF an edge for future development as well as even more marketing. That essentially translates to our forums performing better day by day as we fight to retain users that choose an unorganized Facebook group as it's "more convenient" and could level the playing field if and when development could speed up a bit with a 2nd or even 4th programmer.
Edit: The "Forum Software by" could also be a referral link, to qualifying forums, to standard users giving them 5% or so in XF bucks ($8) which isn't cash redeemable, but can be applied to future orders only. This generates new, paid, customers and gives a lot more benefits to entice forum owners to sell a forum.