XF 1.4 Xenforo Copyright, Can I edit?

Ablac

Active member
Currently the Xenforo Copyright looks like
Code:
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.
Which is normally located on the Bottem left of the Xenforo Installation, In an attempt to make my site look cleaner I have been modifying my Footer, and have removed the Buttons in the footer (Contact Us, Help, Home, Top, and the RSS Feed) and moved the Copyright notice to there former location on the Bottem Left.

I am wondering now if I can change the Copyright notice from:
Code:
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.
----TO----
Code:
XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.

Thanks :)
 
ok, ignorance is the worst thing in the world; in any of my words, I never ever mentioned I want the copyright notice be removed, just the link pointing to XF.

lets put it this way so everyone can put a smile on their face;

you rent an apartment. the landlord comes and plugs in a power cord to your living room, and lays the cable to his own apartment, and shares the power with you, letting you pay all the bill. when you oppose it, he says ''shut up, this is my apartment, and you rented it for use only, and the contract says that you need to pay for all the utilities!'' this being the case here, if not the exact same situtation.
would this be legal and would you let him do it?

.

The major differences between your example and business law is XF is protected and its rights by federal law.
And Apartment the landlord tenant is a fixed time, with fixed condition based on a lease conditions a person agrees to.
To play the devils advocate the Landlord could do all you said if the contract said so. You will find XF's
terms of use state conditions and upon payment you abide by them. Just like a tenant would if he paid and agree to the rent.
Discussion of change takes both parties to agree on and XF has been clear they will not.
The very clear point to any reasonable person is, XF is not pulling the rug on anyone, they are clear.
They say clear..buy our stuff this is our conditions, or don't buy or stuff no one at XF puts a gun to anyone's head to buy it.
But there are conditions if you do. XF has to be one of the easiest people to work with, gees if they want a term abides to
follow it. Its not like they are saying you cant name your site or change logos . The only ask the copyright is left intact as is.

Its like this, so hey guys I am selling a coffee cup at my garage sale, its $500.00 and you must pay me in pennys and
never drink out of it. You tell me you want to pay with a check and drink out of it and I say no. Buyer, seller relationship.
Seller sets conditions, if you buy it you agree.
 
the contract says that you need to pay for all the utilities!

would this be legal and would you let him do it?
Yes. Because it's in the contract that you will have signed beforehand. Contracts (or in this case the license agreement) are legally binding. So yes, it is legal and you'd have to if they were the terms that have been agreed. Aside from that, your analogy is completely flawed.

Seeing as you're a fan of labouring the same points over and over:

Why are you so against a link being there anyway? You're wrong about it being illegal, by the way, I expect your perception of why a link is bad is also erroneous.
What is it to you if your site links to XenForo? What difference does it make to you?
 
Yes. Because it's in the contract that you will have signed beforehand. Contracts (or in this case the license agreement) are legally binding. So yes, it is legal and you'd have to if they were the terms that have been agreed. Aside from that, your analogy is completely flawed.

Seeing as you're a fan of labouring the same points over and over:


What is it to you if your site links to XenForo? What difference does it make to you?
Bottom line, this guy doesn't understand the difference between "Licensing" and "Owning".
 
I love XF so much I'm thinking about to set a blinking pop-up window containg a copyright notice with two xenforo.com linkbacks. Then a static one in header and one bellow every post. Yeeah!
Ps. Sorry for restoring an old thread. ;)
 
I didn't want to start a new thread since my question is related, but most experts concur that having links in the footer of a website is really bad for SEO, so just curious why Xenforo would want to have links back to their site on every page.
 
I have a question, if I purchase the branding removal, would it be okay if I changed the footer text to:
Proudly powered by forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2016 XenForo Ltd.

I mean, I bought permission to do remove it, so would paying the $250 give me the permission as stated in the clause:
unless prior arrangements were made.

I would of course keep the linking to XenForo. I keep my footer like a badge of honor. I love having it. I am proud to say that I use XenForo. The best forum software. I mean, I have no shame in that.
 
I have a question, if I purchase the branding removal, would it be okay if I changed the footer text to:


I mean, I bought permission to do remove it, so would paying the $250 give me the permission as stated in the clause:


I would of course keep the linking to XenForo. I keep my footer like a badge of honor. I love having it. I am proud to say that I use XenForo. The best forum software. I mean, I have no shame in that.

No doubt you mean well but I think the "no modifying" thing is all about protecting the copyright string as a whole to keep a set standard. Once you let one change it, others in different situations may just assume they are free to do whatever and it creates confusion as well as shortens the legs that one stands on while protecting their work.
 
No doubt you mean well but I think the "no modifying" thing is all about protecting the copyright string as a whole to keep a set standard. Once you let one change it, others in different situations may just assume they are free to do whatever and it creates confusion as well as shortens the legs that one stands on while protecting their work.
Thanks! What you said makes sense.
 
Well the best way is to remove the branding as normal then add back what you want. Sure stay away from the copyright as it stands. But nothing wrong with identifying what software you are running.
 
Well the best way is to remove the branding as normal then add back what you want. Sure stay away from the copyright as it stands. But nothing wrong with identifying what software you are running.
Ah, that is smart. I could remove branding, and in footer just put "Proudly running XenForo". No need to put their copyright or anything.
 
Can anyone explain to me why I should linkback to Xenforo with a dofollow footer links for free, while they are not giving away their software for free?

this is against Google TOS, and if I cant resolve it with you, then I will contact Google
to resolve this issue, as footer linking is degrading websites, and every SEO in this business knows about it.

I'm not sure about the word "degrading" but I do believe outbound links can reduce a page's value. People used to discuss Page rank, but I'm not sure Google still uses that. The intersting thing here, and i am surprised it has not been discussed further, is the fact that the link is not "nofollow" (You mention it is DOFOLLOW, but I don't see that, unless you mean that by default it is followed and given weight because it isn't NOFOLLOW.

Why are you so against a link being there anyway? You're wrong about it being illegal, by the way, I expect your perception of why a link is bad is also erroneous.

I also don't see it as illegal, but the link being bad may not be erroneous, depending on how to interpret Google's ever changing rules and guidelines.

The link is part of the copyright statement. Its there for the purposes of advertising. It leads to sales and profit. Allowing them to keep the price of the product lower

This is also crucial. The actual purpose may or may not be for advertising (or not purely for advertising, especially if its presence or absence is a way to identify the licence holders and/or non-licence holders)

However if it is viewed by Google as advertising, or affiliate link, then according to their guidelines a site could be penalised unless it is nofollow. I understand how someone might argue that by not paying the extra for the branding free version, it could be viewed as indirectly being paid for advertising but in all probability I doubt this would be the case.

That being said I do understand that people may be more comfortable if that could be a nofollow link, and it seems there are two ways to achieve that.

  • Add the nofollow attribute (against licence terms I presume?)
  • On the page header, add a nofollow metatag (not against licence terms but may not be what you want as it would affect all links)

The other side of the coin is that it may be bad for xenforo to ot have the nofollow (however it's not my place to advise them what to do) If Google sees links from what it considers low grade, spammy or dodgy sites, then I imagine it is possible there could be some penalty. I would imagine if loads of nulled sites have the link (unlikely ???) then this might be included in such a category.
 
The other side of the coin is that it may be bad for xenforo to ot have the nofollow (however it's not my place to advise them what to do) If Google sees links from what it considers low grade, spammy or dodgy sites, then I imagine it is possible there could be some penalty. I would imagine if loads of nulled sites have the link (unlikely ???) then this might be included in such a category.

I doubt it will effect Xenforo if it hasn't already, I made a thread here some time back and if you search certain terms on google out of 16 million + results my thread is number 1. If there was juice leaking off the table someone would have been stepping in puddles already.

As far as the effects to end users, I find it hard to believe that the one copyright link has any deleterious effect given that about 10-20% of my random searches for info lead back to results with sites running xenforo on page 1. Considering that and the fact that it's doesn't qualify as anything close to a link scheme I don't think any party involved has anything to worry about.
 
I doubt it will effect Xenforo if it hasn't already, I made a thread here some time back and if you search certain terms on google out of 16 million + results my thread is number 1. If there was juice leaking off the table someone would have been stepping in puddles already.

As far as the effects to end users, I find it hard to believe that the one copyright link has any deleterious effect given that about 10-20% of my random searches for info lead back to results with sites running xenforo on page 1. Considering that and the fact that it's doesn't qualify as anything close to a link scheme I don't think any party involved has anything to worry about.


I was only speculating wildly.

However without doing any research involving actual comparisons with and without those links it would be impossible to say whether the effect is negative or not.

We know it is not a link scheme, but who knows how Google sees these things.
 
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