XF 2.0 | There needs to be better management of copyright notices from addons

Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf

Well-known member
One of the most frustrating aspects of trying to put together a nice looking site with neatly presented information is the way that different addon developers add their copyright notices in random places. I remember it was really frustrating on vB and it's no different in Xenforo.

I think with XF 2.0 there's an opportunity to fix this. There should be a section provided in the footer called credits (or whatever) where addon developers can put their copyright notices.

This will make life easier for style developers, webmasters and addon makers. Also it makes more sense because addon developers will be getting their copyright into the right place for site users to see it.

I've added an image below to give an idea of what I mean...


credits.webp
 
I agree 100% with this. I have actually uninstalled add-ons and just not used them at all because of the asinine placements of their copyrights. OK we get it, the site uses one of your add-ons, you don't need it right slam in the user's face in the breadcrumb or somewhere other than the footer where it belongs.
 
DarkGizmo said:
I agree 100% with this. I have actually uninstalled add-ons and just not used them at all because of the asinine placements of their copyrights. OK we get it, the site uses one of your add-ons, you don't need it right slam in the user's face in the breadcrumb or somewhere other than the footer where it belongs.
Click to expand...
Why don't you buy the branding free licence?
 
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Well, but that is your decision how many and which addons you use. As it is the developers decision where to place the branding. I don't see the point of complaining here, no one forces you to use hundreds addons.

My biggest forum is not commercial, but nevertheless I've bought the branding free. Why? I see it that way: with buying it I support the addon developers which again get motivated to produce other good addons which again helps us all.
 
Lone Wolf said:
Not everyone can afford branding free for every addon they use. Especially non-commercial sites. Some sites use 100s of addons.
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^ This.

Not everyone has hundreds of dollars to blow on a single add-on just to remove a line of text that's in a really inconvenient place.
 
gfc said:
Well, but that is your decision how many and which addons you use. As it is the developers decision where to place the branding. I don't see the point of complaining here, no one forces you to use hundreds addons.
Click to expand...

I dont have hundreds of addons and not everyone can afford to pay for branding free. Having a dedicated credits section makes sense.

I've seen vB forums in the past which have a footer nearly as long as the actual content because addon copyrights have all stacked up on top of each other in single line mentions. I'm glad you can afford to buy copyright free addons.
 
It's ridiculous, the availability of a light and full version of the add-on should be enough to motivate, I'm thinking very few people pay for branding removal. All it does is add clutter to sites.
 
What you've depicted in your screenshot is actually possible and a few people already do it. Chris' XenResources site is a good example of this (and the best I can find, at the moment).

L6Xa0fC.png


XenForo actually provides a location for extra copyrights. A simple template modification lets you add to anything already there. It's just a matter of developers adopting the same practice but I'm doubtful anything would be enforced.
 
While this is a good idea, there is already a place assigned for add-ons. Style designers could already create an "area" where the notices can appear. However this unfortunatelly would not stop developers to find their own place for credits.

But on the further posts in this thread, I've to disagree. If you use foreign code, created by a developer you have to use it "as is". If the developer wants a copyright notice to appear you only can buy branding free or uninstall the add-on if you do not like it.

The attitude of wanting to use a code owned by someone else but not wanting to have the credits to this person appearing, should not be supported and is simply wrong.
 
HWS said:
The attitude of wanting to use a code owned by someone else but not wanting to have the credits to this person appearing, should not be supported and is simply wrong.
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I fully agree. Those who release addons (especially free addons) deserve to be credited or compensated for their work. Anyone who removes copyright on a free addon shouldn't use that addon or pay the branding fee.
 
From what I've seen, as long as the link is intact and still in the footer, most add-on devs/theme designers don't care if you reposition it.
 
Lone Wolf said:
I dont have hundreds of addons and not everyone can afford to pay for branding free. Having a dedicated credits section makes sense.
Click to expand...

As of 1.4 there is a location by the Xenforo copyright intended for Dev's to hook their copyright. However people using it will always be a choice of the developer. Even in 2.0, even in 5.0.
 
gfc said:
Well, but that is your decision how many and which addons you use. As it is the developers decision where to place the branding. I don't see the point of complaining here, no one forces you to use hundreds addons.

My biggest forum is not commercial, but nevertheless I've bought the branding free. Why? I see it that way: with buying it I support the addon developers which again get motivated to produce other good addons which again helps us all.
Click to expand...

Why are you even posting about this? He is simply asking for a better way to credit add-on developers for the add-ons that he is using so that is looks good on his site. He is not complaining about there being branding. He simply wishes for it to be uniform. It is a valid suggestion.
 
Because I dont agree. Every Addon Developer should and has to be free how to "protect" his work or how to monetize it. If a developer decides to do this with pop-ups, own adsense links, callbacks or watermarking uploaded images: it is his call and his alone. As long as he is fully transparent to the users.

See I despise callbacks, so I dont use these addons. But why restrict it per se? Every admin running a forum should be mature enough to decide what to accept and what not.

The more flexibility for a dev for monetizing the work, the more devs will produce high quality addons.
 
I don't believe third party add-on 'copyrights' provide any benefit to anyone.

They're just spammy links as far as I'm concerned.
The people who use your forum couldn't care less who developed which add-on, they are there for the content, not the software it runs on.

Which is why I didn't add a copyright to mine.
Not having one and not forcing people to pay to remove it has worked out fine for me.
 
I absolutely hate copyrights (and those that allow hiding of copyrights via css/javascript as thats not great for SEO).

Personally, i would rather support developers who dont put crappy copyrights despite people paying 50+ for their software.
 
Speaking from a style stand point I've gotten a decent amount of custom work requests from the links we have.

Just a couple recent examples
copy1.webp

copy2.webp



That being said I don't agree with a copyright link added on every page when your add-on serves a specific purpose on a specific single page. Heck I think there's even two add-ons recently released that were admin tools which had copyright on the front end, this kind of boggles my mind.
 
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