vB Lite

Is it possible to totally hack this up until it is as good as the full version ? I know that is possible with the UBB.

Also - are there any dedicated vB hacking sites ?

Thankyou
James

Originally posted by James Smith
Is it possible to totally hack this up until it is as good as the full version ? I know that is possible with the UBB.


Im sure anything is possible if you have enough experiance in php, but as of now not too many hacks exist for vb lite


Originally posted by James Smith

Also - are there any dedicated vB hacking sites ?


There will be soon ;) I beleive it will be under the name of "vbulletin.org"

~Chris
P.S There is no need to post across multiple forums. Your post will be seen either way

Is it possible to totally hack this up until it is as good as the full version ? I know that is possible with the UBBAnything is possible.

[Edited by Ed Sullivan on 08-28-2000 at 11:04 AM]

...and if you'd like to start, just grab a book on PHP (or visit one of the many sites that offer tutorials and such on it) and start practicing. It is quite similar to Perl, so if you know that language you'll have an easy time with PHP.

A healthy background in MySQL wouldn't hurt, either...

I know PHP/mySQL, and my site is totally powered by them. I guess i might just have to write some hacks myself :-)

FYI: http://www.neural1.com/vbhack/showthread.php3?threadid=7


vBulletin wants me to refrain from adding functionality to the lite version!

The vB lite version should just be considered a test that you can install and get the software running on your server.

-Chris

Originally posted by Chris Schreiber
The vB lite version should just be considered a test that you can install and get the software running on your server.

-Chris

I personally dont see why everything has to be done the "ubb way" around here. After all, if everyone was happy with ubb's was , they wouldnt have switched.

So why not have a real nice and functional vb lite version for those that just cant afford a full version?!

~Chris

Because John and James put a lot of time and effort into getting vBulletin to where it is today. ;-)

Or at least encourage hacks for vB Lite - at the very least, people will be learning PHP and MySQL ;)

Though I do understand the worry of having a free product start to outpace the paid one, I'm sure that if you have a similar clause in the vB Lite license concerning not redistributing a hacked board you'll be drastically reducing the number of possible "5cr1pt k1dd13z"...

If you want to be more Draconian, you could restrict the distribution of hacks and hack instructions as well - but that might eventually prove a bad idea as the company grows larger: people would switch to full-featured UBB/vB look-alikes that are covered under the GPL...

Oh well, I'll stop ranting now :)

This might make me sound like a hypocrite, but whatever...

I didn't like what happened to the UBB with the "freeware scene." I didn't believe that a whole plethora of freeware hacks should've been released. The fact that if you spent a couple days, you could have a UBB that walked and talked like a licensed UBB for free made many people not even bother with buying a real one.

In hindsight, I probably should've resigned from my mod position at UBBCHH. My opinion is pretty much the opposite of other freeware hackers.

Although I'm not encouraging them to stop the freeware hackers, realize that freeware hacking for the UBB didn't become "mainstream" until January 2000, in the 5.3x version. Here, we're only on 1.13.

I guess I'm just overprotective. LOL.

I have pretty strong feelings about this too. There are two main reasons for having the lite version: to allow you to test it running on your server, and to be able to get into the script a little bit if you aren't sure about purchasing it.

I can understand there are people that may not be able to afford the full version, or think the price is too much. But this doesn't mean that you should have the right to take the lite version and modify it to make it functionally equivilant to the full version. Just because it is possible, that doesn't mean you should or that it is right.
It's just like other trial software you download from the internet... you get 30 days, or some features are disabled.

There is alot of time and effort that is involved in creating a software package the size of vBulletin, and it just isn't fair not to pay for the right to use it.

-Chris

I don't know if I agree. I think there definately should be a restriction on the re-distribution of edited vB Lite files. But you're not going to stop it, and we're not all script warez kiddies. Some of us just simply can't afford it. But to say the Lite version could outpace the paid for one is a bit over the top. Maybe after a week's work from a very experienced PHP/mySQL programmer, but how many script kiddies are that ?

-James