the pricetag will increase with 4.0 for sure, as they provide new extensions, and that was the goal of the market price of vB...

vBulletin's credits list everyone who has code or image contributions in the system already.

IB has been acquiring renowned internet companies for some time now:
http://www.internetbrands.com/ib/news/press-releases
This can go both ways. Yes, it becomes bigger and maybe more commercial. That poses some risk in regard to company policy. But more investment, means more development of vbulletin. Which is something that we all benefit of.

by the way the credits are given, and the way the codes were created, there is no credit for the inspiration... (and perspiration though)...

i did not read a single credit for bugfixes inside vb code... and actually, most of the bugfixes i've seen are made by global effort, not always by a single person's work... a good way to credit people is to write something like "line 134, this fix was provided by Alfa1"... :)

nobody ever credit the inspiration, so for sure the credits lines of vbulletin are not that long... but by not thanking the vBulletin.org coders in their announcement is a large lack of respect for all the work done here...

I agree coders should receive some sort of credit for the contributions however it would take alot of work to have credits line for line.

Distance

My first guess - a price increase of some sort will happen. It might be a simple price change or a change in their pricing structure. Thought could mean the end of leased licenses, or the introduction of a lifetime license (where you dont have to pay annual fees). It could also mean the end of owned licenses since they dont generate as much cash long term as leased licenses. Something will likely happen to produce a large influx of cash quickly.

Why do I say this? Many companies do this upon aquisition to pay for the cost of the aquisition. Its very common.

I would also predict that we will see more official vB add ons. A photo gallery for example, or a homepage portal. This would be another way to raise money quickly.

Pretty cool that people have a crystal ball to look in.

I'm gonna reserve judgment for now. vB has been very good to me and I hope it remains the leader in forum software for years to come.

This is a discussion thread, nobody ever said it was a fact that the prices will go up, people are just expressing there opinions.

Business must grow. This is why they are in business in the 1st place. To profit and to succeed.

If it benefited them, its the right thing to do for business.

If the price of VB goes up, so be it. That is part of economy.

If you still enjoy the VB product, and care to demonstrate your excellent coding abilities as a volunteer, then keep up the good work.

If not? Seems like you have a situation at hand.