It apparently has to be renewed every 6 months for $10.00USD as well.

$20 per year for new software updates seems cheap to me.

I'm not complaining about the costs, just stating that there are mandatory recurring costs for anyone that was unaware of it. That recurring cost is also on top of whatever base price you pay. Again, I'm not judging the software or the costs, I pay for a LOT of a software and mods for my website, without issue.

I see. Thanks for the information.

Back when ideal Web Tech was looking for Alpha Testers they announced they planned to offer a free version here on vBulletin.org- I wonder if their plans changed?

The recurring cost is in no way mandatory, it would just allow you access to any new versions of it, and the paid support. If the version you have is good for you, and you don't need support, you don't have to pay the recurring fee.

Our plans for a free version have not changed, we do intend to release a free version once we have the pro version done; however, for now we have halted the vBulletin versions development and have decided to build the IP.Board version first since YOU decided we can't look for beta testers on this site unless we first release a free version here.

I'm not sure how you develop modifications, but we build the full version first, test it, and then strip out the features that won't be in the free version, then test that.

Right now, if we wanted the release a free version, it would basically just be a grey block at the bottom of your website, as the only feature currently in place that we could possible strip out would be the actual chat ability.

If enough people express an interest for this mod, we will consider resuming development on it, but until such time, we will be working on the IP.Board version.

I hope by "YOU" you mean the vBulletin.org staff in general. I did not make an arbitrary decision on my own- myself and admins here were in agreement your links were breaking the rules.

You requested Beta Testers but linked them to a page where the only choice was to PURCHASE a Beta license after which you would provide them with a final version "at no additional cost."

We do not allow advertisement of premium products, especially without a free version here on vbulletin.org. We have all heard the story the "free version" is on the way but it rarely gets delivered.

If you want to beta test the appropriate way to do it is to release the mod here on vBulletin.org and check the box "Beta" to mark it as a Beta product- and inform users in the thread if there are known issues and incomplete features.

Admins should be able to understand a Beta product is not a final product.

You also SPAMMED this site with at least 6 of the same posts in 6 different threads- including in vbulletin 3.x threads when you weren't even offering a 3.x version.

In our request for Beta Testers, we linked to a site where people could beta test it for FREE, then after that we included the link to where they could buy it if they wanted to beta test it on their site. So their obviously was a FREE choice, and we figured most people would use the free method, but if someone wanted to go the extra distance and test it on their site, we aren't just going to give it to them for free with all the paid features.

First, I only remember 5 threads; Second, every single thread we posted in, were for someone looking for exact functionality we we're offering; Third, yes, we don't currently have a 3.x version, but if we see that people are interested in a 3.x version (like the member who posted that thread), we could easily port it over to that just like we are doing with IP.Board 3.2 currently.

Either way, this will be our last post on that topic, as this thread is starting to digress from the original topic, and we don't want that!

The link to idealweb also allowed us to enter suggestions for what should be added to the free version as well, so I think the assessment that Idealweb was trying to spam is really wrong. I can see how that came across that way, as they posted in more than a few topics about their product. But since I have been in close contact with them I can vouch for them that they honestly were working on a free version, as well as a paid version.

I am very disappointed that development of the vbulletin version has stopped.

It's not entirely stopped, we are running it on http://www.extremegamezone.com still where people can come test things out and provide feedback. But it is safe to say that at this point development has definately slowed down on it.