I don't think that "we who discuss here" screwed anyone. I think you missed who's actually one to blame for current situation.

And I understand your fears, I myself like vB4. I liked vB3 also. I guess I'm guilty of not liking vB5. But, who knows, maybe with xenforo 2 I see a bit of light. Who knows... maybe...

I'm happy that a knowledgeable and reliable engineer is available for work on existing 3.x forums. If vBulletin would post they would contract out support, I would be happy for that. Some of us have reasons for sticking with the old versions of vB, so let's not overlook that assistance and support are a good thing.

To be clear I am painfully aware of who is to blame for the current situation.
To be clear it isn't Paul.
To be clear, that is all hindsight.

The customers who purchased vB5 need this site not to become nothing more than a platform for customers who purchased software which is no longer officially supported to discuss paid work. vBulletin gains nothing from keeping open a website that serves only as free advertising for third party coders to work on software they no longer sell.

Meanwhile, this site does virtually nothing for customers of the product they do currently sell. So, why should they keep it up and running? You tell me.

Why did customers buy "owned license"? What does it mean "OWNED LICENSE"? if php background not support my forum version, then it's limited license, mean php limited license..

There is no such thing as an owned license any more.

Prior to the vB4 release there were two types of license:

Owned license: You paid a one off fee similar to how you do now, and you could run the software for life, similar to now. BUT the initial fee covered updates for a year. After that, you could carry on running the software, but only up to the latest version that was available at the point the year expired. You could then by a further year of updates for a small fee. This is similar to how XenForo works today. There are still plenty of customers with these licenses, but the upgrade option is no longer available for purchase...if they want the newer releases they need to upgrade to a full 'new style' license.

Leased license: You paid an annual fee and could run the software and download updates for a year. After a year, you either paid the same fee again, or else you had to stop running the software altogether.

Just a little history lesson for anyone interested.

Loyalty to their customers? Past and present.

We bought the product vB made (3). We like it, we use it and we paid for it (twice). We do not like the new product (5), it is not what we want. If a company is struggling, making the product their customers want is the first thing they should examine.

Loyalty to customers who purchased a product how long ago? Should companies be indefinitely loyal to customers who purchased their product once years ago? vB3.8 is roughly ten years old. My vB4 license is eight years old. IB doesn't owe me anything for something I purchased eight years ago. Or ten years ago.

I don't mind telling you IB doesn't owe anyone except vB5 customers anything.

From where some people developed this sense of entitlement to lifetime product support I don't know but IB has supported vB3.x and vB4.x a lot longer than most companies support any product. Longer than any product Microsoft or Apple has ever produced. Longer than any car warranty. Longer than they should have.

If the last time you paid the company any money was at least a decade ago, what makes you think they 'owe' you anything?

Strange, I'm pretty sure I paid for vB4 to be able to download updates (of course, within vB4 branch, not any type of update) "indefinitely". I'm pretty sure I can log in to members area and download latest vB4 version.

Not sure how it was called exactly.

I'm checking and here's what it say in members area:

And I can download vB4.2.5

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I'm pretty sure that there are people still who buy vB5 (as they can buy only that version) and actually download and use vB3 or vB4. If they close this site, their sales will drop dramatically.

And not only that, but some people who use vB3 and/or vB4 will sooner switch to other platforms (think xenforo) then later. Which basically will mean that there's even smaller number of forums who uses vB. Number of sites who use that software platform is for company that makes that software also something of value.

This may come as a shock to some people, but most companies exist to make a profit. Providing a free service to people because they paid some money ten years ago isn't really good business practice.

--------------- Added [DATE]1515269916[/DATE] at [TIME]1515269916[/TIME] ---------------

Yep, hence my comment at the top of the post:
--------------- Added [DATE]1515269981[/DATE] at [TIME]1515269981[/TIME] ---------------

Nobody has said anything about closing this site. I'm not sure where all this has come from.