[DECLINED] Unlicensed Information for Licensed Members
 

This is a touchy subject, but one I think should have some attention. I know it's been discussed here and there before, but I can't seem to find a reasoning that will answer my question.

Is it possible and feasible to allow licensed members to see who shows up as "unlicensed"?

Again, I know that's touchy and there's probably a ton of reasons such as "it's none of our business" and such. But what are the valid reasons?

My logic is this - without knowing who's unlicensed, it's hard to know what sort of support one is providing. I rarely ever post support (not that I actually can a lot, but every now and then I might know the answer to something) because I'm afraid I'll give away too much information to unlicensed members.

Again, this is nothing big, but a question that's been eating my brain for a few days so I thought I'd ask.

Cheers!

I guarantee you that it won't happen due to privacy reasons. IMHO a better policy would be to more strictly apply the permissions for unlicensed users.

(not trying to crap all over your idea or anything :))

I honestly wish unlicensed members couldn't even register here. If they have pre-sales questions, there is a pre-sales forum at the .com site.

Amy

*hehe* I don't mind, Filburt, you make a good point. They do have an awful lot of permissions here - posting in almost all forums (or are they restricted in this sense), posting attachments and polls and such....

I kinda agree with you, too, Amy.

When Xenon and I become Admins, we will sort this issue out. Won't be long now. :)

Agreed, they should go to .com instead of .org for pre-sales questions as you are buying it from .com and you natuarlly go there when you're interested in buying vBulletin. :p

I'd like to see who's licensed and who's unlicensed. That way i can stand by firm policy of not helping unlicensed people in the lounge before a mod or admin puts the message up :)

- miSt

the presales forum here is also for hack questions, so it will stay.

also no we won't show up the unlicensed for you licensed users.

but as erwin said, we will introduce stricter rules for unlicensed users, so they just can post into forums where it's ok (and that are not much ;))

just always remember: don't answer vb/hacking support questions in presales/lounge forums :)

Or if one wanted to be sure untill the new fixes are in place and realy wanted to help the person upload it in text.

Then if they have no licence there would not be an issue.

Draw back. Any who have a licence have to dl texts all day long.... But it is an idea for a fast help.

Funny as it goes, I just got a PM from someone a couple of minutes ago asking for help on running a query.
The PM is deleted now, but how was I to know if he was licensed or not?
Wasn't possible.
If you get someone named colby PM you, then it's not just me he PM'd.
But I'd advise to ignore it unless that is actually a valid member.
But again, how are we supposed to know?

Dave.

I got the same one and pointed him to the "PHP" forum to post for help as I didn't know if he was valid or not.

Don't provide support in PMs unless you know the person is licensed. :)

I honestly don't care if people are licensed or not. It's not my job to police Jelsoft's profits. However, usually the pirates are lazy idiots as well and are just down right annoying. In addition, all the off topic posts in forums where they shouldn't have access are a pain. Can somebody explain to me why unlicensed people can post in the PHP forum or the lounge? Just how are they contributing to the hacking community? I'll grudingly agree that the pre-sales forum might be good public relations; however, they really have no business in any other forum but that one.

Amy

Like I said, once Xenon and I come on as admins formally, we will make some changes. In the meantime, the current admins are busy with other things.

How are we meant to know if people are licensed in PM's. As us normal members can't move posts to the right forum (rightly so too hehe ;)) then we don't know if people are licensed or not. Why not allow people to view who's licensed in the just the lounge then?

- miSt

it's a sort of privacy mist.
we won't discuss the issue, it will stay that just mods will be able to view the unlicensed info.

for PM's:
Hmm, there are two possibilities i can think of now:
one way is to disable PM's for unlicensed one (i prefer that, but we will discuss)
second way is to show in pm's if a user is licensed or not..

@Davey: the user is licensed, never the less that's not the right way to do.
we will make stricter rules for that :)

I prefer disabling PMs for unlicensed members. I would also probably hack the board so that they are unable to display email addresses and have the moderators delete any email addresses they post. The PM system and email are simply ways to try to get people to give them things they are not authorized to have.

Amy

we will think about that amy :)

no pm's for unlicensed users sounds good. I'll vote for that :D. Also the showing of email addresses even when set to yes in a profile. It shouldn't have the link in the postbit :D

- miSt

Yeah, disabling PM's for unlicensed ones will work fine. ;)

hmm, i think we can do so:)

E-mail especially should be disabled so they can't privately contact anybody, only post publicly and even then only in Pre-Sales (if it should be here) and possibly the lounge. I suggest making Modified Forums open to unlicensed users so they can be busted when they post their URL. ;)

No unlicensed in the lounge. :'( Please no. That should be a private place for licensed members to chatter about. In my opinion.

i'm currently thinking of testplace, presales, forum commenting, and site feedback (that's needed also sometimes ;))

but as said we will discuss that issue :)

Right now unliscensed users are able to see the full release forum if they are registered but cannot download, they can also see the threads I believe (last time I checked) stuff like this should be blocked off, because many post codes in the thread, and even when asked to still do it, un liscensed users have access to this, and maybe having the user confirm his/her liscense on registration by a multi-step registration.

this will be changed p0wered :)

the confirming issue on the other hand is by jelsoft, so you have to suggest changings there, we can just restrict the rights of unlicensed ones (and will do so ;))

hmm, i just saw, unlicensed users can't send PMs.

didn't know that, but chen had done that already ;)

Well it wasn't like that a few months ago ;)

Those forums sound good for unlicensed users except Forum Commenting. I don't want to give constructive feedback to unlicensed users :). Perhaps they can reply but not post new threads there :D

- miSt

mist, if they post the link to ther boards, then it could help us to find them ;)

I encourage all pirate users of vB to post links to their sites so that we can comment on them. :)

I second that statement :D

Hehe, thats very smart. Easy trap for them to fall into. ;)

@Erwin... O.. M... G.... LOL!! That is so mean but yet so good. :)

Just make it so unlicensed people can't post (except maybe in an advertising forum) ;) Although I don't see why they should have any reason viewing either, but that's not my call :) VBulletin.org should be members only ;)

Xenon - hehe that's sly ;)

- miSt

I'm with Amy's ideas in this thread, if you are not registered, you can't access vBT or vB.org *at all*.

Nobody in their right mind, paying customer or not, would never in their right mind register for something that they can't even see.

They should know that they don't have access, basically, vBT and vB.org are places to go for hacks for vB and template modifications for vB. You need to be licensed to do so!

believe me, we currently have some ideas of what to change to don't give unlicensed ones support, but also have enough appetizers to register here ;)

the changes will come i promise :)

We just hope the world would think like that. ;)

Look forward to these changes. :)

:)
filburt has had the idea which we will use here.
I think it would be a good idea for vbt also, so i'm sure he'll tell you :)