[elmo]

I think what KirbyDE's getting at is that the category/forum data is housed in the database, not the PHP files. You can copy the PHP files all you like, but if they all point to the same database, they'll all return the exact same data. Not copies of it, but it itself. So if I post in "category 50", it will also show up in "category 1".

You can change the $dbname setting in includes/config.php in each of those directories to point to a different database, but then you've essentially created several different installations of vBulletin (presumably each of which would require its own license fee) and which wouldn't "know" about each other.

What I think you're trying to do (and certainly what I'm trying to do) is to set up parallel hierarchies within a single board installation. So for instance I've got a category 1 that includes forums 1, 2, and 3 each with threads and posts inside them. I want to copy category 1 to a category 2 and 3 right beside it that are identical to start with but independent (so when someone posts to category 3/forum 2, it doesn't also appear in category 2/forum 2).

Any hope for us?