[lordmenace]

Originally Posted by Danecookie

Dude, its their software, their work, they have all the right to distribte it anyway, you cant question them ..

I am not questioning their business sense, I was merely trying to better understand.

Originally Posted by Danecookie

do you have any slight idea that how much work, time, money, effort vbulletin has to put in order to make this software? And then give it for free? 160$ aint big.. plus u can get a leased version for 85$ and then earn money through adsense for next 1 year.. and pay then upgrade.. or somthing.

Yes, I do know how much work it is. Which is why I do not understand why they don't give one copy away for free legal version to stop the distribution of hundreds of nulled/illegal copies. getting out

Originally Posted by Danecookie

What if you were working on some cool roller coaster, and then people come asking for giving a free ride? This is not how it works..

If that person happened to show me how people were getting on the ride without paying then I would let them get a free ride because they helped me SAVE money.

Originally Posted by Danecookie

Plus you reported pirated vbulletin, you obeyed the LAW, you didnt do anything COOL. We have to report piracy when we see its voilation. So its nothing big thing you did there....

Eh, you are assuming people will generally stick their heads out for nothing. Which is NOT true.

Originally Posted by Asi9ine

I reported a guy who nixed 10 vBulletin licences.

I got screw all in return. Absolutely nothing. Not even an e-mail of thanks.

Now, here's my point. I didn't do it because of some greater need for reward, I did it because I imagined myself as the person who spent countless years working on this software, for some idiot to download it in two minutes and completely rip me off. I could have let the thievery continue, and the owners of vBulletin would have been none the wiser. But I reported it, and those sites are (to my knowledge) down.

I don't do it for a reward, don't think I am looking for a handout. I am saying in general, people will not stick their heads out for nothing. Like I said this is a "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours " world.

Originally Posted by Asi9ine

I didn't even get an email of thanks though. That's what sticks in my throat. I am sure the 80,000-post members on vB.com could take one minute out to be grateful. I know I haven't been their best customer, but damn...

Whoa, that's just terrible. Rude.

Originally Posted by Asi9ine

I doubt they even get many piracy reports. Not as many that they don't have the time to reply to me... it's a lack of courtesy. I'll probably get my licence taken from me or something (I've heard worse things happening to vB users) but I stand strongly on this. If you want to remain a user-friendly company, things like that help.

EDIT Reason: poor grammar.

Amen.

Back to the point I have been doing some more research on vBulletin. I have 2 smf forums. One with 10,000 members and one with 5,000. I also run a small phpbb forum with 1,000 members. Can I combine all of those into one big forum with vBulletin? Or do I have to mess with the databases manually? Is there a mod that merges forums for me?