vBulletin Suite vs. vBulletin

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Then from now on you will need to:
- Read the news on vB.com
- Read the news in this sub-forum on vB.org
- or subscribe to 1 of these forums.

[hotwheels]

wowza, very sorry to get you upset. I was just commenting on past practices. I will, from now on wait for my email updates from vbulletin.com. It was however, nice to be able to just stop by here and see important updates/announcements.

[The Smoking Gun]

Trip Originally Posted by smartkidbk5

Sorry I tried to read the posts but couldnt find a solid answer. I get how they are bundling it now, but...

Will I have to buy vB4 now? Even though I have a currently active license witch entitles me for free vB updates for 1 year?

That seems to be the million dollar question. I don't believe anything official has been announced. From what I've read and pieced together it looks like if you want to upgrade to 4.0 you will have to shell out some cash. How much remains to be seen. Looks like vB is doing away w/the leased licenses too. Only offering an owned license in either "forum only" or "suite" (forum, tools, blog, CMS) form. Again, this is just what I've read and may not be at all true. But I think if you wanted to ride out 3.8.3 for awhile without upgrading to 4.0 you should be able to do so without any additional cost (imo).

I am no expert but, as mentioned previously, that clause to reserve the right to change any part of this agreement at their discretion, and with out notice, cannot apply to previous licensee's agreements, or the actual terms that were a condition at the time of purchase, so only new licenses, and possibly renewals of non owned licenses can be affected this way, but whatever the terms of the license was when purchased, must be honored for the entire period the license is valid, in this case, lifetime, with that in mind, should they decide to apply this to less than one year owned licenses, and those recently renewed annually for upgrades under the existing terms and conditions, if taken to court for a determination, they would stand little chance of winning or have much of a legal leg to stand on.

So if there are any attorneys out there that can either validate this or prove it wrong, please post so we all can make intelligent decisions and not waste money because a company takeover decided it wants more money for upgrades some are entitled to with out charge, just because they did not anticipate the state of economic affairs when starting this project nor how the competition has responded to this dissent in the vBulletin communities.
Making many less experienced forum developers, cautious about spending their money on this not knowing if it will be worth it as compared to the relatively cheaper and OS options out three with almost as many plug-ins, add-ons and features.

My four cents!
TSG!