New Forum Software on The Rise - Need Feedback

Hey guys were working daily to deliver our new forum software =)

Every script is piratable, don't you hate that someone can have vbulletin for free and never have to pay yet you did?!

Our script will not be possible to pirate =)

We need feature suggestions, our script is going to have a very flexable modular system for adding modifications and coding them, we are expecting to have the first paid version available around august!

So what features do you guys like about vb, IPB, SMF, etc?

I'm a IPB fan myself but am disgusted with the company that sells their script.

The more features you guys can suggest to me/us (Will be forwarded to our team) it may be implemented.

Our script is functioning so far, I will be posting screen shots in a few weeks of what it looks like so far, the server usage is very minimal, imagin ipb 1.3's usage with ipb 2.x's features!

Our script will also have full converter scripts for every forum script to us, PostgreSQL support, PHP5 support, clustering ability, native SEO (Friendly urls, tags, etc) so no need to buy/install bulky add-ons!

Let the suggestions fly!, our script sadly will have to be paid sorry to say but it will be cheaper than vb/ipb

If you're working on a paid forum script, I'd implement as many features as possible. Why pay for your script with half the features when people can buy vBulletin or IPB, you know?

I'm personally a fan of the hook system, WYSIWYG editor and the template system.

Well of course ;-) every popular feature these boards have as add-on's will also be built into our script with a enable/disable feature =)

We have a easy to use template system already, we'll look into WYSIWYG editor thx

I don't know much of VB or the other software you need to buy. But make sure you have almost all they have and much more. Read the forums around on vb etc and see what the users are wanting

cmanns said:

Every script is piratable, don't you hate that someone can have vbulletin for free and never have to pay yet you did?!

Click to expand...

I doubt most people care to be honest other than the owners of the software.

Our script will not be possible to pirate =)

Click to expand...

A bold claim, the only real way to stop something being possible to pirate, is to encrypt the code (and even thats not fool proof if you know what you are doing), which puts people off straight away.

The rest of your post doesn't really add up, you are asking for feature suggestions that people like that other boards already have

I was about to comment on the piracy claim. My guess is that if Microsoft and Adobe can't pirate-proof their products there's most likely a reason behind it.

I also find the claim that your script will have "converters from every forum software to us" to be pretty bold.

1. No matter what converters you have, someone will always manage to dig up some obscure system that you've never heard of.
2. You'll need to keep on top of every new system that comes out (AEF, TairoBB, etc.)
3. You'll need to support converting from numerous other database systems (MS Access, SQL Server, Oracle, Firebird, etc.)
4. What about systems like Clearspace Community?

youradhere4222 said:

I was about to comment on the piracy claim. My guess is that if Microsoft and Adobe can't pirate-proof their products there's most likely a reason behind it.

Click to expand...

Very true. If you own the hardware or lower-level software and can modify it (or get someone knowledgeable to do so for you), you can bypass any kind of higher-level security mechanism. Obfuscation techniques like the Zend Guard have been bypassed by people modifying the Zend Engine in PHP and decompiling the code it generates.

A bit off-topic, but initiatives like "Trusted Computing" are not so much a way for the end user to protect themselves as a way to eliminate the ability for someone to modify the lower levels of things and bypass control mechanisms (DRM, etc). That it can be used by the end user for securing things is just a side-effect that has good marketing potential.

Well it seems to me like a hosted solution would be pretty close to being non-piratable, unless you had help from someone within the company itself.

Do you have an estimated price range for the cost of your product? When you say less than vBulletin, do you mean less than the owned license price, or less than the leased license price?

Nightlark said:

Well it seems to me like a hosted solution would be pretty close to being non-piratable, unless you had help from someone within the company itself.

Do you have an estimated price range for the cost of your product? When you say less than vBulletin, do you mean less than the owned license price, or less than the leased license price?

Click to expand...

A hosted solution would mean losing a large amount of business from the forum software market.

Nightlark said:

Well it seems to me like a hosted solution would be pretty close to being non-piratable, unless you had help from someone within the company itself.

Click to expand...

Yes it would, but as pointed out, you lose a big section of the whole forum market by doing such. However, if you wish to target that sub-audience, that should be fine by you.

On features: You don't need to provide everything, the kitchen sink, and the dishwasher. Rather, look to make it easy to add features so that users can make as light or heavy of a system as they wish to have. If done right, this will give you a wider segment of the forum audience you can appeal to.

"If it can be designed... it can be reverse engineered." - Phoenix Technologies

motokochan said:

Very true. If you own the hardware or lower-level software and can modify it (or get someone knowledgeable to do so for you), you can bypass any kind of higher-level security mechanism. Obfuscation techniques like the Zend Guard have been bypassed by people modifying the Zend Engine in PHP and decompiling the code it generates.

A bit off-topic, but initiatives like "Trusted Computing" are not so much a way for the end user to protect themselves as a way to eliminate the ability for someone to modify the lower levels of things and bypass control mechanisms (DRM, etc). That it can be used by the end user for securing things is just a side-effect that has good marketing potential.

Click to expand...

I can't give away the secret but it'll be accompanied by IonCube, my friend coded a very good script for Invision board using IonCube, hasn't been pirated yet, thats because IonCube can't be decoded yet.

All the source will be given up except the vital's inside the ioncube file which wont be needed to modify, but without that code the script will be useless

Oldiesmann said:

I also find the claim that your script will have "converters from every forum software to us" to be pretty bold.

1. No matter what converters you have, someone will always manage to dig up some obscure system that you've never heard of.
2. You'll need to keep on top of every new system that comes out (AEF, TairoBB, etc.)
3. You'll need to support converting from numerous other database systems (MS Access, SQL Server, Oracle, Firebird, etc.)
4. What about systems like Clearspace Community?

Click to expand...

Popular forum scripts, upon customer request we'll do other scripts also. The converters will be done by us, so any querky things in the database can be removed manually =)

Nightlark said:

Well it seems to me like a hosted solution would be pretty close to being non-piratable, unless you had help from someone within the company itself.

Do you have an estimated price range for the cost of your product? When you say less than vBulletin, do you mean less than the owned license price, or less than the leased license price?

Click to expand...

There will be a hosted solution, depending on how flexable our plugin system is we may offer free forum hosting like InvisionFree but you'll have the ability to modify your forum w/out that nasty javascript, if thats not pheasable we'll offer hosting (I already sell hosting optimized hosting for vB/IPB boards)

Were expecting to price around 25-50 dollars/yr

cmanns said:

I can't give away the secret but it'll be accompanied by IonCube, my friend coded a very good script for Invision board using IonCube, hasn't been pirated yet, thats because IonCube can't be decoded yet.

All the source will be given up except the vital's inside the ioncube file which wont be needed to modify, but without that code the script will be useless

Click to expand...

And there lies your problem, a script that is unreadable puts people off straight away as you lose the ability to modify it, a plugin system can only go so far, some code edits are always going to be needed.

Why will people use your new script when there are already established, easilly readable/modifiable

As for Ioncube, motokochan already covered how that can be got around.

Obfuscation techniques like the Zend Guard have been bypassed by people modifying the Zend Engine in PHP and decompiling the code it generates.

Click to expand...

Although the odds of anyone wanting to will practically be zero.

If this forum software ever materialises and you want people to use it, I'd suggest you don't bother with the Ioncube idea and fight piracy the traditional way.

Bendo said:

And there lies your problem, a script that is unreadable puts people off straight away as you lose the ability to modify it, a plugin system can only go so far, some code edits are always going to be needed.

Why will people use your new script when there are already established, easilly readable/modifiable

As for Ioncube, motokochan already covered how that can be got around.



Although the odds of anyone wanting to will practically be zero.

If this forum software ever materialises and you want people to use it, I'd suggest you don't bother with the Ioncube idea and fight piracy the traditional way.

Click to expand...

We'll see but if you read my post again you'll see that the file thats encoded has nothing to do with any functions of the board so it'll maintain full mod abilities, without that files contents though the board wont function. Very easy to accomplish.

IonCube does cost a left nut though and were not planning to sell for much so thats not final decision, we got other methods to fight piracy that I know invision board doesn't use which will enable us to be able to sue united states residents for sure.

cmanns said:

We'll see but if you read my post again you'll see that the file thats encoded has nothing to do with any functions of the board so it'll maintain full mod abilities, without that files contents though the board wont function. Very easy to accomplish.

IonCube does cost a left nut though and were not planning to sell for much so thats not final decision, we got other methods to fight piracy that I know invision board doesn't use which will enable us to be able to sue united states residents for sure.

Click to expand...

Yeah umm - Good Luck

Bendo said:

If this forum software ever materialises and you want people to use it, I'd suggest you don't bother with the Ioncube idea and fight piracy the traditional way.

Click to expand...

Or he could just make it Open Source. That will save you 99% of the hassles

Tikitiki said:

Or he could just make it Open Source. That will save you 99% of the hassles

Click to expand...

How do you get money for open source software?


exactly.

You are starting it for the wrong reasons - to make money? Your software will get no where if that is your only intention.

SMF charges $50 for a 'charter membership' in which you get access to beta software before the public and better support? It's their way of making money...So it is possible to make money with open source software.

However like I said, you won't get anywhere if your only intention is to make money.

cmanns said:

How do you get money for open source software?

Click to expand...

Paid support services, custom coding, etc.

It's a non-traditional business model, and can be difficult to maintain in some areas. The most successful parts seem to be when a company uses the open source model to supplement their main product, rather than as their main product. There are exceptions, however.

Either way, we should probably go back on topic if that ever happened in the first place.