Forums -> why do people pay for them when the free ones work very well?

[bob4432]

when there are free ones like phpbb2 and simple forum, why do people continue to pay for forums like vbulletin?

just curious...

 

[Confused]

I find, while phpbb is good, it's still not quite as polished as vB, and i'd prefer to visit/post on a vB forum


Confused

 

[Zugzwang152]

because they're more polished.

 

[Nocturnal]

Originally posted by: Confused
I find, while phpbb is good, it's still not quite as polished as vB, and i'd prefer to visit/post on a vB forum


Confused

Same here. I thought I was the only one who had this feeling or fetish for certain msg boards.

 

[bocamojo]

I refuse to pay to post or read on any internet forum. I think it would be a waste of hard earned money, but that's just me. If you have enough people interested and motivated to pay for use of the bulletin, then I would imagine that would be a pretty motivated group, and perhaps that is the idea.

 

[SelArom]

Originally posted by: bocamojo
I refuse to pay to post or read on any internet forum. I think it would be a waste of hard earned money, but that's just me. If you have enough people interested and motivated to pay for use of the bulletin, then I would imagine that would be a pretty motivated group, and perhaps that is the idea.

i think he means people paying to have a forum on their webpage as opposed to installing a free one. I think the main reason is for on-demand support from the developers, which you usually don't get for free. that's the only reason I can think of.

-SelArom

 

[Modeps]

Free software is more open to attacks than software you have to pay for. Mostly because it's easy for everyone to get their hands on the source. phpBB is a prime example.

 

[imported_michealo]

two main reasons, support and security

 

[SALvation]

The free boards couldn't handle our traffic. Once we hit 100k posts phpBB started to die and once we hit 300k Invision free started to slow down. vBulletin is carrying us past 600k with no problems so far.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Modeps
Free software is more open to attacks than software you have to pay for. Mostly because it's easy for everyone to get their hands on the source. phpBB is a prime example.

This gets thrown around constantly and it's just not true. phpBB is just poorly made.

 

[Modeps]

nOc, you're telling me that a program that you can download and view the source code at will is not more open to attacks than one you have to pay for to download?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Modeps
nOc, you're telling me that a program that you can download and view the source code at will is not more open to attacks than one you have to pay for to download?

I'm saying that open source is no more vulnerable than closed source by nature of its open-ness. There are plenty of vulnerabilities for payware.