rocknbil - 10:04 pm on Oct 16, 2009 (gmt 0)

If they're averaging 3+ years for each version, and you're paying $40 a year to maintain the owned license, the new license costs about the same with their current pre-sale offer.

Here is my problem with this.

I signed up with vBulletin in '05, "owned license," the renewal agreement said "$40 to renew." No problem.

Earlier this month I get an email, "Renewal is $60." Well, inflation and all, okay, . . . note that this notice is dated 10/03/09.

Today I go to renew and can't. $195 or nothing. There is no renew option, only upgrade.

So going by the previous history, if I fork up $195 for 4.0, what's to stop them from forcing more policy and upgrade changes next year? By the history they've laid out above, I don't think I trust JelSoft today.

The up side is, according to an official post, you can continue to use your old version forever, even after expiration, without legal implications. This doesn't sit well with me; I like to pay for my software. I don't like owning anything labeled "expired." I'd be more than willing to fork up $60 for renewal. But over 3 times that . . . with a big dent in trust that may equate to something far worse in the future . . . I'm not so sure.

I think it's time to export the DB and get it onto something else, this is just too much money for a message forum (in the context we are using it.)