Downgrade from Suite to Forum?

[cellarius]

uhmmm I think you can do it installing vb5 in a separate db or in the same db but with different tables prefixes.

Which would be clearly in breach of the license agreement. If you own one license, you can install only one instance at the same time. You'd have to buy a second license for the forum only and keep the suite license to run the older cms version, which would make that kind of operation rather pointless...

[Giorno]

Can you confirm that a v4 Publishing Suite owner who chooses to only upgrade to the v5 Forum will not be able to continue to use the v4 CMS as a front page while running v5 forums?

uhmmm I think you can do it installing vb5 in a separate db or in the same db but with different tables prefixes.

[Bounce]

Here is a question I would like an answer from vBulletin team.

I do not need Suite, so I upgrade forum classic 4 which is free until my licence expires which is end of November 2009.

Now, what happens then...how much will I have to pay to keep the Forum as I have a life licence.

Nowhere I see this clear explanation.

Thank you

With an owned and active license, I get access to Forum 4.0. Once my current license expires, what happens?

You can continue to run that version but will not have access to ticket support or updates. If you want to have access to any further maintenance, security or minor point releases on the 4 series, you must purchase a license. You will be able to purchase a license at the upgrade price of either $175 for Forum or $250 for Suite.

[nfn]

Hello,

Just to ask for an answer about these questions.

[Marris]

Don't know what isn't clear about it. The CMS and Blog content uses their tables. The forum uses its tables. You can purchase the Suite and disable and/or uninstall the CMS and blogs from within the Admin CP if you wanted to.

If you buy the Suite today and do not use the Blog or CMS components, you lose nothing buy purchasing Forums with the release of vBulletin 5.

Can you confirm that a v4 Publishing Suite owner who chooses to only upgrade to the v5 Forum will not be able to continue to use the v4 CMS as a front page while running v5 forums?

[cocotte72]

Here is a question I would like an answer from vBulletin team.

I do not need Suite, so I upgrade forum classic 4 which is free until my licence expires which is end of November 2009.

Now, what happens then...how much will I have to pay to keep the Forum as I have a life licence.

Nowhere I see this clear explanation.

Thank you

[Giorno]

My concern is am I able to uninstall the components CMS and Blog from Suite v4, remove the files, clean the tables and upgrade to Forum v5.

Are CMS and Blog modules/plugins aside from the forum, that in the suite are package together?

I think that all you'll have to do is going to be delete cms and blog directory by ftp and drop cms/blog tables from the database.

[Breakpoint]

If Wayne Luke can answer nfn's question I would be really happy

[nfn]

A point of clarifcation: if a customer buys a suite license now, they can always get forum 5.0 for the upgrade price

My concern is am I able to uninstall the components CMS and Blog from Suite v4, remove the files, clean the tables and upgrade to Forum v5.

Are CMS and Blog modules/plugins aside from the forum, that in the suite are package together?

[Wayne Luke]

Wayne, I think the confusion is as to whether it is possible to upgrade now to Suite 4.0, then when 5.0 is released, "upgrade" to Forum-only 5.0?

Yes, they will.

They will lose any possible benefits of the Suite, including ticket support unless they purchase that as well, but there is nothing stopping them from doing so. If they decide to use the Suite later during the 5.0 series, they would have to purchase another upgrade.

The exact words relayed to me are:
A point of clarifcation: if a customer buys a suite license now, they can always get forum 5.0 for the upgrade price

[nfn]

That's true and we have two questions here. One is about the license terms and the other is a technical questions.

The first one may change as we already saw, so no one can ensure what we have now.
From now on, we don't have upgrade license ... we buy a product we know will die when the new one came, so I can buy the suite today and 18/24 moths from now, I can buy the forum product only

The second is a more problematic, because today decision will have implications in the future and i need to ensure that I will have a option to go from suite to forum.

This doesn't mean I'll will do it. If my members prefer the suite I'll stay with it.

[Lucifer1337]

I think the concerns raised by Baba Wawa are important ones. Now I'm no marketing genius, nor am I a conspiracy theorist, but it only makes sense for IB to offer a cheaper Suite than Forum-only package if they have some contingency plan down the line to make that money back on the Suite.

It's entirely possible that the business model behind this offer is that they think the Suite is just so awesome and use will be so widespread that come 5.0 people won't want to downgrade, or will have a developed CMS/Blog community and realistically can't, even if they were ambivalent about its utility. That would be a smart assumption and not necessarily shady dealing. On the other hand, if as concerns have stated, the business model relies on preventing downgrade for money saved, then that would be shady dealing.

I'm aware that Wayne has answered this, and I really do appreciate his effort and support in being helpful and constructive. However if there's anything the vB 3.x to vB 4.x licensing switch has shown, it's that we really can't have customer assurance in what to expect, and no court anywhere would uphold a forum response as legally binding if IB were to alter its policy.

I believe Wayne is telling it like it is currently, and trust that he's genuine, but also think it isn't being factored in that company policy can change and we as customers have no contingency plan besides getting out or stuffing it. And again, from a business standpoint the amount of overall customers who buy the Suite and want to downgrade will be much smaller than those who are affected by the current debacle. So they have less to lose from changing that policy then they do in the current situation, and we have nothing in writing that says they can't do that to us.

As well, both responses have stated that you won't lose anything by purchasing the forums come 5.x. It does not state you will be able to downgrade with a similar customer discount as those that are upgrading to like packages. All it says is that you could purchase it without losing anything, which could mean you have to buy it new or with no equitable discount.

[nfn]

Ok. So these are good news!

[Sadie Frost]

I was just explaining the source of the confusion theda - no need to talk down to me.

[theda]

You can purchase the Suite and disable and/or uninstall the CMS and blogs from within the Admin CP if you wanted to.

If you buy the Suite today and do not use the Blog or CMS components, you lose nothing buy purchasing Forums with the release of vBulletin 5.

...I think the confusion is as to whether it is possible to upgrade now to Suite 4.0, then when 5.0 is released, "upgrade" to Forum-only 5.0?

He said it plain-as-day. Yes, it's possible.