You know, it doesn't bother me a whole lot that they took the "About Vanilla" thing off the page. I'm sure that happens all the time with Vanilla since it's just so easy to dismantle. But if they changed it to just say something like "powered by Vanilla", that would be nice.
Yeah, I mean there using something that some one (mark!) put a lot of hard work into, they probably want it to look more professional and more like they made it themselves! See it would annoy me, does it not annoy you in the slightest Mark?
To be fair, I think that when you're releasing open source software meant for the masses you'll eventually learn or have to accept that people who are using your project will rewrite, add and destroy things every way imaginable. Does hiding the fact that the forum is running Vanilla matter? Probably not unless the person attempting to lay a claim that they wrote the entire under-belly in an effort to cash in on someone elses hard work which was free to begin with (think back to cherryOS). That's worse.
The option exists regardless, most can tell you what forum software is running just by looking at it or by it's enabled features. In some regard, hiding this information is useful to prevent attacks (think of hiding apaches signature strings). Because if you don't know what version or brand of software is running, executing an attack would require a little more effort. Hiding the fact that it's Vanilla or which version doesn't really damage much, it only leaves people in the dark who are curious about which forum software it is.
The only thing that really bugs me about it is that I'm losing clicks when people remove that stuff. This software is only successful if people hear about it. It is all word-of-mouth advertising. So when people use it and remove those links, they're making the project fail.
Not all people want the Vanilla 1 promo in their sidebar, but I do think they should at least put a link somewhere (in the footer for example). A "powered by" would be cool with a nice small Lussumo leaf-icon ^^
I to find that long text bothering me so I changed it to powered by vanilla first day. It is still linkback and it clearly states that forum software is vanilla powered. Also I hate when people take those powered off but most of times I find default text too long or inapropriate and the main reason .... hackers ! btw ... my forum is at http://www.eliminateme.com
...again with no mentioning of Vanilla. I think Mark is very pragmatic and reasonable about this in not getting too upset. But a "powered by Vanilla" text line is a courtesy one could demand.
Comments
See it would annoy me, does it not annoy you in the slightest Mark?
The only thing that really bugs me about it is that I'm losing clicks when people remove that stuff. This software is only successful if people hear about it. It is all word-of-mouth advertising. So when people use it and remove those links, they're making the project fail.
Anyway its all done now! Go take a look.
Alex