[hambil]

Why is it that the second someone thinks they can make 2 cents from some mod they IonCube the crap out of it?

I have nothing against protecting your source, or IonCube, or making 2 cents. BUT:

If your product can suddenly no longer be extended, modified, enhanced, etc, by anyone but you it WILL fail horribly and not make a penny.

Imagine a vbAdvanced where nobody could make their own modules. Imagine a vbSEO where you couldn't make custom rewrite rules.

I recently tried a certain store, which shall go unnamed, where you couldn't add your own itemtypes, or modify existing ones (the scant few that existed) in anyway. If it didn't do exactly what you wanted, tough cookies.

Epic fail. A lot of someone's hard work down the drain.

Get a clue fellow developers.

[lasto]

if its ioncube i just stay away from it.So the developer has lost one sale.
I do understand why they do it but if people need to change things so the app fits into their board then its impossible if its been protected with iOncube.

Die iOncube die

any encrypter is stupid... if someone was able to code a product with vBulletin, anybody can try to do it... so if the idea is encrypted, someone else can release a non-encrypted version... so why encrypt at first... to avoid piracy... let me laugh, pirates/nullifiers love encrypted scripts, that's why they pirate, they want to break it... you feed them.

[ragtek]

Originally Posted by hambil

Imagine a vbAdvanced where nobody could make their own modules. Imagine a vbSEO where you couldn't make custom rewrite rules.

that's not realy true
if they provide a nice api you could make modules
also vbseo WAS encrypted and you was able to make custom rules

but,yes i'm also against it, you never know what the product realy do....
just my 2 cents

actually, vbSEO was encrypted and they decided to switch because it was pointless, a nulled version was released some days after the official, so they were loosing time encrypting. they continue to have a verification engine without encrypting the essential of the script, and everybody is happy.

also you were able to write new rules because these rules were .htaccess rules, nothing more.

[Princeton]

Originally Posted by nexialys

actually, vbSEO was encrypted and they decided to switch because it was pointless, a nulled version was released some days after the official, so they were loosing time encrypting. they continue to have a verification engine without encrypting the essential of the script, and everybody is happy.

also you were able to write new rules because these rules were .htaccess rules, nothing more.

it wasn't "pointless" - I'm sure they always planned to release an unencrypted version.

encrypting just gave them time to run tests so that they didn't have to worry about piracy, competition, etc ... it was a smart move


encrypting code is done for a variety of reasons - it surely doesn't mean "Epic fail" for the developer (eg. vbseo)

[hambil]

Originally Posted by Princeton

it wasn't "pointless" - I'm sure they always planned to release an unencrypted version.

encrypting just gave them time to run tests so that they didn't have to worry about piracy, competition, etc ... it was a smart move


encrypting code is done for a variety of reasons - it surely doesn't mean "Epic fail" for the developer (eg. vbseo)

I stated I have nothing against encrypting. I will probably use it someday. But use it to protect your core product, not to make your product un-extensible. I would never encrypt Egg Avatar - it's not worth it. But the kind of bad encryption I'm referring to would be encrypting egg avatar so only I could add new eggs.

[smacklan]

Originally Posted by hambil

I recently tried a certain store, which shall go unnamed, where you couldn't add your own itemtypes, or modify existing ones (the scant few that existed) in anyway. If it didn't do exactly what you wanted, tough cookies.

I'm pretty sure I know the product you are referring to and I agree, they are shooting themselves in the foot with their approach...I quit using it too for the very same reasons!

[Brandon Sheley]

It's funny how you guys "speculate" why vbseo was using ioncube
I'm 100% sure it wasn't this..

I'm sure they always planned to release an unencrypted version.

I seem to remember reading it was more for performance at the time, things have changed since then, improvements have been made.


I agree the encrypting mods is really really bad, I've been talking on the phone with a client that last few weeks that's spent 100's$ on vbcube, or vbharrold, I don't remember the name.. some POS mod that the only has encrypted, and my client has a custom site, so he wants to customize the mods.. well guess what, he can't!

anyways.. I owned vbseo when it was encrypted, and it DIDN'T limit me to anything, eg rewrite rules, custom pages. I had all the function that the current "un-encrypted" version has, short of the new updates since those days..

[puertoblack2003]

me personality won't buy any ioncube products...for my board.I eventually find it somewhere else.

[hambil]

A couple of points:

1) I said image a vbSEO where you couldn't make your own re-write rules. I was saying that is what over-encrypting does - I was not saying that's what vbSEO did.

2) The product in question is free, an moderately useful as a free mod. But the inability to extend it in anyway is a big draw back. In fact, the encrypted addon item type I had (am having) trouble with is also free. Not really sure what the plan there is...

hum, as the internal policy here is to not discuss external products, i would suggest to keep it to the level of "yes/no encryption"... ?!

personally, if a tool require that you install something more than the default requirements of the engine, we have a problem... most of the newbies will not be able to install such engine without the help of some support staff, they would even have to hire the coder to be sure everything is fine.

... i think that most of the time, if you check properly, the places where they release encrypted scripts also offer installation at a high rate, even if it takes 20 seconds to install ioncube or something else... that is where they do their profit.

[kevcj]

I bought a script that was encrypted with ion cube. It ran good for about 18 months. Then the developer disappeared and the script stopped working. The error msg said something like - "You are no authorized to use this program" - but I had bought the program. It was only the support that I had to buy extra.

So I had to remove that script and buy another one.

I can understand someone wanting to protect their property. But, I had paid for that product and lost use of it when the developer disappeared.

I seriously doubt I will ever buy another product that uses ion cube. I felt ripped off. The product had been paid for, but stopped working because of something? Bah. To me, that is like your car company taking the car back after its paid for. Or the car company taking the motor out of your car after its been paid off.

[puertoblack2003]

Originally Posted by kevcj

I bought a script that was encrypted with ion cube. It ran good for about 18 months. Then the developer disappeared and the script stopped working. The error msg said something like - "You are no authorized to use this program" - but I had bought the program. It was only the support that I had to buy extra.

So I had to remove that script and buy another one.

I can understand someone wanting to protect their property. But, I had paid for that product and lost use of it when the developer disappeared.

I seriously doubt I will ever buy another product that uses ion cube. I felt ripped off. The product had been paid for, but stopped working because of something? Bah. To me, that is like your car company taking the car back after its paid for. Or the car company taking the motor out of your car after its been paid off.

yep, that is the reason why i don't buy anything with ioncubed.....after buying it and using it and then it stopped working....

[unenergizer]

IonCube FTW!

This encrypting has it's benefits and it has it's downfalls like every other software available. However it is entirely up to the software developer to use the tools in an appropriate fashion. Every comment has been so biased it's not even funny. Consider that IonCube has potentially saved developers millions, yes I said millions, in revenue. The soul developer of a particular project utilizing IonCube is to blame for any grievances between the customers/users using it (the project).

IMOP