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| Frequently Asked Questions |
Choice of Software
What software version should I choose - Discus Freeware or Discus Professional?
Choose Discus Freeware if you need simple message board capabilities. This free product provides basic framework to post, search, and receive e-mail notification. It also includes an extensive tool set for administrators to manage discussion.
Choose Discus Professional if you need a powerful discussion system at an affordable price for your website or in an enterprise environment. Discus Professional provides enhanced security features, user account management, and attachment uploading. Expanded administration tools can automate most content management tasks. Discus Professional is an excellent tool for customer-facing websites, to build online communities, or for enterprise and educational collaboration.
Can I upgrade from previous versions of Discus to new ones?
Yes! When upgrading from earlier versions of Discus, you get to keep all of the topics, users, and messages that you've built in your older version.
DiscusWare is proud of our track record of maintaining backward compatibility. An upgrade path exists to upgrade the very earliest version of Discus to the current version of Discus without losing topics, messages, or users. We offer professional upgrade services if you'd like us to do the work for you.
Can I upgrade from Discus Freeware to Discus Professional?
Yes! You can upgrade from a lower tier of the Discus software to a higher tier. When you do so, the overall appearance of your discussion board will remain the same (although more features will be added). You also get to keep all messages, topics, and users that you had previously created. We offer professional upgrade services if you'd like us to do the work for you.
Installation
What do I need in order to install Discus?
In order to install any DiscusWare product, you'll need a web server that meets the system requirements. Most web hosting plans and corporate server environments meet these requirements.
For the installation onto a remote server, you'll also need an FTP program (such as WS_FTP or Cute FTP) to transfer the Discus files from your computer to your server. Chances are that you already have this software; if not you can download it for free.
How easy is it to install Discus?
Great effort has been focused on making the installation procedure as simple as possible. In contrast to most web applications of its kind, installing Discus does not require you to manually edit script or configuration files. Rather, you will configure your board through a web-based interface that makes highly accurate suggestions, and then you will upload or install from the command line with instructions that are customized for your web server.
Where can I find the installation instructions?
Installation and upgrade instructions for all currently available versions of Discus Freeware and Discus Professional are found in the Documentation section of the DiscusWare Support Site.
Will you install Discus Professional for me?
DiscusWare offers installation services for Discus Professional, where we will install the software for you onto your server. This service is a flat rate fee of $79.95, and it comes with a money-back guarantee that if we are not successful, you do not have to pay. We also offer professional upgrade services if you'd like us to upgrade an existing Discus board to a newer version.
Licensing
How many licenses do I need to purchase?
Each installation of Discus will require its own license. For Discus Professional, this means that if you are going to be installing more than one copy of the software (whether the same server or different servers), you will need to purchase multiple licenses. There are volume discounts available for multiple purchases.
What limitations are there on the number of page views and users?
None of our products impose an arbitrary limitation on the number of page views, users, messages, or anything else. The answer to this question goes therefore to the technical capabilities of your web server, in terms of bandwidth and disk space. There are known implementations of DiscusWare discussion boards with over 1,000,000 posts.
Can I use Discus Freeware on a commercial site?
Yes, you can. Experience has shown, however, that commercial sites benefit greatly from the features of Discus Professional. Customers who have built a successful discussion community based on Discus Freeware are naturally encouraged to look into which features of our commercial software will enhance the experience for their users.
Do I have to display banner ads, the DiscusWare logo, etc.?
No. DiscusWare makes its money from selling software and related services, and does not accept, perform, or profit from any kind of banner advertising. We do not require the display of our logos or any advertising on sites powered by our software. Please note that for legal reasons, you are not permitted to remove or modify any of the copyright notices associated with the software, without written permission from DiscusWare authorizing you to do so.
Does my Discus Professional license allow me to upgrade to new versions?
All Discus Professional licensees are allowed to download any version of Discus Professional that is available at the time of their purchase, and additionally, any new version of Discus Professional that is released within one year of their purchase date. For new versions of Discus Professional that are not provided for free under this one-year policy, DiscusWare presently offers software-only upgrades, at a 50% or more discount over the current list price, or support renewals that include upgrades for an additional year.
Sales
What payment methods do you accept?
Purchasers of Discus Professional most often use their credit cards. DiscusWare accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover cards. You can use your credit card in a secure on-line transaction or fax your credit card order to us. We also accept payment by purchase order, check or money order, and PayPal.
How soon will I get the software after buying it?
If you purchase a Discus Professional license online using your credit card, your license will be issued instantly and you'll receive an e-mail confirmation of your license purchase automatically. Once you've received that confirmation, you can download Discus Professional immediately.
Payments by any other method are processed the same or next business day.
What are the shipping and handling costs?
The software is delivered via Internet download. There is nothing to ship, so there are no shipping and handling costs.
Interface Customization and Integration
Can I customize the interface to integrate Discus into the rest of my site?
Yes. All interfaces of Discus (including the administration interfaces) are generated from templates that can be customized. All user interfaces are generated based on a board "skin" that can be customized or changed at any time. Peruse the Discus example site list to see many examples of customizations, from simple to complex, that our customers have implemented based on the Discus architecture.
Can I translate Discus into another language?
Translations for Discus already exist for 15 non-English languages. These languages are: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. All wording in the user interface is broken out into "language configuration files" allowing you to translate the entire interface by modifying a small number of text files.
Support
What support choices do you offer?
DiscusWare offers free technical support via e-mail for Discus Professional for one year from the purchase date. This free e-mail support is guaranteed and carries a maximum response time of two business days. Support for Discus Freeware, and for Discus Professional beyond this one-year timeframe, is provided in a "best effort" basis via our support forum.
When your one year of technical support expires, you can renew your technical support. The current renewal rate is $99.95 per year, and includes not only the technical support, but also free access to any new versions of Discus Professional that become available during this period.
We also offer a number of advanced services on both a per-incident and contract basis. These advanced services are fee-based, guaranteed support services, and include telephone support, conference calls, on-site visits, and a dedicated technical account manager. For more information, visit the services section of our website.
Do you offer telephone support?
Our standard support is via e-mail. Telephone support (on a pre-arranged basis) can be provided via our consulting & custom programming services. Please review our service offerings for details.
What happens when my version of Discus gets out-of-date?
We believe that it is to your benefit to upgrade your version of Discus to the currently available version, or take advantage of our professional upgrade service to help you achieve this. If you must continue running an old version of Discus, please contact DiscusWare for support contract options.
Discus Versus Competitors
What are the advantages of Discus over a remotely hosted service?
Remotely hosted board services store your valuable data on their servers, forcing you to trust someone else to keep your data safe and to respect your privacy. Since you are purchasing a service rather than a software product, you also generally need to pay monthly or other recurring fees to your board host. Some of these services also "share" your member lists with their marketing "partners" or claim that they own all the data created with your board. And, of course, having your board up and running assumes that your board hosting service stays in business; your board is gone if they go under.
Discus installs onto your existing web server, and all of the data associated with your board is stored on your own server under your own control. This way, you know that only you and authorized individuals will see your data, and you can proactively keep your data safe. Also, when hosting a board yourself, you do not risk temporary or permanent service interruptions from your board host. Best of all, you purchase a license to use the software indefinitely, meaning that you pay for your license up-front and you do not owe recurring monthly or annual fees.
What are the advantages of Discus over other similar software?
DiscusWare's discussion products offer fast-loading user interfaces that are attractive and feature-rich yet not overwhelming. Discus boards have proven stable on over 100,000 customer sites and will run under nearly any web server configuration. The administrative tools and organizational abilities (especially the ability to organize your content into subtopics with multiple levels) is another major advantage of Discus, the importance of which will become even more evident as the amount of content on your discussion system grows. Finally, we are proud of our excellent security record; while many of our competitors have had to issue urgent security patches and/or watch their customers' sites be defaced by hackers, there has not been a single reported incident of an installation of Discus being exploited to allow unauthorized access to a customer's server.
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