This is the question we are being asked too often. If you are looking for a quick answer, here it is: Please don’t remove Oxwall reference from your site. We wouldn’t like you to do it even if you offer money.
Now, some background. From the very start we thought it was important to be really ‘open source’. What does it mean and how is it different?
The problem is the term is severely abused. You can see a lot of companies (including social software) putting ‘open source’ tag on their work but actually using it as a marketing ploy. Some of them go as low as encrypting/obfuscating source code to prevent easy removal of references and selling “licenses” to remove those extended backlinks, clearly created to annoy site owners.
And the “business model” seems to work. A lot of people think they need to make an impression that they build their websites themselves. C’mon guys, if governments use open source software for their websites, do you think it’s a shame to acknowledge you do the same practical and honorable thing? I can smell the anti-competition rationale here but people should understand that software has nothing to do with the ability to run communities. There must be a reason why Facebook still haven’t been eaten by “competition”?
People falling for this meme enable pseudo-opensource companies do what they do. However we believe this is not what open source stands for and not how it should make money to support development.
It is not accidental that we use CPAL license. It’s less restrictive than GPL, for example, because it doesn’t make you release any derivative works under the same license. With CPAL you can keep your version closed, include it in larger works, sell your own distributions, fork and relicense, whatever.
We don’t want to restrict your benefits from our work, nor do we want to impose hidden costs on you via marketing tricks. It’s just that we give you results of our hard work for multiple years in exchange for you helping us spread the word.
Oxwall reference is small, unobtrusive and designed to not make you want to remove it. It is one of a few ways to promote free software. If you got a lot from Oxwall and feel like giving back, please help us with that.
Although we reserve the right to let somebody rightfully remove the required reference, the reasoning shouldn’t sound like “hi, I want to remove your link because… I don’t like it there”.
Thanks for creating with us!
Emil
Oxwall team
I believe the logo is really at the perfect spot and doesn’t pose any problems. There’s just got to be a way to say ‘Thank You’ to the Oxwall team.
You guys are doing a great job.
That’s right people, get with it and support Oxwall by spreading the word, not hiding it.
Good going Oxwall…
Emil,
I found very few generous people like you 🙂
@ start I also felt to remove it but then realised that overall worth it and I changed my mind and feeling proud & happy to have it.
salutes to you & your philosophy.
Idea.
You give us free software and people want to remove your “credit”! Not cool!
The ONLY time I can see it being a desire to remove is if you are having a successful site in a competitive market and don’t want the opposition to copy. Other than that give credit where due!
Well done Oxwall, great product, great ethos!
Please don’t remove! Lets proud of Oxwall!
My thought is that I’d like to remove it in the early stages while I am building my community to thwart competition.
Once the community is established and on it’s feet, I have no problem adding it back in.
This is actually more beneficial IMHO for one it lets me concentrate on building my community instead of spending time worrying about someone else moving in using the same system, When the community is built and I activate the link Oxwall will get more exposure in an established community, hopefully.
That’s exactly what I described as ungrounded anti-competitive fears. It takes years of building and maintaining real community to understand that software is only start and real commitment can’t be “cloned”. If you are good at establishing your community people will not run to someone who installs the same piece of software.
Software is overrated. It should be “invisible” to users. Community building strategy is often mistakenly an afterthought. You should first be able to make people want to stay with you for some good reason and then choose software that suits your needs.
hi how i get polls plugin free that i think it is cool .thanks
I also agree with this post!
I can readily credited to this CMS coz I use it
totally free and I have so many advantages!
What kind of people are willing to remove that
spot!?Shame
Thanyawzinmin
why remove it
it is very small at all
thanl you OXwall Team
Why would one want to remove the “Powered by oxwall” button!! It is perfect where it is….
Love your policy I’m happy to find a real OPEN SOURCE social networking software!
Thank you for your software i will contribute what i can, and keep up the good work!
I would just say…it is thousand of people which use a commercial software without a validation as well without brand…-i do not need too!-why ?
I give a big hope for this project and will join as well a developers team because i would say : Importance of project do not hide under a brandname ,but stay under a work which people had put on it ….all best to creators and new users-Let’s make something for all!
Hell, I wouldn’t want to remove it even if I could! I am proud to use Oxwall software and have the badge there – it’s unobtrusive anyway!
I’ve recommended Oxwall to countless people and will continue to do so!
If you’re so Open Source why not give people the choice whether to remove it or not? Why force them to keep any design element on it if it’s true intentions is to keep the Open Source spirit alive?
We keep the Open Source spirit alive by actually producing real open source software in Oxwall. You can take it, do whatever you want with it, and even sell it. The “Powered by Oxwall” attribution is the only thing we chose to ask in return, because we want others to find out about the software and enjoy it too. That is all; we don’t even ask you to reveal the source code of your mods (the difference between CPAL and GPL). As mentioned in the above post, the difference between real and pseudo open source lies in stuff like hidden costs or obfuscated source codes, etc. – something we would never do to our users. Thank you.
I am happy to keep the image link after all you are giving us free software that is fantastic, what I don’t like howerver Is the additional three links we get. Can these be removed?
If you refer to ‘Social software | Create social network | Social networking software’ panel at the bottom of the page, it is there to show that users can place their own links in this area. You can remove them at your convenience.
How do you remove or edit those links? I read somewhere that removing the links will also remove the “Powered by Oxwall”?
If you ask me I’d say those links are the ones getting in the way of the “Powered by Oxwall” at the very first glance for most webmasters and make them fell like removing even the “Powered by Oxwall” itself. Personally, I had to go and read the full text of CPAL 1.0 because I couldn’t believe that license will mandate as much attribution links as those.
I think this need to be cleared, imagine what I search for was how to remove those footer link not the “Powered by Oxwall” but all the search result only made reference to the “Powered by Oxwall”
Said links are just an example of the footer menu. You can remove them in Admin/Pages & Menus.
Ok thanks
i want to remove the oxwall logo on the footer can someone help me and tell me that i used oxwall full as a website without any copyright problem please tell me the answer
The quick answer is you can’t.
hey bro i want to develop a social website can i use oxwall . reply soon.
Absolutely. Check our forum if you need more help.
hey bro can you tell me how can i configure mail setting to direct to my mail server.
As far as I know, you don’t need to configure it, if you have native mail server. Otherwise, I think this FAQ from Wall.fm can be of help.
hello bro can you tell me how can i configure that setting that user can select themes as he like or which theme he like,is that possible in oxwall please help please please bro
Only Admins can select themes.
hey can you tell me how much users can maintain oxwall.
This really depends on your server power, not out software. The software itself is pretty light, but your plugin options can add to the consumption. Generally, lags depend on the number of active online users at the same time. But even then with good server configuration you can have hundreds of members interacting at the same time.
hey bro i want to launch a social networking website , and i want to buy a new domain name. i want to know that in the future if my website became successful so no copyright clam on me from you or developer of oxwall .and can i modify oxwall as i want to modify . please help me.i am waiting for your reply,or mail me on my mail adress- gtwnts@gmail.com .thanks for give us software like oxwall,
The site is yours and yours only. In return we ask to keep the ‘Powered by Oxwall” at the bottom of the page.
sir please reply me i am waiting for your reply …
Unfortunately it is not up to me. The foundation’s policy is outlined in the above post – the sign must remain at the bottom of the page.
sir can you tell me that how can i edit meta tags in oxwall.
You can do it here – Admin -> Settings -> Main Settings -> Page settings.
not working sir can you tell me how can i add meta tag and meta description in oxwall.
That’s strange. Well, then try reporting it in our forum.
really good open source cms … freely available and many features it’s have
Hi,
Is there any chance to remove the link in powered by oxwall bcoz my friends started implemeting the same thing using the link mentioned. I just want to keep the logo as it is but would like to remove the link assigned to the image. Can anyone help me out?
The logo and the link have to stay, the color can change in tune with the overall theme.
Removing Oxwall ., interesting this solution can do with in 9 sec.
before do it ask self again wanted to delete or want to know where place that code stay in which page ./ sure if you knew its you will never think to erase that words why ? because when i see in that page oh ..!! god .! how do they do its perfect coding i said ” must learn that method code.”
you just turn abit idiea change position of Power by oxwall to other act . on top on ? ^_^ or on page about us and said thank you power by Oxwall better than erase.
thank you.
say
Welcome.
Hi Zima you told that “The logo and the link have to stay, the color can change in tune with the overall theme.”
How can I change color of powered by oxwall and wall.fm with the overall theme……?
Try this.
Hello! Do you know if they make any plugins
to help with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing
very good results. If you know of any please
share. Appreciate it!
We don’t have immediate plans to improve the current SEO system, but you can look for appropriate plugins at the Store.
Interesting, I am happy about the way you work and think
Proud to use this software
God bless
However, everntually when the website does start to grow, it is a hardcore no nonsense truthism platform, i dont see it as an unwanted interference really, but other might, so i would appreciate it if i would get the permission to eventually pay a small amount to get the button out with permission.
Could you give us a bit more details in the forum?
Thanks to Oxwall team especially to you Zima for the good work, I will like to know if there is a way I can make the footer link mine but keep the Powered by Oxwall. Thanks
Could you elaborate a bit more on that?
I want to change the text and logo of powered by oxwall community software to:
Powered by Oxwall Software
and I want to change to logo to the oxwall logo how do I do that ?
According to our attribution policy you can’t change the text or the image. You can use one of the current attribution links. We are presently developing more options.
You guys rock. God bless and keep up the awesome work
My problem is that the Powered By Oxwall image appears in the Facebook Share box and I want the image for the article to appear as with any other open source application. Please add the option of choosing a share image rather than this being the default.
Better to set up a topic in the forum and include a screenshot.
I agree, keep the “powered by” visible for all to see. The developers should have ALL the credit. Great script, great software. Thanks again guys.
I am a 63 year old, old age pensioner, getting a government grant of $134.00 USD per month, The equivellent of R1,200.00 ZAR. Not much to survive on, no? I am very greatful for the free script guys. Thanks again.
If I had the money it would be Oxwalls many times over. And I too would gladly donate and sport the Powered by Oxwall Link.
I’ve spent years (a decade) looking for the right software, and Oxwalls freeness means I can use it till my hearts content, it isn’t going to be taken away when I can’t afford it.
and I love it, works for me, works for grandchildren, works for all the people in the middle, it’s the best.
when my birthday comes round next, it will be Oxwall, I will be heading for.
Thank you.
Thank you a lot for your CPAL social network for us professional we love this button just if possible have other color it.. Great job at you and for you. Best
can you tell me please how can i add my google adsense and analytic?
There is a plugin just Google Analytics, as for Google Adsense, you can see the info through one of the ads plugins.
I agree to this post, and I fully support open source projects, and have turned many people into open source users. I have caused 2 people to move to Linux so far as their computers operating system, since I had made the switch in November. I think open source is the future of technology. Think about it. Open source projects and products don’t generally bring in much money. At least, not enough to pay for marketing and advertising. So, there is a sort of pressure on them to do well, and to rely on good word of mouth comments to draw in new users.
That being said, I am disappointed by the difficulty in, not removing, but modifying the stamp at the bottom of the Oxwall software. I am proud to be a member of, what I consider, the best social networking software (and it’s open source, too!). However, I am a designer (http://hillcanproductions.com) and the stamp is orange. To me, this is not going to work. I don’t like the style of the image either. I would prefer to have it read (in text) as “Pointy Bracket is powered by Oxwall“… Notice, the target=”_blank”. I don’t want the link to take users away from my site, but at the same time, allow them to be introduced to an amazing open source technology.
In closing, I fully support your project, but can you please inform me of the steps I could take to transform the stamp at the bottom of my site from your image, into a hypertext stamp. Thank you.
P.S. I have tried Dolphin, Elgg and Buddypress, but now I have Oxwall, and that being the case, once I complete the design, Pointy Bracket will be launched, and I am excited about that. So, thank you for all the amazing help you have been.
Thank you for your feedback and support, it is essential to us. Also, you can pick a different color for the stamp, to suit your design better – Oxwall Attribution.