If this does get built, then we could probably allow people to use custom themes to design their site. As for branding, there will be no TavernBB branding on any forum. All forums will carry their own branding.
Also, it would be available only as hosted. If there is demand for a self-hosted version then maybe it'll happen.
I don't like this trend. A modern self-hosted forum is badly needed. We've moved away from the time when any self-hosted web software had to be written in PHP now that many turnkey web hosts support Ruby and Python (and VPS hosting is cheaper), but the software hasn't caught up yet.
I tend to disagree. A lot of shared hosting providers still support only PHP. The ratio of providers who support Ruby to those who support PHP is staggeringly small. So, practically the only way to self-host something not written in PHP is to go for a VPS.
While a VPS is quite cheap these days, the skillset needed to operate a VPS is quite different from that needed to install vBulletin on a shared host. This is why I wish to keep this as a fully hosted offering.
The "ratio of providers supporting Ruby to those who support PHP" is quite irrelevant: just pick one of the providers who do support Ruby. There are enough of them.
No, it seems more like you (as the software author) only prefer shared hosting because that would allow you to retain control and make profit.
Also, from your slides: "security comes standard", "Builtin protection against CSRF, XSS, SQL Injection and a multitude of other attacks" -- what?! If the source isn't available, how can one be sure? And do you think the developers of the existing forum solutions wanted to make the mistakes that lead to their software being vulnerable?
