[DONE] Paid hacks versus free hacks

[filburt1]

Can somebody reiterate vB.org's policy on releasing pay-only hacks? :)

[Erwin]

Not allowed.

[filburt1]

Okay, thanks. :)

[Sebastian]

Originally posted by Erwin
Not allowed.

thank god. if someone wants to advertise/sell their hacks they can use hotscripts :p

technically, the way i see it is hacks aren't really free, since you do have to own a vb .. free would mean people that didn't own a vb ;)

[Xenon]

:)

whenever you see such a hack where you have to pay for, you know the use of the report button ;)

[assassingod]

Would it be possible to why it's not allowed?

(Not that I want to sell anything but I am confused by the matter)

[Xenon]

well we are the halfofficial hacking site of vbulletin.
we're on jelsofts servers and getting the support from them to see who's licensed and so on.

as an result of this, we provide help to all licensed user, and are not a platform for advertising anything, and paid hack belong to that category.

[Boofo]

When we start allowing paid hacks, the free hacks will probably cease to exist, I'm afraid. Whether it be in another separate forum or not. As soon as one member who write a hack sees that others are getting paid for theirs, most of us are going to have to start writing our own hacks if we want them. I for one will NEVER buy a hack from anyone. Paid hacks take all of the fun out of learning vBulletin hacking. And the sad thing is, a lot of the hack writers that are in favor of selling their hacks, learned most of their hacking right here at vb.org for free. Learn for free but make others pay? Not my idea of a "community".

[Dean C]

When we start allowing paid hacks, the free hacks will probably cease to exist, I'm afraid. Whether it be in another separate forum or not. As soon as one member who write a hack sees that others are getting paid for theirs, most of us are going to have to start writing our own hacks if we want them. I for one will NEVER buy a hack from anyone. Paid hacks take all of the fun out of learning vBulletin hacking. And the sad thing is, a lot of the hack writers that are in favor of selling their hacks, learned most of their hacking right here at vb.org for free. Learn for free but make others pay? Not my idea of a "community".


That's exactly how i feel :)

- miSt

[amykhar]

I don't believe that is true. What typically happens when somebody releases a paid hack is that somebody else rushes to create a very similar hack for free because they want the popularity.

Coding is a skill that deserves to be rewarded. Webmasters have a few choices when it comes to creating a site. They can do all the work themself and use their own ideas and coding abilities. Or they can depend on others to do it for them. When depending on somebody else to come up with ideas or code, then there has to be something in it for the coder or the coder isn't going to want to do it.

In an ideal world, we would share our knowledge and create great sites. Mist would write hacks that I might use, and perhaps Mist would use hacks that I write. (as an example) The problem comes in sites like this when a majority of the users do not contribute to the community but only take. That alone wouldn't be bad if they knew what they were doing when they took hacks.

However, most support questions hackers see once a hack comes out of beta are not bugs. Instead, they are feature addition requests or problems where the user didn't follow directions and installed things incorrectly and then needs help. So, what is in it for the hack writer then? In some cases, it's an ego thing. Bane has a hack that many people use and he can point to that hack with pride.

But some of us are niche programmers. We do little mods that help out specific requests or we write little things that once added to a board have no credit for the hack author. We don't demand our name be left on boards, and we don't have temper tantrums when people remove our tag lines from things we do.

There is a definite place for paid hacks for people who need extremely custom work that they do not know how to do themself. For example, on my board when somebody registers, a script checks to see if the member writes for Epinions.com. If he does, he is put in one usergroup. If he doesn't, he's put in another. Nobody else in the world would probably want that script and if I couldn't write it myself I should be willing to pay to have it done.

To me, it would seem that Jelsoft would want a comprehensive directory of services available to people who buy vbulletin. While I can understand them not wanting people advertising competing installation services, I wouldn't think they would get upset about a sig line that discretely announces that the member is willing to do custom work.

Amy

[Xenon]

Well we will create a subforum where someone can post custom request for buttons, codes, installations what not.
so whoever wants to earn money could contact the threadstarters there and perfect.

In my eyes, it's a good compromis.

[Dean C]

I don't think that coding should be allowed to be sold here. Like boofo said it takes the focus of free hacks because people will try and sell them. Button sets, installations of vbulletin's (not hacks) and styles etc will be ok IMO

- miSt

[amykhar]

Why are the talents of graphics people more valuable than coders?

[Xenon]

Let me say that claer once and forever:

nobody is allowed to sell anything here, people will just be allowed to REQUEST paid work.

[Boofo]

True, Amy. Selling is selling, whether it's graphics or hacks. But I don't agree on the selling of hacks or services here. The main reason I ever got involved with vBulletin, was because of all of the different hacks and people involved here at vb.org. This used to be a great community once. People would actually help one another and not make each other fell stupid for not knowing something. There are too many hackers here who have the "God" complex and think they don't need to be bothered with questions or support. They've learned, now they can move on.

Can't have it both ways, Mist. Selling buttons is no better than selling hacks. You get free hacks from here but expect people to buy your buttons or graphics work? Is that how you pay back all that you've learned and gained from here? Not good. ;)

Xenon, to request paid work there must be someone willing to sell their services. Can't have one without the other. ;) Don't worry, this is my last message on the subject. It doesn't do any good anyway. The new generation is all about the money now. Just consider it an old man's ranting. ;)

[insanctus]

I would never pay for a hack.

I look at all the hacks on here and have installed some of them.

From the installing of the free hacks that so many are willing to share I have learned some more then I knew before.

One day I may even be able to make my own hack. If that happens I would submit it to give back to a community that has so willingly and freely gave to me.

Graphics I can understand charging for it is not vb based as a hack is. The styles could be for any board or site, they do not use vb code they are an art.

Coding a hack in my opinion is just running off of what vBulletin started.

Besides as someone already stated if someone did try to sell a hack someone else would make one just the same if not better for free.

From what I have seen in this community there are more who are strong and support it then there are who wish to be greedy.

Just my 2 cents… possibly 3.

[filburt1]

People buy addons for software all the time. You buy software for Windows and that powers much of the software. You can even buy addons for addons, like plugins for Photoshop which runs on Windows.

[Erwin]

No one is stopping anybody from releasing paid hacks.

You just can't advertise/ post about them/ release them/ promote them here on vB.org. :) Do it elsewhere.

[Boofo]

Originally posted by filburt1
People buy addons for software all the time. You buy software for Windows and that powers much of the software. You can even buy addons for addons, like plugins for Photoshop which runs on Windows.

But how many of those programmers did you learn some of the coding that you are trying to sell? Like it was said before, selling vbulletin hacks is almost the same as selling some of vbulletin code itself. All hacks use some form of the code from vbulletin to work, right? ;)

That's it, I'm done. Sorry to jump in.

[Dean C]

Well i don't mind not selling buttons here now because i've delved into full-blown designing which is more pay. But basically requesting coding i don't think should be allowed. That will take the emphasis away from the hacking community. This is not a graphics community so it won't take the emphasis of the hacks released here for free :)

- miSt

[Xyphen]

I agree with Boofo totally.

[filburt1]

I did, too...three months ago.

[PixelFx]

personally I'm happy that vb.org is free it's been a great learning experience. As for our personal sites, the internet is so big that sharing custom hacks with the community that helped us learn to make the hacks in the first place only makes sence.

buying big systems like, photopost, vbulletin, other, helps support the developers that make their bread and butter from the core scripts so I can see buying multiple licences for that.

But for addons less it's massive I think it's cool for those that share and help us learn how the scripts work for free.... what goes around comes around :)

I think for our personal sites if we want to charge for web design, skins, templates, graphics design it's all good. But vb.org is very much a educational site so to speak, as long as people have proper licences :P