Personally, I think its a fine idea. Without these peepz who create these cool addons/hacks for vb, software would be kinda boring.

As a non-coder I really see no reason for members like myself to have access. Give them their privacy, hell might even have them coding more..

amykhar: I respect your opinion. Disagreement is a healthy thing, I think.

My point is that, as a professional developer, I might just be able to contribute to "the site", and to a coder's subforum in particular, in a positive, beneficial way, regardless of whether I release plugins or not. Who knows? Reading and discussing ongoing projects with other PHP programmers might tempt me to collaborate, or share similars mods of my own with other coders. In fact, I'd be much more willing to share my work among other skilled programmers, than I would be to release a plugin to the public. I commend you for taking on that burden, and if you want a reward for that beyond the satisfaction of a job well done: PM me your address, I'll send you a cookie.

If I simply wanted to benefit from your work, I can do that already, can I not? So that, to me, is a non-argument.

Thomas, programming is your profession. You do as a means to live. You understand what it takes to support your work. You understand that you have to support the work you release.
Most of the hack coders are are hobbiest, there are exceptions and this isn't meant to slight them. They think that having the coder tag makes them larger than life. Some of them have egos as big as Mount Everest and some are arrogant enough to say I won't support this hack if you can't understand how to install it. They don't know what it is like to develope and support an enterprise peice of software where you have to hand hold the majority of people who buy and use the product.
The coder forum gives them validation.
As far as all the argueing about it being private. Why does anyone care? It isn't going to get you a job programming. It doesn't make you a coder. After all you are only hacking forum software and that isn't something you can put on your resume.
There are a few professional programmers that visit here that have never released a hack for one reason or another. My reason is the same as yours. I wouldn't have time to support it in the way it should be supported.
Let them have the private forum. I doubt it would be benificial to the real programmers anyway.

Yes, I'm a professional developer. However, I don't take quite the same antagonistic stance on this issue as you do. I've downloaded/installed some of these plugins, looked at the code, and wanted to ask a few questions as to why this was hard-coded, instead of phrased, etc. I'm not as familiar with the underlying vBulletin code as many here. I've implemented a few things on my own, but wanted to discuss optimization; I've looked at some of the PHP code and wanted to know where certain variables got their default vaules... you know, CODING DISCUSSIONS.

I've found vBulletin.org to be distinctly lacking in those kinds of discussions, and have often wondered why there wasn't an active coders section. Now I know why: there is, but because I haven't contributed a dubious hack/plugin, I'm barred from participation. That, in my opinion, is an awfully close-minded and ultimately self-defeating decision.

I may not be the paragon of programming, so banning my participation might not be such a big loss to the community. However several other very expernienced programmers and vbulletin programmer/operators are similarly disqualified. What a shame.

Perhaps you should try the "PHP / MySQL / JS / (X)HTML" forum then, that is a general purpose coding forum for everyone, the purpose of the coders forum is for coders who have contributed to this site to speak to each other, away from the distractions of the main forums. :)

It's not like you cannot gain access, all you have to do is create and release your own hacks and eventually you will gain your right to access that area.

I'm afraid you misunderstand me. I can see that forum. In fact, I moderate similarly broad forums on www.daniweb.com, one of the foremost, most succesful forums and, btw, vbulletin implementations. (I find it ironic that Dani herself, a phenomenal PHP programmer and vBulletin coder, couldn't see the coder forum if she came here). I don't seek PHP/MySQL/JS/XHTML help. I seek discussions about authoring vbulletin plugins and modifications, and I wish to have those discussions with experienced PHP/vbulletin programmers.

One would think vbulletin.org would be the perfect place for such discussions, but apparently the mission statement has changed?

If the purpose of vbulletin.org, however, is for plugin coders to dole out their plugins while they cloister together in a private little insular group, marginalizing everyone else, then I really don't see any reason to stay and participate. In fact, my participation is apparently NOT WANTED.

Forum admin: please terminate/ban my account.

and there is nothing stopping you doing that in the many forums already used for that here. Still, feel free to spit out your dummy, and please remember to close the door on your way out. :cross-eyed:

Thank you for re-affirming and validating my decision. If you represent the typical "Master Coder", in terms of quality of discussion, then I'm certainly not missing much.

Looks like some people's egos are getting bruised.

If the forum name was "Code Contributors" and it was private, would you still be complaining?