I've just thought - if you'd like to help someone for free... why not contact them yourself saying you'll do it for free ;)

- miSt

Did that.

Well I guess this system will work, but most people wouldn't do it for free. Maybe only simple things which people can manage? Or they'd just ask for support if it was said to be simple? *Shrugs*

That's the problem now, most people wouldn't do it for free. Whatever happened to all of that? It was a lot more fun back when people were helping people and not worried about their pocketbooks.

If someone wants to pay for professional work, they should have a place to do so. If people want to do it for free, by all means contact the person. :) But a lot of times (not always) you pay for what you get. :)

I don't believe you have to pay to get good support OR coding. Just because it is free doesn't mean it is below standards. I would much rather have a hack by Logician (who has done all of his hacks for free) than one done by anyone else for pay.

Oh, believe me, code from Logician is gold. :)

We just want a forum for paid requests - they were unregulated, and people were replying with ads - at least now it's all regulated. :)

it's great to have FREE hacks and support here which obviously prospers the vbulletin community but having paid coding or support can be a plus for the community either.

For one thing it encourages developers to create "large" projects for vbulletin. Except hivemail (which is not yet fully integrated to vb, but I'm sure it will very soon) and sidelinks (still developing I guess) there is no "big" projects written for vbulletin. These kind of projects which require "months" to develop and maybe years to bring to perfection can not be expected to be provided for free. If it is, then just noone codes one. So paid projects are not always "evil", they also contribute to the community to a great extent.

Besides different board owners have different needs. There are very large and professional vb boards around and their owners needs professional modifications, 24/7 email support, custom and dedicated hacks, large projects etc. from a "professional" and may not depend on "free hacks" here which might be buggy, author takes no responsibility for it, may or may not solve problems, even sometimes ignores questions etc. I believe vbulletin community should not turn down these people with such professional needs so I personally support "Service Requests" forum.

I agree that +d-cipher's post was an exception. His solution was just 1 line, but still he was asking for a "paid help" as he didnt know it. Well I couldn't help myself to provide him with the free solution just like you did, but still I believe that even if his solution is just one line, there is a chance that he would still look for a professional help from someone as that very 1 line might take his board down, creates bugs etc. if it is provided from an "amateur". He might have no tolerance for even 3 minutes of downtime. This is why I encouraged other people to still contact him in my post and this is why I'm still pondering whether I should or should not reply to that thread. I guess I should have helped via PM even if my help was free..

On that one point, I do agree about paid hacks. Hacks that are large and take a lot of time to accomplish and do something major to vbulletin, I could see paying for (if the payment was a modest one and not a rip-off). But there will also be those that write a hack that will charge for them even though it really doesn't do very much and then we have let loose the proverbial cash monster. As soon as someone sees that there are people willing to pay for hacks, I'm afraid the free hack days will be a thing of the past for most hackers. What I miss is the sharing and learning from one another that used to go on here. It's no where near what it used to be and it is getting less day by day. It seems like there are a lot of hackers that have used vb.org to learn what they need and want to and then they move on. Whatever happened to giving back for what others have taught you? That's what I am talking about. Any more it seems that the same people are answering the questions when the questions do get answered. There are a very few (like you Sinan) and a couple of others here that still seem to care enough to take the time and still teach a few things. For that I thank you. ;)

This generation is more hungry for cash I guess. :p