Where are you coming up with these silly rules?:cross-eyed:
(Rhetorical question...)

I honestly think a LOT of these problems will be resolved when/if Wayne gets that professional directory up and running.

Many of the people here creating hacks are quite young (and quite brilliant, apparently)...but young people have school, and other 'interests' that distract from 'supporting' a hack. I don't have any issues with that at all. (in fact, I'm always impressed when I see a coder is 16 or 17...very impressed.)

On the other hand, there are a lot of people who visit this site who are admins (not 'techie' admins, but admins, none-the-less) who are looking for certain board add-ons to enhance their member's site experience.

These types of admins don't care to follow the development of a mod, they don't want to crawl through code, they want to know that it works, and then find someone to install it. (These types of admins fall into two camps: Those who want things for free, and those who have a budget and are willing to pay for assistance.)

A professional directory community would be very helpful to the latter camp, and could prove to be quite lucrative to the experienced coder.

can i add that the install button is great but the idea flawed. IMO you should only click install once the code is up an running. You should not click the install button if you still get errors. I just don't see the sense in that. It's not installed if it has errors...I don't know just seems odd the way people use it.

I, and most of the guys/gals that I know in my position (admin) tend to download the mod/hack first, test it on our local testbeds then if all is hunky dory we will click install! Works for me. I see the 'Install' button system as an ideal way for a: us to keep informed, like when upgrades are available, and b: to aid the coder when supplying/keeping track of support.

Amen! Nothing drives me battier then to relesase a mod, have 12 people click install and say great job and then have somebody come along and point out an error in the install instructions that means nobody could possibly have it working.

Then, people come along and see 'great job' and several installs, assume it's working and try to install it before things are fixed.

I don't count how many 'installs' I have. It's a meaningless number. What I much prefer is to see a mod in action on a user's site. It's much more fun to see mods I create making a difference for somebody.

As far as support goes, I try to help when time permits, but I ignore duplicate questions and problematic users. I had somebody plagiarize a chunk of content off my site once and then have the nerve to get miffed when I wouldn't support her when she broke something. She's been grumping about lack of support ever since and all I can do is shake my head in wonder at some people's nerve.

I think gothicuser has a good point. I've always went about it that clicking the "Install" link meant that I was a satisfied user, regardless of any flaws that may have existed to the mod. I also know too that there are others who'll jump on a mod at first glance, just because it's the in-thing to do, click the Install link without first testing it thoroughly. That's the way it is.

I don't care if it is a rhetorical question. Why on Earth is it silly to expect that people asking technical questions will understand the technical answers? If you didn't install vBulletin, why would you install hacks for it?

This is as silly as asking someone 'why on earth' they would buy a car if they don't know how to perform their own tune ups...

The bottom line is, "I have several sites which run vBulletin, and I have certain needs for them." I'm sorry if you don't understand that. I have no plans to explain my reasons or needs to you.

Respond to me, if you wish, but as soon as I hit 'reply', I'll also be hitting IGNORE.

For the most part, its really easy to install vbulletin. They made it that way on purpose. Common sense.

On the hack side, I still stand behind what I said months ago. And to add to that - people who buy vb don't automatically come with a Bachelor's in PHP and vBscript.

I'm sure. If I 'needed' to learn, I would. :)

For real.;)

Anyway, I hope this thread can get off of the 'hijacked' topic of, "why on earth do you even have vBulletin if you can't write and/or install hacks", and back on constructive ideas for improving vb.org.

People need to get into the habit of asking questions as a last resort. The best way to get an understanding of what a hack does and how it affects the vBulletin script is to read through the thread from start to finish.

I personally do not install any hack until I have read about what it does/in what ways it can screw up your system.

Read read read