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Yes, this does seem to happen many times, even for mods that you pay for. For example, I've purchased several mods over the last four months, only to have the coder get upset, remove their code, shut down their web site, and then disappear for some strange reason.

In Boofo's case, he was offering his code for free (which was very noble of him) and then chose to remove it for personal reasons. Some of his mods were nice, so it's sad to see him go. For whatever reason, he decided to go and he has that right.

But there are some other mods in the modification graveyard from other authors who sold their code (such as vbulletinfreelancers), promised year-long support, and then disappeared a month later. It seems it was due to the author feeling offended by something someone posted. So she removed her code and disappeared, along with her web site and the mods people paid for. Those are the coders that really hurt the vbulletin community.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen that happen as well.

Added Note: Along with the responsibility, it takes a thick skin to be a coder. They have to be prepared to have people be critical of their work sometimes. Personally, I am always supportive of any coder, and encourage people as much as I can. It's the mods that make people want to buy vbulletin, so with every coder that vb.org loses (for whatever reason), it's a huge loss to the community.

Ae always look at the code when someone says its been copied. We also look at where the original code may have come from, and also consider how many ways something may actually have been done. Its perfectly possible for two people to do the same thing the same way, without one copying the other.

A little off-topic, but...

So many mods go to the modification graveyard these days, either because of security vulnerabilities or an author being moody, that you better download a mod the first time it's released because you may never see it again.

It's a little paranoid to think of it that way, but who knows when the author will get moody, decide to leave, and take their mods off-line.

It is always good practise to keep a local copy of modifications you use on your board. This is also 1 of the reasons why we require modifications to be uploaded as files, so it is easier to keep a local copy.

Everything in your last post was passing judgement on coders as if their hours worth of work being stolen can be equated to someone using the same words that have been used in a poem before. That is making it seem as if what they do is trivial and its disgusting for you to even insinuate. If they release the code and do not mark it as reusable, that is them staking claim to the code and if you are too ignorant to realize that then you have no business using any mod created by the same coders you are trivializing. You seriously disgust me.

Please keep this civil. Also, please refer to Rules #3 and #4 before any more comments are made toward each other.

WOW ok, this thread has gone way off-topic from the question I originally asked. The name-calling is certainly uncalled for.

The coder that I referred to - Boofo - is NOT a pompous idiot, and as far as I know, did not throw a +++++ fit. He simply, quietly, pulled his hacks. I've since talked to him on IM, and all is fine.

JACQUII, I have some questions. If someone writes a short story, and posts it online for others to enjoy to do you believe that everyone should have the right to take paragraphs of it and use it in their own works just because it was released freely for people to enjoy? And if you do not why would not equate the same logic to coders? Do you seriously think that low of coders that they do not deserve the same rights as a writer posting stories?

Your analogy should have been more along the lines of someone stealing chapters from a novel or paragraphs from an essay. Re-read your own post, can you honestly tell me that equating mere words to the work of coders is not degrading and trivializing of the work they supply for free.

It doesnt really matter whether he pulled them quietly, or loudly. Point is he pulled them.

Can he honestly say he wrote every single line of them, with no help from anyone, nor the odd line copied from other peoples work. I think not.

I have no idea. Point is, he released them, they were his to pull, and he did.