I also think that it's a bad idea in the medium/long term. For now, most of the great hacks are here and are free. Soon, though, there will be a migration towards paid hacks. I believe that's inevitable, especially with the "support" of vB.org (even if just with links). Every good coder out there will see the opportunity to earn a little extra bucks. And I also think that in the long term this will hurt vB.com.

Coders who have paid-for hacks already "advertise" that in their sigs or in their posts so I don't see how difficult it could be for someone looking for them to find them.

Thanks anyway for listening. :)

I tend to agree with Joeycho on this.

Although the directory is a great idea, the fee will shun away the "little guys". On the other side of the coin, I think that is someone is going to benefit monetarily by having their products advertised on a site such as this, then they SHOULD pay some sort of fee.

So I guess what I am trying to say is:

The Directory is a great idea, but the fee structure should be carefully thought out so as to be inclusive.

Maybe a fee determined by the cost of the product...hmmmm....

NB: May I please remind you of the rules of this thread, in particular:

You may not address other community members at this time. Keep it on topic and directed to the proposal.

I've edited out the references to other posts, but please, try and stick to the rules of the thread :)

Chris

I think this will encourage more commercial mods, costing us more. =/

Personally I will not release anything if this goes thru. Why would I work for a site to profit and for those who wish to charge to profit?

If this goes thru the guy who is nice and shares is doing nothing more then helping put money into others pockets. There is no reason for anyone to give anything free in a commercial community.

And that is what this proposal would make vb.org , a commercial community. The staff taking in on profit, and so on? I could see if you used the money and gave it all away to members to promote free scripts, but to give to staff seems to be more a business move.

I think it's a bad idea on a several fronts; barring the fact that coders/hack developers are free to earn adequate profits for their original works. However, if a coder/hack developer were allowed space to "advertise" their works, I believe there would be an integrity and content compromise that would untimately erode the culture and reason why users of the Jelsoft Software come to vbulletin.org in the first place...to exchange ideas and software enhancements.

Here's an example, one section of the site (vbulletin.org) would allow the coders/hack developers to commercially advertise on one section of the site and in another section permit them to offer their "free" works. I believe that a major conflict of interest would prevail ultimately damaging the good intentions of both scenarios; commercial and free. As with all good intensions, I foresee the potential for more focus on how to use the freeware aspect to enhance the sales aspect.

Now, there is another matter of "hacks" being developed for free use that are not being adequately supported as stated...now, many vbulletin.org users have posted their distaste for developers not supporting their works;this is already occuring and that issue has not been rectified. I respectfully ask..."why would the owners/administrators of vbulletin.org entertain the possibility of allowing developers to sell their works when the developers currently are not offering adequate support as stated?

I truely believe that the proposal to allow advertising of hacks would greatly "take away" from why individuals visit this site...I believe those developers that feel the need to commercialize their hacks should do so on their own sites. Which brings me to another point, I have clicked onto links of some "developers" only to find that they link back to vbulletin.org or that their site is no longer in existence. It is clear that there is much "cleaning up" that needs to be done from an integrity stand point, legal and customer support front, before vbulleting.org entertains the idea of appealing to some developers that wish to use a site that obviously has significant traffic for their advertising medium.

Now, if vbulletin.org is proposing this as a means to "generate a little profit" from a selling point of significant traffic, then why not just charge a nominal one time fee to all registrants, developers and others and refrain form inevitably damaging a good visitor base.

I can go on and on, but, I hope you all see the "many major pitfalls" in the idea to offer commercial space to developers onto a site that has built a reputation for offering free exchange of site ideas and enhancements. Either way you slice it, I think enabling developers to "sell" their works on vbulletin.org is a "lose, lose" proposition.

I don't think I like the idea.

If it does happen, I think a lot of loopholes need to be addressed, first, as mentioned in several posts before mine.

In quick summary...I vote no.

reasoning: I came to vb and come to sites related to vb such as this to learn more. I ran away from "nuke" sites to get away from stuff like this.

I like the community we have now and wish to see it like this for a long time.

simply put:

.org = free
.com = commercial

need I say anymore without using an oxymoron?

either way it goes, if a hack creator wants to make his hack a premium paid to use hack then thats his choice and we should allow it. we dont have to use their hacks, but if we want to, then we should have to pay for it if the creator wants us to.

i am for the premium world. since i stirred the pot up in the first place!!

i dont agree with vb asking for a link fee from the creators though. that is something i dont dig since a big portion of the forum has been developed using free hacks, vb should just accept the premium links for free, because we all know that in future releases, hacks releases, free or not, will be in the forum software, and that isn't always fair to the developer, but thats the way it is, and we allow it and theres really nothing we can do about it. but as for taking a fee from creators. no. no bueno.

however the system is setup, with a directory or a sub-forum linking to paid hacks, coo. taking money for it, no. we do pay enough for this forum, somone said that earlier. yall dont need much more.

Paid Hacks allowed here: Yes
Charge creators for linkage: No
Future development of the vbulletin: Priceless

and i might break the thread rule later by reposting on here cuz um...i dunno, just might ;)