Originally Posted by hotwheels

I am by no mean's a coder, and i don't pretend to be. One thing i would try to respect would be a Coder's room. If you have 10 coder's discussing a problem with hook's or php placement, it is better in my opinion to let the coder's discuss in some sort of privacy what the answer may be. Verse's having someone like myself, throw in my nonknowing opinion.
Basically there are area's within vbulletin.org where you can ask for help on code or working with hack's. But as a way to develop code, they need a place that has just a bit of privacy. If we keep pushing the issue's like this, pretty soon, we won't get any hacks. They will all cost money, instead of being able to just come here and down load something......

Originally Posted by Infantrymen

I honestly can't see that you "respect" anything as you say you do. Why, well anyone that takes someone elses hard work (ie: my heavymetal style) and replaces the "designed by:" with their name instead of the original authors doesn't have an ounce of respect in my book.

Originally Posted by hotwheels

I am by no mean's a coder, and i don't pretend to be. One thing i would try to respect would be a Coder's room. If you have 10 coder's discussing a problem with hook's or php placement, it is better in my opinion to let the coder's discuss in some sort of privacy what the answer may be. Verse's having someone like myself, throw in my nonknowing opinion.
Basically there are area's within vbulletin.org where you can ask for help on code or working with hack's. But as a way to develop code, they need a place that has just a bit of privacy. If we keep pushing the issue's like this, pretty soon, we won't get any hacks. They will all cost money, instead of being able to just come here and down load something......

Originally Posted by Infantrymen

I honestly can't see that you "respect" anything as you say you do. Why, well anyone that takes someone elses hard work (ie: my heavymetal style) and replaces the "designed by:" with their name instead of the original authors doesn't have an ounce of respect in my book.

Originally Posted by tgreer

Humor and casual conversation in a Lounge area. Site Feedback should only be responded to by staff... no bandwagon runaway threads or member debates, etc.

Originally Posted by hotwheels

I didn't mean for that to happen. I tried to shut off the link and it messed up the screen. I by no mean's want to take credit for anyone else's work, and i find your style's to be simply awesome. I apologize for having my site link in that spot, i just didn't know how to not have a hot link at the bottom of the page. I will change the name back though........seriously, all i was trying to do was loose the hot link in the footer.. I am very sorry man....... Doug (hotwheels)

Originally Posted by hotwheels

I changed it back to Infantrymen too...........Like i say, i got in deeper then i anticipated when i tryed to do some work on the footer area, and not necessarily the hot link, but i tried do some stuff with the footer navbar and couldn't figure out how to make it right. If you go to my site and look at the bottom of the main style (legacy), you will see 3 added link's in the footer bar (spiders, modstats, and files upload center)......I was able to get the links to work correctly, but could never get them to blend into the navbar, if that make's sense. As i was doing that, i tryed to get these on all the style's so that i could quick link to these area's.....In the process, i made error's to several other style's too, and tryed my best to make thing's look right. As such, i was only able to get file upload's up on your style....then i stopped out of frustration cause i couldn't get the bar to look the same......if that make's sense......

anyways, thanks for accepting my apology.........And i seriously want you to know, out of all the style's on my site, the heavy metal version is the best.....simply awesome work.... doug

Originally Posted by tgreer

Please stay on-topic :). The topic of this thread is, is it okay to go off-topic? My point of view is, not in a professional, technical resource forum. For example, imagine a site administrator who is wondering if she should do anything about off-topic posts, comes here, and sees this thread? How would your quoted post benefit her? Instead of seeing a quality discussion on the topic, she'd have to wade through "lol" and childish non-sequitor insults.

Originally Posted by tgreer

I'm not picking the topics, Lottis... you can see the topic by looking at the title of the thread. This one is "...discussion of staying on topic". The "mentor" discussion is a different thread. If you, I, or anyone else wants to talk about something else, we start another thread. I'm not being dogmatic, that's just how forums work.

Ok, I'm really very curious. Try, if you can, to forget any impression you may have formed about me... respond to what I'm saying, not that it's me saying it:

Does anyone see the difference between an official, corporate, technical resource site, and a general-purpose (or even niche) site that primarily exists as a self-contained community? If not - then we'll never see eye-to-eye. If so, though:

Don't you think that this site, owned by a software vendor, and used by that vendor as their official site for product customization, needs to have perhaps a different standard, in terms of thread moderation, than, as an example, a gaming clan site? A car fan forum? A general-purpose discussion group?

I use the word "professional" a lot, and I use it mainly as an antonym to "amateur". Note, I'm placing no value judgments on either term. I'm an amateur at lots of things which I enjoy immensely: publishing haibun, writing for school textbooks, playing guitar. I'm not insulted when someone calls me an amateur at any of those things, and I'm not insulting anyone who runs an amateur forum.

I'm a professional, though, at programming, and at site administration/moderation, and have been for decades (I ran some very high-traffic Compuserve Forums, pre-internet). One of the tools I use in my profession is vBulletin. When I visit either of their sites, I expect professional-level help and support for the software I've purchased.

In my opinion, part of the problem with .org is that it is not professional-grade. It's run more like a gaming clan for vb hacks. I think that needs to change, and that part of the change from an amateur hacker club to a professional software support forum, is better thread moderation.

How you run your site really isn't relevant to how this site should be run, is it?

Originally Posted by Ohiosweetheart

T... this is not a professionally run site sweetie. It's a site run by volunteers, for people to offer modifications to vB and for others to come to, to get those modifications. While doing so, people "hang out", enjoy each other, talk about their sites, compare notes, pick up ideas, make friends, joke and kid around, etc.
.Org never was, isn't, and never will be, a professional site, that I can see. And truthfully, that's ok with me, and most others.

Originally Posted by Boofo

No I won't. This is the offtopic thread that was split, can't you read? You don't need both threads for your rants. Please do your whining somewhere else.