For downloading free add-ons that people want to give to the community. Under a stipulation that is no different from any other third-party add-on site. When you get something for free, you know what you're getting into.

Of course you won't make that statement if you're offering a paid add-on. Because that person has decided that he can make a reasonable commitment to the project. In which case "The Statement" becomes "The Terms of Service". In which case, you still don't get any perpetual guarantees.

Thanks for that.So when did the rules change to allow lite versions? As opposed to pro versions,and as you said free add-ons.

Lite versions of commercial modifications are permitted to be released here as long as:

1. It is a working modification
2. It is not time limited in any way
3. It is completely free to the user
4. It is stand alone and completely separate to the full version
5. A single link back to the commercial version is permitted, as long as no pricing or promotional language is used in the link or embedded into the lite version.

As far as I know, it's always been that way.

Nobody gets "left in the lurch" by FREE modifications.

My vB4 site has lots of valued modifications, I'm eternally grateful to the authors of each and every one of them, including the ones who've moved on and aren't around here any more.

If something breaks on an "abandoned" mod, I'll try to fix it myself, which may include asking for help on this very site. If I can't fix it - I'll have to remove it. But I won't have been "left in the lurch", because I always know that's one of the risks. If I don't like it I can always pay someone.

Just popping in to say that i'm not a huge fan of that characterization. Our lite/pro version feature split is always a minimum of 75/25 in favour of the lite version when v1 is released. The split never drops below 65/35 in any future version either.

If we were really only there to ply our commercial products, the lite versions wouldn't be so strong. Not to mention all of the coders that make up DBTech have a history of releasing completely free mods here on vb.org. Oh, and we've released over 20 completely free mods without pro versions as a company.

I don't really understand why some coders feel the need to portray us as some greedy company versus their altruistic selves, but I do wish they would at least get the facts straight.

For those wondering, DBTech isn't made up of 10 coders. At this exact moment in time it consists of four active coders, two of which we essentially trained from scratch. Between the free (not lite) mods they released under the DBTech banner, and the free mods they have released under their own names, DBTech coders have produced something like 60 completely free mods for the community, and another 60 or so very strongly featured lite mods.

No one is getting rich from vBulletin mods; we sell them so we can afford to be able to continue producing and supporting new mods and features full time.

Sorry about the little ramble there. Regarding vB5, there is no money there at all at the moment. Anyone producing commercial modifications for it, including us, would lose a significant amount of money. We're porting mods to it at this point because users or customers of our mods for earlier vB versions have asked us to. All of the ports we have done so far have cost us money, for the record.

Not sure how that fits with the narrative that all we're interested in is money and we never do things just because we want to help people out or give something to the community, but i'm sure someone will come up with a way.

vB5 as a piece of software as a ton of potential. I personally don't think it's yet developed to a point that would make it a good replacement for vB 3.8 or vb 4.2, but it certainly has the framework to be a very good bit of software in the future. Not unlike how I didn't necessarily consider vB4 better than vB3 until several updates had been released. The potential was pretty evident from the start there as well.

Iain
DragonByte Technologies Ltd.

So what are the consequences to coders if these 5 simple rules are not implemented.Do they just simply get a slap on the wrist..Or is it dependent on who you are?

I am on vb 4.2.1 good forum.

They get flogged, tortured, then put to the wheel.

In earnest: If no one reports it, no one will act. The consequence will probably be the addon being removed. Aside from that, it may well depend a bit on the person/case, and rightly so. If someone who has contributed to the community for a long time breaks such a rule (maybe even inadvertently), you don't just hit them with the ban-stick.

Not true we just keep it simple, we have a vbulletin.org branding iron here labeled "THIS IS SPARTAAAAVB.ORG" we burn into you if you violate our site in any manner it's painful too I had Marco use it on me once :eek: jk jk

Yes if no one reports and we don't see it then its virtually invisible to those with the power to take action... basically what you said I just worded it differently lol. For me regardless if new or old member I tend to give a harmless warning first time via pm i.e. a "heads up, don't do that, this is why blah blah blah" per say, after all some truly do not know all the rules despite using the site regularly, the new guys and gals have an excuse the veterans of this site not so much :p.