I miss the good old days when your work defined your site :(
 

Remeber what a pain in the butthole it was back in the days of vb2.X to hack your site and customize it?

It wasn't that bad if you knew what you were doing. But if you didn't know, then you were in big trouble.

Ever since vb 3 its been easier for those who just follow the directions to gain one up on those of us who actually spend alot of time and hard effort coming up with the ideas that those other guys will later end up following the directions too.

With vb 3.5 its even easier for the idiot to have a sleek website. A matter of fact anyone can instantly have all the things that used to set your site apart from the others becuase all they have to do now is "IMPORT PRODUCT"

Yes this is a great thing, but how do you keep your edge. Anyone becoming more and more frustrated when you work hard just to see joe blow have the extact same thing?

Well thats my rant. Anyone else feel that the void that used to seprate the pro vb hacker and the clueless has gotten smaller?

I try to keep my edge with content and by not sharing every bit of code I write. I keep a few things exclusive to myself. Style has never been my thing; so I figure I'm stuck with using what skills I have to set me apart.

Those sure were the days :(

The only way to keep the edge is to write your own hacks and not share them. But I don't see why thats important - hacks don't make the forum, never have and never will. Concentrate on other things such as style and content - things that aren't easily copied or installed. ;)

i miss vb 2.x :(

Well certain hacks can help get and/or organize the content that is so important.

Style I think can be stolen very easily. I can duplicate just about any page after looking at it for a small amount of time, without having to peek at the source code.

I've had people rip off certian style atribuates in the past.

But the good thing about that is not only can you force them to take it down. You can stop their entire website completely. I haven't had any of my stuff stolen yet.. that I know of anyways.. but if I ever see it, I will definately take legal action.

How would you even do that? It was just a small code snippet I wrote, they even left my comments in the source. I think they have since removed them, but I got the, whatever is on the internet is up for grabs speach when I asked them to remove the stolen source.

But really what can you do if you have a table and someone copies it? Whats the law on what is stealing source and whats not?

Why you don't switch back to vb2 then, this will be very unique and nobody will copy you. :squareeyed:
And b.t.w. it's also very sad today everybody idiot owns a personal computer and not only the elite as you seems to be.
Wake up before it's to late man.

Crack?

However, some forums its all about their coded features. For example, my site is a role playing site... there are tons of those on the net, but what defines mine against the others? The coded [exclusive] features that make it feel like an MMORPG.

Honestly, you can say this about any website in terms of "looking slick" and "having features" are nothing compared to good site management, good content and participation, and if it's a paying site, people willing to PAY.

All the bells and whistles are quite worthless if the site is never updated, has no core user base or relies too much on the "bells and whistles" without focussing on what the particular "audience" wants.

I've seen many a featured-packed website that seems to have everything going for it, but the inexperience or lack of committment from the site staff is always its downfall, and even if they HAVE experience and commitment, it takes literally years to get a good following.

No, doesn't bother me a bit. I say, "Bring it on!"

i disagree. example: if you have a forum with let's say a million games then you're likely to have an audience that came to the forums for the games, stick around for the games and post inbetween.

great hacks make forums accessible to target audiences. great communities negate the need for great hacks.

lol you share your hacks, yet you complain when others use them? Sharing was something we learned in kindergarden. What happened to the days when people were generous, and gave to others who had less, without complaining about it, or boasting that they were the ones who gave? Shame on you.

What gets me about your statement is you seemed to have not read the whole post or came up with your own conlusions. I don't remeber posting anywhere about being upset with others using something I have released.

This is about how to keep your edge when alot of people are doing the same things that used to be unquie back when vbulletin was younger.

I believe thats 10%

And I believe the above statement is the other 90% that makes a site good.

I like having a nice looking site, we all do, but if you visit big-boards.com some of the top biggest forums on the net suck. Apperance wise, but they function.

A good administrator will take a site far. Users will take it even further. :ninja:

I am not a hacker, or a coder and I use hacks that I found here... I thank you for all of them it is much appreciated what you do for the vB community, and I apoligize for sounding like a gnub about 90% of the time.

But the above quote is so incredibly true.

Yes but not all communities need hacks. In your example well, the hack is needed, but others feel that even when they're not needed, they put them in because it makes it different from other forums. But that's just wrong - anyone can hack, but customizing your look and content is what other forums cannot exactly copy. If you want individuality from other forums - that is the only way.

If by "keep your edge" do you mean - STEAL FROM ME?

Your website: 757forums.com

My website: www.absolutepunk.net

Weird.

Attachment, YOUR source code leeching MY images.

Don't rant about this sort of thing when you are basically stealing 8 years of my hard work.

LOL Can you say "Busted"?

Personally I would have set my site to substitute images so another would display on his site Some nice ubber fat chick in a bakini would start..

Burn!

ouch, that hurts ... is that a purchased style? if it is -- nothing is wrong

vB2 wasn't hard to customized, it just required work.

If he is linking the images for his board to the files on another board/server, then it IS a problem. Purchased or not. He is stealing bandwidth from the other server.

(Ok, the other board should protect himself against hotlinking)

I think they are referring to stealing the entire sites layout(s) and the memberlist thing. Looks like they created the memberlist and he put his name on it without permission and resold it to other people on vb.org from what I gather.


DAMN!

I couldn't check if that was the case--site is currently down.
But, I do agree ... that would be bad. :down:

Hahaha, no it wasn't a purchased style at all. I made all the graphics myself.

I thought my htaccess code was preventing hotlinking, I'll have to re-write somethings.