FREE vB licenses for Hack/Mod creators
 

Just wondering what everyone thinks about this, and particularly the hack community who dedicate a lot of time making hacks, releasing them then supporting them.

Do you think Jelsoft should give a free vB licence to Hack Authors? Perhaps say after 100 downloads/installs? And perhaps larger hack Authors with say 1000 or more downloads get some monetary compensation for their efforts? (exact numbers could be agreed on later)

I'm sure many of you will agree that the hack community is one of the most important aspects of a successful platform such as a forum (Don't take my word for it, vb.org has over 100,000 members!)

I think an incentive such as this for contributors will not only be of benefit to Jelsoft but to us as the end users as well - I mean where would we (including Jelsoft) be without our hack/mod creators?

I think this is forward thinking and protecting not only Jelsofts future but ours as users too.

Your thoughts please

:)

Not necessarily a license, but the annual renewal fee would be cool.

That's very humble of you Amy, but I think you guys really do deserve more than that ;)

this is stupid... a license for 100 installs... i would gain hundreds of licenses just for that...

no coder would be interested to that for what reason ?... we can't sell our licenses, as there is no reseller system for vbulletin.

I think it is a nice thought , but by no way would it be practicle. I could see perhaps awarding one a year to someone who has coded x ammount of add ons or templates and shown very good manners and community spirit.

Hols on a sec Nex, I pulled the figure out of thin air as I have no idea what the 'average' download /install numbers are- but like I said the amounts could be agreed upon later.

We are discussing the idea here, not the figures.

I wouldn't be interested in another vBulletin license. I've already own the same license for years now. I don't plan on opening any more forums so the licenses would be no good to me.

I do however like amykhars suggestion. Give us Master Coders 30% off the renewl fee so I only have to pay for like $20 /y instead of 30 /y :p

YOU are discussing it, nobody else asked for it... we already have two threads related to coders gifts etc...

btw, i don't see why offer a gift to coders that do that kind of stuff... you'Re too generous with the stuff of others... Jelsoft can handle their own promotions without new members suggestions ...

Why don't you stop rubbishing other peoples threads for once. If you don't want to discuss it, feel free to leave this thread alone. :rolleyes:

The idea has been mentioned before. It would be nice to get say 10% off the yearly renewal for every 1000 installs (or whatever). A licence per 1000 installs is not going to interest most people as they have all the licences they need (what would I do with another 7 licences ..... :))

For once, I have to agree with Paul.

OUCH

give me unlimited access to vbulletin licenses (at least a few) and I'd breakdance for you:banana:

ya know everyone appreciates the work of coders but the truth of the matter is yall are coding to better your own sites first then offer to the community its a give and take situation most just take since alot dont have coding expierience. but when one coder codes something he also installs a bunch of already coded hacks that someone else made (most likely) i dont think the coders deserve any type of license adjustment. just for the fact that vbulletin coders made the forum too better your sites and give you a excellent forum software. if vbulletin wanted arcades or all these hacks generally they would of coded them directly into the system. this site is a place for everyone to shair there ideas and coding to help better the community and make vbulletin the best community. just like php has there community and post nuke php nuke mambo and every other major forum or content management system...

if a coder wants to achieve cash or discounts for stuff. sincce you have the ability to code you take on your own time a custum script for someones site. i dont know but most of tjhe good coders here can whip out awesome stuff. so making 30 bucks wouldnt be extremely difficult for there coding.

i know i would pay someones renewal license for the next three years if they would do custum work for me. but all aaround there shouldnt be a reward for community submissions thats my opinion. its all great work but with the amount of coders giving rewards would bankrupt vbulletin. once they sell the license thats it. if your a coder and just hack your own board for the rest of the time. you would never have to pay again which would decrese vbulletins revenue which i dont see them wanting to do for some coding. i am sure they would rather do there own addons then pay others

agreed.

Damned unlikely; plus, you would have to reward quality of work, not quantity.

Ding Ding Ding!

What's wrong with rewarding quality?

Please don't say "too much work".

Also, I agree with Paul regarding a certain poster getting a bit outta hand lately...

Was that in responds to me? If so I see nothing wrong with rewarding quality. Its quanity that shouldn't be rewarded. :)

I think vb.org can see and picks out the dedicated writers.
Free anything based on clicks will inevitably be scammed.

Yep, I see it that way too, and I can't see that being done in a way that doesn't inconvienience someone as they have to check for quality.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=105109

FYI, I agree :p (I can't see any reason why I shoudn't)

I think the number of installs a hack gets shows that the hack was worth something, worth something to the community and worth something to Jelsoft (as ultimately, hacks offer increased functionality to their software).

I think there are a good handful of coders here and I think they deserve something for their efforts, particularly from those that benefit the most... that is arguably Jelsoft (because they make money out vB - much more than anyone else, site owner,user,developer/coder, or otherwise).

Without the hacks from the community, Jelsoft would need to commission either a 3rd party or some members of their team to produce/develop the hacks just to keep up with the other forum platforms out there, and I can assure you that a community doing it for you is a whole lot cheaper than paying programmers wages!!

I'm not having a go at Jelsoft, on the contrary I am trying to HELP them strengthen their position as market leader. The hack community is very important to platforms like these and it would be in all our interests if we were encouraging the act. (And who better to do it than those that benefit finiancially from it?)

Not necessarily. See this for instance. It does have a lot of installs but it's very simple and also is posted by another person at vb.com for vb 3.0.x...

Hopefully there will be a safeguard in place for things like that?
Someone just has to sit down and write the rulebook :)

I personaly wouldn't include template mods. Theres a big diffrence in the amount of work put into php vs a template mod. ;)

Agreed ;)

Not always is the case though. loo kat H3RD Garden or w/e his name is. His profile thing may not be a difficult modification but he has provided tons of support for it and has helped integrate galleries and wha tnot.

I agree it's most unlikely, that's why I said it would be nice - one can but dream :)

The best way to support the coders here is to click and send them a donation using the donation buttons/links they place on their posts. I think that many overlook this, but even a small donation can often help - even if it goes towards their license renewal in the end :)

Vbulletin doesn't support hacks, so it would be somewhat illogical to give free liscences to hackers/modders.

Jelsoft did take this forum and transform it from a coder hangout into a customer resource site though. They changed the very nature of vb.org so that it is now a site where hundreds of people show up every day looking for things to enhance their forum.

Those hundreds don't want to code enhancements. They don't want to contribute their work. They just want to use what is here and request what isn't.

When that happened, a lot of the coder community went away. We lost our zeal to collaborate and share. It also tended to drive some coders to a more commercial stance. Some felt we were being marketted as part of the benefit of buying Jelsoft and wanted their share of the pie.

I still contribute stuff mostly because I haven't quite lost hope that either the old gang will drift back, or some new people will step up. But, it may take some sort of reward to get people really contributing major free additions anymore.

You have to understand that there is a lot more to releasing here than just posting code. The support requirments can be overwhelming. So, while I'm never going to say to Jelsoft "reward me or I'll stop sharing", I wouldn't tell them they were off the mark if they were to consider some sort of a reward to entice the serious coders back and to keep them here.

Amy

I totally agree Amy, you see Jelsoft have the best of both worlds because this way, they benefit from all the hacks on vb.org yet on the other hand wash their hands of them by saying they do not support hacks, and then point everyone here when people ask for increased functionality.

Peoples needs are changing too - gone are the days where people simply bolt-on a forum to a static html site. Nowadays people want myspace functionality, directories/photos/communities etc.

I think there is a void in the market and if forum software producers are not careful it will be filled by a 3rd party, but not only will it fill the void, it will take the forum market with it.

Hacks are adding some (but not all) of the functionality people need. I really really think coders need motivation, support and real incentives to continue doing what they do, and if possible some 'new' incentives may make them go a little further...

As I have said many times, I'm not having a go at Jelsoft, the staff at vb.com (and in particular Jake) has been a huge help to me, and I feel very loyal because of it - all I am trying to do highlight some very important issues which I feel deserve real consideration, for the benefit for all those involved, and in particular, to those that have the most to lose.

Truth.
Not only the above, but finding motivation and inspiration to do free work on here (which can sometimes be very unrewarding) is equally as hard.
Call me a greedy bastard but I have yet to see anyone code and release a large scale mod for free, and being completely selfless about it.

You're a greedy bastard.

Check out some of Tamarian's releases here for a start.

I agree with this and would support it monetarily if .com wouldn't do it themselves. I think coders that have mods with 200+ installs should get some sort of reward for their efforts. Generally those tend to be the best and most supported modifications so they are helping vbulletin.com in the long run. I know if this site didn't exist and the coders didn't exist, I'd sell my vb license and switch back to phpbb in a heartbeat. Coders efforts rarely get much but a HOTM badge at the most and visibility in the vb community. 30% off license renewal? Chump change IMO. .com should consider themselves lucky if thats the only reward they would ever have to give the people that put in lots of effort to making THEIR product better.

Apart from the odd exception perhaps?.. but why should they? It's not as though vB is open source where producers and coders have a common belief to do it for(free).

As a community we are very grateful to the coders who do do this for free. But. Most of us can see 'well I can understand some of them being reluctant to realease free hacks?' when someone else is profitting from 'their' work.

People can call me a greedy bastard as well if they want, but I wouldn't do work for free to make another company money. I might do it 'just' to help other members of my community for their own sites (as in an open source situation) or I might charge people to use any large hacks (as do many people - just look at the gallery add-ons etc)

Can you see that the situation is different? 'free' Coders aren't just helping community members, but are also helping Jelsoft make more money (in a fairly substantial way, adding value to their product). All I am saying is I hope Jelsoft can recognise this and reward them for their efforts - it will not only encourage more people to do the same but in the long term go towards ensuring vB is still number one months/years from now :)

Amy and Razasharp bring up some very nice points. I've been slacking with releasing code work cause I don't have the inspiration as I used to. The only thing I can see going sour is. A coder releases a great hack. 1000+ installs, and is supporting it very well. Jelsoft gives that coder a % off his yearly fee. Once they do that, this wonderfull coder is no longer around now?

I see alot of people coding, getting something out of it, and leaving.

But in all fairness, it still was worthing something to Jelsoft... and thats the hack itself. That was released and people installed and will continue to install.

I do see your point but there has to be a balance somewhere. Maybe they/you get something after a number of hacks? The details could always be worked out later :)

Well I guess thats what we call a business. :p Can't make everyone happy. Though I hope someone rewarding is done, it would keep me interested in coding more often for the community. Its a drag supporting all your work, everyday, updating, recoding new work, porting, more supporting, testing...ect...

I have to say that there are days that I wonder why I bother releasing anything, because at the end of it all you get nothing useful for all the time you spend supporting things. :alien:

Yes, some get to sit at the top of the hottest hacks for a while - and theres that little warm glow as your 7000th install gets clocked up, or you fix the umpteenth broken flashchat installation, but that's about it really. Sadly, it doesn't put food on the table. :lick:

I guess I must just be mad. :banana:



Gee, I'm so depressed now ........ and still another 7+ hours at work :(

I feel the same way Paul. I argue with myself if I should release this hack I made.