vB.org Is Not Active Like it Use Before
 

Hello.

Vb.org is not Active like b4 .... i remember Everyday New Hack is posted now i think it need week or so ... I Find in IPB /IZE is more active then here even phpBB ... So What happen ?

Why haven't you released any hacks here?

Believe it or not, many people will have the same answer. So if you're looking for the source of the problem, look no further than yourself.

i'am not a coder or skiner how i wish if i know how to code iam not going to pay the mod that are free in phpbb and IPB and Reguest it here for Custom Work to many mod/hack i have make for my website is custom work that is already free in other site also this day it is hard to find a coder to creat your Custom Mod here in vb.org never it work with me if i post a reg for custom work the guy wested my time he can't do it or he ripped the money so i deside to join scriptlance but also there is hard to find a coder who intersting creating custom mod for vb....

I would suggest that it is mostly because of posts like this. When you are a coder, it's one thing to share your code with others who give back to you; but when a huge population of people have nothing to offer and need constant hand holding to install even the most simple of mods, well, it's get old real quick.

vB.org was active when there was a strong community of developers feeding off of each other; now it's a huge portal for people wanting to update their software with "free" stuff and then demanding support because they don't have a clue or are unwilling to spend even a few minutes trying to figure out their own problem.

After a while even the most die hard of coders gives up and just codes for themselves thinking "why bother".

vB.org actually has an equally as strong (if not stronger) community of developers, it's just that the "Average Joe" has come into mix.

[high]* Freesteyelz's average. :D[/high]

You have to understand that not all coders will update their modification up to date. That's why it doesn't seem we're active. However, we're more active than those boards you have mention.

I have to agree with MPDev. Now...I am not a coder (even though it says I am in my postbit). I have released 1 MOD. I needed it on my site, and I am too cheap (poor) to pay someone to do it.

Before I started using vB, I had no knowledge of PHP at all. Through working with it, and playing with the code, I have taught myself a little bit about it. It's not that hard to get the basics.

Instead of complaining about not getting everything you want FOR FREE, why don't you try to do for yourself???? I have asked for support from MOD authors in the past (and probably still will), but before I go to the thread and ask, I at least look a the code and try to figure it out for myself.

Just my 2 cents.

Couldn't have put it better myself

I wish to complain that the posts saying vb.org isn't as good as it used to be, aren't as good as they used to be!

Go to the mods you like and hit that "Support Developer" button. With enough people doing that the people that can code good mods might feel a little more motivated to do so. But if you never write any mods, or donate to any authors, I really don't think you can complain that you're not getting enough "free stuff".

I feel the same way. Just gets really annoying when someone comes into one of my threads and demands support. I had one guy uninstall a hack after asking for help. He waited 10 mins for an answer expecting me to come. After the 10 mins he made a new post and said "Uninstalled". That kind of thing really puts me off releasing hacks here.

One thing that everyone is failing to mention. That the coders do have other agenda or jobs beside here. And some are full and some is part time. I think that vb is active myself. And we should appreciate the free hacks that is offered , and your dedication that you guys have done for us. Theres is always someone BIT*HING about free stuff. STOP complaining what is offered for free.

that's my .02

i'am not complaning about mod outher iam just saying it is not active like it use to be..

Go to vB2 / vb30 you will find to many intersting mod in that forum but in vb36 just a few mod and hack compare to the vb2/vb30 forum ...

There are still some interesting mods, but it seems the more interesting ones tend to end up as paid ones, probably for the reasons everyone has been giving. As the site grows, supporting mods is going to become harder and harder with more and more people looking for support.

I dont blame Coders putting their hacks as a payed services as doing them takes a lot and a lot of time but for the once that do release free mods we all should give them respect and time to update their releases as they are not doing it for 24hrs a day. I my self aint a coder but try to figure out myself if something isnt working in a mod .. i am a designer and have always tryed to help others that needed help on Graffix as that is what best i know to do even if i my self do ask others to help me when i have problems.

Regards
Wengi

My two cents are this: Whenever you release a free mod on vb.org it seems some people suddenly think they "own" you, and demand 24/7 support. If you dare not to give this they make a scathing "uninstall" post, and god help you if you release a paid version of the mod as well, because then apparently you are insulting them in some way by giving them something for free, just because they have to *shock horror* pay for a better version.

VB.orgs problem is the community of non-coders. They have got no respect, and expect everything for nothing. In our latest mod we have had more than one post taking shots at us for daring to release a paid version of our mod and not supporting the free version. Even though those people just got a mod *For Free* They still feel like they have the right to insult and have a go at the coders.

We even had an extremely prominent staff member say he was having some problems, and ask if he should post for help, or just not bother and uninstall it! This is meant to be an advanced coder, who won't even take the time to debug errors he is having, instead threatening to uninstall unless someone does it for him. This kind of attitude, where if someone else doesnt fix your problem you're going to make an "uninstall" post is ridiculous - especially from other coders.

If you want to know why vb.org isnt as active - there are the reasons. I know of more than one coder who has left because of this kind of attitude.

I miss the old shareware days :(

Great distribution model.

Stupid plugins and products took all the fun away from actually "hacking!"

I am just joking, please don't kill me :P.

You do have a point there, used to be you had to know a little bit about php in order to install modifications. Now its easy, anyone can do it, leads to a bigger group with less ability to troubleshoot.

Well, used to be a lot of people would at least come to the coders with PROBLEMS they would have with the code. Now, I think it mainly comes down to a lot of people asking for more, more, more. Myself included, I know I have asked a few times for "more features" of a modification. However, I do not take it to the lengths that some people do and I would like to think that I at least make my gratitude seen by the coder.

Perhaps you should check you own attitude before casting stones about others. Just because I happen to be a staff member, or write my own modifications, does not mean I should have to debug every other modification I happen to try out or use. You may have lots of free time, I don't. The facts are that you posted that the modification was unsupported, so I quite reasonably asked if I should post the issues I encounted or just move on. There is no point in me posting issues if you are going to ignore them.

As far as activity is concerned, it really depends on how you measure it - something like 2,500 members log in every day, and over 150 new members join every day - hardly a sign of inactivity. As far as new modifications are concerned, it would be impossible to keep up a constant stream of new releases, so many extra features that people want are already provided by existing modifications. Members cannot come up with a never ending supply of new ideas. Most of the requests I read these days are either for very obscure custom features that would almost only be of use to the requestor - or are for massive changes that would take someone a great deal of time and effort to write.

Here is my answer to this thread:

1.Money moves->when we make a good hack we want to sell it because money is important nowdays
2.Free = Theft ->Many hacks get stolen,or republished without permission.I found a couple of mine on other websites which I didn't give permission to
3.Ideas ->It is very hard to come up with unique ideas all the time
4.Time -> coding takes time
5.Skills -> often I can't code what somebody requests



Yeah basically what I wanted to say Paul.

I have five kids.... if I did everything for "free", I wouldn't be putting food on the table.

1. Some people will always put the interests of others and free things before payment. The same that refuse advertisements, paid memberships and paid content.

2. Stuff like that gets stolen regardless of if it's paid or free. Otherwise you wouldn't see so much paid software pirated and released on warez and torrent sites.

3. Fair enough. Although if anyone wants new ideas... I could write a very long list of things not released yet that I currently don't have the ability to release.

4. Fair enough.

5. Same here

Don't see no big difference. Checked in the install file of a vBulletin version 2 mod and it did still say to find this piece of code and add/delete/replace with this new piece of code. Same kind of thing as template edits; and most major modifications require either template or file mods.

Some people will always have little or no respect for anyone else. But these people are NEVER the majority on a website or forum. The majority who try modifications either are satisfied or give up and go elsewhere. It's like those company review sites online; only the very vocal get heard and their opinions are very much exaggerated or hostile.

I cannot hide that I dislike commercialism and capitalism as a whole. I also cannot hide that I prefer the internet without business being a massive part of it, and especially dislike Lite versions which are just dumbed down versions of a full one. Probably because this is about free modifications. But I won't argue.

Fair enough. :)

@Deezelpope - sorry for the generalisation, I realise, and appreciate, that not all none coders are like that. The point i was trying to make is that the %age of non coders to coders who act in this way is much greater.

@others

Giving out free code is admirable, sure, but it comes down to this.

Would you rather talented coders released lite versions here on vb.org, with full versions for sale, or that they didnt release anything at all?

The way people in the community react to lite and pro means that coders are getting the latter impression, and with other successful forum systems there ready to be coded for, it's a dangerous game. The community is destroying itself, by attacking itself. It's driving people away for no reason, and even when it's NOT doing that, it's not giving them much incentive to stick around either. Go look at any mod thread, the number of complaining or request posts, worded rudely usually, will outnumber the posts of people expressing gratitude 9 times out of 10.

Oh and just a little RE: to the stolen comment - if products are paid for, they can be properly protected. We have a product out,:cool: which has been out for quite a while now, and hasnt been cracked thanks to some protection measures, including encoding.

Premium mods definetely *can* be protected.

There are a lack of people willing to teach, there are a lack of people willing to learn. Both groups have a hard time hearing each other over all the noise.

Fix the above problems and you'll find the community will take care of itself.

Firstly, I really have no comment on the first part. As for the part about the happiness expressed in the topic... as I said, the happy users don't generally reply/interact with others as much. For example, there are millions of vBulletin forums. Only a minority use the official site or this one.. and far less complain.


As for being properly protected... anything can be cracked. Just no one has used the time and resources to do so, simply because many such encoded products are not the mainstream, widely used products by others. And for one, you cannot protect the front end. HTML, CSS, XML and Javascript are NOT protectable in any way because they need to be understood by the browser to be parsed. That leaves the PHP core, which could be copied by an experienced coder... or possibly in future cracked. But less of that, as I am not one to discuss things which even show piracy.

In summary, the problem is not with just one group. We're a community and will benefit or pay the consequences as a whole. Well said, Brad. :up:

I have to agree with this and the comments by Inferno Tech. I worked with internet phone support and got traumatized, so I can't stand giving support nowadays. Questions can get pretty surprising, and I just don't have the patience (sue me). I find it funny that here in vb.org some people demand support, expect support to a FREE code that is provided. And if I don't reply to the questions about my mods, no one ever does. Most people don't help each other, they just come to the mod thread and ask their stuff then go away. I try to help most nice people with problems though, if I have the time, but I don't officially support modifications. Don't get me started with insane feature requests...

As for mod release activity, most mods released nowadays require weeks of coding, and that's good. Back when 3.5 and plugins was out, everyone was excited making quick mods (myself included), and the release activity was high. I think this things are related, bigger mods coming out now takes more time to code than the mini mods people used to do. It took me two or three weeks to make my radio and TV add-on, which had 50 installs in the first day :)

Also in my defense of not supporting my mods, I make them usually for myself to use, share them for FREE and now I allow ANYONE to re-use the code of any of my mods to release their own versions of it. So now other people might re-release my mods and make a better job at supporting them than me. And I'm hoping that happens, and I think it is pretty cool. This could create a healthy open-source sub-community here that would help everyone, each one doing the job (coding, support) they want to do. I know I don't want to do support, but I want to share the mods I make for myself with others.

*shoots bigcurt* :P

edit: Dream's wall of text crits you for 10000 damage. You die.

Please never make a WoW reference again or I will be forced to kill myself with a crit :P.

My license Just expire Today i will be thinking either way to Renew it or Move to IPB or phpBB .....

Personally, I'm THRILLED with the mods that are out there for vBulletin. There are some very exciting, very effective tools to make a forum a better place to be. I've nothing but program php all year so I realize just how tough it can be to make a system work for everyone. It's very difficult to please everyone.

I was into SMF for a while. There were some good mods, but it wasn't even close to what I experienced when I made the switch to vBulletin about a year ago. People can pretend that other forums are perfect, but what they really mean is there is one particular mod already written for that script and they refuse to pay someone to write it for them.

Maybe the time they waste switching forum scripts could be better used to serve their community or work with developers to get their mod (either free or paid).

Thank you to everyone who donates their time to make vBulletin even better!

Brandon

Iam trying to find a website where i can find paid Mod/hack i could not find anyone other then vba.com and vbhacks.com is there any other then this 2 ?

Could you name what your looking for?

Since you are no longer licenced, I fail to see why you need such a site.

should be a section where the paid for hacks can be displayed - sort of catalogue what is out there with a link to the relevant site for more info etc.

I myself have released a dozen free mods, and coded another handful for clients in the last 2 months. :) I wouldn't call that inactive.

Good point :)