Chip In Box For Mods
 

I wish that if vb.org doesnt help paid products to market here, that there is at least
chip in feature for each mod that will display paid contribution to the mod.

This will help to reward authors and motivate them to publish bug-free and supported mods.

There so many not-updated and bugy mods here that installing a mod is becoming a nightmare.
I also miss drupal like mods approach with bug and feature request tracking. Not to mention declaration of developement stage and recommendation of installing or not.

If an author has his paypal info filled in it will automatically put a paypal donate button on this mods listings.

That is fine, but I am talking about transparent system. One that will show contributors and will promote chip-in behaviour.
I wish that only supported hack will have this. With support I mean updating and removing of bugs - not giving a helping hand from the author (this can be managed with community).

Vb.org may or may not take some administration fee for moving and removing chip-in ability.
They should take care of what is supported and what can be trusted for chip-in (without garantees of course).

There should be also request forum for chip-in mods - simillar to paid mod request.
If there will be enough money in to-be chip-in box, I think there will be also developer willing to step-in.

In current paid mod forum I can not step in and say "Hey I want to chip-in for this feature"...

I don't really understand how this would work, there is a paid request section for Paid Modifications and a free modifications section. Trying to bridge these two areas would probably create problems.

If you chip-in then the coder is basically under an obligation to do what you ask, essentially you are asking for a Paid modification (or addition to a modification). What would happen if the coder decided to take your chip-in and not add the feature you wanted?

I doubt vB.org would be willing to adopt your feature as it would increase their responsibilities in managing modifications and users, something which they would probably want to avoid.

I think the current scheme of things work just fine, if you want to donate to someone then you can if however you want a paid modification you can post in the paid requests section.

(P.S. The above represents my personal opinion not that of vBulletin.org team)

Im guessing what he means is a system in which a user like himself can request an extensive modification.
Then a coder would look over the needs of the user and quote a price.
The price might be too much for the user, in that situation most users either look for other alternatives, or they try to get others to pool money with in order to get the modification made.

The pooling of money is not always easy. Organization and trust of strangers being difficult things sometimes.

This can be alleviated by a simple and transparent system in which a coder sets a price and folks are able to contribute towards the funding of the modification via a series of micropayments.

Lets say the mod costs 100 dollars.
The user that was interested in it can only afford to pay 25 dollars.
But i really like the mod as well, and while its not worth 100 dollars to me, its surely worth 25 or 30, so i contribute some money as well.
Then some other person reads the thread and decides they want to chip in as well because they would like to have this brand new modification.

The asking price is met, the thread is marked as Paid, and the funds are processed and transferred to the coder so he can start work on the modification.

It would have to be some sort of middleware between vB and paypal.
When a person contributes 30 bucks, they arent really sending any money, its more of a promise to contribute 30 bucks.
Nothing has happened the paypal end yet, its all just held on vB.
Once the amount is met, then automatically the amounts are deducted from each persons paypal and sent to the coder.

There can even be further safeguards put in place.
Emails/PM's can be automatically sent alerting the parties involved that the price has been met and that it was time for them to go and give a final authorization for the transfer.
Or it can check to make sure the funds are available, and if they are not the price goes back to its previous status of Unpaid, and the amount submitted by the person who could not meet the funds is removed from the equation.
Another person would then have to then continue the process as before.

I like this idea, seems it could work for many instances, new mods and to help continue dead mods.

Great idea to help get dead mods back up and running.

There is a nice widget at www.chipin.com Why not to put this into the mod thread first post.
Along that I would list all contributors (maybe it is possible with widget)

I think that pretty much sums it up. :)

Actually I proposed this because I do not think that current system works.

There are many mods, I can not use because they are full of bugs, not finished or the dont function properly. There are many more that havent been even developed due to lack of time and.. money...

If you like it or not, time is money and therefore people tend dedicate their time into better paid jobs then developing non-paid mods... Sooner or later everybody has to make his living...

I think chip-in is very genorous way how to secure money for development time. I think it is needles to say that everything serious needs to be backed with money...

and when do u decide when enough has been chipped in etc for a particular mod ?

Decision is up to mod developer. They do not have to open chip-in if they do not want to.

I have tried to run some chip-ins unsuccessfully, and personally I don't like to see vB.org managing money, since we have our problems I think money will worsen everything...

and some coders, most of them, became 'speculators' and you know what happen when u speculate like on Wall St ;)

I wonder how many board will be still alive if they do not run some google advertisment or any other way of pouring income in.

Along with that it is quite funny to be against paid work with script developement.
I choosed vbulletin over non-paid script for reason. And what is behind this reasons? Of course money. The allow vbulletin stuff to make this script happen.
I just want to see the same chance for mods. Thats all.

I know there will be some nice guys willing to work free of charge. But you need to expect that many of them are not able to do this for ever and I do not expect this from them.
I see chip-in methond as a good alternative.

It has to have some rules of course and it wont be 100% perfect solution for every case.
But I am conviced that it can be better then now.

If you get stuck with your board, because of using dead and buggy mods, maybe you will start to think about it as I do.

after thinking about this - i have decided that its quite a good idea esp if a few of us want the same hack so we all chip in to pay for it.

COunt me in.

the current setup is just fine ;)
do a google search for "paid vbulletin mods" if your looking for the paid supported mods :)

The resources needed to implement such a suggestion are extreme: when money becomes involved into the function of the site, we're talking about more than just a site run by volunteers, especially the legalities that would have to be worked out and moderated throughout.

I'm getting a migraine just thinking about it :D

I already use paid mods, and I personally prefer paid mods over non-paid vbulletin mods.

However the chip-in is for different aproach from developers. It is not really business plan, it is just to make things happen.

And having it at vb.org is more effective then build them somewhere else.
Plus not every mod developer is seeking to make biznis out of the mod and go throug marketing hassles.
They just needs to be compensated for their dedication to mods...

--------------- Added [DATE]1223924406[/DATE] at [TIME]1223924406[/TIME] ---------------

So, lets figure this out in easy way. I have suggested www.chipin.com. They have most of what is needed...