New Forums
 

Just a suggestion to mull over perhaps ...

we have different types of mods,styles ect is it entirely possible to categorize them

into 2 groups supported ones and un supported ones

for me i want to browse the supported mods ect

anyways just a thought

The thing is, the developer sets that flag and it isn't always accurate. Sometimes the users support the mod even if it says Unsupported. And sometimes nobody supports the mod even though it says Supported. The best thing to do is look through the comments and see how well it's been supported before you decide to download the mod.

well that is not a good system imo if it says unsupported its unsupported to me

if its marked supported then it should be of such

i am just stating observations and what would be easier to end user is all you have new products coming out that is supported that is the same but better from the other mods that are marked unsupported

me personally would rather look at all the supported mods ,styles, ect but still have the options to go back in the archives so to speak

Just want to add that you should *always* read a thread prior to downloading any modification so that you know if there are problems or not. One of those problems could be lack of support from the developer and the only way to know that is to read the thread and see if the developer is responding and helping users out.

And how is it not a good system to select Supported or Unsupported? That is up to the developer to set, not up to the moderators here. It is the developers choice on whether to support a modification or not. Also, please note that none of the developers 'live' on this site. You should not expect a response right away if you post a question to them. Most developers have jobs and family that are more important than a modification they shared for free here.

Modifications posted here are by kind donation of their creators they are not paid nor do they ask for payment so it's not possible to enforce a "if you said it's supported you MUST support it", people do this as well as a normal day job, if you start dictating they'll go away and all the community will suffer.

i beg to differ i get all the above stated and i dont think you understand what i am saying i want to go to a forum that has supported mods if a coder doesnt have time anymore is understandable but there are coders that do and they support there mods but this is not what i am debating

i want vb to make new sub-forums so we can have unsupported mods and supported mods same thing with styles ect i dont find that this is a diffucult thing to do

no one is saying that a coders time is not precious i know this isnt anyone's job ect

but you have coders that are improving on certain mods that are no longer supported that do have the time ect which i am not debating merely suggestion as the title says new forums really a couple clicks in acp would achieve this

So you want a search filter?

I more or less support all of my addons, but they're marked as unsupported. And some of the addons I or my team, or people of my team release are marked as such. You'd be missing out on great stuff if we separated them.

....not to mention, how would you make a divide between those mods that say supported but are not and vice versa so that you could categorise them in another forum or filter? it's an impossible task.

I think the biggest problem is as Lynne says.There are so many unsupported mods marked as supported and those are the ones in my eyes that need dealing with.

The majority of members on vborg and staff know full well we won't be seeing these developers coming back..

So yes in order to keep the boards fresh and inviting to new developers..The site does need a clean-up..Personally I'd like to see sections dedicated to the most popular mods on vborg based on downloads or views and yes place them in unsupported or supported.

Create a section for new mods/plugins just released by developers, let people try them and comment,then once they have had their new release period,move them..

Keep things fresh and then you'll get fresh blood..The board is just looking very stagnant.

The site doesn't need any cleanup, I disagree.

+1 fro me!, i've said this before the board is functional for the purpose, it's plainly laid out and easy to find every section.

You wont get new developers/coders/designers coming here because you have a new section that only has the latest or hotest mods in, and you wont get new blood because all the unsupported "supported" mods have been cleaned up!, when i create a new mod i dont all of sudden troll through the mods to see if anyone has one supported or otherwise, if it seems like a good idea for me then i'll create it!

you are one of many coders speaking about this i dont see the others commenting all i see is you and the vb team and me and another member ...

i am not speaking on a coders behalf i am speaking on a end user behalf this will benefit the end user and again it was merely a suggestion on my findings as a end user on this forum i personally will find it easier to just go to supported content ...

the vb team said they wont change it is what it is so i dont get this debate about how you or another coder would be offended ect if this was to happen ...

oh well this was a mistake on me posting this just for a few sub sections what a pity a member cant suggest anything without a huge debacle

I'm not offended, it's a debate :), in a debate you get to hear all sides whther you like it or not!. The "VB Team" you are talking about aka Zachery and Lynne are both prolific coders in their own right and as they have given so much to the community both in coding and support help to non mod questions they've joined the vbulletin team.

As Zachery said he marks ALL his mods unsupported but supports every one of them, just think about all the great stuff you'd miss if you only ever went to the "supported mods" forum!

If you truly wanted something supported you'd have to go to the paid section of these forums, again you'd miss out on great stuff.

yes i do know they are both coders and i know their capacity...

as for zach making his mod unsupported that to me is just ridiculous if he supports his mods then it should be marked as such but i also know he has a big plate so maybe his ans is mark it unsupported cause he dont have time why not say that in the description

i pay for a lot of excellent mods through dragonbyte which there support is top notch at vb and there site when you say i would be missing out on things i wont as long as they are around

really we have gotten of the track with this thread my intent was to make mention of what i would like to see ... but what vb is telling me is that even though something is not for sale then it really is i am not a mind reader lol

oh well

I'm in the opinion that no one should expect support from my addons, and support given to them is as my personal time permits. The addons I release here I do so to because I feel like they'll provide value or a learning experience for others.

Lots of people follow the same method as me, addons marked as unsupported, but support is given.

It would certainly be nice if we could readily tell supported mods from unsupported but there is just no practical way to do so.

Even if a mod is supported the day you download it there is no promise (and never will be) it remains supported after you download it.

If you require that kind of dependability you will need to limit yourself to paid mods from the bigger/reliable places. Of course even paid mods have been known to lose support unexpectedly.

Lol, nuff said! :)

One reason some mark mods as "unsupported" yet support it, is so they do not have to deal with negative comments and attitude from those who believe support given should be within minutes after they post. I know at one point in time I had one style up and the comments made when I was extremely busy before I could even release an update were simply uncalled for and silly at best, in fact it made me not bother to a certain degree and of course it was my prerogative to do so.

In the future any release I make will be marked as unsupported yet I will support it to the best of my ability simply to avoid what I mentioned above from happening again and if it does no worries here, I'm doing the best I can within my free and can live with that ;).

This is exactly why I mark many of my mods as unsupported. I got sick of users wanting an answer within one hour and then PMing me because I wasn't responding right away to their question. If I mark it as unsupported (even though I do support them), then I find I don't get users being so insistent that I help them right then and instead they are willing to wait a day or two.

Well this very interesting to say the least i never realized vb was like this even though this thread has went into a different direction i have gotten a great education on how certain coders and top vb staff feel and operate ..

i guess i am used to a higher standard and i am spoiled by the Dragon byte team all there mods are supported here and on there site ... not to mention there quick responses ...and of course they have lives too what a top notch bunch of coders

so from what i gathered most coders here think of the member base as chores because they are getting stuff for free so rather then hear why havent you responded to me this minute with support we mark the mods as unsupported but in reality they are supported so its like a deception but to you its not ...

what a confusing way to run a site if i see a mod i think is unsupported but in reality it is .. i ask another coder to improve or make the same mod i am out of luck but i might be in luck with that coder that has what i want so just make a post and its a miracle the coder will appear ...

as a end user we didnt know these facts ..in fact if i knew this i wouldnt have to have made this post ...

The dragonbyte guys run their business model on what seems like providing good support and good addons for free, but an even better experience if you pay for their addons.

What they do here, funnels into their actual business. The DBT guys make their livings (or part of it anyway) from doing vBulletin 3rd party dev work. IT'd be silly to have addons here and then completely ignore them.

That old saying, you get more flies with honey.

They already are, using the "supported" flag.

There is no need to create more forums for this, the facility is already there.

For them it's a business. For most here it is a hobby.

Not seems Zach they provide excellent support for all there products and unlike you and some others they always have there mods as supported ...

none of there mods go ignored so not sure where you are going with that comment

--------------- Added [DATE]1370001632[/DATE] at [TIME]1370001632[/TIME] ---------------


Thanks Paul you are the only one that has answered my original post without drama and i can respect that

btw i love all your mods

--------------- Added [DATE]1370001668[/DATE] at [TIME]1370001668[/TIME] ---------------


i guess joe

DBT addons are business (advertising), for the rest of us, its a hobby.

If you'd like to pay me my contracting hourly rate to make and provide addons (and support), I'll be happy.

Need a new yacht??? :)

Thats sort of a contradiction to the thread though Paul,as most have said they mark their mods as unsupported yet still support them. So the supported flag really serves no purpose..

I can respect the comments being made to why they mark them as unsupported and then support them,but that's not very user friendly for new members and I'm presuming that shouldn't actually be happening.

Maybe vborg needs to adapt the script to support the developers..Can a bug/suggestion tracker not be incorporated? Force users to click installed before they can use the tracker..I would of thought something like that would make the developers life a little easier when having to reply instead of searching endless posts..

As I already said, before you download ANY modification, a user should read the thread and see what sort of issues have come up and also get a sense of whether the modification is supported in the manner they would like a modification to be supported (answers within an hour? answers within a day? a week?). That is something subjective and no flag will tell that.

Honestly? If I had to start looking at a tracker here for my mods, I'd do the real simple thing and just not share any. This site is for fun only - it is not supposed to be work. If it ever starts becoming work, then I don't want to be here.

LOL so are the rest with intent to buy a pro version not saying yours but a good majority ...

what gets me is this thread started out as a suggestion to separate supported and unsupported to me if ll you people want to play games about pulling the wool over everyone eyes and mark your mods as unsupported when they really are supported is what it is but that is deception in my book

all i wanted was a separation of them both... maybe you can have a sub forum

when time permits this mod will be supported ...

oh well

It serves exactly the purpose requested.

Using forums instead would not make any difference, those who chose to mark them unsupported would create them in the unsupported forum.

In fact, it would be worse, as people could not easily alter them. Only staff can move threads between forums.