Spinoffs from vbulletin
 

I thought VB.org was a central point for all vb hacks but lately its getting crazy as theres that many sites u gotta bookmark for news updates etc.
Now dont get me wrong aint calling u hack makers etc - but it seems u make a hack to promote your own board then we all gotta log in there if we want it.
Surely this was`nt the orginal aim when this board was made ?

Now what do i mean by the above ?
Well u find a hack u like then u follow it to u get some problems so u reply to the orginal thread only to be told `sorry u need to reg on here now as only dealing with queries on my own board` but to me this will kill vb.org.
How many others are annoyed with this sort of board jumping hog or is it just me on me own.
whether i am right or wrong it still raises a good question though.

In fact gonna have another whinge now - years ago on here u needed any help u got it instantly (i should know as many mods etc have helped me in the past inc Erwin) but now the situation has changed totally.Help can come in weeks now not days - and if u ask for any specific alteration to a hack - $ signs start flashing around in peoples heads.Seems every man and his keyboard are looking for ways to make money.
To me vbulletin.org is a central point for all vbull hacks and if its hack to d0 with vbull then it should be on this board - whether its gotta be paid for or not.

In response to the uCS hack, we have a huge thread, its near impossible for us to keep up with some things there, both me and matthew try our best to give support there, however its alot easier to get support on our site as we can see each indivdual thread, and no one will get confused with who is replying to who. we are not charging anything, we still release and try to support our hacks best as possible here as well.

Dollar signs may flash in other people's minds, but I'm still broke over here. :p

I pay for the server that the site sits on out of my own pocket, we had some people donate some money that went directly to our license.

in all fairness if you're asking for an alteration then the hackwriter has every right to ask for a little to fill his/her pocket, asking for code customisation is alot different to asking for support.

my only gribe with vb.org is that theirs less of a community front in the coding forum (php, xhtml, etc) and all the php helpers/guru's have abandoned the irc channel. (don't get me wrong theirs still alot of help to be had, just not as many folk around as their used to be :()

regarding hacks, it's fine, theirs alot of stuff being released and very regularly too. and mostly with support to boot, supporting a hack is time consuming, it recently took me weeks to update one of my hacks. :(

not bothered to much about filling their pockets sabretOOthe as everyone needs to earn money but what me main gripe is - is that for help etc u gotta go elsewhere yet the orginal hack would not have the followers if it was not released on vbull in the first place.This place with its many members is a good advertising ground as you know that everyone who is a member here is part of a vb board so in effect a customer to someone.But if everyone decided to post hacks then say u want support u gotta come to so and so then why have the board in the first place ?Everything should be here in one place.

I don't create / release hacks... not a hacker, I just download & install them, but from my point of view the people who download the hacks shouldn't really have a say on where the hacker provides support unless we're paying for the hack. Its enough that they create the hack for free... Signing up at their board shouldn't be too much trouble considering it probably took longer than that to create the hack.... Just my opinion

My question to you is how do we as a site stop authors wishes? If they want to offer support on their site there is nothing we can do about that I'm afraid, other than offer a better medium for them to offer support.

If people who downloaded hacks never had a say then u would`nt have the hacks u have today as most hacks are based on members feedback.
You are right it dont take 2 mins to sign up - but theres something amiss about all this and in time we will see if im right.

I can honestly say it is not money that get me going with the hack. My time is worth much more for doing what I normally do. I also do not have the need to promote my site. I do it because: 1) I need the hack myself (although all the recent versions are purely released to fulfill other people's need). 2) It is only natural because I use other people's hack. I am putting back. 3) Some programming fun.

I can understand some of the things that have been turned out. I just replied to a few posts in my own thread, all I had to say was to go through the settings to find the answers. It is quite disappointing to be honest, here I am spend my spare time coding and support my hack. Yet people don't even bother to go through the settings before posting a question. I remember when I first used Matt Wright's perl cgi scripts years ago. Despite I had virtually zero knowledge about programming, I did some modification in the scripts after many fail and trail. Here we are on a hacking forum, people are asking questions which are explained in the setting description let along go throug the code.:( Another thing I have noticed at least in my thread is users seldom help others out. It seems they all drop in to get their problem fixed or make the feature request and leave.

I think the users are the real reason for the coders to either trying to make money out it, or promoting their own site and perhaps making some money in the end. It goes like if I need to put up with all the crap, why not get something out of it. The trend won't change unless the users are educated to know the programmers do not owe them anything, they are here to help in their spare time.

I didn't say we shouldn't have a say at all, I said "shouldn't really have a say on where the hacker provides support"

so u did - sorry m8 my fault,read it wrong.But what if every hacker decided to post a hack here and then say `go here for support` - we be knackered then.

tabs and tab groups problem solved, i don't really care where i go for support as long as i can get an email when my problem is solved, hence why i actually prefer independant boards i think, i can get replies just to my issues rather than a whole thread, until vb.org implements a feature where i can get emailed when people quote my specified post i'll go wherever the help is.

Yep that's true... lol I'm not saying it'd be better for us if they each had their own place for support - It'd suck, just saying they should have the right to have those places.... hopefully not everyone would excersize that right ;)

I still think that this place would be far and away the best place for getting and giving support *if* hack authors / supporters could mark individual posts as "FAQ" items for that hack... that way anyone looking for help could filter out the excess and just read the useful content.

It's not that easy giving support in a 1,000+ post linear thread. ;)

Being a new guy here I thought I would jump in here, honestly when I first came here and asked for help I was surprised at the lack of responses. I don't blame anyone for this but I really did expect to hear a simple "I would but don't have time" or "sure, but it will cost you" or something, but almost all of my posts for help both paying or not received no responses.

I have worked with this board a little bit and am learning how it works so most things I can now do for myself and I am glad to freely share for those who want it. This is where I am beginning to see why people may not reply so much, since posting a couple of little tweaks I have received PM's from people asking for help, more than I can handle actually.

I know that matthew and I try our best to get to all the support but its alot. Multiple hacks, development work, jobs, school. its crazy I feel bad wehn I dont know an anwser or dont have time to give the support That I would like too

That's completely understandable, I guess that's where it's nice when other people can jump in and help out. I do what I can also and you will find that I will become very active in this community as well, I was the same way with my last board. Obviously, I don't have much of a life.

I did alot of help with myvbindex back in the day, and now i help out brian with vBadvanced. :)

The community is changing and has changed, but that doesnt mean we cant adapt and change as well.

I really dont like the fact "everyone" is going out and making hacks and charging for them, now granted there are some that are worthy of it.

I think what really gets me are the people who are making alot of money on their websites who wont pay for a simple hack, or wont reinvest some of their time and efforts back into the community

I can only speak for myself but I certainly am not at a level with this board to be able to do that yet, even then I am more of a help someone out for the sake of it type of guy. For the most part that's how I learn this stuff. Time and knowledge permitting I will do anything I can for free, that's probably also why my site barely makes any money. ;)

Actually i take back my post - upon reading some of the major hacks i now see why some people have choosen to grant help only on their forums.As Zachery said above they do it out of their own pocket which is true and who am i to knock em for that.Maybe i was out of hand with my post,but i just sort of relised that after reading a few replies to basically any hack - you will always get those who can install it fine and then u get those who no matter what it says in the instructions still run into problems.So can see how a thread can soon spiral out of control as theirs about a million and 1 things that people are asking.
Yep i was wrong and will admit it.

[high]* lasto shys away :)[/high]

Another thing that happens is that one little things often spirals into something major i.e. Will you help me with this template edit, then you help and they keep wanting more and more. To me, at that point when someone cuts out of the thread it's understandable, it can be a catch 22 sometimes.

i believe giving support on an off site forum is a good idea since it most likely where the coder will visit everyday. I also believe it makes everything alot more searchable and accessable for browsing members. That is why for every hack i make, big or small, i provide a support forum on site(guests can post of course in those forums). So some may do it out of trying to get people to register but i think its easier on the coder and user to have a separate forum for the hack. i have to say its alot more organized and easier to read;)

We here at vBulletin.org are considering having forums and subforums for major add-ons for vBulletin. We can see that for large hacks, having just 1 support thread is not enough. This issue is being discussed by staff.