Just an observation
 

Often, somebody posts a new hack and several people jump right on the hack thread saying how wonderful it is - BEFORE they even install the hack.

Then, sometimes the bugs start showing up and we have a first page of "Wow, this hack is great!" and subsequent pages of "This sucks. It doesn't work."

Later, people go to the hack thread and see the first page of "Awesome!" and try to install it and end up with nothing but problems. Then, they post, without reading the thread for possible fixes, about their problems. This bumps up the thread and somebody else sees the hack at the top of the heap, sees the "Awesome, wonderful!" comments on the first page, and the whole cycle repeats for a while.

So, my comment is this. It might be best to WAIT and comment on the hack AFTER you have installed it. The concept of the hack may be cool, but if it doesn't work, your "Awesome" comment has just caused problems for some newbie. It is also better to WAIT and install the hack AFTER you have read the support thread, or at least skimmed it, all the way through.

The same thing happens when Jelsoft releases an update. Somebody pounces on the announcement conversation thread with "Great! Congrats! I got the first post! Yay me!" and then later we see, "Uh, the upgrade isn't working." Why comment just to see yourself post? Save the comments for when you know that the released code works.

Amy

Exellent points, I completely agree.

This is pretty much common sense, I've done it since I first joined here.. ;)

Occasionally I'll post my thanks, and also note that I'll test it later - but more often than not I'll install it first.

But I love having my broken code praised! :\

Yep agreed, to an extent. Positive and negetive comments are both equally decieving though.

I suggest reading the hack threads backwards to get a good feel. I never ever start at the beginning to form an opinion.

(Did I mention I have an opinion?)

100% Agreed

Very good words. Hopefully more and more people will take it to heart and we'll see a reduction in such unwarranted replies.

Maybe split the thread after an update is made, splitting all replies to a new thread, that will eventually die, and start with a freash thread with the hack.

But then the feedback (Bugs / problems etc) would be in a different thread and everything would be mroe complicated and harder to organise, especially if its a big hack like VBA or uStore or the Arcade or something

Oftentimes when I release a hack, it works on my forums, but it doesn't work on others because my forums have custom code. So it does take a couple of releases to fix these "bugs". :) So before people get too excited, give the hack author a chance to tidy up his hack.

@Erwin
That's why I (at least I try to) test my hacks on vanilla installations before releasing them ;)

It's aways nice when someone that likes the hack will test for you before the release. But even then, things get missed.

That is my thinking as well. I am one of the "newbies" referenced earlier. I loved writing modifications for Ikonboard (Perl) and am wanting to do the same for vBulletin. I already have one hack made, but am hoping to get a tester that is familiar with vB.

I was actually refering to using those with little or no code experience to test. There are more changes they will do what they expect instead of what I would do, exactly what I code it to do. So bugs get found faster.

If you want your code to be tested and looked at without the worry of high expectations, use the beta release forum and note you are trying new stuff. You'll get supporters if your idea is unique and useful. Just put on your flame proof suit! ;)

Cheers and good luck.

I dunno about you folks, but for me, I install the hack if it is useful for my site, regardless of what comments are posted previously, because over the course of my time here in vb.org, I have come to realise much of the problems posted by those who installed a hack, are often due to their own faults at now reading instructions properly or applying fixes already posted in the hack thread.

So I just go ahead and install it and if I face a problem personally, i either seek help in the hack thread, remedy it myself by looking at the code or just uninstall it if it is beyond me.

my 2 cents :)

Yeah usually mosterrors are from not following the instructions. Happens to me lots and I'll have to go back and double check. I have a 'mentor' (:p) of sorts that is more experienced than me and I'll usually ask him fro help first.