[suggestion] Service Requests
 

ok heres my suggestion, i beleive that their are far too many lurkers on here who are only interested in service requests and while this isn't exactly illegal i beleive that profitting from the site in such a way is wrong, if you're gonna make money on the side is one thing, but if your main purpose for being here is money then you should be gone. i think the best option would be for it to become an elistest zone.

i.e. if you've released over XX amount of hacks in XX months then you can see the threads inside "Service Requests" and if you're requesting a service then you can see only your own thread (i imagine that works in the same way as the "Style Submissions" forum. (Rose and NTLDR could mod it)

While this would call for great moderation of the submission forums i.e. craply made hacks should be removed (along with unsupported hacks maybe) it would instill a greater community spirit if even people were releasing hacks so they could get to that point of profit.

I think this whole XX hacks over XX months should extend to private messages as well, i.e. if hotwords regarding requests like "cost", "charge", "paypal", "dollars", etc all resulted in an error then theired be less people profiting from only looking out for number one.

PS. i think all of this should extend to moderators as well as i know that a most of the able mods on this site only do service requests now and they should also give a little back in terms of what they got elected for.

anyways please contemplate my suggestion, i beleive it would help a hell of a lot around here and you'd be likely to see alot more supporting of hacks and all round forum activity.

I disagree. There are many experienced coders who do not see the logic in releasing hacks for nothing when people want a paid product.

if i was making money from making paid hacks, i'd probably have the same view, but if you look into non-paid hack requests, they hardly get answered these days, it should be a privilidge to get to make money via vb.org and a privilidge that only people giving back to the community get to have.

i think theirs nothing wrong with making it a privilidge to be honest, it should be about something on the side, and experienced coders who can't see why they should give back to the community for free don't need to be here, they can set up their own site and make money off of that.

I agree.
If a member does not give to the community they should not prosper from the communty.

The community should award individuals who give back.

glad to see it's not just me who thinks that :)

You all know how I feel about paid hacks. I think giving back to the community who taught alot of these coders the coding skills they use to make money is only right before they are allowed to prosper from it. Especially when some of those paid hacks use code that the coders get help making from this site.

Just a note, Bob. Not everybody who learned how to code learned at vb.org. Some of us have college degrees ;) (Note, I have no vested interest because I do not respond to paid requests in the services forum. I don't have the time to ensure work would be done promptly)

I think that people hiring hackers from the service requests forum would be wise to look around the community for examples of the coder's work before they make the leap. I am also highly in favor of using the reputation system that's built into version 3.

I don't think there should be a minimum number of hacks released or posts required. I think buyers of the services should be allowed to see and choose from ALL potential candidates.

Amy

Ah, but is your degree in vBulletin coding? ;)

Well i think as long as these people pay for there vb licenses they are ok :P, people have to make a living if you have the skill use it :P

As someone who started their business through the Service Requests forum, I think your motives are good and valid, but the method suggested is not enforceable. It's like using post count to determine member status or any other feature-- once aware of the requirement, people will make junk posts just like they will make junk hacks to meet the limit.

I no longer use the forum as my client list is long enough, but I don't think something like this would work. Amykhar has a good point that a client should have the option to choose from all qualified applicants. My list of public hacks is short but my clients would attest that I'm quick and knowledgable. I also do answer some Requests when I have time (remember a few days ago ST? hehe) but as I do this professionally, I simply don't have much time available for free work.

Also, I think this sort of motion would be easier to support if the original software were free. Since vBulletin actually costs to download and use, there isn't the spirit of the GPL here as there might be with phpBB or another free package.

While it's all well and good to want the community to grow for free -- some people do use vBulletin support and modification and skinning to make a living. No reason to slight these people as it is a necessary service.. where else do you get quality support when you can't wait and Jelsoft won't help your hacked site?