[tgreer]

Originally Posted by The Geek

Coders forum

Having a forum for coders is a perk. It's silly and its small, but I guess it's nice. I could care less if it was public or private, however I am going to take a guess that 90% of the members of this site would rather not get their 'new posts' diluted with datamanager discussions because they couldn't give a rats toot about it or coding in general. Therefore look at it as a community service for the masses that it's hidden. If you want in so badly, contribute to the community and release a dancing banana modification. I don't know why the forum is of help to anyone that has never released a modification.

Why leave the 10% out in the cold, when there's no compelling reason for it? Who decided, and when, that the only way to "contribute to the community" is to release a plugin? (In fact, I have, and can see the Coders Discussion, but I don't see a single thread there that needs to be private. In fact, some of the public threads, for example about 3.6 changes, have their answers in the private forum - unnecessary duplicate content.)

Many people code plugins for themselves, for their own sites. Coding Discussions benefit them, and benefit anyone else who participates in those discussions. Keeping such discussions hidden and private diminishes the overall value of the site, breeds contempt for those who don't release plugins, fosters an elitist attitude, and segregates the community.

If you, personally, don't feel you want to help someone who doesn't post plugins, that's your prerogative. However, the official stance by the site owner, Jelsoft, is that this site is the "vBulletin Customization" site. That includes coding discussions, and the site organization, with the primary coding discussions locked away, is at cross-purposes to that policy.

The equations that coders=public plugin developers and that value to the community = releasing a public hack are profoundly flawed.

As a case in point, Geek: I use GARS Lite. I've posted a bit on your forum, giving you good feedback on CMPS integration. I even found and corrected some bugs in GARS Lite, which I told you about. I consider that as contributing to the overall good of the community. But I guess if I don't post my own plugins here, then I'm a nobody, of no value to the community? Value to the community, contributing positively, helping other coders, is not incumbent upon posting a plugin.