[tgreer]

Oh, I admit, it would be difficult to convince me. I think all my rebuttals are valid: while I can be convinced, I won't be by, well, unconvincing arguments. If you don't agree with my rebuttals, that's fine... I'm open to counter-arguments: let's hear them. If you're going to quote my posts, please don't edit them. Otherwise you're just MIS-quoting my posts.

While I'm the most vocal about this issue, at least in public, I'm certainly not the only one who feels the coders discussion should not be private (or even have been created in the first place). Your assumption that there is lack of support/interest is completely unfounded. Review the initial announcement thread, the thread announcing it was made private, the thread on vbulletin.com, and even this thread.

But I agree with you this far: enough has been said, on both sides of the issue, for the administration to make a decision.

Other suggestions? You bet!

Here's one:

Consolidate the programming discussions. People are very confused about "General Modification Discussion" vs. "Custom Requests" vs. "vBulletin Programming" vs. "vBulletin Discussions" vs. "Programming Discussions", and yes, to top it off "Coders Discussions". With proper moderation, that could all be one forum. There are even modification questions ending up in the Lounge, likely because it isn't clear in which of the half-dozen mod forums it really belongs.

Another:

Create a "beta" release modification section, for plug-in authors who'd like other programmers to review their code, but who don't want it released to the general public. This wouldn't be closed/private, but would have ample disclaimers/warnings, just like any beta software. No one would be expected to ask for or give any support, no "Installs", no nominations for HotM, just programming feedback.