[Zachery]

Originally Posted by War.Frog

I don't think arguing the copyright issue is something vb.org wants to do, or needs to do. The issue here is stagnant mods - they're clearly a problem and they're something I believe vb.org DOES need to try and get a handle on and discourage.

While the developers quite rightly want the popularity of their mod reflected in installed counts and ratings ("no support without clicking installed"), there is no incentive or disincentive whatsoever for a developer to indicate "Supported" on his/her new modification - even if they have no intention of ever supporting it.

That needs to change. While users are provided encouragement and incentives to mark a developer's modification "installed", developers are under no similar obligations to their users. I think developers who abandon their modifications or fail to provide support on "supported" modifications after X period of time should earn strikes against that mod, reflected in the mod and the developer's profile.

Almost like an eBay-style buyer-beware, if Developer A releases a three "supported" mods and then abandons his/her installed base, they earn strikes against their mods that provide fair warning to the community of the developer's reputation.

That way, even if Developer A releases a killer hack, people may be reluctant to download and install it in their production environments if that Developer's support/activity rating is in the tank.

Installed/downloaded counts simply don't tell that story - they only tell us how big the problem can be.

Nothing has ever stoped anyone from writing new code to replace a mod. For example we had Lesanes Store hack, Matthew wrote uShop/uCash, a similiar concept, possibly the same goal, but in the end different code.

There have been other cases of this: the numerous vB index pages in vB2/3 (MyvBIndex, vBindex, etc), Quick replys (numerous), Welcome Panels, Shoutboxes. Every few years we see new people with the same idea's doing their own things, no one is stoping them from doing their own things. What we (the community) are doing is saying you can't take their code (legally) and release it as your own. You can take their code and update it for yourself, nothing stoping you at all on this level.

If you release a modification that copys the concept, no one around here is likely to go all crazy and sue you*. Hopefully the two authors will fuel each other to make better code, features, etc or they can work together to do the same. You won't be the first, or last to do it.

If you see a mod that has been abandoned and really want to help, write a new addon to take place of the old one.


*It hasn't happened yet anyway.