[Ziki]

I must agree with Zachery's point and also say that the decline of coders lies in the fact that most essential functions are already present in the default vBulletin product. This means that usually only specialized add-ons can be released and that not everyone is able to make use of that. This applies to the paid section as well. Before there used to be loads of request for a reasonable amount of money involved, which was beneficial for both sides. Now you rarely find such offers and it mostly consist of either very large projects (for which I don't usually have time) or smaller projects which are not worth the money that is offered. It's a shame but the plugin system really made people believe that coding is extremely simple and easy, so naturally, the actual price of your work went down as well. So coders leaving after this, is not really that surprising when you cannot make a living out of it.

I don't blame the plugin system at all, I love it, I blame today's society, thinking that the consumer can get everything for nothing nowdays.