[amykhar]

I don't believe that is true. What typically happens when somebody releases a paid hack is that somebody else rushes to create a very similar hack for free because they want the popularity.

Coding is a skill that deserves to be rewarded. Webmasters have a few choices when it comes to creating a site. They can do all the work themself and use their own ideas and coding abilities. Or they can depend on others to do it for them. When depending on somebody else to come up with ideas or code, then there has to be something in it for the coder or the coder isn't going to want to do it.

In an ideal world, we would share our knowledge and create great sites. Mist would write hacks that I might use, and perhaps Mist would use hacks that I write. (as an example) The problem comes in sites like this when a majority of the users do not contribute to the community but only take. That alone wouldn't be bad if they knew what they were doing when they took hacks.

However, most support questions hackers see once a hack comes out of beta are not bugs. Instead, they are feature addition requests or problems where the user didn't follow directions and installed things incorrectly and then needs help. So, what is in it for the hack writer then? In some cases, it's an ego thing. Bane has a hack that many people use and he can point to that hack with pride.

But some of us are niche programmers. We do little mods that help out specific requests or we write little things that once added to a board have no credit for the hack author. We don't demand our name be left on boards, and we don't have temper tantrums when people remove our tag lines from things we do.

There is a definite place for paid hacks for people who need extremely custom work that they do not know how to do themself. For example, on my board when somebody registers, a script checks to see if the member writes for Epinions.com. If he does, he is put in one usergroup. If he doesn't, he's put in another. Nobody else in the world would probably want that script and if I couldn't write it myself I should be willing to pay to have it done.

To me, it would seem that Jelsoft would want a comprehensive directory of services available to people who buy vbulletin. While I can understand them not wanting people advertising competing installation services, I wouldn't think they would get upset about a sig line that discretely announces that the member is willing to do custom work.

Amy