[The Geek]

You guys quickly and easily forget that I produced many macks here for nothing - not even a 'dontate if you want' button. Why? Cause Its a hobby I love. I never 'owed' anything to the community - I didnt learn to code here as I have been doing that for almost 20 years. Sure, my php skills sharpened up a bit by working with it - however you guys need to get over the whole 'you owe it to the coimmunity for without us you couldnt have ever coded' thing. I have already spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on vB doing what I like to do: code for vB. Lets not forget that my work now is not 'show your age in postbits' or a small hook somewhere - all my work now spans THOUSANDS of lines of code per project.

I am now at a time in my life where if I can not justify (even at something stupid like .40p per hour) my habit of coding every single day. I have a (more than) full time job in the real world - and a wonderful family. I dont need money for the work I do - my real job keeps me pretty sweet. Heck, I'll more than likely donate any profit from coding anyway because I honestly dont need the small amount that it will ever generate. So why do it? There is a difference between charging something small and giving it away for free.

I fought doing anything commercial for the best part of a year - but with all the rewriting and code development (especially for vb3.5)- it was a choice of charging a pathetic amount for my work - or not to do the work at all. What would be better for the 'community'?

Anyway - I really resent that after all the work I have done here for the 'community' suddenly getting treated like a money sucker (oddly enough - only by the mods).

I didnt release this mod here to sucker people into using the pro version - this version is solid, complete and will satisfy a whole hell of a lot of users that dont need stats or hovering popups. I released this for the people that cant afford the PRO version nor want the features in the pro version.

I just feel it shuffs the vBorg into another dimension, more commercial, while it is a customer resource web site. Honestly, I didn't really know how to say it otherwise.

Look, while I respect what you are saying - your all or nothing attitude shoots vB in the foot and keeps enhancments for vB supplied and supported by hobbiests and locks professionals out. Which is better for vB's customers? (A duel approach IMO).

Personally, If I didnt start to charge something for the massive amount of work I am doing - then I wouldnt be able to provide more hacks and better hacks. In fact, developing for vB would have been tossed aside by now. Which would be worse - dropping all vB development or charging enough to pay for my site hosting?

Your hack by the way is 'complete', it does not feel feature-less, it does what it says it does and the code works and can help a lot of sites including a few of my own.

Thanks! Make sure you click the install button then!

Look, Im going on about this far more than I would have like to. However let me have this (hopefully) last word on the subject.

I code because its been a hobby of mine since I was 12. I did a long professional stint as a coder before moving into my current job which pays me very well. I started releasing work here because I got a buzz out of it. The work isnt 'what can I make a buck doing' but rather, 'what do I want to do with my site?'. My enhancments for vB are gargantuan - they are not little tweaks but massive projects with thousands of llines of code. I didnt rework them just to be commerical projects - I hand on heart do not anticipate doing much with the money from sales aside from maybe paying my hosting account. If I make more than that - its a bonus. Maybe ill donate it or something. Havent given it much thought as I am only charging for my work now because my time is worth a small investment from users.
I released this as a lite program not to 'tease' people into getting the pro version - but to have an offer for those that dont need the other features. Sure, it may help to sell a few more copies - but whoopee doo da. It will at least give a lot of users a free (kick ass) mack in the process.

The mods have got to stop sectioning out those who want to contribute but cant do it totally free. Doing so only hurts this site being:

Originally Posted by floris

a customer resource web site

And will only result in vB having little to no professional enhancements and a heck of a lot of hobby enhancements.

Anyway - sorry for bleating on. Im just really offended by how ive been treated after giving so much of my time for nothing to other users on this site.

I hope you guys understand.

Lets leave this thread for what little support will be needed for this extension (its built pretty solid).