[Slave]

I've been using vB 3.0.3 for ages now, happily using the free hacks on these forums and, if I felt them worthwhile, buying a couple of commercial hacks (vB Mail and vBaGallery as examples). I'm well known, by some hack authors, for giving feedback and suggestions on there hacks (The links/downloads hack in particular). Although I knew 3.5 went gold I decided not to renew my licence due to the lack of updated hacks for the product.

I wasn't aware of the "discussions" around the commercialism of hacks until reading this thread, although I have been aware that more and more coders were asking for donations.

In my opinion one of the great things about vB is the strength of the "free" mods on vb.org and I think we would lose something very special if we were to go down the route of advertising commercial hacks here.

If you think about anyone deciding on which forum software to use on their website, not only do they think of the cost of the forums themselves, but the cost of addons after the fact.

After seeing that a couple of the hacks I use have now been released for 3.5 I've just paid my ?15 to get my vB licence renewed for this year and since then I was wondering where the "big" hacks had gone from vb.org and now I know. They have gone commercial. If I'd known this before renewing I wouldn't of bothered and stayed with 3.0.3.

I think this is a slippery slope. The more commercial hacks on these forums the less free hacks there will be, as more and more coders think they can make money out of people. Some of these hacks cost more than the vB product itself! how can that be right?

Should I start charging the authors of commercial hacks for the suggestions I gave them before the product became commercial? How about the time I've put into beta testing their hacks? I'm sure I can come up with an hourly rate if asked

Anyway, I just thought peeps would like to read how some of us non-coders feel.