[FASherman]

Here's my two cents...

A developer releases a kill hack here. Many people install it and it becomes instrumental to their sites. They request feature after feature. It becomes a kill hack, but the guy who released it now spends 20 hours or more a week maintaining his releases.

There is NOTHING WRONG with him deciding that the amount of time his code now requires means it has to be pay-for-use. He's not a bad guy at all, nor is he any more greedy than the people who have been using his code for free but demaned long hours from him for no compensation. It is a natural evolution.

There is nothing wrong with someone who makes personal decision that his releases will all be free. When his killer app takes off, he makes the opposite decision. The code is "as is" and he can no longer support it. (See Inferno RSS Feed hack for an example).

For the end user, it can be a bust either way. We can becoem dependent on a hack that never matures because it becomes a support nightmare. Or we can pay for code that ends up being short lived. Its crap shoot. If you don't like either choice, buy a PHP book and roll your own.

In the specific case of TheGeek, his stuff is quality. I have no problem paying for it in the hopes it will continue to be.

As for VB.Org and commercial software, I really wish that either VB.Org or VB.Com would maintain a list of VB integrated software and add-ons. More than that, allow us to review them and rate them. I want to know what works with VB and what doesn't. I want to know which ones are good and which ones aren't.

I don't see an information source as advertising. I see it as yet another service this site could provide.