A Honest to Good Aggravated Criticism of Paid Modifications for vBulletin (Essay)

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by cheat-master30

The point still stands. You don't need 'expertise' to criticise anything. It's a very similar argument to saying 'only a scientist can criticise scientific knowledge' or what not. Saying 'I'd like to see you do better' and expecting that because someone cannot do better at whatever means they're wrong is a fallacy. You don't need to know how to make movies to say how a movie sucks, or know economics to say that there are unfair business decisions or various other stuff. Sometimes I really wish vBulletin would have a 'no use of code in paid deriative works' addition to their terms of service to stop much of this.

This is an applicable argument to criticise entertainment, but not someones work. For instance, I would need some level of scientific background to criticise Einsteins theory of relativity if I wanted to come off as something other than an ignorant schmuck. Criticise a movie because you paid for entertainment and didn't get it. Criticise a book because you bought it and did not enjoy the ending. But saying that vB shouldn't allow people to charge for their modifications because you don't want to buy them is truly silly. How about... you just don't buy them? Why on Earth would you insist that since you don't want to buy them 'no one can'?!?

Saying 'lets see you do better' is to totally miss the mark (not sure if this is on purpose). What is being said is: If you want functionality that is only present in a paid mod, then code a free version. That is the beauty of freedom.