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

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Originally Posted by Gio~Logist

I think Dean pretty much nailed it in his post. Lizard King and Teck also brought up some very valid points.

We can sit here and discuss all day how cheap add on's should be, or we can realize that you really do "Get What You Pay For".

vBseo is said to be overpriced by quite a few people. Perhaps that's the case. However, have you seen how many people use it? Apparently the modification is of importance and is priced as so. Is seo valuable to you? If so, purchase vBseo. If not, you can download one for free right on here.

I'm not going to argue about vBseo, and I'm really regretting using it as an example after the massive amounts of arguments every time the topic is brought up about whether it works, doesn't work, etc. All I can say is, at least their product isn't encrypted any more, and has probably enough features to just about justify the price.

Also, you sure can go ahead and wait for vbulletin to release any of the additions in which you would like to see included. But do you really think they all will? Vbulletin is above and foremost, a forum software. The potential is indeed immense and a lot can be done, but Jelsoft's priorities (at least i believe) are directed towards the overall forum aspect of things.

Did anyone seriously expect them to release Project Tools or a Blog add on?

Why can add-ons be such a high price? If you're paying for a modification in which was already made and available for sale, i definitely don't see the need in paying anywhere over $xxx (and even then only for cases such as vBseo where people believe it's benefits surpass the fees).

Now, when you get into custom modifications (add-ons that you need for your website individually), I hope you don't ever expect these customizations to be "free" or "built into vbulletin". Or else, what purpose would your website have over the other hundred thousands that can do the same accross the web? Custom modifications can go well into the $x,xxx-$xx,xxx range as the extent of the features needed increase. And that's very common.

I have no problem with custom coding costing a lot of money. But I'd expect as you said off the shelf prices to be a lot lower than that of custom coding, as mentioned in this paragraph:

Custom Coding costs thousands of dollars/pounds...

Yet the word custom pretty much says why. Getting a developer or programmer to work for you and build a custom script is likely going to cost far more by nature since they can't really resell the script for extra profit and you're basically paying them like an employee or freelance worker. You can't expect to sell an off shelf modification for a price that exceeds even the base products price, unless maybe your work was a few hundred times more in depth, feature rich, optimised etc than the foundation is was built on. And to my knowledge, I don't know any paid add on (or free one) for vBulletin, Invision, etc, that is not custom for one site that has enough to justify such a ridiculously steep price tag.

Originally Posted by FRDS

Do you make money from your forums? Do you intend to make money from them? Do the paid features that you need help you make money? Would your members be happier by you spending some cash or taking some donations to get a new must have feature?

No. Probably not. Not at this moment. I don't know.

Originally Posted by TECK

First, this post does not have any adversity towards a specific person. It is the pure truth what I think about all remarks. I will not speak in a shallow manner so it might sound rough but believe me, I'm honest and say exactly what I think.

1. Why the hell is everything for money now?
If you would like to pay my mortgage and all other expenses that total up to $2,000/month, please let me know so I will stop working. All the free projects etc. you see out there survive on donations... I don't understand why people purchase vBulletin and do no use a free alternative. If you spent money on a good software and paid for it to get it, it is absolutely normal to expect to pay for other add-ons, if you want quality.

Because they like vBulletin as a base product because of it's quality and features? Because they like vBulletin and think the prices are fair but not those of the add ons? Because just a few years ago it seems there were a lot more free modifications that caused vBulletin.org to be given a lot more as a reason for purchasing vBulletin?

2. Prices from Hell?
The minimum fee I charge for my customers is 1,000.00, depending on what contract I work on. My current client signed for a 4,000.00 job. However he is getting what he paid for, quality and reliability. It took me 6 months to develop the product he wants. During this time, I did not get paid a dime. Now I collect the benefits from the long nights lost. I think it is fair, especially if the client saves money. Basically, my products will save him overall 7-12,000.00/year. So investing 4,000.00 is nothing for his benefits.

I have nothing against custom coding and work, which is what you've described. Just it's steep for something off the shelf and made for many different websites.

3. Lite does not equal feature non existent
When this community was born, I was doing a lot of freebies. Until I saw how many people ripped my code and did similar releases, while appropriating my hard work. It was allowed, because they changed 2-3 lines of code so it did not looked the same. Not to mention that other products were pure crap, in code quality... That made me decide that I will NEVER release anything for free, anywhere. It was an excellent decision, now I can make a decent living out if my products and services. Most of them are word to mouth advertised.

The point here is more that releasing Lite modifications with no features or reason to install is worse than not actually releasing the lite version at all, especially if you promote the heck out of the paid product in the first post.

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Originally Posted by Lizard King

All your post is pointless and you dont even have one single correct arguement.

Do you know how hard is it to support and spend time with them plus code free addons for people you dont even know ? Do you think it is fair for you to spend your valuable time coding free addons instead of spending time with family. It is impossible.

I'm not forcing anyone to release any modifications or whatever. Just saying about the paid ones, and the mistakes people are making with releasing the amounts of them.

Also everyone out there is creating a forum to make money. At least 95% target making money. Why should i code something free for someone who targets to make money ?

Because 95% are not in it to make money, at least initially? I know a lot of forums set up because the owners were interested in the subject and helping others, and not because money was one of their goals or interests. Note the amount of forums with no ads or minimal advertising for example.

P.S : Hopefully noone will turn this thread into vBSEO discussion. Author made a point and i just responded.

As I said before, I really don't want vBSEO discussion, because it's not the point of the topic, nor as I've seen before ends well.