Angry .Orgers

[Hossack]

I'm a newbie to vBulletin and to this forum, so I hope this post isn't speaking out of turn. I've read it from the beginning and apart from the odd bit of posturing, it has been very interesting to see how people view this site, from both the user ,the coders and the moderators point of view.

Humble opinion, but it does seem to be a strange arguement to be having. One side to the arguement is that vBulletin.org has and should remain free, excluding commercial interests from the site in favour of free help being offered to new and existing members. The other side, the freedom to code, or recieve code for either free or with payment if the code warrants it for the amount of time and effort in its development. The arguement seems valid enough to everyone, so much so that it is worth trading insults over, yet it seems very unlikely it will ever be resolved, as its seems to me it is more an issue of trust than anything else.

If you allow someone to charge for their services, the consensus is that everyone will start charging and this will no longer be a .org, more of a .com and the community that exists here would struggle in some way. This seems a little bizarre as you already have a Service Request area, and unless I'm missing something, there are people there offering money for modifications to their vBulletins, yet no-one seems to respond to these requests. In other areas, where people are asking for help and advice for free, there are responses.

I'm trying to learn how to work vBulletin, but at the same time would gladly pay people to help me, I don't see that it conflicts with the nature of this site, more that it enhances its usefulness to the community. If you have the time and inclination to learn, there are more than a few who will encourage and help, if you don't have the time, but have the money, equally someone would be able to help. The majority in this community seem to be fair and reasonable people who will help whether payment is involved or not, and the introduction of any services that are based on pounds and pence rather than out of the goodness of someones heart would not be abused by the majority by no longer supporting the free elements of the community.

As I say, I don't mean to speak out of turn and as a new member here I maybe don't understand the arguement or the history of vBulletin.org, but if I'm reading into this correctly it would seem to me that anything that benefits the majority is at least worth thinking about and for the people who want to be paid for their efforts could show how useful the paid elements of the site could be by using the facilities that already exist until it is decided one way or the other.

Hossack