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

[smacklan]

Originally Posted by Gio~Logist

Why do you think vbulletin's so popular? Not only is it a kick-ass product, but it's a kick-ass product with... Well, kick ass products

You really hit the nail on the head with this. In it's infancy vbulletin was working hard to grow a product and following and fostering a "community" of mod'ers made smart business sense. Along the way those who contributed to the success and popularity of vbulletin wised up and realized they could (and should) make some income on their hard work as well. Today you have a product in vbulletin that, although very good on it's own merits, would not be half what it is without the cottage industries that have sprung up around it and make it all that more appealing to the masses. The biggest problem I see today is vb.com should merge vb.org into it's parent site and start officially supporting that arm of it's business. To claim vb.org is not part of the corporate entity that is vb.com and try and "sell" it as something it no longer is and hasn't been in a long time is very misleading. The time has long passed for this site to become a full-fledged arm of the business, staffed by paid employees and finding an official way to promote the cottage industries that are so integral to their continued success. To continue to "advertise" this place up as some "enthusiasts and hobbyists" playground leads to this very discussion we are having...among a myriad of other problems and issues.