Confused with mod makers?

[merk_aus]

like i said the first reply in this thread answered the question -

I now understand alot better of the way things work i just thought if a coder saw something that had for example 100 replies all wanting the same thing in someones head they would here the cash register 'cha ching' and will make it and release as a paid add on or something.

I do understand that coders dont have all the spare time in the world, hell neither do us 'little' guys who are setting up forums, being a web designer i do know i hardly have spare time that i can just give out - so i have nothing against paying someone to help, if i get a free mod on here that has some huge impact on my site i try to make handy donations to the coder, and the ones that do not add much i try to donate at least something if i can - although honestly it sometimes slips my mind when i download something just to check it out.

thanks for your replies as i said i just thought the coders could be making even more money than they do at the current moment by forfilling some of the most sought after hacks i know i would give my backing both ideas/suggestion and support wise along with financially if people wanted to enter together to make some paid addons that are highly sort after haha yes the cha ching is ringing in my head.

[Dream]

Coders usually do what they think are fun doing, or that they would use it themselves.

It's very uncommon for someone to spend a month coding something for free that they won't use, and then have to support it, out of the goodness of their hearts.

Popular mods are also the worst to support.

Vbookie in particular is a hard mod to do, not everyone could code it, or have the vbulletin knowledge to do it.

Anyway, thats how I understand things are, I could be wrong.

--------------- Added 04 Nov 2008 at 01:27 ---------------

ps: also vbookie is so tied to vbulletin system, that any minor changes makes it need to be recoded, which is also a factor when a coder choose projects (or it should at least)

[TheLastSuperman]

IMO, I don't make mods to charge people. I believe when you pay for VB the mods should be free (STRICTLY IMO).... Although before any of you jump my post - I have very few and some not even posted here yet however I only have time to support a few. I believe if you wanted to charge then you should be looking for work not the other way around. Maybe it's the name (TLS) but I will NEVER charge - only ask for donations. I do free websites too however I DO charge for some special requests due to the time so I see all points being made here as valid no matter if you charge/don't charge it just depends on how you make a stand when and where plus how you are perceived. So basically I think the question was good but the answer cannot be simply given, only perceived .

S-MAN

hey TLS, i suppose you make a living of something else ?!... some coders don't... that's why they focus on salary... Jelsoft focus on profits too, or they would be closed... check out: installation of a vBulletin forum: 150$... it's mostly the same cost as the license itself... and they did not code a thing, just clicked 13 times before the install is done...

so imagine someone coding a 20 000 lines hack... which is different from a template modification or a new permission...

[merk_aus]

Originally Posted by Dream

Coders usually do what they think are fun doing, or that they would use it themselves.

It's very uncommon for someone to spend a month coding something for free that they won't use, and then have to support it, out of the goodness of their hearts.

Popular mods are also the worst to support.

Vbookie in particular is a hard mod to do, not everyone could code it, or have the vbulletin knowledge to do it.

Anyway, thats how I understand things are, I could be wrong.

--------------- Added 04 Nov 2008 at 01:27 ---------------

ps: also vbookie is so tied to vbulletin system, that any minor changes makes it need to be recoded, which is also a factor when a coder choose projects (or it should at least)

See what happens when you skim a topic instead of reading, as explained numerous times (and now i see why people get responses like Nexia's cause its annoying saying the same things over and over) - I did not ask a coder to do work for free, only pointing out the potential cash cow if the right topic was read and mod made, secondly vBookie was used as an example - it is not a code i want redesigned, or anything, infact i am currently in the process of phasing vbookie out of my forums as with the total rewrite of vb4 this would not work - so as said vbookie was not a script i was after and mentioned many times it was an example, i did not ask a coder to code something for free.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

To answer the original question, Dream is very close.

There are basically 2 types of coders around on vB.org (using coders as example, but same applies to Designers).

The occasional/hobby coder:
- Will code (mostly) for fun. Will often release his work for free.
- Will most likely code for his own website/interest and will release it when it can serve more people. This is most likely also the reason why you will find more modifications on the same topic: each has been developed for the own board of the coder without looking at existing modifications.
- Might take a paid/unpaid request, but only if the topic is also of interest to the coder and time needed is limited.

The profesional/fulltime coder:
- Will not look at the free requests in most cases. Might pick the best suggestions to release a few free modifications that will get high installs in order to advertise his knowledge and to get more paid orders.
- Will not take any low paid requests. Very likely mostly interested the better paying (time versus money) jobs.

Then there are members who will take the lesser paying (often non-coding) requests. Often members who are still not considered an expert are taking these jobs and the taker will often use it to learn while on the job.

[Gio~Logist]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

To answer the original question, Dream is very close.

There are basically 2 types of coders around on vB.org (using coders as example, but same applies to Designers).

The occasional/hobby coder:
- Will code (mostly) for fun. Will often release his work for free.
- Will most likely code for his own website/interest and will release it when it can serve more people. This is most likely also the reason why you will find more modifications on the same topic: each has been developed for the own board of the coder without looking at existing modifications.
- Might take a paid/unpaid request, but only if the topic is also of interest to the coder and time needed is limited.

The profesional/fulltime coder:
- Will not look at the free requests in most cases. Might pick the best suggestions to release a few free modifications that will get high installs in order to advertise his knowledge and to get more paid orders.
- Will not take any low paid requests. Very likely mostly interested the better paying (time versus money) jobs.

Then there are members who will take the lesser paying (often non-coding) requests. Often members who are still not considered an expert are taking these jobs and the taker will often use it to learn while on the job.

Bingo :up:

[merk_aus]

thanks everyone for your input i understand alot better now and like i said i didnt want to start arguements, i was just asking a question to better understand.

Thank you to all who have replied i do appreciate you taking your time.

[SVTCobraLTD]

I did not read this whole thread but the first 3 or so posts. vBookie is a good example I think. Like the original poster said, there are tons of the same style hacks out there. Why does someone not release a different type of bookie system that is compatible with the newer versions of vB? Just because the author will not allow someone to work with his code, doesn't mean we should just give up on the idea. vBookie is a great hack (for me) and it would be nice is someone came up with a new version since there are so many that want it for 3.7.x and soon 3.8.

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by merk_aus

First of all I would like to thank you for reading my post, please note that I am not trying to start an arguement, am not taking a swipe at coders or programers I am just asking a question.

I spend alot of time at this website, reading through almost all messages, seeing everyones posts and comments, and problems and all that type of thing.

I have one major question however - in both the Custom Work Paid and Unpaid areas you see there are a number of threads inwhich have a large number of posts (when you could reply to threads before it was all changed around) requesting a hack and then having many people agree that the mod was exactly what they wanted etc.

I am just wondering why we have here like 15 different types of rating thread modifications released for 3.7.x, however many members are calling for and willing to pay for a brand new vbookie mod to be made.

Now I know the original creator of vbookie is no longer around, and the person who took it over made a change or two and then no longer supports it and refuses to give people to take it over and morph it into something great.

There are many members who would love to have a new one created same functions just updated a bit, many are offering to pay etc.

And not just the vbookie mod - there are plenty out there - so my question is why do coders/programers continue to make mods that have like 15 different versions of it however do not make mods that are different or actually wanted -

I just want to understand like I said I am not having a go at anyone etc, is it the time involved in creating something that would be highly popular, or whether it is just lack of knowledge (I dont mean coding knowledge i mean knowledge into the mods people want).

I do apologize I just thought if there were 500 people who wanted a certain mod and all are willing to pay is it not worth spending a week or a couple of weeks on coding it and releasing it as even a premium mod for $20 or something like that? wouldn't that make $10000 for a couple weeks work?

Sorry i really am just trying to understand why so many mods that are more or less the same continue to be released when ones wanted arent done?

Thank you all for your time.

Well, I don't know what (or why) the fire fight that ensued was about, and I didn't quite bother to read that portion of the thread, but I'll say this much. I think it's largely a matter of the fact that since this a free service, it's going to be more a matter of inspiration then it would be demand.

To give a slightly similar example, I took over the media definitions threads for AME when the first two thread starters just ran into some problems on the personal side of things. But I did so, largely because I realized I had a knack for Regular Expressions which I did not know I had until I investgated how the definitions worked, but more importantly, I loved the AME modification. So for me, and I imagine it would be largely the same all around, it's a matter of inspiration first and foremost. I know I've started a couple of projects that when I look at them now, I don't know what I was thinking. It would be hard for me to find the will power to want to do it, even if there was a great demand for the work (which there is). I think even offer of payment wouldn't be enough to squirrel me off my seat. So likely that's going to the number one reason behind why we don't see certain things made, even though we see a great demand for it.

Conversely, there's no doubt a lot of people who'd go ahead and do their own versions of some defunct or demanded mods, but they just don't have know how to do it. I know I've had a gaming mod in mind for over a year know, but it's physical execution is just way out my league for the time being.