Adopt a hack forum?

[libertate]

There is a lot of presumptions, primarily that whoever is using the hack/mod is willing and able to code it.

That is not the case for me. Although I could code, I am not willing. So where does that leave me with a hack that is crucial for my site, and yet abbandoned by an author?

As for "just contact the author", more often then not, the authors abbandon their code suddenly. That is, by completely disappearing and not leaving sufficient contact information.

I am not looking for a "thread" or "forum". I am looking for a DB.

A database will have additional benefits. Currently to find any hack you have to scan through hundreds and hundreds of threads to actually find the link to the hack itself. If there is a better way, then I don't know it - ergo I also presume that a lot of other non-tech savvy individuals are forced to scan through just as I do.

Having an organized method to manage hacks, for searching, commenting, updating, and providing future life after an author leaves it is beneficial for the community. A solid repository of code would be an extreemly strong resource.

Right now, no disrespect, but vB.org method of categorizing code is very limiting. "Beta Releases", "Full Releases" and "Premium Releases". Thankfully, the "Full releases" is broken down further... Could at least the primary thread be stickied?

[zetetic]

I agree that there are problems with the current setup, but I'm also not sure a new forum would help.

It seems to me that like others have said, most of the coders who abandon hacks do so because they disappear from here entirely. So they probably won't be around to hand their hacks off to someone else anyway.

Also, while it's true that people can just take over support of a hack in the thread itself, the problem is that non-coders (like myself) end up having to wade through 25 pages of comments where there might be a dozen different "fixes", some of which are unnecessary, others that have already been added to the first post, some that are just wrong, etc. And it's very difficult for non-coders to separate the good from the bad, the necessary from the superfluous.

Originally Posted by Erwin

Possible solutions:

1. Have a checkbox when you submit a hack to say "Yes I allow this hack to be taken over by another hacker" or "No I will not allow anyone else to develop this hack".

The problem with this is that initially not many would choose to say "Yes".

So why not just make it part of the deal that when people post a hack, they implicitly agree to surrender their code if they disappear, unless they specifically request that it be removed? That way if someone wants to take over a hack they can just PM a staff member or something, and if the staff can't get a response from the autor either then the hack ownership is turned over to the volunteer.

I can't imagine why anyone would object to having development of their hack continue after they've obviously given up on it and moved on.

[amykhar]

So why not just make it part of the deal that when people post a hack, they implicitly agree to surrender their code if they disappear, unless they specifically request that it be removed?

Because many of us would never release a hack here again. Our code is free for you to USE but is not free for anybody else to claim credit for.

Over time, bugs get worked out and the same installation errors repeat themselves. After that, questions are generally posted by people too lazy to read a thread or by people who want the hack author to make niggling little customizations like - I want to restrict this so only user x can do that, etc.

Once a hack gets to that point, I don't always waste my time replying to people. It doesn't mean the hack was abandoned. It's just my way of preserving my sanity by not answering the same questions over and over again and by not being begged to death for subtle changes that a simple glance at a php manual could resolve the need for the installer.

Amy

[zetetic]

Originally Posted by amykhar

Because many of us would never release a hack here again. Our code is free for you to USE but is not free for anybody else to claim credit for.

I didn't mean to suggest that the original author should lose the credit for their work, just that a new coder who wants to bug fix and/or keep it updated with the new releases of vBulletin should be allowed to update the original post. Maybe even leave the original files intact and let the new coder upload a v2 or whatever.

I was under the impression that vb.org was about open-source community sharing and all that. Why would you stop posting hacks unless you could be assured that development of them will stop when you lose interest in them?