Do we have to support resources?

[DRE]

Over free stuff though? That's like throwing out candy to a crowd then coming back with a wastebin and kindly asking people to throw their wrappers in it.

 

[Adam Howard]

Over free stuff though? That's like throwing out candy to a crowd then coming back with a wastebin and kindly asking people to throw their wrappers in it.

For everything.


Those asking for support should know patience and respect.

Those providing a free resource should provide "best effort" support, when possible, which does not include support for other conflicting resources... ie... Out of scope for support.

There is an unwritten code of ethics with any release, but it does go both ways.

 

[DRE]

Ya'll are crazy. lmaoooo

 

[a legacy reborn]

Ya'll are crazy. lmaoooo

If you release something then you should be open to helping with it, to the best of your ability given your circumstances. If someone made a free OS(Oh, say, Ubuntu) would you not expect some sort of support? Open source is the best but with it there will always need to be some sort of support. If you can't offer any, fine; but you should at least tell them and if you honestly can't then it is their decision to install said mod/style.

 

[DRE]

If you release something then you should be open to helping with it, to the best of your ability given your circumstances. If someone made a free OS(Oh, say, Ubuntu) would you not expect some sort of support? Open source is the best but with it there will always need to be some sort of support. If you can't offer any, fine; but you should at least tell them and if you honestly can't then it is their decision to install said mod/style.

No because I'm not offering a service. It's like coming to work and bringing a box of donuts for your coworkers. If one of them don't like the taste oh well.

 

[Adam Howard]

No because I'm not offering a service. It's like coming to work and bringing a box of donuts for your coworkers. If one of them don't like the taste oh well.

If that really is your stance, the least you can do is post in your release

"No support provided"

This will resolve any possible conflicts with your point of view VS the universal standard view point of releasing any resource, anywhere.

 

[a legacy reborn]

No because I'm not offering a service. It's like coming to work and bringing a box of donuts for your coworkers. If one of them don't like the taste oh well.

That is different though. The donuts are transitory food products that will soon be digested and exit their respective body as waste, whereas mods/styles are things that people will have to work with for years to come. True, if they don't like them then they can just remove them and move on but in the case that they are asking for support, it suggests that they like it but are struggling with something about it. If they then come to you for help, you may refuse or lend your services; your choice and either work but you need to make one. If you don't want to/can't support it then say so; otherwise you should try your best to help them. There is nothing wrong with taking whichever road you wish to, but you need to make it known. You shouldn't just leave a mod and not tell anyone that it isn't going to be updated or supported because then they may become dependent on it.


Edit:

If that really is your stance, the least you can do is post in your release

"No support provided"

This will resolve any possible conflicts with your point of view vs the universal standard view point of releasing any resource, anywhere.

EXACTLY!

 

[DRE]

You're all right and I'm wrong. Just yahoo'd my own question 'Do we have to support our resources'

Found my answer and it says yes, we should.

 

[Adam Howard]

You're all right and I'm wrong. Just yahoo'd my own question 'Do we have to support our resources'

Found my answer and it says yes, we should.

What would Jesus do, huh?

 

[DRE]

What would Jesus do, huh?

lol pretty much.

 

[Sador]

You don't have to support anything, but a gentle reply to a pm, topic, or the resources saying you're not going to support it, isn't that much effort. Alternately, you could always post it immediately when you post the given resource, then it should be obvious as well.

Either way, I think this topic is... somewhat useless for everyone involved.

 

[DRE]

Wasn't useless to me. I learned that if I post a resource, I should support it, when before, I didn't care. Kinda still don't but as a Christian, I should.

 

[craigiri]

I was in retail for a long time...

One day a guy brings back an empty spray can of paint - it was used to paint a old wood stove. He complains that the paint can says on it "use to paint stove and stove pipe" and yet he was not able to stretch the can to paint his entire stove and pipe! I looked at him with disbelief and shook the empty can. At the time I was young and inexperienced, so I asked him "do you buy a cake at a bakery, eat the whole thing and then return the empty dish complaining that you were not satisfied?"

Of course, that was the reality of the situation. But, my wife still yells at me to this day about the way I treated him.....in years since I realized I should have just given him another can and apologized.

By now you are probably asking why I told this story??? Well, no reason really.....just that it is possible that a XF user who downloads a free resource may someday hire the writer of it for a $5,000 add-on creation job, etc. etc. etc....

But, basically, I am with the OP. When something is free, not even the slightest support needs to be offered. If using the RM creates this problem of bad reviews, etc. then perhaps some of the free mod authors will move their stuff to github, etc. where it is made very clear that it is as-is, where-is.

Oh, and thanks to ALL the authors who give away mods...and even to those who sell them!

 

[DRE]

I was in retail for a long time...

One day a guy brings back an empty spray can of paint - it was used to paint a old wood stove. He complains that the paint can says on it "use to paint stove and stove pipe" and yet he was not able to stretch the can to paint his entire stove and pipe! I looked at him with disbelief and shook the empty can. At the time I was young and inexperienced, so I asked him "do you buy a cake at a bakery, eat the whole thing and then return the empty dish complaining that you were not satisfied?"

Of course, that was the reality of the situation. But, my wife still yells at me to this day about the way I treated him.....in years since I realized I should have just given him another can and apologized.

By now you are probably asking why I told this story??? Well, no reason really.....just that it is possible that a XF user who downloads a free resource may someday hire the writer of it for a $5,000 add-on creation job, etc. etc. etc....

But, basically, I am with the OP. When something is free, not even the slightest support needs to be offered. If using the RM creates this problem of bad reviews, etc. then perhaps some of the free mod authors will move their stuff to github, etc. where it is made very clear that it is as-is, where-is.

Oh, and thanks to ALL the authors who give away mods...and even to those who sell them!

That's a good story and I see where your coming from. I have been hired and paid to work on people's stuff before. Never for no $5,000 job though. Xenforo software itself has helped me changed as a poster. I am more tolerant and I try not to troll people as much as I used to. I am a better person for it. I had Brogan to help me out with that because he was always on my ass about the littlest of things. People treat this site as a business site, I don't. I'm just chilling.

So what I learned today is that no I can't just chill here because 1. I should support addons and 2. If I don't have the time to support it, say so and 3. If I don't feel like dealing with people's issues, don't post anything at all. I've noticed that the more stuff I post, the more questions people will ask, the more issues that need fixing and the less time I have for myself because I'm busy doing stuff for others... and not even getting paid for it. Lame.

 

[craigiri]

Fame is always tough to deal with. We all crave it, but then when the groupies surround us and throw themselves at our feet, we decide we want a break!

Way back when I used to write a lot of FM Pro Scripts which were placed on an old AOL forum dedicated to FM. I really enjoyed seeing the number of downloads.....happy that others were using them. But I never had to answer even a single question.

I know myself pretty well at this point. It would drive me pretty crazy to give something away and then have anyone demand somethings of me.....or even ask with a time element!

I can imagine a XF eco-system where folks release free or low cost add-ons, but allow others to then modify them - paying either the original author to do so, or paying a third party. Of course, the original author would have to release it as open source or something similar.

If XF really blossoms, there will probably be some "high end" studios (partnerships, etc.) which provide serious and long supported add-ons. My old CMS has a couple such companies, but one in particular does a LOT of business - Solspace (for EE).

In any case, I fully understand...this should only be volunteer work to a certain degree!

 

[Kintaro]

Simply write on the description "not supported" or "best effort support", or something like that. ;-) in this way there won't be any misunderstanding.