Mods hosted on xenforo.com - Free or Paid ?

[jmurrayhead]

While I can get behind the "we don't host paid mods" thing, please for the love of all that is holy don't be overly strict about discussion of paid mods.

Users want to know about paid mods, people who are going to make paid mods won't do so more easily just because discussion of them is allowed (an App Store type thing would, however, bring an increase in paid mods being released that might not otherwise be paid), and needlessly hindering users who want to know about them / developers who want to tell people about them will just mean people do what my company does atm; dance on the fine line of what's acceptable and not.

indeed, and there's a certain shoutbox mod that I hope to gawd gets ported over for XenForo

 

[vijayninel]

While I can get behind the "we don't host paid mods" thing, please for the love of all that is holy don't be overly strict about discussion of paid mods.

Users want to know about paid mods, people who are going to make paid mods won't do so more easily just because discussion of them is allowed (an App Store type thing would, however, bring an increase in paid mods being released that might not otherwise be paid), and needlessly hindering users who want to know about them / developers who want to tell people about them will just mean people do what my company does atm; dance on the fine line of what's acceptable and not.

Ah .. seems like someone here has been at the receiving end of Marco van Herwaarden's no-advertising-here stick.

 

[Safin]

Imo its a very tricky issue. The only reason vbulletin so successful is because of the open developer community and because there are people who release quality stuff for free and share the same with the community.

Belazor makes a point that discussion should not be trashed just because people want to know about a product. Would the same argument be applied if say someone wants to give negative feedback about a product? Infact the count of such people is always more as its a fact that the happy guys never really look to give feedback, but the ones not happy make sure they tell about their experiences everywhere they can. (Mostly to gain attention of the coder)
How will you make the distinction about which topic is fine to discuss and which is not fine? You will end up fishing in troubled waters.

Either you allow all kinds of discussion or you not allow any. Else people will complain.

Imo the best compromise is to allow people to release lite versions. They get the publicity and the community gets a mod that is somewhat usable.

I make 15 products, 5 of them are paid, and fully featured. 10 of them are small but fully featured, and free for download. No lite version.
The free ones are spread, and the paid ones are kept for those who need it and want to pay for it.

Good Lord Floris Imo that example would have been good enough even with 1 full featured mod
Btw what is the definition of "full featured". A mod author who codes a "lite mod" will also say that consider it full featured. Developing and adding new features to that mod is after all his prerogative.



Imo what really needs some thought though, is whether something can be done about the paid services section(as am sure will surely be there once the software is out)? We could do with some kind of feedback score for coders and clients as has been requested many times on .org too. Too many people have burned their hands in trying to get paid services and its but fair that with a fresh new forum, a fresh new approach is adopted on that front too.

 

[TCattitude]

Unlike some other sites, I am sort of hoping that "lite" mods won't be permitted, as they're only made for advertising reasons. I don't find that within the spirit of the community.

Right.

I think vb.org it's a great plus to vB just because of the mods. Free ones, and great amount of people coding more than one solution for a certain tipe of mod need.
Being with IPB now, one thing that i miss it's the quality of vB.org modding community. And the quantity of paid mods availably inside IPB it's just... too much for some things. Yeah, they cost a little price, US$10, 15 at more, but... it's frustrating.

 

[Brandon_R]

I don't think xF will have a full blown app store yet but free mods is definitly going to be here. Paid mods are usually hosted on the coders site ie xFcredits etc.

 

[Princeton]

Having both free and commercial addons will show the strengths of xenForo.

Host free addons - it will help grow the community and will help promote the xenForo brand

Allow commercial addons to be listed alongside free addons (charge a nominal fee for advertisement)

on a later date, create some sort of App store that will allow xenForo to host and earn revenue from commercial addons

 

[vijayninel]

^^ Interesting to note that a vBulletin.org admin is saying this. Thankfully it was never implemented on vB.org.

 

[Brandon_R]

Free + Paid addons will definitly make the product more popular as it's these addons that makes a user cross the line into buying the product.

 

[Belazor]

indeed, and there's a certain shoutbox mod that I hope to gawd gets ported over for XenForo

That's going to be the first thing to be ported, in fact

These guys stole (not really ) vBActivity and put it in the core product so not really much point to porting that...

Ah .. seems like someone here has been at the receiving end of Marco van Herwaarden's no-advertising-here stick.

Actually we're not sure who did it xD
We suddenly found one of our mods edited to remove all references to the Pro product with no moderator name behind it even though we got it cleared by Paul M to post the info we did post.

 

[jmurrayhead]

That's going to be the first thing to be ported, in fact

out-f'ing-standing

These guys stole (not really ) vBActivity and put it in the core product so not really much point to porting that...

I'm sure you guys could find a way to improve it to create XFActivity

 

[0ptima]

I like the vb.org model, but would like to see a marketplace for paid hacks.

 

[Floris]

What I mean with fully featured is that if they advertise a "lite" mod to spam their paid mods with a title like "advanced tool bar for quick reply", and the screenshot shows a third row with all the icons, and info about the additional full version features. That the lite version only has 1 additional feature and perhaps 5 icons out of the 15 of the advanced toolbar. It's false advertising, and it's just that: a glorified ad to get people to pay for it. Not suitable. Buy an ad spot to promote the product.

 

[Dean]

All kidding aside. How the mod situation is handled is going to be an extremely important decision, it will be interesting.

 

[Safin]

What I mean with fully featured is that if they advertise a "lite" mod to spam their paid mods with a title like "advanced tool bar for quick reply", and the screenshot shows a third row with all the icons, and info about the additional full version features. That the lite version only has 1 additional feature and perhaps 5 icons out of the 15 of the advanced toolbar. It's false advertising, and it's just that: a glorified ad to get people to pay for it. Not suitable. Buy an ad spot to promote the product.

In which case, i do agree with you. Such stuff should not be allowed.

 

[Alpha1]

XenForo needs both free as paid mods to be developed. Not allowing paid mods here in some way, means hiding them. And that is very bad for the development of paid addons.
It took me a year to find all addons, designers and integrations for vbulletin. I had to open a site dedicated to listing these, to get an overview. I really think that it would be beneficial to allow the mod community to grow. It will only make XF more attractive. If vbulletin would have done that, they would have had a paid mod community as big as vb.org

 

[Dean]

On our forum we have free things, and for the paid things people need to be a paying advertiser.

Don't know if that applies to this situation, but it could.

 

[Danny.VBT]

Isn't this getting a little ahead of the software? Prospective developers haven't even seen the source code yet.

Besides, allowing paid modifications to be hosted would be a logistical nightmare (liability issues, regulations, etc, etc...). Let the mod community develop, and these questions will become more necessary.

I personally think the solution needs to be some sort of advertising system that *rewards* developers based on their continued participating in the free modding community.

 

[Erik]

Unfortunately, if you allow paid add listings there will be a much greater incentive for coders to charge for their creations. I think you would see the mod community move farther and farther towards the 'paid' end of the spectrum. While this would be alright if everything produced was top-notch, I highly doubt the mods would be of a higher quality than their free counterparts.

 

[Forsaken]

XenForo needs both free as paid mods to be developed. Not allowing paid mods here in some way, means hiding them. And that is very bad for the development of paid addons.
It took me a year to find all addons, designers and integrations for vbulletin. I had to open a site dedicated to listing these, to get an overview. I really think that it would be beneficial to allow the mod community to grow. It will only make XF more attractive. If vbulletin would have done that, they would have had a paid mod community as big as vb.org

I don't think anyone has said not to allow paid mods; Floris is saying to disallow 'lite' mods, that offer minimal features, and are basically just advertisement for a fully featured modification.

I also dislike lite mods, but usually because the developer is less inclined to support them, instead focusing on the premium only.

 

[Alpha1]

I don't think anyone has said not to allow paid mods;

That is what is being said.