suggestion: allow non-clients to post in Add-on Requests forum

[User]

Suggestion: Allow users who have not purchased XF to create threads and make posts in the Add-on Requests forum.

Rationale: Some (many?) potential XF buyers are not currently buying XF because some specific add-on they have been using does not yet exist for XF. If those potential buyers are given the opportunity to request such add-on, and then an add-on developer (or K&M) actually picks up the request and delivers the add-on, the potential buyer is more likely to convert to an actual buyer. Without the ability to request the add-on this conversion isn't going to happen.

 

[Markos]

Bad idea imho. Too confusing. For this you can use a unofficial community like xenfans.com, or register in personal forums of developers (example forumservices.eu of borbole, ragtek.org of ragtek...).

IMHO the most important thing is the board, the core. Yes, you can reply "I like Xenforo, but i need addon A, B or C, that i have in the current forum software that i use now". Now if the addon that you request is popular, you have only to wait, that be done in the next months. If are not popular of very custom, you have to think if this addon is really important for you or not.

 

[User]

So your argument is that someone who needs an add-on should just go ahead and register at approximately 93,459,326 (exaggerated for dramatic effect) different developer and 3rd party pages and request the add-on there instead of requesting it in the one place that is common to all XF users and devs?

 

[James]

I understand and partially agree with User, but at the same time it'd just be another method for nulled XF users to get their hands on modifications.

 

[Markos]

So your argument is that someone who needs an add-on should just go ahead and register at approximately 93,459,326 (exaggerated for dramatic effect) different developer and 3rd party pages and request the add-on there instead of requesting it in the one place that is common to all XF users and devs?

No, you can also ask in this forum. I think it's not forbidden to ask if there are anyone interested to make x addon in this forum for a non-customer...

 

[Forsaken]

I understand and partially agree with User, but at the same time it'd just be another method for nulled XF users to get their hands on modifications.

Bad logic; people who use nulls are rarely going to pay for anything.

 

[James]

Bad logic; people who use nulls are rarely going to pay for anything.

Add-on requests aren't necessarily paid for. Ragtek is a prime example, he's done a fair few of add-on requests at no charge.

Of course you can't stop nulled users, it just gives them an advantage of being able to request them.

 

[bambua]

With how fast my addons and styles appear on warez sites once they are posted in the customer only forums here I'm leery on this. I've literally seen a request get posted and the actual content posted on one of them within 15 minutes of me posting it here. This is just one step away from allowing them to post the request here then seeing the post on the warez site requesting someone to download and post it.

 

[User]

Please, dragging piracy into this argument is just diluting the discussion. I realize that it is popular to get on the anti-piracy bandwagon and make sweeping public statements about it, but it's entirely irrelevant to the original proposal. Piracy will happen no matter what. Commercial entities spend billions of dollars per year in futile attempts to prevent piracy and yet software is on the net often before it is even commercially released. Don't kid yourself into thinking that the inability to post an add-on request unless you are a paid customer is a piracy deterrent.

What those of you who are concerned about piracy are suggesting is to impede the growth of XF just because the ability to post a request may serve a pirate. Meanwhile, back in the real world, admins are not adopting XF because it lacks functionality. K&M stated multiple times that they are encouraging developers to code for XF, be it free or commercial add-ons. From where I am looking it's up to XF to provide the ability for prospective clients and developers to connect because such connection is in the best interest of the long term success of XF.

Yes, people could just buy XF and then make the request, and it's not even about the 140 bucks, it's about the principle that I shouldn't have to pay for a product I can't use just to request an improvement to it.

 

[bambua]

No it's not going to stop it but it can make it easier...as was said in a previous though, there's no reason you can't ask about it in the pre-sales forum.

 

[Panupat]

/shrug.

I can kinda see the positive side here. But honestly my common sense tells me you shouldn't be allowed to. Why? I don't know.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Without the ability to request the add-on this conversion isn't going to happen.

PM me any addon requests and I'll repost it on your behalf.
or post it here and make sure I see it

 

[Peggy]

I believe that this is one of the purposes of the pre-sales forum, isn't it?

 

[Dodgeboard]

To me it sounds like a good idea. Just restrict downloads to customers. That should be easy to do.

 

[Dominion]

I must admit I'm having a hard time understanding why someone who doesn't own XenForo would want to request the creation of an add-on. Expressing an interest in the creation of an add-on makes sense. But saying "please make this for me?" Hmmm. One can't be blamed for wondering if the requester is in fact using nulled software.

I find it difficult to believe that any add-on developer would spend time and effort creating an add-on simply because someone who hasn't bought XenForo yet says they may want to do so if the add-on were created. The dev would have no real way of knowing whether the person making the request was for real or not. That's a lot of risk to take.

So there's a difference between requesting the creation of an add-on (which is basically asking someone to do a job with specific pararameters for a specific market) and saying "Gee, XenForo would be more appealing to me if it had such-and-such a feature. Is anyone thinking of making a plugin that would do this?" As Max, bambua, and Peggy have said, the latter can be done in this forum.

The former, on the other hand, is akin to an offer of employment (paid or not), and the official support forum is there to support such exchanges between paying customers. I think XenForo are well within their rights to limit this support to paying customers, and I can understand why they might want to draw a clear line between the public forums and the official support forums. Making exceptions would blur this line, which could have a detrimental effect on the quality of service they provide. And that would be bad for paying customers and XenForo alike.

 

[User]

But honestly my common sense tells me ...

I think that this thread alone is sufficient evidence that there literally is no such thing as common sense. What seems perfectly clear to one is a completely obscure notion to another.

I'll leave it at that, I have made my points as clear as I can make them. At the end it's up to XF what they want to do, hence the "suggestion" in the title. If they adopt the idea then great, if they don't then they don't. Further circular discussion isn't going to lead to any more points of information.

 

[Paul B]

PM me any addon requests and I'll repost it on your behalf.

We would rather you didn't.

 

[bogus]

PM me any addon requests and I'll repost it on your behalf.
or post it here and make sure I see it

And the Pirates Board are spreading like hell...Well thought out

 

[User]

And the Pirates Board are spreading like hell...Well thought out

I know a software pirate who owns a dog, hence all dog owners are software pirates.

 

[Dominion]

I know a software pirate who owns a dog, hence all dog owners are software pirates.

No, but all software pirates are dogs. (Zing!)

Seriously though, your accusation of invalid syllogism doesn't signify. A more correct representation would be: I know a software pirate who owns a dog, hence not all software pirates are not dog owners. Once you have evidence to rule out the idea that software pirates never own dogs, you can't go around blithely assuming any particular software pirate is not a dog owner.

That is precisely the problem with your suggestion. You propose that XenForo should make an official support resource to people who haven't paid for the software (yet) on the grounds that some of those people may have valid reasons for needing those resources. You ignore the obvious fact that XenForo has no way to distinguish between those with valid reasons and those who simply want an easy way to mod their nulled software. You're willing to ignore that difference, so you think XenForo should do the same.

Basically what you're saying is this: "I suspect there may be at least one XenForo non-customer who has a valid need for this resource, hence you should assume that all XenForo non-customers have a valid need for this resource." That's just as ludicrous a fallacy as the one you've of which you have accused Bogus.