You have purchased lifetime on 28. Jun. 2020 and last release, before 2.3, was in March 2021. And I was not aware of any bugs that would prevent it from working until 2.3
I’ve been trying to figure out how to handle this, because I never thought something like this could happen to me — and it definitely didn’t make me happy. Unfortunately, some difficult events in my life prevented me from even logging in here.
Now I realize this could happen to anyone. It has already happened with other add-ons I’ve purchased, and they’re now gone. The truth is, I’m out at least $5,000 on these add-ons adventure — not to mention the many sleepless nights and years spent in front of the PC. So when someone complains that they had to spend ten minutes registering just to get the add-on because it was “too complicated,” it’s hard not to feel frustrated. I spent years developing it.
On top of that, there was piracy. Others took it and started selling it themselves. It was just the perfect storm.
Here are my options:
- I’m considering uploading it to GitHub once I figure out how that works (and whether it would actually help).
- I may also try to find someone interested in buying the rights if I decide to stop working on it.
- The add-on can be uninstalled without losing any data — comments simply turn into regular posts with quotes.
- It’s also possible to import comments into other comment add-ons.
Plus, I only make add-ons that I personally need. It’s simply not realistic to make real money from them (at least not for me). Since I still need this add-on for my own site, I can’t stop at least maintaining it. The site I need it for is still running on vB5 and recently completely crashed, which is why I had to update this add-on quickly — so I can finally migrate away from that mess to XenForo.
I bought vB5 when it first came out because I loved vB4 as a user. I downloaded vB5 excited to start my forum on the new version… and I couldn’t believe it was from the same company. Only years later did I learn that, allegedly, the best developers had left and created XenForo. That’s how I got stuck with that terrible vB5.
Eventually the users (and I) got used to the comments system. While XenForo is better than vB5 in almost every other way, it doesn’t have a comments feature — and none of the existing add-ons were at least as good as what vB5 offered. So I stayed stuck.
After many years, I finally decided that if no one else was going to do it, I would have too. XenForo’s team never seemed to understand how useful comments can be — they live a bit in their own nerd bubble. I still hadn’t found time to migrate, but now that vB5 has completely broken down, I need to move to XenForo quickly.
So, now that I’m working on it again, the question is: should I keep it just for myself? I feel like that wouldn’t be right. I feel a sense of duty to release it and keep maintaining it — at least that’s how I see it now that it’s already updated.
That’s why I’ve decided to offer much better prices and even a one-month free trial. People can test it properly before committing. As far as I know, I’m the only one here who offers that. It’s my way of giving back after the years I was absent. And if something like this happens again, I now will figure out a plan how to keep the add-on alive, if need.
![[UW] Forum Comments System](/community/data/resource_icons/7/7073.jpg?1554245009){kind=icon}
