More Ads, More Help With vBulletin.org

[brandondrury]

This isn't really specific to vB4, but I didn't know where to put it.

1) vBulletin.org is where we are always directed if we need help with modding our forums. It's a given that a stock vBulletin install can't do EVERYTHING and my needs are going to be different than your needs. Modding is necessary for our specific businesses and generally a good thing when done correctly.

2) Unfortunately, vBulletin.org is drying up. It feels like its dieing. I rarely bother posting simply because I doubt if my questions will be answered. I usually do post after I take 8 hours to figure out the scope of a variable or whatever.

I propose adding Adsense ads to either vBulletin.com's forum, vBulletin.org, or both so you guys can hire a guy who does nothing but run vBulletin.org. Another option would be to charge a bit extra for this kind of "mod support guy". I'd imagine quite a few of us wouldn't blink at $20-30 a year just to have a guy dedicated to this thing even if we have to wait a week to get responses.

As is, I'm trying to setup my CMS for premium membership levels and it's been an epic disaster. 101 level roads have not be pathed so out I go to explore when the kind of thing I require should be quite common. Even worse, it feels like I'm all alone on my quest. It doesn't feel like anyone out there wants to help me get my site to meet its goals. That makes me consider looking for a platform that does/will. There's a market here that could and should be exploited.

Brandon

[borbole]

This isn't really specific to vB4, but I didn't know where to put it.

1) vBulletin.org is where we are always directed if we need help with modding our forums. It's a given that a stock vBulletin install can't do EVERYTHING and my needs are going to be different than your needs. Modding is necessary for our specific businesses and generally a good thing when done correctly.

2) Unfortunately, vBulletin.org is drying up. It feels like its dieing. I rarely bother posting simply because I doubt if my questions will be answered. I usually do post after I take 8 hours to figure out the scope of a variable or whatever.

I propose adding Adsense ads to either vBulletin.com's forum, vBulletin.org, or both so you guys can hire a guy who does nothing but run vBulletin.org. Another option would be to charge a bit extra for this kind of "mod support guy". I'd imagine quite a few of us wouldn't blink at $20-30 a year just to have a guy dedicated to this thing even if we have to wait a week to get responses.

As is, I'm trying to setup my CMS for premium membership levels and it's been an epic disaster. 101 level roads have not be pathed so out I go to explore when the kind of thing I require should be quite common. Even worse, it feels like I'm all alone on my quest. It doesn't feel like anyone out there wants to help me get my site to meet its goals. That makes me consider looking for a platform that does/will. There's a market here that could and should be exploited.

Brandon

Personally I beg to differ. The vb.org mod section is not drying up at all. There are quite a lot of mods being released. Also the support there is top notch. Exception here are a) Those questions who have been asked a million times and the user does not bother to do a little search first to help himself/herself first. b) Questions asked in a non understanding way. i.e. bad english. c) Not clear questions. Meaning only the OP knows what he/she is asking and maybe they think that the vb.org is a mind reader community lol and d) Questions about coding that would take quite some time to answer or the Unpaid requests.

And the most important thing, everyone providing any kind of support there, be that a staff member, a regular member and/or codder/designer, is a volunteer and does that on their own time and dime.

P.s. May I ask what is your nick name at vb.org btw?

[Mark.B]

The other types of question that gets ignored over at the org are ones where people simply want someone to do everything for them, or teach them how to code. I have lost track of how many PMs I have had on there over the years from someone who has seen something on my site that they want, and expect me to either do it for them for free, or write 'a simple tutorial' for how to do it.

I even had one person tell me that if I wasn't prepared to write a tutorial, I shouldn't run a modified site!

Sadly these type of people have become more numerous in recent years and it doesn't help at all.

The site is an incredible resource. When I need help with something, someone always points me in the right direction (rather than doing it all for me), and that's how it works best.

[Wayne Luke]

We have paid staff who take care of the administration portions of vBulletin.org. However it is and always has been a community driven site with give and take.

[brandondrury]

So no one thinks that the addition of a full-time tech dude paid entirely (hopefully) with relevant ads (all ads I want to see, btw, such as premium vBulletin mods, hosting, etc) is a good idea? I guess this is more of a political view than anything. It was just an idea.

It's also very possible that I've just had some bad luck with my questions over at vb.org.

We have paid staff who take care of the administration portions of vBulletin.org. However it is and always has been a community driven site with give and take.

The community driven thing makes sense when the town is hoppin', but it sure doesn't feel that way from my possibly crazed perspective. I do realize there are mods being released all the time. I'm mostly concerned with how to figure out how to get vBulletin to do what I want often with my own mods. Learning the intricacies of the vBulletin system are where I'm having most of my problems. So maybe it's just an issue with few having the same needs as me. Personally, I'm shocked that something like node ids in scope in the navbar doesn't ever come up.

And the most important thing, everyone providing any kind of support there, be that a staff member, a regular member and/or codder/designer, is a volunteer and does that on their own time and dime.

And that's the flaw in my view. You've got to have altruism-overload to go in and make sure every post gets attention. It's probably happened before, but it's not a common thing. Someone always has to do the not-so-fun stuff in a community. I'm not trying to slam the site in any way. I just feel the addition of funds to pay for a little more help (to take pressure off the people who run it now) seems logical to me. If you guys are always finding the answers to your problems then this need would be diminished, I guess.

I even had one person tell me that if I wasn't prepared to write a tutorial, I shouldn't run a modified site!

For a site to be any good SOMEBODY has to be making these tutorials. The blame/responsibility has to go to someone (even if it's the community as a whole). My suggestion is to have Mr_VbulletinDotOrg who we can suggest tutorials to. His response will be, "Sure, I should get to it in the next 10 days or so." Mr_VbulletinDotOrg sounds feasible to me because his salary could be paid for with untapped wells.

P.s. May I ask what is your nick name at vb.org btw?

My username is the same. It's brandondrury. I know where this is going and that's why I mentioned paying a premium to contribute as I don't have the time to help out as much as I'd like on vbulletin.org. Then again, when I'm spending 12 hours at a time to find a single variable, if that were cut in half I could help out more with what little knowledge I have of vB.

Brandon

[borbole]

My username is the same. It's brandondrury. I know where this is going and that's why I mentioned paying a premium to contribute as I don't have the time to help out as much as I'd like on vbulletin.org. Then again, when I'm spending 12 hours at a time to find a single variable, if that were cut in half I could help out more with what little knowledge I have of vB.

Brandon

I went through some of your posts and threads over at vb.org and most of them fell under the category that I mentioned above. That with a little search you would have found the answers yourself and coding related questions that will take time for someone to do the testing and provide the solution.

I do not know about others, but my time is very valuable to me and I can not afford to spend it on doing the work for others for free. But let us say for ex, that I see that someone is doing his/her best like trying hard to do something but can not find the solution and says what he/she did and where they got stuck, then if I have some free time I would consider helping that person. But when I see that when someone simply wants others to do their work for them, then I simply move on even if I know the answer to their issues. If they do not bother to help themselves, why should I bother to help them then?

Take myself, if you will see my posting history here or at vb.org I have never asked a single question. Does that mean that I know everything? No, of course not. But whenever I got stuck in something or needed to know something, I did my homework until I found what I needed. But that is me, always like to rely on myself and not be dependable on others for anything.

And something else, and please do not take it the wrong way, but I noticed that almost all your posts there are how can I do this or that but you never took the time to stop and help someone else. So you must spread some help around before demanding it if you know what I mean.

And if you are short of free time, then hire someone else to do whatever work you need done. Because others are short on free time as well. Or set up a test forum and take it apart until you get the hang of things to do what you want to do.