Looks like some people are trying to be overnight millionaires selling Xenforo 2 mods!

[cellarius]

I don't know if thats the case with XF, but it certainly wasnt the case on vb.org.
(I never charged a single penny for any of mine, instead we had a system where you could "donate" if you wanted).

And while I could never compare my addons with Paul's (quantity and most likely qualitywise), I never charged either. And hardly any of the addons I used where paid. Back then it was kind of a give and take system. Had I had to pay for all the addons I used, I may have charged for mine, too.

And, in my opinion, it wasn't "greedy coders" that broke that system. At least for me, it was greedy users that never donated, never said thanks, but wanted everything yesterday. If the addon didn't do exactly what they wanted, they did not ask for enhancements, they complained. They wouldn't understand that guys who coded in their spare time and shared what they basically coded to use on their own forums would not be arund 24/7 and respond to support questions (often rather support demands) within the hour.

 

[The Sandman]

In my mind there are 3 broad classes of people who release add-ons - developers, coders, and "makers". Developers are experienced coders capable of designing and constructing large, complex add-ons with few if any issues using best coding practices and maintaining them over time. Coders are knowledgeable about code and able to properly construct working add-ons up to medium size/complexity. Makers do not possess true coding skills but are able to turn out simple, mostly workable add-ons that have more frequent problems.

There is no sense in discussing the cost of an add-on without first recognizing the skill of its creator, its size and complexity, and its usefulness to a forum.

 

[Xon]

If it's anything like moving from IP.Board 3.x to IPS4, then it is essentially the same thing. I'm not familiar with XF1 or XF2, but I would assume that code is not compatible between the two versions, so a complete rewrite would be required to update an add-on to be compatible with XF2.

On the difficulty of going from XF1 to XF2, well both are written in PHP otherwise you are writing entirely new code.

Nearly all my add-ons integrated deeply with XenForo to improve existing functionality, this means I need to completely rewrite virtually everything since in many case XenForo 2.x carries over missing functionality.

 

[ForumApps]

All of my clients know that I don't release addons for XenForo. I only do custom development.
Why?
Because it's not sustainable to provide support at the low cost people browsing XF marketplace are used to be paying. It takes time and effort developing something. Plus people expect so much out of the support, it makes no sense releasing it.

Coming to the point. One of my client who happens to be fluent with HTML and CSS asked me if he needed to buy a $6 addon he saw on XF2 marketplace. He figured it was unnecessary for him to pay for something he could write himself in under 5 minutes. I typed out the code for him on Skype in under a minute and he pasted it in the correct spot and achieved what he was looking for. That guy doesn't code for a living but if he could figure out there is no value in what the addon provided, so can most of the people.

Certainly people are smart enough that no addon developer will become a millionaire selling such type of add-ons, but at the same time if something is high priority for you and your forum and the $5 addon provides value for your community, then I would ask you to buy it in a jiffy.

PS: I doubt that any company sold more than $1M worth of addons on XenForo Marketplace so far. Has any?

 

[LeadCrow]

One of my client who happens to be fluent with HTML and CSS asked me if he needed to buy a $6 addon he saw on XF2 marketplace. He figured it was unnecessary for him to pay for something he could write himself in under 5 minutes. I typed out the code for him on Skype in under a minute

Which addon was that?
I'm curious about wether the charge in your example is justified somehow, like being about the support rather than the code itself.

 

[Alpha1]

PS: I doubt that any company sold more than $1M worth of addons on XenForo Marketplace so far. Has any?

No. lol. Thats for certain. Normal addon sales do not make anyone rich. Even the exclusive rights for very large custom addons are unlikely to be anywhere near that range.

 

[sportainment]

I have been in and out of forums for a while, and so had my fair share of vBulletin mods free + paid + even had a couple custom jobs done. Same as on xF free + paid mods.

In some cases, at first glance, it can look like some of these mods are over priced. I remember the first time I saw the xF Bookie thing I almost choked on my coffee. I mean back when vb.org this was free, and although I am not a coder when it was abandoned I was able to clean up the code, add fixes etc and re-release it on there for other vbookie lovers.

Then I realized how much work went into re-coding xF Bookie into the XF code, and saw how many people were demanding support etc and so understood.

I highly appreciate every coders efforts, the hours they give and try to donate when I can - at the very least I post that I have installed it and rate it five stars. AndyB recently helped me with one of my sites and think he deserves to charge for his mods.

BUT in saying that (and this isn't directed at anyone in particular) charging for a couple lines of CSS edits is a bit too far. I went to a private site (not XF.com) and saw a great coder wanting to charge $8 to centre the header image. Some people will buy it.

I'd also like to miss the good 'ld days where forum admins were a community (which by the way I am excited to be back posting here at TAZ - was very involved in the past and hope to be heavily involved again now) where we'd help each other out when/if we could. A.K.A for example the footer on this site, you'd post and go geez the footer is awesome and the staff would reply with A) How to do it, or B) Where you could it from (or a link to a style that had similar).

It just seems with every Tom, Dick and Harry having a website now most admins keep their cards close to their chests.

But coders are well within their rights to charge what they see fit - sometimes I look and go geez that would be nice to have on my site, then see the price and just cant justify paying that amount so move on.

I don't think anyone is becoming a millionaire.

Just my 2 cents really.

 

[ForumApps]

Which addon was that?
I'm curious about wether the charge in your example is justified somehow, like being about the support rather than the code itself.

 

[ForumApps]

Now, now... we all know that Chris D received 2.8 gajillion USD for his gallery add-on and a place on the development team from XenForo.

And no, I seriously doubt that there has been anyone even break into the 6 figure zone.... although I can think of a few that deserve that ability for the quality of the add-ons they provide.

I know that someone has hit the 6 figure mark. Not sure if anyone has hit the 7 figure mark though.

 

[LeadCrow]

On a singular add-on?

I doubt it's possible. Even official Xenforo addons like the gallery and ressource manager likely didnt earn their company that much (at 40$ a copy, youd need 25.000 sales).

The only way anyone could become 'millionaire' selling addons and skins is acquiring and creating as many as possible, and maintain this way a diversified source of earnings. If buyers need choice, let them buy something else from your shop than seek another modder's offerings.

 

[Bionic Rooster]

(at 40$ a copy, youd need 25.000 sales - could anyone do this well? )

Possibly, XF has 119,701 members and if each of them bought official add on it would make their day.

 

[Bionic Rooster]

Out of curiosity I posted a poll on XF https://xenforo.com/community/threads/did-you-buy-official-add-on.139691/
Go and cast your vote

 

[Yugensoft]

They wouldn't understand that guys who coded in their spare time and shared what they basically coded to use on their own forums would not be arund 24/7 and respond to support questions (often rather support demands) within the hour.

Exactly. Over at xenforo there's a resource for integrating steam with a forum. It's free and opensource.

Due to the XF2 upgrade, it will no longer work, so people are asking in the discussion if he can please upgrade it, including one guy who said he'll pay for it (answer still no, not worth it to him probably because he's getting his market worth elsewhere).

But then one guy comes in an basically says it's unacceptable that XF2 is available and this dev hasn't already ported it.

After the dev has supported it for free for 5 years. Like he is somehow owed more freebies for having consumed the other ones.

The audacity is just mind boggling.

Putting a price on things is the only way to ensure devs stay interested in supporting the stuff (such as when a kid comes along and pet projects aren't so important anymore), and to screen those types out.

 

[cheat_master30]

Honestly, I'm a tad split here. On the one hand, I definitely feel a lot of people feel they're owed free mods, or owed support for the foreseeable future for $5 despite it being something the devs do as a passion project rather than a full time business. That's annoying, and may definitely drive away a good few modders as a result.

But at the same time... I also kind of miss communities where people contribute entirely for the love of the topic rather than for a business reason. vBulletin.org did really well on that note, since all mods had to be both free and feature rich enough to be worth it, and WordPress.org does well for similar reasons (mods have to be free, substantial and licensed under the GPL). I miss that with forum scripts and what not, and kind of feel disappointed how commercialised mods and add ons have become in general. It's why I chose vBulletin and XenForo rather than IPB, and why I'm such a fan of the video game modding and ROM hacking communities.

So yeah, I'm conflicted there. Don't like the entitled attitudes, but I also don't like how modding (in a lot of fields) seems to have become more and more of a commercial venture recently either.

 

[Pete]

The entitled attitudes have certainly curtailed my desire to make addons for forums, and I made some quite substantial contributions in my own way.

When you get people threatening to hack your site if you don't make an addon for them... that's some line crossing right there.

 

[LeadCrow]

People are free to offer money to get addons produced for their niche uses. Makes sense if its functionalty important enough for them to have.
As for the bother or cost of support, perhaps modders could simply mark their releases as unsupported except for users paying for the privilege (as opposed to 'unmaintained', which suggest addons are abandoned and no longer receiving updates). Users helping each others should suffice for free addons.

you get people threatening to hack your site if you don't make an addon for them...

If it's a XF customer acting out of line on the official site, you could report receiving threats through the company's site (TOS violation or worse). And if they're not running properly licenced installs, you neednt interact with them at all.

 

[Pete]

If it's a XF customer acting out of line on the official site

This was on SMF, a few years ago.

People are free to offer money to get addons produced for their niche uses.

Only this morning someone on SMF there was a thread where I was told, to my face, that I was lying about people wanting to be paid for mods.

 

[Xon]

Only this morning someone on SMF there was a thread where I was told, to my face, that I was lying about people wanting to be paid for mods.

I've definitely had some people basically get offended when I quote them my rates for developing XF add-ons. Where as other people realize it will cost money.

 

[we_are_borg]

I've definitely had some people basically get offended when I quote them my rates for developing XF add-ons. Where as other people realize it will cost money.

Some people think that developers can work for free all the time, they have no idea how long it takes to weite something from scratch then deal with people that you can alter when ever they like. Plus how they explain stuff that it takes more time. You’re social group add-on how much time was involved to write that?

 

[Xon]

You’re social group add-on how much time was involved to write that?

I don't have a social group add-on, I've got a group mention/tags add-on you might be thinking about?