Bane Macleod

Release or STFU

In the quest to finally upgrade TalkLoud to vb3 I have been going through the now countless numbers of boards strewn about in hopes of finding a lot of code that I wont have to rework. Hacks that other people have made to put the features that I hacked in back in the vb2 days into vb3 so that I don't have to sit down to write it all again. So far I have run into a bit of luck and most of what I need is sitting about, and the things that aren't can mostly be handled using conditionals and quickie hacks.

The reason for me sitting down to write however is because of some things I saw while looking. For example, there is a rather popular request for a journal system (like tl journals) to be published as an easy hack for vB3. There are a few versions floating about, but nothing really as impressive as a system called "Choco Journal" [google]. While browsing through one of the popular vB hack sites I found a post from the author of this addon and it contained basically a long list of features and the words at the end:

If enough people are interested, I might package it for release. =)

I don't understand this at all. Doing a search on that forum for mentions of journal hacks gets multiple results. By his own admission it has been hugely popular on his forum. Obviously it's gonna be a popular release. Why bother teasing people that have been waiting on ANY hack to do what they are hoping for? The guy even has posted in his own journal "Everyone's trying to get a journal system on their vBulletin boards! .., but remember, you saw it here first... two years ago. :puzzled:" wtf?? This was posted almost a week after his original post asking if anyone wants it at the other forum, and now he's on about how everyone wants it and he's puzzled why? Allow me to stroke your ego, it's a great journal system ok? But release it or stfu.

I'm not just picking on this author keep in mind. The problem being that other journal systems (and countless other hacks) have been "in the works" or "almost ready" for quite some time now. More vaporware really isn't needed; honestly, the poor people waiting for the hack have had their hopes dashed quite a few times already.

So here is my solution... Release or don't even talk about it. Revel in the attention that you receive from your acts of goodwill and sharing with the community after you have done so, not before.