Do you use unsupported mods on your forums?

[lsatblu]

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of relaunching my forums and site. I found this mod that I really like and it seems to be unsupported now. The creator has not been online for some time and his forums went down so there is no way to contact the creator. I tried email but no response yet.

I won't really go into the specific mod because this can apply to any really. The mod would work great for my current site, it would probably increase my member list. The only problem is that once vB 4 comes out, whenever that is, most likely this mod will not work. And because it is no longer being updated...I wouldn't be able to update my forums basically. My members would be to used to having the mod, I wouldn't be able to take it away.

Does anyone else have this problem? You really like a mod but you can't install it because it may never be upgraded to the next large release of vB?

I am considering learning php, something I have wanted to do for years but I just don't understand it. I like being able to see what I am doing like with html. I am a student studying graphic design so I do all my own art and html, css, etc..but I am basically scared of php. I feel like I could easily mess something up.

But if I learn php I can create the mod exactly the way I want it (the current one doesn't do everything I wish it did) and I could upgrade it on my own. Only downside is that this could take years..right? Years to learn how to code my own mods for vB?

I have read tutorials on php but I don't know how to apply the simple tutorials to actually make a mod from scratch.

Feel free to give me you opinion please.

[karlm]

As I understand it, and I may well be wrong in this understanding, most mods (excluding very simple ones) require a knowledge of PHP and MYSQL in order to function fully.

[Gladius]

Not really... the problem with most mods on .org is just that they're shoddily or unprofessionally made, so unless you're satisfied with a bare minimum of functionality and gremmer liek diz in most of the text, you need to wade in and fix it yourself. Which gets tedious when you deal with a large number of them... but you get what you pay for. The other problem is that in my experience at least half of them are completely unsupported, and even most of those that are tagged as "supported" really aren't - unless one response from the creator every few months (and unwillingness to improve or correct anything) counts as such.