MOD Author's Lack of Support

[Ian Holl]

Having only spent several days on this forum, I've soon come to realized that many (but not all) Mod's who have created reputable modifications for SMF are too quick to abandon their projects when it comes to supporting and updating to their code. 

Therefore, I believe those coders out there who still with fire in their bellies should receive the rights and recognition over old and updated versions of the modifications.  The moral being: If you can't support it then be prepared to lose it!

[Suki]

You can't really force someone to support a modification.
You can't really force a mod author to release her/his code under a permissive license or just "lose all rights if you don't support it."
You can't predict if someone will have "fire in their bellies" tomorrow or after tomorrow so, even if you can get rights over some mod, it doesn't guarantee that this new person will support the modification.

Some mod authors (including myself)  do not particularly enjoy the process of provide support.

[Norv]

You're right, both of you.

We're looking into ways to make this process better and give better ways for those mods and themes released under a free and open license to be available to the community, while providing potential maintainers the possibility to take over customizations no longer maintained.

In short, the essential bit is that if the code/design is licensed such that people are free to use, modify, and release their modifications, the process of taking over customizations can be streamlined and offer the possibility for interested maintainers to contribute, when customizations are abandoned over time.