I usually don't reply to these type of posts/comments, since it's superfluous to argue about what I do and how I do things. I simply do them the way I see fit. For several reasons.

Josh said:

Hi Oliver

I was reading your thread about the removal of the credit line under forms, at http://www.deliciousdays.com/c…..ly/page-1/

where it describes how ajax functionality will cease to work if people remove or hide the credit line that links to this site from the bottom of their cforms.

I had a couple of things to say about it.

Firstly I want to say this is a great plugin and I am very grateful for all the work you have obviously put into it, so I don't want to seem churlish, but…

roughly 3500 hours by now including free support I provide on top of free software

I don't think your approach of effectively forcing people to either credit you on their sites or to pay you is in keeping with what open-source development is all about.

I don't force anyone to use my plugin – if anyone feels threatened by my code pls un-install immediately as I don't want to be held responsible for any other actions users might take, blaming the influence of cforms.

Re: Open Source, you're mistaken. cforms is NOT open source, why? here is an excerpt of the official criteria for Open Source:

1. Free Redistribution
   [...]software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing[...]
2. Source Code
   [...]Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed.[...]
3. Derived Works
   [...]The license must allow modifications and derived works, and [...]
4. etc.
5. etc.

Already the first 3 do NOT apply. cforms is fully copyright protected, and it is not permitted to being redistributed in any form.

I don't want to see my WordPress sites become home to dozens of third-party credits attached to every plugin.  It will ruin clean design and be a bar on corporate sites [...]

Why don't you code your own plugins/extensions then?

No offense, but 99% of the website I've seen (who claimed that a credit line would kill their "design") were just plain old ugly. Beauty certainly lies in the eye of the beholder, but don't ask me to buy into that argument. Especially if you can (a) use proper CSS to style the layout or (b) follow one of the other options to remove the line in particular if you're using cforms in a commercial envirnoment.

Again, these are only options, I'm not forcing anyone to do anything.

[...]or for web designers like me who don't want to advertise the fact to their clients that they are using third-party software rather than their own development time.

If users just want to piggy back/leech from free software and possibly resell it as their own efforts, yes, I understand that can cause some grief.

I think the concept of open-source is a brilliant one where developers and designers all pool their resources to make a great and free product that is available to all of us.  And users show their appreciation by voluntary donations.

See above re: Open Source and what it is and isn't. Users showing appreciation? Yes, on a rare occasion I get a nicely worded email, a generous donation or a few nice lines in an article. Typically from people that use cforms as their contact form plugin and are happy that is works well for them.

The other 97% of the users (the majority being probably web developers) just want a zero-cost platform to resell. There is extremely little appreciation coming from that end. Quite the contrary I usually get the 'don't force us to upgrade on a weekly basis' whining or additioanl feature request so they can charge their clients higher amounts, yet again, I don't force anyone to do anything.

The moment you have people insisting on payment or links to their sites, the whole system breaks and you can guarantee others will start following your lead and word-press will become just another marketing ploy and ruined.

Have I said, I don't force anyone? 'wordpress will become just another marketing ploy and ruined' – that's an interesting observation, albeit a little behind. WordPress is already a marketing ploy. And if you follow the WP internal talks and new groups you would put 'ruined' into perspective.

I don't know what others think, but I really don't like this approach.  I think you should do as others do and accept donations and let your users decide how to implement your product on their sites.

And a final time: users do have options, I don't apply psychological nor physical force to drive them to do anything. If you're unhappy or disagree simply don't use cforms, it's really simple.