[feedback] Developers pay

hcgtv · 2007-04-28 22:53:19

zem wrote:

Developers with checkin access to the Textpattern svn repository: dean, sencer, pedro, mary, myself, and now ruud and (shortly) wet.

Congrats ruud and wet!

Textdrive made no promises or agreements with us.

Textdrive did make promises to other Open Source projects that from what is coming to light have not been fulfilled.

http://forum.textdrive.com/viewtopic.php?id=12452
http://forum.textdrive.com/viewtopic.php?pid=15553
http://forum.textdrive.com/viewtopic.php?id=1465

Time to Digg a little further?

Last edited by hcgtv (2007-04-28 23:02:21)

zem · 2007-04-28 23:03:24

Contributions don’t work. I have contributed to several developers here, but to be honest, I don’t even remember who exactly! I am more comfortable with directly supporting TXD developers or those who provide paid-for services.

I agree. We’ve tried donations in the past, and the amount it brings in is basically pocket money (I mean no offence to those who donated). With basically no marketing, a week’s worth of revenue from the Redirect Pro plugin easily exceeded a year’s worth of donations to Team Textpattern. (It’s still not much, but enough to suggest the idea has merit).

Numbers aside, I’m a professional, not a busker. We’ve been working for a long time on ways to earn an honest living building Textpattern. It’s difficult and frustrating. There is no shortage of ideas, just time and knowledge and experience and resources.

The “Textpattern Membership” proposal was one of those ideas. The reaction has not been encouraging. We’re considering others.

guiguibonbon · 2007-04-28 23:46:53

What!? The donations button isn’t going to devs? That’s plain theft. I don’t get why you’re keeping it there.

On a sidenote, I’ve found the perfect solution for getting you guys paid. I’ve never felt like there was anything but plugin ransoms i’d pay for (there’s always a free alternative to anything anyway). But this might be just it. Make a firefox plugin based on the web developper toolbar that let’s you save stylesheets, pages and forms on the fly, with live preview. Think about it, I bet it wouldn’t even be too hard a thing to do. I’d be very much willing to pay 30$ a year for it (updates included of course). What’s more about it, it will make tons of buzz, and keeps txp the same for everyone.

Since I had the idea, will I get a life subscription for free? And to be a tester? :)

zem · 2007-04-28 23:48:58

Before reaching for your pitchfork and flaming torch, please remember that Textdrive provides a home for Textpattern. There are (at least) two sides to the story. If you’re a Textdrive customer and you have a question about their policies, you should ask them for a clarification.

Again, I don’t believe they made any promises to the Textpattern dev team.

Neko · 2007-04-29 00:31:45

zem wrote:

Until about a week ago the Paypal donations from there went to him, as did affiliate hosting revenue; I have no idea how much any of that amounts to. Donations and affiliate commisions from team.textpattern.com go to team members; revenue from there is minimal but much appreciated.

Well, that’s reasonable; Dean is the guy that started it all, the one that did (I guess) the biggest part in terms of coding and ideas, the guy that paid all the expenses by himself when it comes to servers and stuff, at least until TXD was born. We really all owe him a lot.

Even so, and just by reading our (users) responses in this thread, it’s surprising to notice that almost all of us were under the impression that the current dev team was somehow being paid or at least able to get some money for their efforts either via TXD OS support, or donations, etc… It seems that’s not true.

So, not in order to point fingers to anyone (if we really want to help, after all, the “donate” link is still there) it would be nice to receive an explanation regarding where the TXD Open Source support money actually went. It was our money, after all.

Regarding TXP future and dev support, from now on I’ll donate some money for every TXP-published site I make.

In addition I believe (I know my opinion doesn’t really count, but forums exist even for people like me! :))) that a model similar to EE would be fantastic if applied to TXP: a free core version for anyone and another version that costs money but offers premium features like multiple categories, real multi-languages capabilities, maybe a shopping cart and so on. I’d love to see something like that, and sure I’d be glad to pay more money for that kind of software.

Last edited by Neko (2007-04-29 00:56:37)

Mary · 2007-04-29 01:36:22

Who gets the donations from the textpattern.com front page?

Emphasis added:

Until about a week ago the Paypal donations from there went to him, as did affiliate hosting revenue; I have no idea how much any of that amounts to. Donations and affiliate commisions from team.textpattern.com go to team members; revenue from there is minimal but much appreciated.

What!? The donations button isn’t going to devs? That’s plain theft. I don’t get why you’re keeping it there.

In other words: it most definitely does go to the Team now; I just changed it (Apr. 12th) to use the same button from the Team’s page.

If you want to know what I myself have received, here’s the list of people, in full (as far as I can recall and trace in my Paypal log). I certainly can’t and don’t complain about what I have received.

Before reaching for your pitchfork and flaming torch, please remember that Textdrive provides a home for Textpattern.

Again, I don’t believe they made any promises to the Textpattern dev team.

Well, that’s reasonable; Dean is the guy that started it all, the one that did (I guess) the biggest part in terms of coding and ideas, the guy that paid all the expenses by himself when it comes to servers and stuff, at least until TXD was born. We really all owe him a lot.

Indeed. As I said, can’t complain about what we have received. We’re also hoping to be moved to a more reliable server that can handle the load. Maybe “they”, that mysterious group of shadowy figures, figured dollars = free hosting for Txp. But I really don’t know, like you I’ve no idea.

guiguibonbon · 2007-04-29 01:54:28

Yeah, well, to me, all this translates to

In exchange for noting more than hosting (that crashed no less than half an hour ago again) and some sort of mental debt to a developper we haven’t heard of in ages, we’re being held hostage by a mysterious bunch of people.

For as far as I understand things, if no-one seems to feel allowed to take a real lead in the project, that’s because they are around. Maybe it would be time to break free?

Last edited by guiguibonbon (2007-04-29 01:56:05)

nardo · 2007-04-29 04:27:12

Neko wrote:

I know my opinion doesn’t really count, but forums exist even for people like me! :)

LOL! … hear ya

can’t see Txd/Dean Allen as scammers as I think I’m ahead!

the important issue is assisting the dev team in determining/maintaining a sustainable model for future txp development i.e. dollars

probably was naive to think an honour system would suffice (tho like Neko every Txp site deployed now & in the future will get a feel for the paypal button) …. so I changed my mind; provide certain services or functionality to paid-up subscribers… support might be too onerous a burden, documention should be open, so perhaps plugins or Pro version

alexandra · 2007-04-29 06:19:14

Neko schrieb:

In addition I believe … that a model similar to EE would be fantastic if applied to TXP: a free core version for anyone and another version that costs money but offers premium features …

Read Sencers post here carefully …

colak · 2007-04-29 06:24:04

Mary wrote:

If you want to know what I myself have received, here’s the list of people, in full (as far as I can recall and trace in my Paypal log). I certainly can’t and don’t complain about what I have received.

I posted this here about a year ago

Txp community, I think that another system should be found regarding the donations. Paypal, although very popular, does not clear credit cards form many countries. more specifically cyprus which is where I live. Here is a list of countries paypal supports .

I strongly think that alternative donation methods should be found

marios · 2007-04-29 07:16:17

A small side note on the VC II Deals:

You got a hosting account for a one-time upfront fee. (Forever, which was good both for you and for TXD. Good for you, since you never have to pay again. Good for TXD since, it allowed them to get the required funds for further expansion )

TXD provides support and hosting for all textpattern domains ( Very important as Zem mentions above )

( I have two such accounts, which I am quite happy about )

Regarding CoreDevelopment Support:

Another possible option that you might want to consider:

A Premium Support Option

A small percentage of Project Revenues goes to TXP Core Development. You get the premium support in return. ( Premium badge can be put on the Site.)

( Something along Neko’s and Nardo’s Ideas )

regards, marios

Mary · 2007-04-29 07:24:07

Yiannis: Are you sure you’re not talking about sending money through a PayPal account verses a credit card? ‘cuz I’ve looked that page over more than once and understand that list to mean those are the banks PayPal will deal with for user accounts (deposit and withdrawal from account), and receiving payments in that country’s currency. As far as I know, Visa/MasterCard don’t care where you’re from, and that was why PayPal added that capability?

If that is definitely not the case – which would suck – what other options are there, apart from the usual expensive merchant accounts?

A Premium Support Option

Er, was that not something already shouted down? But hey, if you missed that poll (or perhaps changed your mind) it’s still open for feedback.

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#25 2007-04-28 22:53:19

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#26 2007-04-28 23:03:24

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#27 2007-04-28 23:46:53

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#28 2007-04-28 23:48:58

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#29 2007-04-29 00:31:45

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#30 2007-04-29 01:36:22

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#31 2007-04-29 01:54:28

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#32 2007-04-29 04:27:12

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#33 2007-04-29 06:19:14

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#34 2007-04-29 06:24:04

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#35 2007-04-29 07:16:17

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

#36 2007-04-29 07:24:07

Re: [feedback] Developers pay

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