dirt cheap development will get developers broke?

Ajaxboy

Active member
Dirt cheap development will get developers broke? (specifically from this side of the world), I saw alot of great addons on the addons release section, and many of them are free and others cost dirt.. do you think this would give incentive for commercial use of public addons?..

With this type of competition I hardly see any market for developers who think time is money, (or is this a side effect of xenforo being a new product?.). I know everybody loves free stuff, but what do you think of this?. Free community use free stuff for everybody, or capitalist community?. Your thoughts please..

Just want to know what everybody thinks :).
 
The most expensive app for my phone is $5.99 and it's a specialized app so I doub't the developer is getting rich off of it.
My guess he is an hobbyist and having fun sharing it with others.

I've donated money to coders on vb.org and have even offered money as an incentive others.
Once I move my vB4 site over there will be donations.

Plenty of people offer the talents here for free and they would be the first person I would offer money to.
 
I made donations to both developers of the add-ons I have used, Darkimmortal for Chat and King Kovifor for the BBCM.

I don't know what the going rate for this sort of thing is (having never paid for an add-on before) so I just donated an amount that seemed appropriate.

Hopefully others also donate which then provides incentive (and funds) for them to carry on developing.
 
The most expensive app for my phone is $5.99 and it's a specialized app so I doub't the developer is getting rich off of it.
My guess he is an hobbyist and having fun sharing it with others.
So in other words you are saying it shouldn't be treated as a career/job, just hobbie?.

I am not sure how the phone market is right now, but if sold in masses it does makes good profit, just depends.

Plenty of people offer the talents here for free and they would be the first person I would offer money to.
Yeah I noticed.
 
So in other words you are saying it shouldn't be treated as a career/job, just hobbie?.
I know plenty of people who have turned hobbies into careers. Call it what you want.
Are you putting people down for providing addons for free?

Added: Some people are here to make a quick buck and others are here to contribute to the community.
 
I made donations to both developers of the add-ons I have used, Darkimmortal for Chat and King Kovifor for the BBCM.

I don't know the going rate for this sort of thing is so I just donated an amount that seemed appropriate.
That was really nice work indeed. others that sell addons (for other kind of software) charge ranges from $75 , $100, $150 or $200 or up to $300 just for an addon (depending on the addon), but the market for this kind of software might be different... not sure..

Hopefully others also donate which then provides incentive (and funds) for them to carry on developing.
Hopefully :), though for the looks it seems rare. These guys are doing wonderful job.

Though it seems like a hard market to jump into for someone from the states as everything over here is so expensive, (there for they earn more). But for hobbie, contributions, and learning experience seems great, this kind of experience can always be used in future projects, as people ask for help and the like.
 
I know plenty of people who have turned hobbies into careers. Call it what you want.
Are you putting people down for providing addons for free?

Added: Some people are here to make a quick buck and others are here to contribute to the community.
Nope. It is a very legitimate question (unless you feel offended by it?.). I like what they are doing, they do wonderful job. Just not sure of all the ins and outs I never been too involved with forum software until recently.
 
There will always be people who are naturally talented at things, but who are not motivated by profit. Equally, there will always be people who are grateful for the efforts of those with talents they lack - in this case, coding add-ons.

Perversely, there are talented people who place a good or high value on their talents and want whatever recompense they feel is reasonable (or in some cases unreasonable) for the fruits of their labour.

In the forums add-on marketplace, the pricing is often quite similar; with fluctuations based on the complexity or desirability of the add-on. $15 - $50 seems to be a rough average, but I would expect the writers to be playing a numbers game and hoping for a good many people to buy thier mods to add to their general funds and pay for some "extras".

I imagine you would need to be quite prolific (or charge a high premium) to make coding mods/add-ons a "living" in any true sense of the word, but I may be wrong and some programmers might be along shortly to contradict me on that one!!!

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
It depends on the market, some companies (small) specialize in creating addons for other software companies in addition to offering design and development (mods) services, not sure how their budget is but they sure wouldn't survive in a market where everything is really cheap, to be honest not sure what business would?. Though I can see it is different here maybe that is why it attracts more people. I have done bridges for vbullein before for other company I worked for, but never was involved other than reading their documentation. Maybe having a big client base triggers the a software to have lower price?. Perhaps..
 
With this type of competition I hardly see any market for developers who think time is money, (or is this a side effect of xenforo being a new product?.).

I can put your mind at rest: I know at least two developers who already work for hard money to develop Xenforo addons and I don't speak about Kier and Mike.

Don't forget, Xenforo is a new product.
 
I can put your mind at rest: I know at least two developers who already work for hard money to develop Xenforo addons and I don't speak about Kier and Mike.

Don't forget, Xenforo is a new product.
I wasn't talking about 'em I was talking about 3rd parties, I know they make good cash..
wink.png
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They'll be a solid market for xenforo. Like I've said many times, they'll have to up their game and bring quality products to the table which I'm sure they will due to a solid flexible framework and a solid product. The return you want, expect from a product boils down to what you put into it and if there's demand for that product. I think there is, will be for many products/add-ons which people will happily pay for.
 
I get the impression that many addons are created by coder/admins who create them for their own sites first and later offer them to others. Then there's people who do it as a challenge/learning experience. And probably some just for fun and to prove they can do it. Many become well known and respected for their work and THEN they might be able to sell their work.
 
Think of the free addons here as a way for developers to hone their skill with the new XF platform and to show their talents. That apparently have worked well as I have installed a few free addon here and contacted the coders to do some custom mod for us.
And we have paid close to $1,000 for 3 addons and will continue to do so with this approach. XF is the livehood of our future community and business and we are going to spend what it takes to provide a unique experience to our members.
As more and more people are familiar with the platform, the number of coders will increase and it's probably harder to make money. That's why first movers always win.
And the coders here already prove their talents.
 
I am currently paying one guy $400 for a single addon, one which I know a fair few people will want also.

It will be with a lite version for free and a premium version for a small cost, the money raised from the premium will then go to

a) pay off my own costs b) then be used to pay for the next addon, and the cycle will continue.

I have no intentions of hiring "cheap" coders just because its cheap, I would rather use someone I know and trust, that has proven time and time again to provide quality work.
 
May not be the same but look at Forum Runner and Tapatalk.
Forum Runner is all alone and picking up momentum while Tapatalk is not even in the gate.
For what it's worth, we currently working with Forum Runner to release our branded version of iPhone/Android and Blackberry when available.
I know about Tapatalk and have users with that apps but apparently, Xenforo platform allow the Forum Runner guys to develop more quickly and with more features and frequent bug fix.
 
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