So, what's the downside?

[Sador]

No, seriously. I've spent a couple of hours in here, and still haven't found anything bad about XenForo. Everything looks great, I keep finding new stuff, the speed is terrific, everything works better than expected... so where's the catch?

What do the rest of you think?

 

[Peggy]

In that case, I would have to argue for <$150 especially during the early adopters pre-sale considering:

• The product has less features than IPB
• It's essentially only a version 1 alpha
• I would assume it's going to be priced competitively at the normal price, so an early adopters price should be at least 20$ cheaper.

At <$150 I would buy in an instant.

It's a version 1 alpha at present, but by the time it's released for sale, it will far exceed that standard.

 

[Erik]

... I did not know that.

One of the little known features of Fireworks.
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/09/18/png8-the-clear-winner/

 

[Erik]

It's a version 1 alpha at present, but by the time it's released for sale, it will far exceed that standard.

I'm sure it will, although you have to admit we should all be a little wary of buying something based on "what it will become."

 

[Sador]

I'm sure it will, although you have to admit we should all be a little wary of buying something based on "what it will become."

Yeh, I'm actually surprised this hasn't been mentioned before. People sure do have a lot of trust in Kier and Mike.

 

[Peggy]

I'm sure it will, although you have to admit we should all be a little wary of buying something based on "what it will become."

But we're not. It won't be ready for sale til the end of the summer at the earliest, as Kier stated in another thread. Plenty of time for the devs to up the ante, so to speak.

Yeh, I'm actually surprised this hasn't been mentioned before. People sure do have a lot of trust in Kier and Mike.

And a very well-deserved trust it is, imo.

 

[feldon30]

I will say that we have been leaning heavily towards an owned-license-plus-yearly-renewal scheme that resembles the way that vBulletin used to be licensed, rather than a pay-per-version model.

Again, excellent news. I don't believe in foolish consistency, but the vB3 license model meant you got direct feedback from the customers on how they felt about the quality of updates, whether you'd get a rash of re-ups or not.

IE6 should be binned for all eternity...

Please not the same topic from vB.com. Can we drop all the old arguments and move forward? xenForo (not XenForo, not xenoForo) works much better in all browsers than vB4.

 

[feldon30]

Re: the style...

Please stick with transparent PNGs so xenForo can be styled easily to work on all different colored backgrounds, etc. For those sites that have a lot of IE6 users, I'd provide a separate image pack that is IE6-friendly.

 

[Erik]

But we're not. It won't be ready for sale til the end of the summer at the earliest, as Kier stated in another thread. Plenty of time for the devs to up the ante, so to speak.
And a very well-deserved trust it is, imo.

Yes, I agree, I'm just saying I think it would be a little odd if they came right out of the gate priced more expensive that IPB, a fully developed and mature piece of software.

 

[Brandon_R]

I think it would be about 150-200 dollars depending on what they have to offer.

 

[Jura]

Don't want much, do ya?

I already have a forum, so it would have to meet the same standards.

 

[Lawrence]

I already have a forum, so it would have to meet the same standards.

Not for me. Commitment to the product and customer satisfatiction is worth the asking price.

 

[Floren]

Downside, it's not for sale (at the moment).

+1 (edit: no 10chars limit, thank you!)

 

[Peggy]

Yes, I agree, I'm just saying I think it would be a little odd if they came right out of the gate priced more expensive that IPB, a fully developed and mature piece of software.

ah I see what you're saying now, and I do agree.

 

[Shamil]

ah I see what you're saying now, and I do agree.

Would it help if they started low and grew upwards? Price-wise.

 

[GodForum.com]

Let's hope it's at least $249, because that's what it is worth to me.

Its gotta have a LOW entry point in my humble opinion ... you need a big adoption rate to kick start this and get everybody on it.

 

[Erik]

Would it help if they started low and grew upwards? Price-wise.

Its gotta have a LOW entry point in my humble opinion ... you need a big adoption rate to kick start this and get everybody on it.

Absolutely. This is what I'm advocating.

Honestly, if they charge >$180 I can see it splitting the users (the same ones that are generating all the excitement right now) into two classes: Those who can afford it, and those who know Kier and Mike, love the software, and want to support the project but are forced to watch from the sidelines because the license is too expensive.

Yeah, the software is great and all, but I can't see how some of you are seriously suggesting paying $250 or more for a version 1 alpha product.

My advice to the team would be to make it cheap to start with (especially with the early adopter sale), so that almost everyone can afford to get a license and everyone is included. Start with a really strong community where (almost) everyone has a license, and then let the software grow in value as the community builds and you add features. If you come out with it priced at $250 or more, I think you could potentially kill a lot of the buzz by excluding those that can't afford it.

Just my opinion.

 

[Sador]

I agree on that as well.

 

[Lawrence]

Its gotta have a LOW entry point in my humble opinion ... you need a big adoption rate to kick start this and get everybody on it.

The price just needs to be realistic. This forum already speaks for the quality of the product. I must say, I am very impressed.

 

[Shamil]

Absolutely. This is what I'm advocating.

Your point make absolute sense to me. The risk of segregation at this point could be potentially destructive.

 

[Peggy]

Would it help if they started low and grew upwards? Price-wise.

Y'know, I certainly do understand all of the opinions posted here already.

However, I can only speak for myself in answering your question, since I'm in the low-income bracket. It would definitely help me, so I am pretty biased where the price is concerned. Additionally, I feel that the number of business sites out there comes close to, if not equals, the number of hobby/support sites/forums, and I feel that it would be a mistake to price the software out of their price range. See where I'm coming from?