ThemeHouse and Audentio Design

[Dad.]

Hi all,

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Just wanted to make a brief post on the changes that have happened the last week or so regarding Audentio Design and the new ThemeHouse brand.

To begin, we are formally introducing ThemeHouse! This is just Audentio Design's brand for all digital products for web software. Primarily Wordpress and XenForo to begin with, as we've always done. But some MyBB, phpBB, and IPB products as well. We decided on this name purely because we, as a team, liked the way it sounded better than Hex Themes.

We apologize for any confusion here. The roll out of the name lacked some flare, but this is what happens when you do not only client work, but products, and manage a custom website as our company does. We have a lot of work on our plates and we're trying to make sure things move forward as smoothly as we possibly can here on out.

Changes to Add-ons

Price structure and the rebranding of acquired add-ons
Next, we went through and rebranded many of Jon and Barbole's add-ons to fit within our simple pricing model. We did away with different currencies, different subscription requirements, premium vs paid plans etc. Now it's quite simple. No freemium.

1. Premium add-on licenses 1 price. Generally $10 - $50, most of them being $10.
2. Updates and support are included for 1 year. If you need support or updates after the year, the renewal price is roughly 50% of the original cost of the add-on. So mostly $5 for another year.
3. Branding removal is $50/domain or $200 for unlimited domains, as its always been.

That is pretty much it. One low cost, nothing fancy. Doing it this way ensure we can offer continued support, potential new features and updates, and the quality and attention people expect from us. Maintaining 300 free, intricate add-ons was a task no one can sustain. This was a tough move, but one that was necessary, lest the work of Jon and Barbole go without any updates at all.

We updated a few of the add-ons with necessary fixes, but plan to actually get to work on any bug fixes and new development requests as we close out the rebranding process.

Premium support subscription
We do have premium support subscriptions if you need support for many free add-ons or just generic support. Buying a subscription also includes branding removal! If you have an active license, you do not need this subscription for support on that product, this is completely separate from any specific product and can be purchased if you need that extra bit of help for free/open-source add-ons or even help with things that we aren't responsible for building. We can help with generic XenForo help under this plan as well!

You can find these plans here: http://forums.xf.themehouse.com/subscriptions/

In the future, we plan to have other subscriptions for start-up forums, medium forums, people who love themes and want more choices instead of paying for every individual product like you have to now, etc. But for now, those three bullet points is really about all.

The list of add-ons that are staying free and the list of ones converted to premium can be seen here: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/themehouse-and-audentio-design.109019/#post-1011438

The rest have been open-source'd!

We open-source'd 200+ add-ons!
Almost all of Jon's add-ons have gone open source! What this means is that if there was an add-on you used that went open source, now any developer can work on it without any permission from us. They can fork it, sell it, update it, make a new version of it, whatever they want. No limitations whatsoever. There is branding in these add-ons, but since it falls outside of our normal agreement, you can quite easily remove the branding without any purchase.

A full list of which add-ons went open-source can be seen here: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/themehouse-and-audentio-design.109019/#post-1011439

Previously own a license from Barbole or did you fund the original add-on from Jon or Barbole?

If you already bought a license and are not seeing your license reflected at ThemeHouse, just register and send us a message. Similarly, if you funded the add-on and would like a free courtesy license, we would be more than happy to. No personal information about clients from neither Jon nor Barbole were given to us, so unless you let us know and show us the payment, we have no way of knowing who did what with whom.

Audentio Design products
In what we hope to be just another couple months, all Audentio Design themes and products will move to ThemeHouse. Naturally all licenses will be kept the same and up to date.

Idea Funding

Quite often, people contact us to build small, specific features into either our existing add-ons or into new add-ons. Many times, they make a lot of sense and we would love to build them. This wasn't meant to be a way to give us ideas for add-ons, we have plenty ourselves. But instead let those with smaller budgets a chance to build a feature they want and have a professional development team build and support it.

So what we did is build a simple system for people to post these feature requests up and let the community crowd-fund them into creation. Some of these features, though often seemingly simple, require hours of labor. So anyone can essentially pay a small payment to help contribute to your feature request and help you get it built. Upvotes are currently around $30, but we plan to drop this down to $1 - $10 in the future as more people use the system.

It is entirely free to post the idea. We determine roughly how many upvotes are required before we will guarantee it to be built. If others like the idea, they fund it, we build it. You can get started with that here: http://forums.xf.themehouse.com/ideas/

New Website Coming Soon!

It has been quite some time since we updated Audentio.com. However, since everything is moving to ThemeHouse.com, we have a brand new website coming soon! We may post some pictures up soon with some sneak previews. The new website will be far more modern with such features such as:

• Invoices
• Multiple payment options
• Multiple opportunities to save money on various products we offer
• An improved tickets system to help us respond faster and not miss ticket updates
• Responsive and mobile friendly of course
• And much much more

"The cobbler's children go unshod" pretty much sums up our dated website. We are busy building our client's websites than to bother with our own. But we're growing and have made it a priority for the sake of our clients, as with every decision we make.

Moving forward

Our immediate goal is to make sure all add-ons that desperately require updates get it. This includes our themes of course, of which we are nearing a release at the time of writing this announcement. Things have been rough for everyone and we want to move forward with proper premium support that our customers deserve. Updating the free add-ons to premium was something we had to do, and I know some are not happy with this. But we needed to do it so that we could continue offering the support asked of us. If you have any issues with any of our decisions, please do message us here, we'd love to work something out and make it so you are happy with this transition.

We are so thankful for all the support many of you have given us. It is for you that we work so hard and will continue to.

Click here to visit ThemeHouse.

Thanks,
ThemeHouse Team
@Jake B. @Mike Creuzer @kylerc @nikkiradloff @ianhitt @brstrm @Tushar Singh

 

[Dad.]

The list of add-ons that were free and are now premium are listed here:

[TH] Thumbnails by Waindigo
[TH] User Upgrades by Waindigo
[TH] Conversations on Moderation Actions by Waindigo
[TH] Resource Managers by Waindigo
[TH] User Title Ladder by Waindigo
[TH] DataTables BB Code by Waindigo
[TH] Hotspots by Waindigo
[TH] Thread Navigation by Waindigo
[TH] Email Idle Users by Waindigo
[TH] Maximum Guest Views by Waindigo
[TH] Ignore More by Waindigo
[TH] Sub-accounts by Waindigo
[TH] First Click Free by Waindigo
[TH] Undelete Users by Waindigo
[TH] Keyword Replace by Waindigo
[TH] Poke by Waindigo
[TH] Upgrade Coupons by Waindigo
[TH] Forum Digest by Waindigo
[TH] Tabs by Waindigo
[TH] Discussion in Resource Overview by Waindigo
[TH] Extra Node Information by Waindigo
[TH] Contact Us by Waindigo
[TH] Alphabetical Pagination by Waindigo
[TH] Single Sign-on (Master)
[TH] Avatar Flags by Waindigo
[TH] Friends by Waindigo
[TH] Self Delete by Waindigo
[TH] Member's Local Time by Waindigo
[TH] Disable Invisible Status by Waindigo
[TH] Mark Threads as Solved by Waindigo
[TH] Feeder by Waindigo
[TH] Force Ignore by Waindigo
[TH] Discussions in Library by Waindigo
[TH] GeoLite by Waindigo
[TH] WikiPosts
[TH] Sub-account Alerts by Waindigo
[TH] RSVP BB Codes by Waindigo
[TH] RSVP Permissions by Waindigo
[TH] Open Graph by Waindigo
[TH] Warnings Count by Waindigo
[TH] Single Sign On (Slave) by Waindigo

The list of add-ons that are covered by standard support and entirely free:

[TH] Install and Upgrade by Waindigo
[TH] Login As User by Waindigo
[TH] Join User Group by Waindigo
[TH] Custom Fields by Waindigo
[TH] Trophies by Waindigo
[TH] User Criteria by Waindigo
[TH] Forum List Tabs by Waindigo
[TH] Resource Event Reviews by Waindigo
[TH] Google Calendar API by Waindigo
[TH] Google API by Waindigo
[TH] Repeat Events by Waindigo
[TH] Twitter Widget
[TH] Thread Events by Waindigo
[TH] Font Awesome BBCode
[TH] Thread Bump Management by Waindigo
[TH] Calendar by Waindigo
[TH] Leaderboards by Waindigo
[TH] Multiple Choice Fields by Waindigo
[TH] Log Out Redirect by Waindigo
[TH] Template Viewer by Waindigo
[TH] Resource Events by Waindigo
[TH] Email Reports by Waindigo

 

[Dad.]

List of add-ons converted to open-source:

[TH] Social Groups
[TH] Ignore New Posts
[TH] Post As User
[TH] Smilie Importer
[TH] Avatars
[TH] Import Tools
[TH] Conversations Access
[TH] Forum Jump Menu
[TH] Create Resource from Forum
[TH] No Downtime
[TH] XenAtendo More
[TH] Node Numbers
[TH] Email Alerts
[TH] Edit Post Date
[TH] User Field Categories
[TH] Date Field for Custom Fields (Custom Field XML)
[TH] User Banners
[TH] Promotion Message
[TH] Shorter Routes
[TH] Old Thread Warning
[TH] Log Out Link
[TH] HTML in Node Titles
[TH] Extend Post Ratings
[TH] Sub-Domains
[TH] Language Chooser Position
[TH] Font Awesome in Admin Control Panel
[TH] Conversation Search
[TH] Agree to Terms of Service
[TH] Star Rating for Custom Fields (Custom Field XML)
[TH] Mandatory Fields
[TH] Guests First Post Only
[TH] Bible
[TH] Resource Category List Navigation
[TH] Spell Checker
[TH] Warnings
[TH] About Me
[TH] Automatic Warnings
[TH] User Group BB Codes
[TH] Social User Groups
[TH] Newest Post First
[TH] Create Thread from Forum List
[TH] Joke Poll
[TH] Strands
[TH] Spam Rules
[TH] Edit User Join Date
[TH] Moderators
[TH] Resource View Count
[TH] Navigation Tabs
[TH] Hide Online Users
[TH] External Authentication Privacy
[TH] User Moderation Queue on Front End
[TH] XenForo.com Smilies (Smilies XML)
[TH] Resource Icons
[TH] Resource Title and Tag Line
[TH] Star Rating for Custom Fields 1.0.x (Custom Field XML) [Unsupported]
[TH] Lost Password
[TH] Social Notices
[TH] Future Permissions
[TH] Social Permissions
[TH] RSS Feeds
[TH] Promotion End Dates
[TH] Page Search
[TH] Media Block
[TH] XenForo Extended Smilies (Smilie Importer XML) [Unsupported]
[TH] Resource Categories
[TH] Admin Styles
[TH] Admin Image Uploader
[TH] Search and Export
[TH] Rewards
[TH] Last Post Avatar
[TH] Threads in Overlays
[TH] Privacy Groups
[TH] Remove From Sitemap
[TH] Anonymous Posts and Threads
[TH] Redirect Rules
[TH] Post on Reported Content
[TH] Members List
[TH] User Edit on Front End
[TH] Unread Categories
[TH] Custom Post Fields
[TH] Custom Field Rules
[TH] Next/Previous Tab Buttons
[TH] Infusionsoft API
[TH] Temporary User Changes
[TH] vBulletin 4 CMS Importer
[TH] Trial Registration Upgrades
[TH] AutoComplete Combo Box
[TH] Node Name in Reports List
[TH] Un-link Resource Authors
[TH] Moderation Queue Information
[TH] Thread Gallery
[TH] Forum Email Notifications
[TH] Discussion Count
[TH] New Posts Parent Link
[TH] Models
[TH] Keywords
[TH] Reflection
[TH] Moderate Replies
[TH] Node Language Override
[TH] Trophy User Titles Progress
[TH] Random Key Generator
[TH] Debug On Post
[TH] Resource Check In and Out
[TH] Diagnostics Permissions
[TH] Admin Log Permission
[TH] Remove Custom Event Listeners
[TH] Language Flags
[TH] Auto-Associate External Accounts
[TH] Google Markers (Dots) for Hotspots (Hotspots KML)
[TH] Metadata
[TH] Basic Color Markers for Hotspots (Hotspots KML)
[TH] Mark as Read
[TH] Forum Watch More
[TH] Default XenForo Smilies (Smilie Importer XML) [Unsupported]
[TH] SMTP Registration Bug Fix
[TH] Delete Attachments Permission
[TH] Allow Tabs in Redactor Editor
[TH] Go to First Unread
[TH] Resource Rate and Review
[TH] Captcha Phrases
[TH] Profile Posts Limit
[TH] Columns BB Code
[TH] Status Permissions
[TH] iFrame Styling
[TH] Pay for Content
[TH] Flood Control Permissions
[TH] User Groups Importer
[TH] Live Threads
[TH] Post Titles
[TH] User Promotions
[TH] Online Users
[TH] Show Redirect Expiry
[TH] System-Wide Permissions
[TH] Add Username To Attachment
[TH] User Banner Groups
[TH] Admin Home
[TH] Active Recently Definition
[TH] Your Reports
[TH] Default XenForo Smilies (Smilies XML)
[TH] Code Event Listeners
[TH] New Posts Summary
[TH] No Password Users
[TH] Extra Tabs for Resource Manager
[TH] Staff Ignore
[TH] Conversations
[TH] SVG Templates
[TH] Un-link Banned Users
[TH] No Thread Links
[TH] User Default Sort Options
[TH] Disable Signature in Posts
[TH] Sort Threads with No Thread Prefix
[TH] Daily Post Limit
[TH] Image Restrictions
[TH] Save and Refresh
[TH] Thread Filters
[TH] Disable Debug Mode
[TH] Average Rating for Custom Fields (Custom Field XML)
[TH] Master Forums
[TH] Social Feeds
[TH] jQuery Dump
[TH] Parental Control
[TH] Private Nodes
[TH] Integration Permissions
[TH] Resource Authors
[TH] User Registration Spam Rules
[TH] AWeber API
[TH] XenForo Extended Smilies (Smilies XML)
[TH] User Post Count in Threads
[TH] Post Edit Reason
[TH] Thread Notices
[TH] No Search Indexing
[TH] Reports
[TH] Moderator Log
[TH] Similar Usernames
[TH] Queue Email Users
[TH] XenForo.com Smilies (Smilie Importer XML) [Unsupported]
[TH] Rebuild External Avatars
[TH] Extra XenForo.com Trophies (Trophies XML)
[TH] NoForo
[TH] Default XenForo Trophies (Trophies XML)
[TH] Default 1.1.x Style with NoForo conditionals (Style XML)
[TH] Default Admin Style (Style XML)
[TH] Google Markers (Push-pins) for Hotspots (Hotspots KML)
[TH] Google Markers (Various) for Hotspots (Hotspots KML)
[TH] Google Markers (Solid) for Hotspots (Hotspots KML)
[TH] Rebuild Gravatars
[TH] Tags
[TH] Watched Thread Folders
[TH] Default XenForo User Groups (User Groups Importer XML)
[TH] PayPal Sandbox
[TH] Last Activity
[TH] Search
[TH] More Tagging
[TH] Alphabetical Sorting for Resource Manager
[TH] Resource Tabs
[TH] Upload a File Field for Custom Fields (Custom Field XML)
[TH] Email Admin-Generated Passwords
[TH] Default Move Forum
[TH] Defer Moderator Actions
[TH] Spam Cleaner
[TH] Watched Forums
[TH] Watched Threads
[TH] Appearance
[TH] User Search
[TH] Watch Summary Email
[TH] BB Code Permissions
[TH] vBulletin Social Groups Importer
[TH] User Import and Export
[AD] Monetize: Thread Association
[AD] CTA Featured Threads Widget
[AD] Notifications
[AD] Credits - Featured Threads Event
[AD] TOS
[TH] Notifications for Old Threads by Waindigo

 

[Mouth]

Idea Funding

I do not understand how this works.
I purchase vote credits, then sit around for xxx weeks/months/years waiting until someone else up votes to reach an unknown required votes before it gets developed?
And in the meantime, I cannot vote on/for anything else because I've already spent my vote. Money which could languish for however long in never never land.

 

[lazy llama]

Almost all of Jon's add-ons have gone open source! What this means is that if there was an add-on you used that went open source, now any developer can work on it without any permission from us. They can fork it, sell it, update it, make a new version of it, whatever they want. No limitations whatsoever.

Doesn't the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ license which has been used mean that adaptations cannot be distributed?

 

[Dad.]

I do not understand how this works.
I purchase vote credits, then sit around for xxx weeks/months/years waiting until someone else up votes to reach an unknown required votes before it gets developed?
And in the meantime, I cannot vote on/for anything else because I've already spent my vote. Money which could languish for however long in never never land.

I recommend taking a look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding

Doesn't the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ license which has been used mean that adaptations cannot be distributed?

I don't recall specifying that specific license. We will be releasing under MIT.

 

[lazy llama]

I don't recall specifying that specific license. We will be releasing under MIT.

Thanks, I was just basing it on the license info on the resources here.

Thanks for opening them, I'm sure the community will find them useful.

 

[Enguerran A]

So for now it doesn't change anything about themes right?

 

[Dad.]

So for now it doesn't change anything about themes right?

Correct, and it won't when we do rebrand them either. This is primarily just a way for us to differentiate our parent company from one service of many that we provide, and that is digital products for web software.

 

[Mr Black]

So where do I go to purchase branding removal? I cant find it on your site, in fact the site itself seems to not be working well for me in any browser, cannot click contact, just sends me to the top of the page etc.

Sort of frustrating to be truthful.

 

[Mouth]

I recommend taking a look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding

I'm well versed on CrowdFunding, having participated several times. It doesn't answer the questions I asked about your implementation though.
In all other crowd funding I've committed to the investment, but not submitted funds. In your model, it appears I have to submit funds and buy a vote before I can even participate. Thus leading to my questions.

 

[Dad.]

I'm well versed on CrowdFunding, having participated several times. It doesn't answer the questions I asked about your implementation though.
In all other crowd funding I've committed to the investment, put not submitted funds. In your model, it appears I have to submit funds and buy a vote before I can even participate. Thus leading to my questions.

I guess I don't know how else to explain. Crowd funding works when people contribute to an idea together to help it come to fruition. Without contributing there is no way to know that you...contributed.

 

[Mike Edge]

I guess I don't know how else to explain. Crowd funding works when people contribute to an idea together to help it come to fruition. Without contributing there is no way to know that you...contributed.

Do we receive a cash refund if the project isn't funded, just like gofundme would or just Audentio credit? What confuses me is so many projects to pick from.. Shouldn't it be one to start, when one is finished start seeking the funds for a new one, etc. Also each funding objective lacks information.. What will be added, how soon work on it will start etc.. Right now it just feels like throw money at it and cross your fingers it gets selected and tough luck if it doesn't.

 

[Mouth]

Crowd funding works when people contribute to an idea together to help it come to fruition. Without contributing there is no way to know that you...contributed.

And with all other crowd funding I've participated, I've not had any money taken out of my credit card (or paypal account) until the inventor/developer reaches milestones and deliverables.
It appears to me, with this model, that I am purchasing the ability to vote on features/functionality. And that vote doesn't guarantee any sort of timeframe or even that the feature/functionality will ever be produced. Up front cash at something that may just sit around with no activity for months waiting for other interested parties to maybe also jump aboard. Sorry, doesn't sound like something I'd participate in. For my upfront cash, I'd want something more than just voting rights.

 

[Dad.]

And with all other crowd funding I've participated, I've not had any money taken out of my credit card (or paypal account) until the inventor/developer reaches milestones and deliverables.
It appears to me, with this model, that I am purchasing the ability to vote on features/functionality. And that vote doesn't guarantee any sort of timeframe or even that the feature/functionality will ever be produced. Up front cash at something that may just sit around with no activity for months waiting for other interested parties to maybe also jump aboard. Sorry, doesn't sound like something I'd participate in. For my upfront cash, I'd want something more than just voting rights.

But you can't have a milestone with most of these projects. This isn't like for video games or some physical product, its for small 3-8 hours project generally, sometimes more or less. I'm all ears for any improvements, but obviously if you are anti-crowdfunding or something then this service will never be for you anyways.

 

[Daniel Hood]

I'm all ears for any improvements, but obviously if you are anti-crowdfunding or something then this service will never be for you anyways.

I think where he's getting lost is that his vote doesn't actually guarantee the product will ever be developed. With crowdfunding there is typically a goal, once the goal is hit, the funds are taken and the project is started. With this model, the funds are taken and the project is started when there's an undisclosed amount of votes, it seems?

 

[Mike Edge]

I think where he's getting lost is that his vote doesn't actually guarantee the product will ever be developed. With crowdfunding there is typically a goal, once the goal is hit, the funds are taken and the project is started. With this model, the funds are taken and the project is started when there's an undisclosed amount of votes, it seems?

That was my take on it too.. The amount of votes required should be disclosed, an ETA of first product beta once goal is met and what happens to your money if the goal is not met along with a goal expire date. Right now you could vote and there is nothing that indicates you'll receive your vote or money back within any time frame.. Infinity til we get the funds is not proper crowd-funding.

 

[Dad.]

I think where he's getting lost is that his vote doesn't actually guarantee the product will ever be developed. With crowdfunding there is typically a goal, once the goal is hit, the funds are taken and the project is started. With this model, the funds are taken and the project is started when there's an undisclosed amount of votes, it seems?

I never said it wasn't undisclosed at all. When the idea is posted we assign a number of upvotes that it will take to develop it. Again typically around 10 or so. You can do multiple upvotes if you want. The risk is in whether or not it ever gets developed, but we don't have a system to which we can charge people after we find contributions.

What we could do perhaps to solve that is build a credit system (we did already who woulda thought). And then the funds are taken out of your bank if and only if the project meets the right funds. But even with that, what if you withdrawl your credits a different way? Or spend those upvotes on a different system? Things get out of sync.

 

[SneakyDave]

Why can't you just do a "traditional" crowdfund? People make their suggestions, and you put a price on it, and people can support it if they want it by a certain deadline.

I don't know anybody that would be willing to part ways with money without something in return.

 

[Dad.]

Why can't you just do a "traditional" crowdfund? People make their suggestions, and you put a price on it, and people can support it if they want it by a certain deadline.

I don't know anybody that would be willing to part ways with money without something in return.

Well, we deal with a lot of people who need a lot of things built but do not want to spend the cost of the project themselves. This is for them I guess. Its supposed to be a tool to help certain people. This isn't meant for projects that are of large scope. So no, your idea wouldn't work for us or for our customers.