(2017-09-11, 05:34 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]That's your problem that you block ads, if you actually cared and support a site/product, you'd disable it.
That's a rich accusation, coming from the person who put ads on their site - at 15 posts!
(2017-09-11, 05:47 AM)Ben Cousins Wrote: [ -> ] (2017-09-11, 05:34 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]That's your problem that you block ads, if you actually cared and support a site/product, you'd disable it.
That's a rich accusation, coming from the person who put ads on their site - at 15 posts!
I only had that site so I could get into AdSense and use them on my other sites. It was more or less a gateway. But goes to show you have to always try to be a pompous windbag.
There's no need for name calling or personal attacks.
It's normal that this topic raises concerns. MyBB is a free product, which is the whole point of it, and we want it to stay that way. However, there are ways for MyBB to generate money without having to make the software itself premium/paid.
Ben Cousins is also right, in that not each and every one of those ways would be a fitting option for MyBB.
And don't get me started on ads! Like most people, I am of the opinion that in general, ads have no place in an online setting, at least not in their current form.
Strong opinions on online advertising are mostly tainted by the way in which those ads are served most of the time; just popping up on the screen (and taking up the whole screen) at random intervals or by accidentally clicking the page's background, and absurdly/obscenely large amount of ads on a single page, slowing the page down to a crawl, breaking the layout of the page, completely taking over the site's/page's main content, etc. A website should be about its own content, not about the ads. Many online advertisers are just too aggressive and in-your-face with their advertising practices. It's sad that it has come to this. It's their own damn fault that people are using ad-blockers
(2017-09-11, 04:41 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]MyBB has plenty of volunteers, look at the Extensions an themes being or have been released.
Yet only few of them contribute to MyBB.
(2017-09-11, 04:41 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]A team of 17 people (according to Github's contributors list) should be no problem if there was coordination. The last commit from any of the 17 people (volunteers) was August 6th - over a month ago.
My honest opinion (that's all it is) that MyBB and it's team are not doing the "best" that they can do. Yes, they are volunteers, but that's hiding behind a pole.
Please note there are different team positions. Actually there are only a few developers and even less developers working on MyBB 2.0.
(2017-09-11, 04:41 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]They could earn money from running ads, teaming up with hosts, and much more (It is possible).
Money doesn't magically solve all our problems. Earning money or even employing developers also adds a lot of additional work (like founding a company, paying taxes,...).
(2017-09-11, 11:54 AM)StefanT Wrote: [ -> ] (2017-09-11, 04:41 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]MyBB has plenty of volunteers, look at the Extensions an themes being or have been released.
Yet only few of them contribute to MyBB.
(2017-09-11, 04:41 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]A team of 17 people (according to Github's contributors list) should be no problem if there was coordination. The last commit from any of the 17 people (volunteers) was August 6th - over a month ago.
My honest opinion (that's all it is) that MyBB and it's team are not doing the "best" that they can do. Yes, they are volunteers, but that's hiding behind a pole.
Please note there are different team positions. Actually there are only a few developers and even less developers working on MyBB 2.0.
(2017-09-11, 04:41 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]They could earn money from running ads, teaming up with hosts, and much more (It is possible).
Money doesn't magically solve all our problems. Earning money or even employing developers also adds a lot of additional work (like founding a company, paying taxes,...).
Quote:Yet only few of them contribute to MyBB.
Have you personally asked X person to help? Or are you just relying on your pages of "If you'd like to help, feel free"
Like I said - lack of coordination.
Quote:Please note there are different team positions. Actually there are only a few developers and even less developers working on MyBB 2.0.
You have developers who are wanting to help, but they don't at the same time because of the lack of progress. Would you join a project and volunteer if it's a project that has been 6 years in the making and everyone isn't expecting a release for another half a decade?
Quote:Money doesn't magically solve all our problems. Earning money or even employing developers also adds a lot of additional work (like founding a company, paying taxes,...).
That is a load of BS if I have ever heard of BS. MyBB can be filed as a Non-profit or list the payment(s) as a gift - up to 1,200 is tax free (depending on state) AND the payment could be a "donation" to those who help where they are responsible for the Taxes.
There are solutions, just no one wants to do them.
(2017-09-11, 05:18 PM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]Have you personally asked X person to help? Or are you just relying on your pages of "If you'd like to help, feel free"
Like I said - lack of coordination.
We already asked several people to help us but most of them declined for various reasons. Especially we are looking for experienced Laravel developers, however most users from this community have little or no experiences with it.
(2017-09-11, 05:18 PM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]You have developers who are wanting to help, but they don't at the same time because of the lack of progress. Would you join a project and volunteer if it's a project that has been 6 years in the making and everyone isn't expecting a release for another half a decade?
What's your suggestion here?
(2017-09-11, 05:18 PM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]That is a load of BS if I have ever heard of BS. MyBB can be filed as a Non-profit or list the payment(s) as a gift - up to 1,200 is tax free (depending on state) AND the payment could be a "donation" to those who help where they are responsible for the Taxes.
On the one hand you suggest we should collect a lot of money and found a non-profit organization and on the other hand you say it's no additional work. That makes no sense.
Non-profit: work.
Donations up to 14,000* (if you have someone to run that aspect in the states): you don't pay taxes, the person sending the money does.
The long term solution is simple but tedious: register as a non profit. strawberry hell, use gofundme to raise money so YOU guys don't have to pay for the paperwork and fees.
Like I keep saying, there are ways, no one is wanting to do them.
Another useful thread on overall situation with Mybb's development. Very good as it shows that people do care about Mybb and - on the other hand - staff does not care (enough) about whole project.
Maybe its time for team to resign and new one to be elected?
And who is going to run this non-profit? Who is going to be in charge of these things? How do you even know we could raise enough funds to pay the number of staff we would need or currently have? Is this going to be a non-profit registered in the US? How about international donations/contributions?
Quote:You have developers who are wanting to help, but they don't at the same time because of the lack of progress. Would you join a project and volunteer if it's a project that has been 6 years in the making and everyone isn't expecting a release for another half a decade?
That sounds like a paradox... How exactly do you propose we fix this? If the community is so eager to help why aren't they? The fact is, while we love the community, only a very small portion of the community are actually qualified to develop on such a project. We could hire professional developers but they'd likely be expecting $50,000+ per year + benefits.
MyBB spent 3 months on an actual donation drive back when we purchased MyBB.com, and more than 50% of donations for the final sum (which was something like $4,000, I can't quite remember the figure) came from 2 people - Chris Boulton (MyBB's founder) and Labrocca (of HackForums.net).
While you might want to drop $20 on the project now and then, the amount of money we would need to convert to a model where we pay staff is huge. The only solution would realistically be to get capital investment, then develop 2.0 as a paid forum software and try to compete with Xenforo/vBulletin in the paid space.
(2017-09-16, 06:45 PM)devs Wrote: [ -> ]Another useful thread on overall situation with Mybb's development. Very good as it shows that people do care about Mybb and - on the other hand - staff does not care (enough) about whole project.
Maybe its time for team to resign and new one to be elected?
Contrary to your beliefs we do care. But we have also been around the project for a long time. We see stats like visitor numbers, install figures, and the like.
MyBB is open source but its not a true democracy. You can't just oust the team because you feel like it. Chris could certainly ask us to resign, but hasn't.
Who would you replace the team with? Who in the community would be qualified? Given that generally, we ask anyone we thing to be worthwhile to have on the team to join, there are very few people who would be qualified and would also want to do it (some people have other things to do in life).
(2017-09-16, 07:11 PM)Tom K. Wrote: [ -> ]And who is going to run this non-profit? Who is going to be in charge of these things? How do you even know we could raise enough funds to pay the number of staff we would need or currently have? Is this going to be a non-profit registered in the US? How about international donations/contributions?
Quote:You have developers who are wanting to help, but they don't at the same time because of the lack of progress. Would you join a project and volunteer if it's a project that has been 6 years in the making and everyone isn't expecting a release for another half a decade?
That sounds like a paradox... How exactly do you propose we fix this? If the community is so eager to help why aren't they? The fact is, while we love the community, only a very small portion of the community are actually qualified to develop on such a project. We could hire professional developers but they'd likely be expecting $50,000+ per year + benefits.
MyBB spent 3 months on an actual donation drive back when we purchased MyBB.com, and more than 50% of donations for the final sum (which was something like $4,000, I can't quite remember the figure) came from 2 people - Chris Boulton (MyBB's founder) and Labrocca (of HackForums.net).
While you might want to drop $20 on the project now and then, the amount of money we would need to convert to a model where we pay staff is huge. The only solution would realistically be to get capital investment, then develop 2.0 as a paid forum software and try to compete with Xenforo/vBulletin in the paid space.
(2017-09-16, 06:45 PM)devs Wrote: [ -> ]Another useful thread on overall situation with Mybb's development. Very good as it shows that people do care about Mybb and - on the other hand - staff does not care (enough) about whole project.
Maybe its time for team to resign and new one to be elected?
Contrary to your beliefs we do care. But we have also been around the project for a long time. We see stats like visitor numbers, install figures, and the like.
MyBB is open source but its not a true democracy. You can't just oust the team because you feel like it. Chris could certainly ask us to resign, but hasn't.
Who would you replace the team with? Who in the community would be qualified? Given that generally, we ask anyone we thing to be worthwhile to have on the team to join, there are very few people who would be qualified and would also want to do it (some people have other things to do in life).
From the beginning::
Who is going to be in charge? Someone with plenty of time and who cares about future of MyBB.....
International donations? PayPal handles them perfectly.
$4000 over the course of 3 month out of donations? I must say its pretty good result. You can pay for pretty decent server for 1 years with this...
There is nothing bad in competing with other forum softwares. MyBB has pretty strong name, it has good recognisiot, so yoiu should not be aafraid of it losing position/market etc.
Who would I replace the team with? as I said many times recently - organise an elections.
To be honest I may take lead (speaking seriously) - I have plenty of free time, good organizational skills, know MyBB, PHP & Laravel, Git fluently, am willing to take part in MyBB development. I even am able to register and lead company. Shoot me PM and we will discuss. Im being serious.