2008-05-28, 03:59 AM
I have toyed with making a proposal to Chris. One day I might send him a plan but for now I am into some other things. Also I am not sure Mybb is at a place yet where an official paid support area is warranted. Eventually if mybb is going to be taken seriously as a forum software it may need to add paid support for corporate clients. That's just how it is.
Paid support is rarely in forum form. It's almost always a ticket system. For those with servers or high end hosts they may have to buy "support tickets" which are given in increments based on time. Most support is based on 15 minute increments with a minimum of one ticket for any work by support staff. Answering a simple question normally doesn't cause a ticket to be used but let's say staff needs to login to site, do some file work, fix sql..then the ticket(s) will be used. Take me for example..I am not part of the official support team. Would you object to Chris compensating me as part of the paid support staff? You probably would but on what basis? At this point the staff aren't obligated to answer questions or fix problems. However paid support is obligated. That's the major difference.
You would most likely never know who is buying support. It's normally very anonymous for a few reasons mostly related to security.
I don't think people are unaware of that. Obviously certain measures need to be in place before it's implemented. That's partially why it hasn't been done yet. Logistics need to be worked out and solid. It's also a major step for Mybb. It's one that once taken...you can't take back. So you have to proceed with caution and diligence.
I get the distinct feeling you think that if paid support was offered that somehow the free support here in the forums would suffer. To be honest...that's naive. It's actually the opposite. With paid support there is an incentive to work quickly on bugs or other problems found...those paid solutions would work their way to the software and to these forums.
How are you going to feel in a couple years when Tikitiki says he can't work on the project any longer because he has college or maybe because he has real bills and needs to pay with a job. Chris stepping aside as lead programmer is certainly related to this project being free. If this was a paid gig in some way he probably wouldn't be as concerned about getting a job. This doesn't go to say he should charge for mybb. I don't believe that. However revenue streams have to be considered and explored to their fullest.
Projects often fall apart because not enough forethought or creativity are placed into them. This includes expenses and revenue. Time management is ultra important as well. All these elements are required for a project of this scale to work well. Otherwise it can easily fall apart.
Take a minute to think about vbulletin and it's success. Why is that software so wildly popular? It has to do with corporate clients and these clients want paid support. People all over the web are forking over hundreds of dollars to have their license and paying the yearly fee for upgrades and support. The reason is because there are too many clients that do not trust free. I can tell people how great mybb is till I am blue in the face...they are so secure with VB and it's support that it's insurmountable that another software might be a better alternative.
To challenge VB imho would require at minimum a paid support option. I think even Chris knows that.
Thanks for reading.
Quote:Let's say a seperate forum is created for folks who've paid for the services and there's been folks "employed" to help answer problems, do these "employed" folks not help anywhere else as in the "regular" help forums.
Paid support is rarely in forum form. It's almost always a ticket system. For those with servers or high end hosts they may have to buy "support tickets" which are given in increments based on time. Most support is based on 15 minute increments with a minimum of one ticket for any work by support staff. Answering a simple question normally doesn't cause a ticket to be used but let's say staff needs to login to site, do some file work, fix sql..then the ticket(s) will be used. Take me for example..I am not part of the official support team. Would you object to Chris compensating me as part of the paid support staff? You probably would but on what basis? At this point the staff aren't obligated to answer questions or fix problems. However paid support is obligated. That's the major difference.
You would most likely never know who is buying support. It's normally very anonymous for a few reasons mostly related to security.
Quote:Don't forget it's also a 24/7/365 set up, so there's going to have to be folks available from various world time zones.
I don't think people are unaware of that. Obviously certain measures need to be in place before it's implemented. That's partially why it hasn't been done yet. Logistics need to be worked out and solid. It's also a major step for Mybb. It's one that once taken...you can't take back. So you have to proceed with caution and diligence.
Quote:I guess one of the biggest things to ask is, how much would be a reasonable cost for folks to pay?
I get the distinct feeling you think that if paid support was offered that somehow the free support here in the forums would suffer. To be honest...that's naive. It's actually the opposite. With paid support there is an incentive to work quickly on bugs or other problems found...those paid solutions would work their way to the software and to these forums.
How are you going to feel in a couple years when Tikitiki says he can't work on the project any longer because he has college or maybe because he has real bills and needs to pay with a job. Chris stepping aside as lead programmer is certainly related to this project being free. If this was a paid gig in some way he probably wouldn't be as concerned about getting a job. This doesn't go to say he should charge for mybb. I don't believe that. However revenue streams have to be considered and explored to their fullest.
Projects often fall apart because not enough forethought or creativity are placed into them. This includes expenses and revenue. Time management is ultra important as well. All these elements are required for a project of this scale to work well. Otherwise it can easily fall apart.
Take a minute to think about vbulletin and it's success. Why is that software so wildly popular? It has to do with corporate clients and these clients want paid support. People all over the web are forking over hundreds of dollars to have their license and paying the yearly fee for upgrades and support. The reason is because there are too many clients that do not trust free. I can tell people how great mybb is till I am blue in the face...they are so secure with VB and it's support that it's insurmountable that another software might be a better alternative.
To challenge VB imho would require at minimum a paid support option. I think even Chris knows that.
Thanks for reading.