ThemeHouse and Audentio Design

[Mike Edge]

Why has my questions of what happens with our money used to purchase for "up votes" if what you voted on doesn't get developed and why the amount of votes required to start developement is not shown, continue to be ignored? These are very fair and basic questions that I'm sure many would like to know more details on these policies before buying any votes.

Honestly, why not just use a more traditional site like gofund me? Everyone can see the details outlined and no questions or risks about the funds.. either it gets funded and go fund me pays you, or it doesn't and we receive a refund of our investment.. Simple, no need to reinvent the wheel with "up votes".

 

[Freelancer]

Why don't you separate the votes from the funding? Let ideas be voted in a certain timeframe. If enough votes are collected you estimate a price based on the demand. Then let the crowd throw in the money. Either it does not get enough votes and is rejected or it takes a while to collect the money but people have a certainty that their investment will make a difference. Spares both sides a lot of headaches.

 

[Dad.]

Why don't you separate the votes from the funding? Let ideas be voted in a certain timeframe. If enough votes are collected you estimate a price based on the demand. Then let the crowd throw in the money. Either it does not get enough votes and is rejected or it takes a while to collect the money but people have a certainty that their investment will make a difference. Spares both sides a lot of headaches.

This makes a lot of sense for bigger features. But what if you just want 1 function added to an existing add-on? Im thinking 2-3 people will source it, max. It may take months too and then those people are gone. Paying up front is the only way to know it gets funded properly.

 

[Kevin]

This makes a lot of sense for bigger features. But what if you just want 1 function added to an existing add-on? Im thinking 2-3 people will source it, max. It may take months too and then those people are gone. Paying up front is the only way to know it gets funded properly.

But what happens if person 1 & 2 'buy' a vote but person 3 never shows up to round out the funding requirement?

 

[Dad.]

But what happens if person 1 & 2 'buy' a vote but person 3 never shows up to round out the funding requirement?

From our position, we aren't going to require that everything perfectly meet the requirement. We will do things for cheaper if and when we can. But in that situation, it will never be funded and therefore never be built if only say 1 or 2 of 10 votes are required.

I do not think there is a best case scenario, but its something we are going to try. If no one uses it, we aren't hurt. We are trying to make an avenue to help people build small features. This really isn't for big features, can be, but at some point we will have more traffic and more people will be able to watch the list. We may even tweet out ones that are close.

Like I said, it doesn't really matter if any individual doesn't want this. This is for the people who have no other option as their feature won't be built without some form of crowdfunding. This is a service to the community, not really something we are basing our business model off of. It will help people get what they need built, and for those who do not want to use it of course do not have to.

 

[Kevin]

We are trying to make an avenue to help people build small features.

Which I wholeheartedly support! Goodness knows the number of devs I've dealt with in private for little things over the years, most of which never the light of day other than my own meanderings.

I still not sure though the attractiveness of what you're working on.

Is there a time limit being set for the funding? eg: "We need X people to commit to funding within Y weeks/months." or does it just go on forever? If after an amount of time not enough people join the pool for funding, and assuming nobody wants to buy additional votes, can those purchased votes be re-assigned to a different pool? Once the funding has been met is there a committed time window in which the funded item will be done? eg: "After the item is fully funded this change will be delivered in X weeks/months" or is it non-committal?

Sorry if those questions have already been addressed, I don't recall seeing the answers to them. I have no issues at all with what you're trying to do, I'm just trying to gauge whether or not participation as a 'funder' will ultimately result in action of some type.

 

[Freelancer]

This makes a lot of sense for bigger features. But what if you just want 1 function added to an existing add-on? Im thinking 2-3 people will source it, max. It may take months too and then those people are gone. Paying up front is the only way to know it gets funded properly.

Okay I wasn't aware of it addressing smaller feature extensions. But that's also not a big problem. You could categorize very clearly what a new feature costs and how many have to pay what. So for example: A "basic" feature costs 10.- USD and you will need 5 people to fund it. Meaning two can fund it for 25.- each and get their feature. Or 50 with 1 dollar. Or 1 with 50 dollar. The numbers are for example only. But it is a transparent way and customers can calculate the chances.

 

[n00bsaibot]

I too was confused about Idea Funding. It's a good feature but needs some consumer protection.

Perhaps, state x amount of votes in y days. If you need 10 people, they need to come up with the funds within 30 days or else project is cancelled and refunds issued. Without fixed dates and refunds you're holding money up indefinitely like @Mouth is saying.

Also, for your protection don't accept PP for something like this or you will end up funding the ideas yourself lol.

 

[Mike Edge]

Sorry if those questions have already been addressed, I don't recall seeing the answers to them. I have no issues at all with what you're trying to do, I'm just trying to gauge whether or not participation as a 'funder' will ultimately result in action of some type.

I have asked several times only to continue to have my questions ignored, hopefully you get an answer Kevin! It's disheartening the way some paying Audentio clients have been treated as of late, almost feels like they want the old customers that have spent hundreds on hundreds of dollars with them to move on to try to make way for new expected clients...

 

[Kevin]

I have asked several times only to continue to have my questions ignored, hopefully you get an answer Kevin!

Hopefully Mike & crew can work out the details as to how exactly the funding will work. I give them credit as they are trying something new in the community and I'm more than willing to donate to ideas that I like, especially for small stuff that a dev can knock out, but at the moment there are lingering questions that need to be resolved.

 

[Robust]

Where can the open source add-ons even be found?

Edit: For all those interested: https://github.com/themehouse

 

[n00bsaibot]

Also, say I come up with an idea and fund it entirely myself. Do I own the product I commissioned or does TH?

Can we have an idea thread here, I'm very lazy and don't want to register elsewhere.

 

[Robust]

Also, say I come up with an idea and fund it entirely myself. Do I own the product I commissioned or does TH?

Can we have an idea thread here, I'm very lazy and don't want to register elsewhere.

If you want to fund an idea entirely yourself, contact them for custom development? If you paid just to fund part of the development and show interest, I'd imagine TH owns it as they'd sell it to recoup development costs and profit.

 

[Mike Edge]

Hopefully Mike & crew can work out the details as to how exactly the funding will work. I give them credit as they are trying something new in the community and I'm more than willing to donate to ideas that I like, especially for small stuff that a dev can knock out, but at the moment there are lingering questions that need to be resolved.

I'm all for new features and things. But what concerns me also is they continue to add new things and so forth with a lot on their plate they are falling behind on things many of us already spent money on, like styles for example.. All styles other then UI.X itself is still on 1.5.0, missing 1.5.1, 15.2 and now released 1.5.3 updates with promises for months now that they will be updated soon, they are resolving bugs.. As a client that purchased several styles, unlimited domain license etc.. I'd much rather see the effort in developing this new "up vote" system being used to fix current issues rather then continuing to open new cans of worms. I'm sure many more would be willing to invest in new ideas once fate is restored in bug fixes we currently been waiting months on for products already purchased.

 

[n00bsaibot]

If you want to fund an idea entirely yourself, contact them for custom development? If you paid just to fund part of the development and show interest, I'd imagine TH owns it as they'd sell it to recoup development costs and profit.

I meant more in the context of 10 votes required but nobody is interested so I buy all 10.

 

[tajhay]

Good concept in theory. IMHO simple transparent solutions are always the best, which i cannot say that this is. KISS principle gets overlooked far too many times these days.

Not interested in participating myself- i can get simple modifications done myself for $30 via development parties rather than just waste it on a 'vote'. I wonder how many people would buy this to put the initial vote as its pretty much throwing a dart without knowing where the dart board is.

Good luck for the initiative. Hope it succeeds but have lots of reservations and would not be using this myself. Most good devs add new features for free to their paid software in consultation with the community that they support trying to make the addon consistently better which leads to greater demand. With this idea it seems like the the initial/original purchasers are relied upon to fund new features to making the product a more feature rich addon.


30 upvotes required = 30 x $30. wow...

 

[Robust]

30 upvotes required = 30 x $30. wow...

1 upvote is $30? Ouch...

What you should do is 1 token for $1. People can invest as many tokens as they like... Tokens must be bought in batches of $10 so you're not getting spammed by $1 payments on PayPal.

You welcome. Idea copyright of Robust Studios Inc.

 

[n00bsaibot]

i can get simple modifications done myself for $30 via development parties

What does this mean?

 

[tajhay]

What does this mean?

There are many devs who can perform simple development enhancements for that money. Heck ive had numerous full addons developed for less than that.

 

[Mike Edge]

What does this mean?

He can get simple things made within a few days for $30.00 rather then waiting maybe months in "up votes" and it still not being a 100% guarantee it will be done.