Question Jomsocial groups are a good concept but:

Points taken. But honestly, I cannot answer to your first question just yet. I can only say that K1.6 will be free from day 1.

I have thought of custom builds (get bugfixes earlier than release cycle), high priority support, some advanced features, money generating features etc.. Maybe users could also hire us to do new features, etc..

OK thanks very much for taking the time to respond.

IMO, I think some possibilities include:

Free:
- base level of kunena to generate wide spread adoption (at least on par or a little more than other free forums to persuade ppl to say and others to come). Pretty obvious start
- link back to kunena
- basic community support (no response time)
- migration to kunena (if you charge for these then it discourages ppl to migrate reducing the total target auidence)
- fixed basic template or partially fixed template system
- no module positions (ie remove advertising)
- features beyond kunena 1.5 (polls, group management, limited reporting)
- basic integration to 3rd party apps eg. CB, JS, maybe calendar, SEF, (necessary for wide spread adoption)

Paid / Top up:
- faster / ticketed support / access to closed forum
- additional templates / removal of fixed template
- additional integration to more 3rd party tools. Problem with integration is that the 3rd party apps 'owners' will add their own tools if you start charging anyway for this.
- advertising capabilities
- remove link back
- documentation
- additional feature possibilities???: replication / synchronisation between multiple boards for backup purposes; distributed admin; front end admin; enhanced admin reports (usage, messaging, performance); attachments virus checking; buddy list; member birthdays; group calendar / calendar integration; who's reading my posts (for users); IM alerts as an alternative to email; pre-defined bad words in a number of languages; auto archive / purging of posts; paypal and/or Vmart integration for board / forum / download access; search and replace; - some form of wiki integration where we can take important content from the discussions into a wiki with links. Yes I can use cut and paste approaches, but I think there must be better ways; and finally do I dare say google wave integration
- access to beta versions (see note at the end)


The challenge of course is that for every app that you charge somebody is likely to "copy" and create a free version unless it is priced so attractively that it is not worth copying in the first place thus add-ons are a difficult revenue model. Unlocking particular features may be an easy approach - entirely depends on the technical design.

Also, as you provide more than the competitive products, they will also increase their value (features, support, etc.) thus the bar is constantly being pushed up making it difficult to draw lines between paid and free versions.

Note: Beta Versions
Personally, I do not like the delayed release dates as this hurts wide spread adoption and in some ways penalises those who contribute. Ie The contributors get it first and many times find the bugs first. So by the time the advanced release is available to everybody the bugs are just being fixed. Those who contribute actually benefit by more ppl testing earlier on.

Take care

Nice list you have in there.

I don't like delayed releases either. But it's frustrating to see that the only version which works in your new Joomla version is in RC state for a year (only for contributors)... And because you do not test it, you do not want to pay for it.

Migration costs: Actually only few months ago I was hoping that there were less users using Kunena. This is because supporting community delayed K1.5 releases for months. Now there are less bugs and less support requests, but honestly I have to skip many interesting messages just to give me some programming time..

I truly did benefit from Cesars post to this forum thread. even if JomSocial adds the features his development provided, having the features on my site now proved to be a valuable perk of $development. I was quoted several thousand of dollars to get done what this commercial developer provided for under $100.

I think it is important to realize that there are many members here that are endusers who profit from the product and will gladly pay for special development. They are different than the endusers who contribute in development. I had a hard time understanding the opensource idea as I write an invoice for every thing I do ( I dig swimming pools and demolish concrete structures). When I can, I hire friends and never expect to get work done for free. I see now that many forum members are kind developers who enjoy mastering their skills by review and fix. I am forever grateful for this resulting open source product.

My fear with not allowing forum review and mention of commercial products is that the members with limited code knowledge like myself will be unable to get an opinion on a product from this forum of respected members.

Gregory O'Connor
Rainbowrv.com

Discussion carried forward in Where can we find the development path?