Question Jomsocial groups are a good concept but:

We are still trying to figure out what to do with 'commercial' advertising. We are not totally against it, but Kunena project should get something in return -- I mean that advertiser should pay for it -- but not nessessary money. It could also be participation to the project, in a way or another.

We are also trying to find a model, which would bring us some money to keep developers motivated in the future. Releasing Kunena 1.6 will give a lot of possibilities, so we are trying to focus our attention into it as much as possible. Kunena will stay free, but some of the new features may come first to our supporters.

Matias wrote:

Kunena will stay free, but some of the new features may come first to our supporters.

Can you elaborate on what features will require "support". One of the reasons many are desperately waiting for 1.6 (aside from performance) is for additional features that have been lacking in FB and the 1.5 series.

Also, what is the definition of a supporter? Somebody who contributes in the forum? Somebody who donates? Somebody who out right purchases extensions?

Thanks

Kunena 1.6 will have a lot of minor improvements (because of the rewrite), but I'm not sure if we want to push release into the future to have a lot of new and cool features. There will most likely be some, but I'd rather publish K1.6 sooner with less features than after a year with everything you can imagine. Features should be fairly easy to add, so basically K1.6 means changing from maintenance mode to new features.

I believe that supporter is anyone who contributes to Kunena project, but we still need to define what it means.

I do agree with the principle that releasing 1.6 sooner with less features is better than delaying for additional features. However, this decision (a good one) is not correlated to a decision on whether to charge for additional features or not. Ie They are independent decisions.

While, I do not mind contributing, being it financial or otherwise, I do believe it is in the communities best interest to know well in advance if there is going to be a shift in the revenue model, in whole or in part. Many people spend time and money working to integrate Kunena into their overall environment. In fact, many are tolerating issues in today's Kunena (due to legacy) waiting for a better world powered by Kunena. Knowledge of a change in the revenue model will allow those people to make an informed decision to a) wait and see; b) continue spending resources with kunena knowing where they should invest $ or time in the future; c) shift their resources to competitive products that are available today.

Again, I do not disagree with revenue generation and think it would be best to define what is free and what is not in advance. After all, if one is to pay for feature ABC and I can buy it today elsewhere, it may be in that person's best interest to do it now.

Thanks for your feedback

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