Pligg Addons Coming Soon

[canadapc]

Cool .. I'd buy that!!!!

[merc]

Hi,

I am (amongst other things) a Drupal developer.
There is a fantastic fauna of Drupal modules out there. They are crucial.
I myself wrote a "karma" module for Drupal, a 2000 line module that does a lot of things. I did it for free - but I did it mainly so that I could use it myself, and other people could see it/testit/debug it.

I think you guys should at least consider:

* Create a very stable API for modules
* Giving people access to a modules repository, like Drupal does, with CVS/git/Mercurial access. This is nasty to implement, but possible
* Create a community of module developers
* Charge for *specific* modules, or for personalising existing ones. A LOT of Drupal developers live off doing just that.

Some developers at Drupal have basic modules, and sell the more advanced versions of their modules. What ends up happening, is that the modules themselves are quite useless or too limited to do anything real. I will give you some very practical examples in PM.

Charging $3 for a module means that for $3 you are missing out on mass-testing, on proliferation of modules, and so on.

If you _really_ want to sell modules, you should have a rule where a module after 6 months becomes GPL'd, so that people can at least use/fork off old versions. But, again, this is messy.

Anyway... that's my 2c.

If it's to finance Pligg's development, I am *sure* you can find a few successful Pligg sites that fork out a few $$ a month to fund development, giving a link from the homepage or whatever in exchange. I know I would.

So, if you want to follow an existing model, Drupal's developers make a lot of money on personalising and writing ad-hoc modules (and then, often releasing those modules, modified and generalised, to the Drupal community under the GPL!).

Bye,

Merc.

[savant]

thanks for your insight merc.

[Simon]

Yeh, those were some good points. Definitely useful to hear from other opensource projects who have already gone through this growing phase. I thought the idea about just allowing payments for custom modifications, or for personalising existing modifications, was a good one. On that basis, I've just voted "no" for payment for premium modules (unless premium comes to be defined as custom services only).

A hosted option would require us to take on full-time employees to manage and maintain. We don't have to manpower or resources available to take on such a venture, but I have been in talks with a company who will hopefully provide this service soon.

I appreciate that, but surely proper growth in hosted services would generate the revenue to allow the taking on of full-time employees etc. Would out-sourcing to a 3rd party company allow for the same benefits to the pligg project in the long term? But as long as it is closely connected to pligg it isn't a problem either way IMO.

[Yankidank]

We wouldn't be able to offer quality hosting wtihout a significant investment. It's projects like these modules for sale that will help us generate enough income to take on projects like that.

* Charge for *specific* modules, or for personalising existing ones. A LOT of Drupal developers live off doing just that.

Isn't that exactly what I'm doing? We're not charging for every module we come up with, only a few of them that add unnecissary frills to Pligg.

[mossiwo]

I continue thinking as I mentioned before, that Pligg has a lot of potential, the system can take over any other Open Source out there, open blogging, by invitation only, common blogging, social bookmarking, ranking, popularity, just need to be put in a very stable direction.

You can let others contribute to the main developers community, and even sell for a reasonable number the modules you wish, however you guys should do everything to put pligg on the right spot, and start selling it as a powerful social internet community, a very unique look, you will have a very substantial traffic and submition, and start building a community just like wordpress, vox, a very good marketing long live strategy, and have the other side of it "developers section" I'm into operations, marketing, not development, my self I have paid some friends to do some work for me, however the API will warranty some how the future deployments and future enhancements from developers, out there are millions of Earth Citizen that believe in giving.

That is just my opinion, however whatever it is the word is spreading out here about PLIGG, and there is a long road ahead, the success of PLIGG is in your hands guys, however the long road for the system it self is almost warranty for its potential.

Keep up the good work, and take the word that is out "Open Source" as an advantage, hope you guys whatever road you take all the luck in the world.

[chuckroast]

Some of the replies to this thread are discouraging.
I've been with pligg for just over a year now. From a developers standpoint, no one here is selling out or changing how they feel about open source. The sad truth is, about 6 good developers are responsible for pligg.. Some contribute code now, but only a select few are answering your support questions on a daily basis. Those are the ones you should be thankful to.

I'm sure we can all agree that pligg is great software. Heck, it's free.. Yet after almost 50,000 downloads, less that 1% ever donate anything and even far less contribute code to the project...

The forum provides a way to thank people for answering questions by using the "THANKS" button, yet most people here are clueless to that.

I've personally answered questions to the forum members to only have them deny my help and re-ask again... only to receive the same answers from someone else.

I've seen people respond to this thread comparing this to wordpress and drupal etc.. Of course they are not the ones that pay the bill for pligg... Yes pligg is popular, but the users of pligg are cheap..

Pligg doesn't run on rainbows and kittens folks..

To not see this is selfish and obtuse...

To maintain open source pligg needs to adapt and think outside of the box. Otherwise we might as well be a digg clone, wordpress clone, or druple clone.. That was never the idea.

I for one would rather see pligg get a buck or two from a module than to see people complain about getting mods for free.. Yes it does happen..

Pligg has always used it's donations properly.
Personally I would have more ambition to service those that can afford a few bucks than be chastise and service of the clueless, which are usually the first to complain.

I believe having a pay-per-mod section will provide pligg users with more options, better support, faster development, and a better overall user experience.

Pligg will always be free...

Numerous threads here have people requesting PAID templates.. Whats that difference between a template an a module???

Do us all a favor and try thinking outside the box..

[merc]

Hi,

I didn't mean to discourage anybody at all.
I was just giving a possible point of view. I am not entirely sure that my point of view applies correctly to Pligg, or that I am right.
My opinion here is genuinely humble.

The problems I can see with selling modules are:

* What's important to me, means zip to somebody else
* The extra modules *need* to so something reasonably mainstream and "wanted" - if they don't, nobody will buy them
* Managing a lot of small payments for the module is complicated. With Free Software Magazine, we decided to live off ads, just to prevent dealing with micro-payments which are always a nightmare
* A module cannot e enhanced if it's not out there

It's hard to get people to donate to you. Believe me, I know this full well. I run a major magazine, and the amount of $$$ in donations we have received has been just amazingly low.

How do you make money then?

* Advertising on Pligg.com. As it is right *now*, the site can make a decent $3000 to $4000/month. It's not much, but it can at least take care of ONE developer.

* Starting a "pligg support channel" system. Basically, if somebody wants premium support (*I* would have bought it), you ask them to place your Google ad code onto their site. It could be a minor spot, that still gets clicked, or whatever. If enough people do this, you will end up with a very decent income

* Getting some decent sponsors and starting donation pledges. How far have you gone with that? I am about to start a pligg site which pageranks 8. I would be more than happy to pay a small amount ($100/month?) to support Pligg development. SURELY, there are other sites out there who would do it as well?

There are surely other ways - this is just on top of my head. I warn you to stay away from micro-payments. If you want to go that way, make sure that a module is at least $200 to $300 dollars, or you might end up needing a full time person to count the little amounts, reconcile the accounts, and so on.

AND, I could be full of crack. You might discover that selling modules is the way to go. But... maybe not. This is just another opinion.

In the end, keep in mind that *you* always know better, because you're there.

Merc.

[merc]

Originally Posted by Yankidank

We wouldn't be able to offer quality hosting wtihout a significant investment. It's projects like these modules for sale that will help us generate enough income to take on projects like that.

Well, I would rephrase that with "Making money now will help us fund projects like that". It can come from different directions...

Originally Posted by Yankidank

Isn't that exactly what I'm doing? We're not charging for every module we come up with, only a few of them that add unnecissary frills to Pligg.

There is an important difference between code and templates.
Code is out there, and the same code is necessarily shared by everybody to do something.
A template is unique for each site. You buy it, and then you change it more and more - it's an evolving thing, and it's always different.

Now, here's another (again, VERY humble) idea.

How about starting a theme market on plig.com?
You can accept people selling themes for Pligg, and you make 10% off every sale. You tell people clearly that that's to fund development, and get them to agree not to sell the theme for less on a different site.

People will find a LOT of themes, and there will also be a great number of people/companies all in one spot, creating and selling themes.

You don't stop people from selling themes through your own forums etc. But, if you want to be in the "official Pligg template market", then that's what you do.

Again, just my 2c.

Merc.

[en3r0]

Going with paid things will always take some attention away from the free stuff, thats just how it is. But from a devs point of view, it would be nice to make a little money from all the hard work. I suggest:

1. Cap the cost of paid items.

2. Allow the site to host free items as well, and allow donations.

3. Keep it open source and fun