Future of Alt.Binz

[weaselguy]

no problem with having a paid version as long as theres a free version. have a free version and a pro version. $30 is in line with what the other guys are charging. perhaps charge say $15 for the 1st 2 weeks or so. entice people to come aboard before it jumps to $30. i believe thats what the dvd-rebuilder guy did early on. also any paid version must support header fetching. understand going in that not everybody is go to pay for it. have a reasonable expectation of the total buys. some will pay, some will not and go elsewhere, others will use a cracked version. its just the way it is.

[Pantera]

My thoughts are this is a great program and I could and want to put aside maybe $20 for lifetime upgrades $30 seems a bit high for me so donations with a minimum amount would be better so those who can and are able to give more can while some who aren't able to give that much are at least helping instead of either going elsewhere or downloading a copy of it somewhere for free. Future donations from someone like me is something  I would do gladly when I have extra funds. I'm a college student with a  top ramen budget so every dollar makes a difference really. The lower you charge for unlimited future upgrades the more people that will pay for the program. So for example maybe only 1 person pays $30 but at $10 or so say 5 people buy it so that's $50 and maybe extra donations in the future. My other though is if its gonna be left at what it is now than maybe making it open source would be a good thing this way it can continue and with people working on it little by little it will still live on without being a strain to one person.

[flipfooks]

I'm very willing to pay for your excellent work. However:

- Only if there's a safe way to pay. Certainly not credit cards, as grogert already mentioned; for The Netherlands it would be the IDeal-system.

- Updates should become available via normal downloading, not that IRC-stuff of the daily builds.

- I fully agree with all the copy protection remarks of kC_ .

- Please do not any further honour all those complicating, particular, specialistic requests of (lazy) users.

[Varg]

not now...maybe in a year when things are more stable or when most issues with alt.binz have been solved

if you decide not to develop it further...will you let someone else fix the bugs etc? make it open source or will you keep the source code to yourself?

[Vincs]

This is a good prog...
But it's a bit ugly and still under development I think.

Then I think you can't make pay for it...

You sould put a donnation system or something else, I'm a student and it isn't easy to find money.
But if I have to be pay I think I'll get newsleecher or something else.

Good continuation ^^

[brewskybeer]

I would happily donate $30 for the program.  As it is right now I use it on a daily basis which makes it worth the $30.  I'd love to see header fetching and possibly some other features added, so I definitely don't want the development to stop...  come on cheapskates,  you should all support the project too. Obviously you use it as well or you'd not be reading this post!

[Varg]

This is a good prog...
But it's a bit ugly and still under development I think.

Then I think you can't make pay for it...

You sould put a donnation system or something else, I'm a student and it isn't easy to find money.
But if I have to be pay I think I'll get newsleecher or something else.

Good continuation ^^

yeah...maybe set up donations...and when its developed more...then go for the $30 license

also maybe have a lite and pro version?

[davidq666]

I am against a mandatory payment of 30 $ but i would have no problem donating smaller amounts from time to time. what so ever i think it might be a little 2 early 2 go comercial. Maybe if alt.binz has become the most renown free usenet client u might think about it but until then see how it works with free donation

[hackiavelli]

I'd definitely be willing to donate/pay.  I've been looking for a good newsreader for a long time.  NewsLeecher is a complete resource hog, NewsBin Pro is a cluttered mess, and GrabIt offers only the most basic features.  Alt.Binz has the best features out of all of those programs (plus a few new ones) and none of their shortcomings.

The only thing I'd say is $30 feels a little high.  I don't know if it's psychological or just my personal finances, but $20 feels like a more justifiable expense to me.

Instead of making your decision based on a forum poll (one that's only going to get results from a limited number of users) I'd start by putting up a donations page and see what people give.  I'd be more than willing to donate $10 right now.

[uhoo]

I'd be willing to pay maybe $15-$20 and then something like $5-$10 for yearly upgrades. I've been burned once too many on 'unlimited' upgrades where the developer simply abandoned the program.

A subscription model could work . .maybe $15 a year and bundle it with Newzbin/binsearch or something?

[LANjackal]

Kindly make an open source fork of the program via some license convenient to you.

The fact is that there is currently NO viable and easily usable FLOSS Usenet reader for Windows at all. Sabnzbd is just obtuse. Grabit just plain sucks. Newsleecher and others are great, but overcharge for what they offer. On the other hand, Linux has the excellent KLibido and Pan.

An open source fork would add tremendous resources to your disposal as I'm very sure there are plenty of people out there who would be more than willing to help you out with it. If you released it under the GPL, it would prevent others from hijacking the code and profiting from it themselves.

Donating to the project would be easy, too.

**

I don't believe the client in its current state is ready for "prime time" as paid software. The GUI needs some serious help, for one (see KLibido for inspiration on how to build a capable but simple interface).

However I believe you should be able to take both the open source and paid routes - the two are not mutually exclusive (see Limewire and Frostwire for an example). It's easily done and  gives you the best of both worlds. Actually, 3 worlds: FLOSS, free-as-in-beer, and paid.

Great program and good work, hiding your masterpiece behind a purchase button would be a tremendous disservice to Windows Usenet users.

I voted NO, btw.

Thanks,
LJ

Also, see more discussion at filesharing news site Slyck.com regarding this topic here:

http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34888&view=newest

[Mystic2010]

Actually, if he does decide to stop, making the source available under an open source license would be terrific. But I voted no as well, as it's a too early stage imho to make it paid for.

[LANjackal]

Dugg:

http://digg.com/programming/Help_keep_Alt_Binz_Usenet_client_for_Windows_auto_PAR_and_unRAR_FREE#c7151943

[cider]

I won't pay 30$ for a licence either.

There are still several features missing like header fetching, newzbin support and other languages like german, spanish and french.

And 30$ (22 Euro) is just too much for such a program. If you pay for your copy of newsleecher you get the excellent supersearch feature.

And I also would love to see alt.binz as an open source program! People would translate it in many languages, there would be plugins for stuff we can't imagine right now, maybe a native linux and mac os port and of course a way bigger community and less work on the shoulders of you, rdl.

I'd be happy to donate some 10-20 Dollars without any constraints.

regards,
cider

[bugmenot]

well first of all thank you for this great program!!!!!

i love this little prog. Not boated like newzleecher. but like posts before, it's going to be hacked or someone else is going to come up with another program(clone). I rather not see that happen. You have worked so hard on it just so that it goes down the drain. I suggest to start with donations. Look at ddwrt and limewire for example. if you don't have time to code, then release it under gpl.

Thank you

newzleecher sucks, this is where this prog is headed.....