Future of Alt.Binz

[andreasfc]

Why don't you start a paid version anyway Rdl?
It would be a pity when your creation is stopped so sudden...

With respect, Gompy.

I would agree with Gompy, that this is an option.
It is a pitty that all the effort you put in already is so suddenly stopped.

[mc00]

Ok I think that I will not pay $30 for this program because:

1º - the program still have to many changes/bugs to correct

2º - every time I do a lifetime payment the guy leave the develoment of the program and go away

Never the less this program have many chances in the futur of being the best for downloading from the newsgroups, and I will help suporting this development. I see 2 ways of doing this:

1º - Donating

2º - $5/year payment

If You receive $5/year from everyone in 6 years You will have the $30 you wont and after that more, and we have the garanty that You dont stop the development.
This is a good program, and the number of people that will use it will grow.
The $5 make it one of the cheapest programs and people will pay it easily.

Moreover $5 are little for each one but it will be 10000 times (or more) that value for you. I think it will be sufficient for this program as it is now.

Sorry for my poor English but I have done my best ,

I like the idea in bold even 10 dollar is good.

[wielin]

used it for some time,better than grabbit.have had no failures wile downloading.So yes i would pay once $30

[meltcity]

I like Alt.Binz very much, but if I had to pay for a newsreader I would be inclined to pay the extra $5 for Newsbin Pro because it has a few features I like which aren't currently included in Alt.Binz.

[Hecks]

I like Alt.Binz very much, but if I had to pay for a newsreader I would be inclined to pay the extra $5 for Newsbin Pro because it has a few features I like which aren't currently included in Alt.Binz.

Once again, the question is: would you pay for *future upgrades*?  Not the current free version.

So your answer is: yes, if those upgrades included the features I like in Newsbin Pro (which are?).

C'mon people, answer the question that was actually asked.

-Hecks

[zak_21]

I like Alt.Binz very much, but if I had to pay for a newsreader I would be inclined to pay the extra $5 for Newsbin Pro because it has a few features I like which aren't currently included in Alt.Binz.

Once again, the question is: would you pay for *future upgrades*?  Not the current free version.

So your answer is: yes, if those upgrades included the features I like in Newsbin Pro (which are?).

C'mon people, answer the question that was actually asked.

-Hecks

Actually the question asked is not would you pay for "future upgrades", It's would you pay "$30 for unlimited future upgrades". There's a big difference!

[necrocowboy]

Hi

I would make a donation to development costs but not to the value of $30.  At that price, this is becoming commercial SW and (no offence to rdl & others) but you are not a corporate / development organisation.  Some of my concerns would be;

- what is the guarantee of continuing development / support; will licence holders have money back guarantee if development stops or the 'company' stops trading
- what are the legal implaications of using this SW (as I understand some of the NZB hooks are being used without owners permission)
- technically, still requires some work.  Besides header request etc., the app still takes up too much CPU (currently downloading and CPU is 10% for altbinz); PAR file usage inconsistent as sometimes doesn't download & apply PAR fixes

I really like this program and would be more than happy to donate to continuing development, but not $30.  I know that if this was bought / resold by a large SW house then $30 would be a bargain.  However, in that case you would also receive the reassurance & support of the larger organisation as well.

Keep up the good work and will be interested in seeing what decisions you make.

Regards

NC

[simtel]

I'll try to be as civil as possible.

Years ago there was a program called ZeoNews

http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?10000000036313

It was beta, the author didn't ask but rather charged $30, it looked very promising, I was even stupid enough to pay for it. Guess what, one day the site went down and the author disappeared, end of story.

On the beta stage the product might still require years of work, competition may well steal users and discourage the author to complete this work forcing him to abandon it instead, the moral is betas/unfinished products must not be for sale.

[Hecks]

Actually the question asked is not would you pay for "future upgrades", It's would you pay "$30 for unlimited future upgrades". There's a big difference!

Indeed!  This isn't a Newsleecher-like $30 per year with-a-side-order-of-crippling-bugs deal, it seems.  I stand corrected.

[snip] the moral is betas/unfinished products must not be for sale.

Good point (although plenty of people do pay $30 *annually* for the questionable privilege of access to Newsleecher betas), but I'm assuming from the nature of the question that the charge will be for v 1.0 and above, not the current free 'beta' version.  Although what does that even mean in this time of 'perpetual betas'?  Tim O'Reilly:

The open source dictum, "release early and release often" in fact has morphed into an even more radical position, "the perpetual beta," in which the product is developed in the open, with new features slipstreamed in on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. It's no accident that services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Flickr, del.icio.us, and the like may be expected to bear a "Beta" logo for years at a time."

-Hecks

[Corwin]

I'll try to be as civil as possible.

So you reinstalled the program eh? No reason not to be civil, the author hasn't done anything to you.

[Goggy]

Short and Simple: YES i am willing to pay $30

Greetings
Goggy

[HUNNY]

I'm sorry to say, but the time has come for me to decide the future of Alt.Binz. In short, results of this poll will decide if Alt.Binz will continue with much frequent updates or just leave it on current version as it is and move on.

Ok, a pay-version ,( make the best progy ever)but not so much updates anymore,I think two of three a year is more than enough. :roll:  :roll:

Gr Hunny. :lol:

[snoxu]

Well I'm switched from Grabit which is free. I switched because my ISP's news server is a bit flakey and you can only set Grabit to retry the connection 10 times, which isn't enough. I switched to alt.binz because it retries indefinitely and it's free, for the meantime.

I don't really want to pay for it, but I do recognize that you should be compensated for the work you put into it.

How about making it absurdly cheap? Like 5 to 15 bucks or something, but then again who am I to say what you should charge for it.

[bugmenot]

alt.binz is a nice tool but not essential. It doesn't do anything I couldn't do without it, just makes it easier.

$30 is steep and the lifetime bit isn't worth much, no guarantee alt.binz will be around next month and a good part of its functionality depends on the indexing sites which may not stay around. I suspect they are not very happy with alt.binz bypassing their advertising spam but I am not sure what they can do about it.

I would suggest providing a donation facility and see what happens. Issue some kind of receipt to donators so you can offer them a discount should you move to some kind of mandatory payment scheme in the future.

Personally I would spring $5-$10 now and maybe the same in a few years, but, I probably value alt.binz less than most.

[Hecks]

$5 every few years?  Sheesh, you probably lose more than that in change down the back of the sofa over the same period.  I'm really striggling to understand how people who use altbinz regularly enought to warrant registering on the forum here, voting and positng a comment think it's only worth the price of a couple of burgers every few years to them.

-Hecks