Alt.Binz forum
Alt.Binz (English) => General talk => Topic started by: Rdl on June 10, 2007, 12:33:21 pm
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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.
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Please, feel free to post any thought you have on this subject :)
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100% yes, have been wanting to pay/donate towards the project for along time. you spend a lot of time making this program, and deserve to be paid.
one thing i wouldnt want though, is to go the direction of newsleecher.
seems spiril spent a LOT of money on an expensive copy protection system, which by iteself introduced a massive number of bugs, problems and cpu load. (yet was still being cracked same day it was released) and cracked versions had less bugs
it was for that reason i ditched my NL license & jumped to altbinz.
if you could keep the protection relatively light (it would be cracked anyway no matter what you do)
but have some form of user id, that gives it benefits, such as support
(if you want support in forums & irc, you need to state your user ID)
auto updates etc, needs User ID...
also may be worth having a free version availiable? limit its use, by disabling features like scheduling/rss/search's
i am always 100% into donating to worthwile good projects, but 100% against copy protection systems that make life easier for cracked users & harder for the paying customer.
you have a very good relationship with the people around you, always listening to comments and implementing fixes and features, this by itself makes people want to donate, not only have you created the best usenet utility ever, but you also show that you are interested in bettering it.
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If it needs a credit card for the payment then forget it. Otherwise i'll look into it as its definitely the most useful usenet application i've ever used.
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I will gladly pay the $30 for such a great program.
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Hi,
Replicate the comment kC_ wrote in here, would be enough I suppose :D
There are been more then one request, in how to donate/recompense you, Rdl, in all the work and effort you did put in developing your program, so hopefully that day will come soon... amen.. :roll:
Enjoying your program everyday
Regards, Gompy
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Hm, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I really would like to donate to support the project. In fact, I have asked for this possibility before. On the other hand, I am not a fan of mandatory "donations". For instance, I have lost interest in the DVD Rebuilder project after users were required to buy "free updates forever".
At any rate, maybe 30 dollars is a bit too much for most cheapskates (like myself). I'm afraid that while many users would gladly donate, say 10 or 20 bucks, they are not willing to hand over 30 dollars for a product with an uncertain future. The higher the price, the more likely it is that people won't buy the program, but will use either a cracked copy or turn to another program.
To sum up: Voluntary donations? Yes! Mandatory registration at a relatively high price? No.
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Absolutely! $30 is peanuts, really, when compared with how much pleasure the program has already given me, and the huge amount of effort you've already put into developing it.
I ditto everything kC and Gompy said. It's hard to gauge what the response might be without having trialled donations beforehand. Nobody wants to see alt.binz go the way of Newsleecher ...
Here's to a bright future for the best usenet progy around! :)
-Hecks
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I don't mind to do a one time donation for unlimited updates, but maybe there should be a minimum ($20) amout for unlimitied updates. I should not be the case that someone think, 1 dollar will do for a great program like this.
Please keep up the good work about this great program.
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if the 'Header Fetching' feature will be implemented, i have no problem to pay 30$.
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I voted no, because $30 may be peanuts for some people but not for me while I'm out of work. I love this program & would be willing to DONATE what I can afford ... anyway good luck to you all!
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I voted no because I generally do not pay for BETA products. The version is 0.24.2 only. I sometimes donate an amount of my choosing to support development, but it should not be mandatory. When we have a 1.0 release and some proper documentation and help files, then we will see about making a purchase. Until then, I will support this excellent program when I can.
Is the source code available? Personally, I tend to lean more to open source software, but Alt.Binz is an excellent program and I will continue to use it.
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I'll just stick with the last free version whatever happens - it works fine for me. If a donation button was available I'd gladly give about $20. But I won't pay $30 for a license.
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if the 'Header Fetching' feature will be implemented, i have no problem to pay 30$.
I agree with this comment..
ABZ is worth $30 in it's current form and Header Fetching would just be the iceing on the cake.
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I will pay 30$ because this is possible the best newsreader software in existance.
It can search the indexing sites (newzbin should be added ^^).
It has shedulling capabilities. It has a small system footprint, used memory, cpu time, no writing in protected areas (programm files, windows system directory (nice if you are on a campus or university pc)). It starts fast, so please don´t add a header database there are other programs for header processing.
Things I would like to be fixed/added:
- Splitting of downloaded files if activevirusshield is running
- The possibility to disable the skin and display all buttons in plain text (for a speedup on remote desktop connections and low resolutions)
If you ask for payment because you are thinking on quiting your job, split functionality and make lite and pro versions of your software, it helped my cashflow =)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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 ^^
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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!
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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?
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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
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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
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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.
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Dugg:
http://digg.com/programming/Help_keep_Alt_Binz_Usenet_client_for_Windows_auto_PAR_and_unRAR_FREE#c7151943
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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
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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.....
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Hi, been a long time user of unix based auto downloaders (hellanzb, ninan, sabnzbd) but was very happy to find a.b. However, I do have to agree that it seems a bit hipocritical to charge for a tool essentially designed to help rob other people of their commercial income!! Dont get me wrong, I am not passing judgment on piracy, I think we have all copied a CD at some point in our lives! I just cant reconcile paying one person to avoid paying someone else!
That said, I would be willing to voluntarily donate for a piece of software I found useful, particularly if the developer took an interest in my requirements.
1) Add Newzbin support (not just to the search tabs, which would be great, but also the ability to put your newzbin account details in the settings of a.b and just add a post ID to start a download). I think a lot of people would like this.
2) And this is the real deal clincher for me - remote support. As I said before I used to use sabnzbd, ninan and hellanzb all of which provide a php web frontend to add/delete/start/stop/reorder etc downloads so you can do everything without needing access to the actual PC. Look at the webui for utorrent to see just how good it could be.
If you could manage to add this functionality then I would gladly donate $30.
Here's a deal for you to show my commitment: if you decide to address these requests I will quite happily pay for you to have a newzbin account for development/testing. Let me know
Ban
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I won't pay 30$ for a licence either.
There are still several features missing like header fetching, newzbin support and other languages like german, spanish and french.
So, would you be willing to pay $30 for a version *with* those features? That's what the poll is about, it seems to me.
-Hecks
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I won't pay 30$ for a licence either.
There are still several features missing like header fetching, newzbin support and other languages like german, spanish and french.
So, would you be willing to pay $30 for a version *with* those features? That's what the poll is about, it seems to me.
-Hecks
Can't speak for cider, but as far as I can tell this poll/thread has developed into the question of whether a mandatory payment is acceptable? For my earlier points I was talking about being prepared to make a $30 donation if the particular functionality I would like to see could be added. I think nothing incentivises work quicker than reward ;)
I was also willing to put my money where my mouth is regarding the NewzBin issue.
Ban
PS, please don't take this the wrong way, I am not arguing with anyone, here.
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Simple YES i am willing to pay $30 for future upgrades and bug fixes, will not comment further as rdl knows what i think ;)
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I tend to agree with Lanjackal and others here. This is a great program and I have enormous respect for those that have worked on it, but I do believe that you shouldn't make a profit out of programs like this, given what it's used for.
I don't pay for newsgroups (I get mine free with my ISP) I don't pay for nzb's from Newzbin and the like, and I won't pay for my newsreader either.
If it does become pay only, then I'll just carry on using either the current version, go back to using Grabit or look for an 'edited' version of this or one of the other pay newsreaders.
Making a donation, on the other hand, is something else. If you were to put a target amount up for adding additional features, then I might well be prepared to contribute if I felt it was worthwhile.
Otherwise, please consider Lanjackals request to make this open source if you don't want to carry on.
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I pay for both a newsgroup server and premium access to nzb files, but I don't feel this program is in a state where a mandatory payment of $30 is viable. Add some of the features mentioned above (forget headers please - added bloat is NOT good) and I would gladly donate whatever I could at the time which could be $10 or $50 - instituting a static mandatory pay system does not sit well with this fan of alt.binz. Actually, I would donate without changes, but adding support for Newzbin would be a huge benefit.
As others have said, I would likely either use a current free version or find an altered copy of the new pay version, because that's what we do with Usenet, isn't it?
Great program, just not quite ready for prime time pay, IMO.
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I will be happy to pay. Providing the "loose ends" will be fixed.
e.g. combining splitted files, better (back-up) server handling.
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[deleted]
Keep it civil, please.
-Hecks
simtel:
had no idea the forum is censored.
removed the program from my computer.
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My vote is "yes", but I'd expect a near bug free software then. Right now I'm having some nasty stability problems. See this thread:
http://www.altbinz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=557
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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.
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well i voted no.
i only found out about this program a month or 2 ago.
i was happy that i could dump newsleecher (i try to use as litle warez as posible). and mostly the nice nzb -> unpacked file ability :)
then i saw this message and i was like damn... figures.
the friends to whom i showed this link moved back to a cracked version of newsleecher. (wich aparently also has auto unparing and unraring now)
I will use this program as long is it is free, but if it becomes payware i'll switch over to sabnzbd.
so please if you don't have the time for the program make it opensource, i'm sure other people are willing to help out / continiue the work
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the program is great... I ditch NL and newsbin as soon I found this program..
and 30 price is deep for me, I already paying for other stuff I won't mention in here.. so under $20 than we talk :)
please I stress PLEASE don't turn into newsleecher with over paranoid and greedy attitude because honesty must of us use this kind of program to do stuff we not suppose to and those dev expect there program not to be you know what.
yes I understand take work and time to create this program so I respect the decision start charging/donations for altbinz.
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I just found this program about two weeks ago and so far it's great! I would give $30 to keep it going as long as it does not turn into NewsLeecher and expect us to buy it every year over and over again. Count me in!
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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 ,
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Yes, I am willing to pay. But $30,- is defenately too much.
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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.
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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.
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used it for some time,better than grabbit.have had no failures wile downloading.So yes i would pay once $30 :P
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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.
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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
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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!
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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Short and Simple: YES i am willing to pay $30
Greetings
Goggy
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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:
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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.
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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.
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$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
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far as i see some are willing donate the full 30 some are willing to donate a bit and some arnt at all,
far as i see forget this poll just get a donation tab setup and see how it goes as development has like come to a hault.
i rather work on this with open source than see a good prgram go to the waste and be a dead dog.
get this donate system up and working asap and let it takes it course and see how it goes.
i am willing donate the 30 it like 15 pound here in the uk nothing hear or there just get something sorted out before people move to diffrent programs
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its been almost 2 weeks...have you made your mind Rdl?
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People don't wanna pay $30 because there are alternatives available for free, I'm talking about cracked versions of the most popular binary newsreaders. The thing is alt.binz started out as a free program and I guess people thought it would always be that way. Now the developer is asking $30 for future updates, and people are thinking it's a bit steep. I think that donations would have received a far more sympathetic response from alt.binz users rather than asking for $30 outright. The other problem is that despite alt.binz being beta, and despite there being features that some others have requested, there is NOTHING I need added to this program that would make it any better, for me alt.binz has been perfect straight out of the box and I have little need for upgrades. If the developer adds a donate button to the user interface I will be the first person to click on it.
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Deffo yes, had pleasure to use some of Rdl's softs and every time i was pleasantly surprised. As of altbinz 10/10 from me, after first time i installed it never got back to Newsbin.
Cheers.
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@zak_21
Donations aren't working well. cause nobody will donate. if it's free,
99% think, hey that's cool. why should i donate for something like thtat.
just my experience witht that.
i think 30$ is too much. peolpe don't want to pay 30 bugs for a software that started free. and software in the leeching environment... hmmm.... how long would it take to get a cracked altbinz version?
i think 15$ could work better. i would pay 15$ without a thought. but at 30$ i start thinking about.
what are the devs thinking about?
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$ 30 dollars is a bit much, but a good program is worth money.
Why such a high price at the beginning there is always a chance later.
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$5 every few years? Sheesh, you probably lose more than that in change down the back of the sofa over the same period.
I don't have money in my sofa!
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. :(
Perhaps its the difficult in getting the money to him which puts some people of. It's different if you can just put it in someones hand.
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Not surprised this was coming since the header fetching was never implemented.
Then again I think it's only fair that ppl who write decent software can make some money on it.
I hope there will be a freeware version (still developed) and a payed version with header fetching + SuperSearch. $ 20/ 20 euro seems like a fair price to me, at least I would be interested in upgrading then ;)
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well all this chat is groovy but when is the developer gonna reply he makes this and all but heard nothing bout what happening,
is this program not gona be worked on now or what it been like just weeks gone by with no reply from the top dog to what on earth is gona happen.
be nice to have some update on whats gona happen with alt.binz and if there gona be a donation system or not.
if nothing gona happen least past the project on to someone who will carry it on and not just leave this to fade away.
its been worked on its getting closer to being a decent program why just quit or just forget it all what a waste of time personally.
i think we should just either donate or not what ever is made good keep it and enjoy till then keep us updated on what you doing with new builds and if you doing any
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the lack of any prescence & support from the developer in the past weeks is kinda worrying, has been users posting problems and requests, with no answer at all.
after my first post of a "definate YES", im now a "maybe yes"
would now prefer application is made open source, with volountry donations
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yeah i agree...if people wont get any support...why do they wanna donate? if the developer doesnt start to respond people are gonna get pissed off and not donate or buy
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Yeah.. I wouldnt pay for altbinz. He's asking as much as a premium newsreader costs. Altbinz doesnt download headers and is a newsleecher ripoff. He's not even posting or responding to anything here in his own forum. Common sense should tell you guys to stay far away from this kinda thing. Dont give your money away so easily people. There are better newsreaders out there for the same price or even free. From what it looks like its a take the money and run kinda thing.
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i wouldnt agree about better news applications (specifically for search & leech)
altbinz the best there is
but has been so little communication, that it does seem like the project is now offically dead
a paypal donations button was requested by many regulars on the irc channel a looooong time ago, people were willing to donate, i asked multiple times, was just told "VERY soon" each time, but the donation button never came.
but now such a long layoff, people will lose confidence :roll:
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a paypal donations button was requested by many regulars on the irc channel a looooong time ago, people were willing to donate, i asked multiple times, was just told "VERY soon" each time, but the donation button never came.
That one's easily answered, at least: Paypal doesn't operate in Serbia, so rdl has to explore other options - unsuccessfully so far, it seems.
-Hecks
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I feel that a fee maybe called for but not $30 dollars, maybe $20 as it does not have the ability to download headers.
If there is not support for the paid verion maybe it can be turned over to open source to keep the updates coming and take the load off the author.
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With how everything came to a halt I hope that it could become open source as well.
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I don't pay for software sorry. I can't pay for software wich i'm downloading warez with :p such a great program.
But at least make it open source :)
thnx for all your work i appreciate but i don't pay :p
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I just discovered Alt.binz yesterday when it was referenced in an exchange on the Newsleecher forum. I promptly downloaded it and have it up and running now and am in the process of checking it out.
First, some background which should base my comments.
I have used most of the news clients over the years and finally settled on Newsleecher because it was fast, easy to use and worked. I had a Giganews account in the beginning. My subscription to NL was for 2 years and about half way through the subscription, the author decided to give his program away to new users if they signed up with Giganews. Needless to say, this offended the current user base, as they were expected to continue to pay renewal fees while new users skated along free. No concessions were given to the current users, who, through beta testing put the program where it was. The author also, in collusion with Giganews, made it impossible for any current user to take advantage of the free offer. This resulted in a lot of users terminating their accounts with NL.
I personally reacted by canceling my Giganews account and moved to a different hosting provider which was just as good as Giganews.
Unfortunately, there was just nothing out that came close to NL so I kept my subscription active. Now, discovering Al.binz there is a viable alternative to NL.
I would be willing to pay for using the program as long as it is reasonable. Also a lifetime, one time pay option would be great. MediaMonkey (MP3 Client) has has this option for a long time and it works very well for them.
Having to renew every year is fine, as long as there is development worthy of renewal, meaning useful feature adds and not just bug fixes. I realize programming is time consuming (retired IS Professional) but forcing users to renew to get fixes for bugs that should have not been there in the first place is just plain dishonest.
I hope Alt.Binz remains in development as my first impression is that it is a well designed and logically functional program. I have a few suggestions that , IMHO, would make the program more user friendly but will reserve those for later once the future of Alt.Binz has been decided.
Thanks for the opportunity to post my comments
Goody
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I would like to keep it free, but if there was a paid version, it would be nice if it was $10 or so.
This is a nice app though and I would like it to be free overall and give a donation, so I did vote no.
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this is funny, because MOST people here are pirates... asking them to pay for software is... well, seems futile.
And btw, there is NO better news downloader out there... I got a list of every single nzb supporting news reader software from wikipedia and extensively tested every single one of them... and then decided that altbinz is by FAR the absolute best.... it also doesn't need much improvement (a few bug fixes and thats it).
If you want to actually browse headers instead of using nzb files then altbinz was never for you in the first place... use xnews or something (which is what *I* use when I want to browse headers instead of using newzbin.com), altbinz was just not intended for that.
I would recommend the route daemon-tools and winamp took. Make a professional and a free version. with the professional version having much more features and functionality.. AND make a donate button...
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Like proabbly a lot of people here, I have over time used a whole lot of different nzb based down loaders and my feeling is that this one still is a bit rough round the edges - it still needs further work in making it more stable and robust that what it currently is. A point in hand is the way in which it can feel a whole hd up whilst downloading what is after all an 800 archive.
Sort these things out and give it the option to run remotely through a browser and you will then have a winner and I would have no problem paying for it.
As it stands, I feel that there are better totally free products that already does everything that this one does (and more) and what's more they are free.
I would strongly advise the author to 'move on' as he suggested as I don't think, no matter what, he his going to make a living out of this program. Better to open the source code and let the community continue developing it.
Somebody here wisely pointed out that asking a bunch of pirates to pay for software is like trying to sell cakes in a bakery. I could not agree more on this. After all how many people currently using newsleecher have actually paid for the licence?
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Yeah.. I wouldnt pay for altbinz. He's asking as much as a premium newsreader costs. Altbinz doesnt download headers and is a newsleecher ripoff. He's not even posting or responding to anything here in his own forum. Common sense should tell you guys to stay far away from this kinda thing. Dont give your money away so easily people. There are better newsreaders out there for the same price or even free. From what it looks like its a take the money and run kinda thing.
Rather the opposite, newsleecher is ripoff, adding new features there was always after other products including altbinz features. Programs like altbinz would be preferable since at least the altbinz author is not collaborating with Usenet providers to increase mutual sales and while active he was more user minded. Thus there would be more chance to have development truly driven by users rather than only by competition with other products. Unfortunately as this thread shows most users prefer to be led by their noses all along.
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I love the program, although it's not entirely finished.
But there's no sense in trying to sell it if just a few people are willing to pay for it... Are you trying to get a living out of this?
Then better go with ads or something, that would provide some steady cash flow, although I'm not sure if that will provide enough income.
(I don't mind ads the program runs most of the time in my systray)...
Just stick to it as a hobby, I think that would give you more hapiness then all those paying customers demanding this and that. (they're a lot more agressive if it wasn't free...)
If you don't have the time, you could also ask other people to help???
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the ads route is a good idea... put some ads (without pop ups/sound though, please) on the front page... that can definitely generate some revenue.
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Normally, i'd say hell no..
However, as altbinz is easily the best and most used program installed on my computer, i'll say yes!
$30 for a lifetime, I can handle.. Anymore than that, and i'm gonna have to say no.
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$30 is too much for most ppl, ask $10 and you'll get 5x as much ppl paying for it. At $30 most ppl would just download the cracked version from usenet.
If you decide to discontinue this program, then please release the source code, let's make this program a newsleecher killer.
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$30 is too much for most ppl, ask $10 and you'll get 5x as much ppl paying for it. At $30 most ppl would just download the cracked version from usenet.
If you decide to discontinue this program, then please release the source code, let's make this program a newsleecher killer.
if the creator set up donations...he could keep updating it till it had no bugs or very few atleast...then maybe sell it for $20 or something...which i would easily pay
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I like this program so much, that I'd pay.
anywhere between $20~$35 is fine.
Keep up the good work!
Just don't go investing tons of money into stupid protection ala newsleecher, since it will be cracked anyway making your investment a bad one.
Or do like DVD-RB. Those guys set up a VIP program, in the sense that you paid $15~$20 and got lifetime updates for the first few (a lot of) VIP's. Its more of a donation to, uhm, get the ball rolling. Afterwards, the plan was to get the price to $30.
I'll gladly be a VIP here as long as you accept Moneybookers.
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To all those who say they'll never pay for software: if you don't, ever, software development will cease to exist. You try the programs, if you like 'em a lot, support the software dev's.
If I really like a program, I'm always donating and/or contributing with them in one way or the other. It's my way of saying tnx for making my life easier.
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come on Rdl...give us an answer :D whats going on with alt.binz??
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I had made a good deal of money ten to fifteen years ago, don't ask me how. :)
I'm now retired and enjoying small life's pleasures, leeching with alt.binz is one of them.
I'm ready to finance the development team on the condition that the program will remain free and improvements will be constantly made.
I'm ready to pay $500K (a small change for me) in equal installments over the next two years as long as I'm satisfied with how the work is going on.
Please contact me by email if you wish to proceed.
The money will be wired to a bank account at the development team's discretion.
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I'm ready to pay $500K (a small change for me) in equal installments over the next two years as long as I'm satisfied with how the work is going on.
I for one hope you are joking/exagerating/scamming etc. Although I think alt.binz is great, I would be horrified if you really had $500,000 to give the development when I am struggling to save the $40,000 I need for an "elective" operation (the medico's term not mine).
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I'm ready to pay $500K (a small change for me) in equal installments over the next two years as long as I'm satisfied with how the work is going on.
I for one hope you are joking/exagerating/scamming etc. Although I think alt.binz is great, I would be horrified if you really had $500,000 to give the development when I am struggling to save the $40,000 I need for an "elective" operation (the medico's term not mine).
its his money...he can do what he wants with it...but 500K does sound like alot of money for a program
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You guys are unbelievable :)
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