Ads on the forums

[Xombie]

Do the ads pay out simply for existing or do you have to click on them for them to actually help? I've never really bothered to find out.

I haven't seen a flashing one yet but I doubt it'll bother me way down at the bottom. If it were at the top I'd probably wince and skip past it but the bottom is nothing.

[Thalius]

@idle:
Appealing idea businesswise but this also would result in a split of the community. And to mention some management involved.
Basically theese forums are to learn the language and build a community. Which could be contra productive for the language itself.

But in that sense a separate plaform which sponsors the forums and whatnot could be built upon a purebasic related portal site. Which marketingwise would also look better. User Wiki's and maybe a possibility for a PB marketplace for commercial addons ( user or core team written ). Or resell own Apps in some Kind of Appstore with a central payment method where a share of each sale gets to fred and fr34k .... Darn! must've gotten some of fangles stuff over here .. or its simply too late

Cheers,
Thalius

[USCode]

Not sure separate commercial add-on's developed by the PB development team would be a good idea.
How would they decide what is included in the standard PB development environment we all have already licensed and what would be an extra-cost add-on?
There seems to be an opportunity for conflict of interest there and I of course don't speak for them, but I suspect Fred and Freak would agree.

If raising the standard licensing fee is necessary to keep PB alive then I think they should do that, the free future updates is a great deal AND an excellent selling point.
We can all also donate anytime we want to as well ...

[WilliamL]

I think that if you want pb to be affordable and not have many ads, then if everyone would donate a few dollars, from time to time, I'm sure that would go a long way to keeping the price down and upgrades free. I have done that a few times and will continue to do so. This is a very small gesture to make in light of how expensive a language like pb can be, take RealBasic for instance, or the basic I came from that charged $100 EACH year for the upgrades.

[blueznl]

This seems to end up as our regular returning topic: 'how should PB be licensed'... which is, entirely, up to the PB team

[Ramihyn_]

Not sure separate commercial add-on's developed by the PB development team would be a good idea.
How would they decide what is included in the standard PB development environment we all have already licensed and what would be an extra-cost add-on?
There seems to be an opportunity for conflict of interest there and I of course don't speak for them, but I suspect Fred and Freak would agree.

*IF* it was for additional add-ons, a possible way to solve this would be to offer (some) new ones for a fee for the first year and add them to the main PB release for free after that. So everybody can decide for themselves. There are already several add-ons offered for small additional fee's like ProGUI, EsGrid or Arctic reports, PureGDK - its just that they are done from third parties

As i mentioned in my first article - i would *love* to have commercial products to increase the value of PB and pay for them, it's just that there arent any offers for me. "Donating" money to support a business, is a very weird concept for me and the IRS . I am not donating money to an oil company either, so they can keep doing their business with lower prices. Either a business model works, or it doesnt and if somebody wants to compete for donations, (for me) they compete with dieing people, cancer research, childrens education and my family - a pretty difficult "market" On the other hand, i am spending more than 2000 € this year for software licenses, but none of the money (so far) is spend on anything PB related.

This seems to end up as our regular returning topic: 'how should PB be licensed'... which is, entirely, up to the PB team

Too true. I think i made my point and go back to hiding again

[Num3]

All ok for me!

The ad is quite not obstructive so no problems!

--EDIT--

hummm ... C1alis with 95% off ... gonna by a box to offer Bericko for xmas

(joke, no c1alis on the ads)

[srod]

Personally, I think the free lifetime upgrade model has served PB well, but PB has now evolved way beyond what it was even a couple of years ago what with 64-bit support, cross-platform and the shear depth of the user-libs etc. How on Earth you guys manage all of this with such a small team is beyond me!

If it were me; I would change the licensing model at this point and to hell with the inevitable complaints. At the very least; if a revamped designer is in the offing, for example, then charge for it.

Now, much more seriously... where's my porn damnit?

[PB]

> If it were me; I would change the licensing model at this point and to hell with the inevitable complaints

+1

It's time Fred was truly financially rewarded for this great language. No more Mr Nice Guy, Fred.

[Vera]

About the forums issue, i'm sorry but on every computer i test on, it was ok. I can't fix something i don't experience.

Thanks for regarding and bothering. But problems don't only touch the theme-designs as also several funtional issues or features. It seems that you might not know about them, so I'll go through the threads again and send you a list of the open concerns.

Vera, just be patient. You've probably never dealt with people like Fred and Freak and the team before, they will restore your faith in human nature

Thanks netmaestro,
beside Fred, you seem to be the only one who got near to the point.
And I have been patient for weeks now, not fuzzing around or crying aload, but posting serious hints or requests and I read those of others and I find most of them been replied to, but not really taken into account, answered brusquely or placed on hold, left to wait (and to be forgotten ?).
Having these in mind it hit me to see that further 'improvements' of the forum started, implicating the actual status is now final. Above this, it concerns bringing ads whereas on the other side people still cope with the hardly readable contrasts (font & background) and this is stretching too far.

It grieves me how easily serious needs are turned into ridicule by those who are well off.

And like most of us, I too like to help supporting PureBasic with the means that I have and this does not exclude aims of profit.

greetings ~ Vera

[srod]

It grieves me how easily serious needs are turned into ridicule by those who are well off.

Meaning what exactly?

[exjoburger]

The ads at the bottom of the forum pages really don't bother me.
I'd prefer the ads that having to pay support fees or similar.

[DoubleDutch]

Fred: I don't mind the adverts, but I think it would be a good idea to block specfic ones from appearing (like other basics). I think you can do this from within the adsense settings?

About revenue, I really like the unlimited licence that you use. But maybe you could limit it to platforms? I mean that pay once licence for windows, one for OSX, one for Linux and so on? That way introducing more platforms would be profitable.

Edit: Just saw the appstore comment, good idea.

[Trond]

I tried all styles, didn't see any ads. I guess I'm lucky.

[djes]

I think there's also a licensing problem. PB can be used for large projects, in big companies, but even if the lead manager would like to give Fred more money he can't, as there's only one license fee. A company must explain all its expenses! I think also (we have already debated around that I remember) that it could be possible to create multiple licence fees based on the created programs user base. For example:

>1000 users -> $5000
100-1000 ->$500$
0-100 > $79

It could also be possible to sell special addons on the site, like 3d engines or ide tools, and give Fred a part of the income.