Pay For Beta?

[_simon_]

I wasn't sure where to post this, sorry if it's the wrong forum section.

Rather than someone having to pay to become a charter member to test a beta, have you considered offering the beta for a small fee to those who want to test or can't wait for the final release or who simply cannot afford the full charter membership?

On the financial side of things, this may give you more of an income. I know I would be interested and I'm sure others would too.

Would be interested to hear your thoughts 

[Dragooon]

I think Charter membership is the right way. SMF Team does not want to release the betas on a very large crowd as it can get out of control.

And Charter membership is 50$/yr which is less than 5$/mo.

[Gary]

Charter Members are not allowed to redistribute beta versions as it is in violation of the Charter Membership and our License.

-ALM

[_simon_]

Charter Members are not allowed to redistribute beta versions as it is in violation of the Charter Membership and our License.

-ALM

I wasn't suggesting that 

[青山 素子]

The main advantage of being a charter member is the extra support and the fact that you are helping support SMF, not the software.

We happen to distribute the first few betas to this group because it allows us to have a limited field test of the software. While we do run it on this forum, others always uncover bugs we have missed. If we were to offer it to anyone in return for a small fee, it would greatly expand the pool of those using it, and would likely quickly overwhelm us. (We get enough duplicate reports as it is.)

There will be a public pre-release, it just won't be one of the early beta versions.

[Ðyєgσv]

I think Charter membership is the right way. SMF Team does not want to release the betas on a very large crowd as it can get out of control.

And Charter membership is 50$/yr which is less than 5$/mo.

Yes, but it can't be payed in a monthly base, as far as I know. I would love to be a Charter Member and support SMF, but I don't have all of that money at once.

[_simon_]

The main advantage of being a charter member is the extra support and the fact that you are helping support SMF, not the software.

We happen to distribute the first few betas to this group because it allows us to have a limited field test of the software. While we do run it on this forum, others always uncover bugs we have missed. If we were to offer it to anyone in return for a small fee, it would greatly expand the pool of those using it, and would likely quickly overwhelm us. (We get enough duplicate reports as it is.)

There will be a public pre-release, it just won't be one of the early beta versions.

I'm not sure how you handle bug reports at the moment, but if you had a bug reporting site then people could check first before reporting?

Another thought would be, how about a 6 monthly charter membership option?

[karlbenson]

chances are if it were cheaper. Lots more people would just buy the 6 months to get hold of the 2.0 beta and then once they get their hands on it, let it expire.

Most Charter members became Charter to support SMF and not particularly to get hold of the beta.

[metallica48423]

I'm not sure how you handle bug reports at the moment, but if you had a bug reporting site then people could check first before reporting?

We do have a bugtracker, but it is team members only access.  The team members add things to the bug tracker as we experience them across the forum.

It would get almost nothing but spammed with things that are not bugs if it were just public access.  We see this already with security reports and mod security reports.  They get spammed with people reporting they dont work when the problem is on their side and not a package manager error or even a problem with the mod (ie, wont install automatically because of another mod already installed on it)

[青山 素子]

I'm not sure how you handle bug reports at the moment, but if you had a bug reporting site then people could check first before reporting?

You obviously haven't been here long (your post count shows that anyway).

Given that people don't search for support topics, I highly doubt they would do so before filing a bug report. Also, given how people use announcements for support topics (even when the first post tells them not to) I have no reason to doubt that the bug tracker wouldn't be used for support too.

[karlbenson]

yeah public bug trackers can do more than harm than good.
A good example is Mozilla Bug tracker for firefox.
Some people with bad intentions will look at it for a large flaw, then take advantage of it.

Security through obscurity hopefully provides enough time for devs to fix bugs.
Finding a needle in a haystack as such.  Rather than providing markers for each needle in the haystack.

[Niteblade]

Most Charter members became Charter to support SMF and not particularly to get hold of the beta.

Precisely.

I donated $50 to support a forum software, not to grab a beta. In fact, I seriously doubt that I will ever install a beta version in a live forum environment as the SMF Team recommends.

The optional $50 in my mind, for this powerful forum software, is well worth it.

[metallica48423]

I agree.

When i paid for my charter membership (which had to be removed when i joined the team ) I did it because I wanted to support SMF.  SMF has taught me html and php, and is now teaching me javascript.

It has done a world of good on my sites and other projects.

I couldn't think of a better use of $50 for what SMF has given me the opportunity to be able to do.  And now i can keep giving back as a team member by helping the community grow and prosper and I know that I have a role to play in the future of SMF (I think i've paid back my $50 )

[Gary]

Initially, when I bought the charter membership (I was a former CM too ) I did it for the beta, but eventually, it became more to support the software.

Even though my CMship was just a few days from expiring when I joined the team.

-ALM

[karlbenson]

I agree with Nite.  I've put up one test 2.0 forum for my mods to play around with (cos I'm sick of their hounding for warning system that works and isnt buggy).

And other than that, I've got an install on my localhost that I'm using for making 2.0 mods.

[SleePy]

Simon,

If I may add.

Charter Membership is more than the beta. You are actually supporting us to keep our servers running (We have to feed or hamsters something) and other expenses related to SMF.
Charter Membership is just a little $50 bill for the whole year.
Mathematically speaking, if you divide that by 365 days in a year, you get 0.1369. So for about 17 cents a day, you get a Charter Membership, which includes more than just the beta. It includes a private helpdesk. This is really similar to a helpdesk at your Hosting. It also includes access to the charter boards where you can get some charter only mods even (Mods people have released to charter members to test out).

In reality speaking, when you release a public beta, you have thousands of people downloading, using, and reporting the same bugs over and over. Well the private charter release lets us work with a few hundred instead. So as you can see we have a better idea and can actually help.

You even get a Nifty looking badge and I believe even your color changes in the online list, So you stand out from the crowd

[_simon_]

I've been using SMF for a fair while now, my lack of a post count is down to not needing much forum support as normally a quick search will give me the answer I require.

The replies I've had here have made me realise that the CM is a lot more than just beta testing and I can see your points on bug tracking.

All I wanted to do was air my ideas, which I have done and I completely understand the reasons against those.

All that remains is to thank you for the polite replies

[Oldiesmann]

Mathematically speaking, if you divide that by 365 days in a year, you get 0.1369. So for about 17 cents a day, you get a Charter Membership

That's 14 cents a day, not 17

[SleePy]

And now we wonder how I passed Algebra 2.

I guess I just ignored the 3 there and rounded up the 69 to 70.

[Ðyєgσv]

Well, it could be that cheap if you count it day by day, but the problem is that you have to pay the whole year at once, and for some of us it's difficult to have all of that money. Anyway, which are the pay methods? cause I have no credit card nor paypal. How would I do it? Do you accept money through Western Union?