I would donate to Automattic for hiring one more developer into the core-team…..
+1 for donating monies to your favorite add-on plugin devs, or supporting their business models. BP is awesome, but without community developing all these add-ons, it would be half as far.
Some people have tried to do a Donate Friday. So, this Friday pick a plugin you use often and donate five bucks to the dev. take the ten minutes to poke aroudn their site and look for a donate link. If all else fails, find their email and paypal money to that.
@ Andrea: Sounds interesting, so now I gotta look for a plugin I use often.. 
@ Bowe: Can you even donate to automattic plugins? I thought that was impossible.
@ Erich73: Do you have someone in mind?
@Xevo
that decision is up to Andy & Matt.
But I would be willing to donate for 1 more person.
Perhaps when this site is updated to 1.2 (after release) and plugin developers can create groups for their plugins, we can attach a paypal donate link. That way each plugin developer(s) will get their own group, activity stream, forum, donate link and perhaps some of the other great extensions being released as plugins.
I think that would be a very good idea Andy.. It would mean a more centralized way to discuss plugins and with the latest plugin release Group Documents: https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-group-documents/ you can even offer the plugins for download. Looking forward to it!
A very good idea Andy – anything to stimulate development for BP and plugins. Now that BP 1.2 is released have you got the time to kick this off?
Yikes! read the comments on that link and I fell like I now have guns pointed at my designer head : |
@modemlooper and @DJPaul,
This a problem of target market in my opinion. Themes can readily be seen and demoed by end users (clients). They are pretty straightforward in what they offer (from a client point-of-view) and they arguably “complete” the website or at least for its base. As the client (I’m not a developer), it’s easier to understand the value proposition of a theme and its role of “completing” the site. I think that’s inaccurate in reality, but I could easily see clients operating that way.
Plugins are clearly components and as a client, you could see components as a way to nickle and dime away all my money. I could spend days (and have) combing the repository and if it was even mostly premium plugins, I would quickly be overwhelmed with the potential cost.
For me personally, because I’m developing my own site, I see both themes and plugins as TIME. For that reason, I’ll pay for either based on the savings of time that they represent. That will differ by plugin/theme, but also by the importance in my project and needed customization time. The problem with charging developers is these are the same people that are contributing as well. They are giving as well as taking.
I don’t know how to solve this conundrum, but I don’t mind the premium structures that have a different rate for developers and end users. I think that’s a start. But, if you charge for a plugin, make sure it’s likely the base or a significant function for a site (and its end user) before doing more than donations (IMHO).
I’ve donated or will donate to every plugin that I use as an end user, but that donation will be influenced by time saved.
Freemium is so last year. That biz model does not work anymore. People should be paid for their plugins whether it’s premium versions or for help with customization. If the plugin has value and its got solid support you will have no problem selling it.
