Alex,

I have been watching this day unfold for you and I want to add some advice.

You are obviously an expert developer and very good at what you do. You see Joomla as an ideal utility to get your name and your expertise out there. The Joomla CMS was Built from the ground up under the GNU/GPL model. The Lions share of its supporters are huge fans of Open Source.

Here is (IMHO) what went wrong:

You originally released Forme as open source then realized you were spending too much time on it and like all of us would do, you realized you need to be compensated (which nobody is disagreeing with).

You were (and still could be) on your way to being the ONLY name associated with a quality Open Source form component for THE BEST CMS that has ever existed. You were (and still could be) poised to get a HUGE amount of traffic. Patience (along with marketing) is the name of the game.

Do you really think that other major GNU/GPL component developers aren't being compensated somehow?

There are many ways to get income other than ads or commercial license models. Seriously, the fact that it was GNU/GPL is exactly why Forme was on the rise like it was (could still be).

Not only did you build the only quality form component, IT WAS FREE!!

Think about it, somebody else is going to build one just as good later on, and your name will go away, unless you corner the market.

Just a word to the wise (as we know you are)

Hi themenace,

thanks for your message. That is exactly what happened. I know i should've had patience but my problem is that i had to make this commercial since i have serious financial problems..

I would've loved to make it free and wait for other compensation alternatives.

As for the other major GNU/GPL developers.. don't think i released 1.0.3 and now i'm waiting the cash without doing nothing. I am already thinking of new really cool features to add to 1.0.4 and i can't wait to do them. I am considering any kind of opinion, suggestion, idea.. probably there will be a GNU/GPL Forme lite. That is the best solution i see till now.....<br><br>Post edited by: alex, at: 2007/05/24 02:05

Since forme 1.0.3 has changed so much and you are adding many new features, which I hope does not take away from the simpicity of the component.
Many sites who offer componants, templates, and such set up a paid membership. With this membership they can continue to recieve support for the componant or template.
For instance if you still offered this componant as a GNU/GPL model. and separated your forums area to public and membership. The pubic would be able to read public announcements about the componant. The paid members on the other hand can get advice from you on how to use Forme. Which from the looks of the forums here takes alot of your time. Once the componant is finished it wll no longer take your time but the forums area will always take more of your time.
I read on you frontpage that in the short time you have had this componant available 4000 joomla sites are using it. I have noticed after making a form in forme that there is no credit at the bottom of the form no link back to the creators site. Of course 4000 referers to this site. In under 1 month. Thats fantatsic. Forme has been your pull keep it your pull now create some other componants, modules, mambots, templates for commercial use. You have done an amazing job on everything you offer here and i have never seen a componant updated so many times and as quickly as you have in the past month.

An issue with buying a componant is that most of the componants I look at are free because I can try them out before I buy and find out if it truly is what I want. I've bought a few in the past and never used them since most of the time they dont work properly. and the support for them has faded away.

Be careful in the upcoming days as themenace replied.

You have a huge foot in the door dont let it shut before you get in.

Alex,
I a world where things actually cost real money I understand that it is sometimes necessary to obtain some income from your development efforts.

But just like TheMenace and Oleman I believe that your choice of business model has to be revised. The present arrangement most probably will NOT give you the big bucks, since with a closed model you will not have as many new customers compared to what you initially attracted with help of the GPL.

Thus my point is: Can you consider delivering a GPL version of forme and also selling a \"high end\" product embedded with stronger support? I believe that you would reach a larger number of customers compared to a closed licensing.
GPL as part of a business model means actually free advertising, free distribution, free testing and free contributions for you product.

Ciao, Cheers
/Macchi

PS: The posting got quite large, thus, either skip it, or if you are interested read more below...

---

A lot of remarks an notes:

1) Profitability is dependent on repeated business. Without a continuous flow of new customers it is difficult to grow and to sustain the income level. This is surely one of the reasons why most of the software industry is now evolving towards a more service-oriented business model instead of the traditional product model.

2) Do you have a roadmap for forme in Joomla 1.5?
As a potential customer for your commercial product we are also concerned on preserving our own development efforts delivered to our customers. We were close to taking a positive for using forme for a few of our customers. Bu right now we saw a message telling us that forme is \"not compatible with Joomla 1.5\" and \"there will be no refund...\".
For me as a customer this could be interpreted as: Warning, this provider does not guarantee any upgrades. But perhaps that \"no Joomla 1.5\" and \"no refund\" was only a less fortunate formulation saying that \"there is no compatible version in this very moment, but we are planning to upgrade forme on {date}\". Thus it would be nice if you could give us a hint about your roadmap.

3) By the way, regarding the \"no refund\" stuff I believe that you could instead add some clear text expressing your strong commitment to supporting and improving the product, but also mentioning that there are limitations. (Decide by yourself, but often the goodwill obtained by offering a refund surpasses its small cost. Since we are talking business, refunds have another important function: namely they are also a very cheap way to escape from the risk for large liabilities regarding business losses etc.)

4) As users and developers we experienced that the product needed many adjustments before it could work satisfactorily in an international context and in a sharp production environment. Furthermore we experienced many usability issues in the interface. As long as a piece of software is within the GPL domain we are willing to join the ride and contribute for improving a good product. But many of the big advantages disappear when a GPL product changes to a closed commercial licensing.
Your present closed licensing at low price and possibly low service level is the worse of both worlds for a potential commercial customer.