LiveCode community edition is gone

[Pi Digital]

Rick has brought to mind an interesting point about the new pricing model. It’s one that I think of occasionally. Currently and in the new model we pay for each deployment. But it’s a bit odd. Surely what we should be paying for is the Core engine and then smaller amounts for each deployment module we wish to add in. As it is we are paying say $300 for Win/Mac/Lin then $300 for iOS then $300 for html (which doesn’t work, but that’s a whole other thread) and so on. Now we’re being told we’re going to have to pay for Win, then Mac, then Lin then HTML and so on. It just seems a bit off to me. 

Needless to say, because of my commitments, I am forced to do whatever LC impose on us and there’s not a great deal I or any of us can do about it. They could raise it by $1M per platform and I’d still have to put myself into bankruptcy territory to carry on with my work. I’m just saying, it ‘feels’ a little off. 

I’m hoping the the calculator on the pricing page is just majorly broken. 

Here’s the calculations as it stands for the new Standard Plan. 

1 platform = $300
2 platforms = $500 ($200 more)
3 platforms = $900 (another $400 more ??)
4 platforms = $1000 ($100 more ????)
5 platforms = $1500 ($500 more [mind blown])
6 platforms = $1800 ($300 more)
All 7 platforms = $2000 ($200 more)

To say it’s inconsistent would be the understatement of the millennia. 

Add Email support and/or the pro features pack and the numbers are even more baffling. 

Barmy! Hopefully Kevin/Heather can put us right on how the pricing was worked out coz I’m blown if I can work it out as a mathematician. 

Sean Cole
Pi Digital Productions Ltd

eMail Ts & Cs


> On 2 Sep 2021, at 17:13, Rick Harrison via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Dan,
> 
> Yes, there were a lot of us who specifically contributed to make the Community version possible
> as open source.  One of the justifications was that if the company went under we would still have
> the Community version available to us. The promise that the company would also support it was
> equally appealing. While the original intent was to use the Community version to widen the user
> base, and get more paying customers, it apparently didn’t get enough of them to be able to
> justify sustaining the Community version. 
> 
> I can understand why there are users who feel betrayed by the company especially with the new 
> pricing structure, and the discontinuance of support for the Community version which was even 
> paid for in a marketing campaign in advance of it’s release.
> 
> It can seem that the company keeps increasing it’s prices while taking away functionality by
> forcing users to select which specific platforms to be able to deploy to. That seems to go against 
> the idea of coding once and being able to deploy to all platforms in one affordable package.
> 
> Access to the Community version is still very important as that is how many users were first
> introduced to LiveCode who then became paying customers. I believe the try it before buying 
> model is still very important for helping users to make the purchase decision.
> 
> It would be nice if the company were willing to provide the final version of the Community 
> version under an MIT license instead of GPL since they will no longer be supporting it at all, and 
> it marks a true fork in the road from the codebase going forward.  That might make the transition
> easier to accept for some users. Continually making users of your product feel disappointed
> or angry isn’t a good marketing strategy.  The happier you can make your customers the better
> your business will be!
> 
> I think it’s great that the CEO is interested in negotiating with those users who feel they can’t
> afford the new pricing structure, which is certainly something one would never see with
> large companies like Disney.
> 
> The LC community is going through a shock with so much change that had no gradual hints
> about it. Acceptance of the changes will take time as it always does, but we will adjust.
> 
> Just my 2 cent observations for the day.
> 
> Rick
> 
>> On Sep 1, 2021, at 11:44 AM, Dan Brown via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>> 
>> That's a bit harsh, are you forgetting the amount of money that was
>> contributed by users to the fund raisers over the years?  > $600k
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> use-livecode mailing list
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences:
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode