Dev Fund Question
- Thread starter DasFool
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God Ginrai
Godmaster
dasfool said:When the developer fund was initially announced (a few months ago) there was talk of only having those that payed for this fund be able to download and test new pandora applications. Was this rescinded? Sorry if I missed the memo on it
That's still the deal as far as I know.
-God Ginrai
God Ginrai said:dasfool said:When the developer fund was initially announced (a few months ago) there was talk of only having those that payed for this fund be able to download and test new pandora applications. Was this rescinded? Sorry if I missed the memo on it
That's still the deal as far as I know.
-God Ginrai
So, if you haven't contributed to the dev fund, you can't download apps for your pandora? That makes no sense. Then you'd only be able to use apps that you write yourself. Can you please clarify how the dev fund works?
Thanks,
Pete
gruso
thunderbox
Apps will be freely available, never fear! Donators were going to get access to certain betas, I believe. That won't apply to all software though, because of course, any coder is free to release anything they want to the public. And they will.
IIRC the idea of the dev fund was to attract outside devs to the platform - to try and get some high profile / high performance / commercial titles happening. Outside that though, the community will be as open as ever, just like it is for the GP2X & GP32.
IIRC the idea of the dev fund was to attract outside devs to the platform - to try and get some high profile / high performance / commercial titles happening. Outside that though, the community will be as open as ever, just like it is for the GP2X & GP32.
Tobriand
Well-Known Member
I've no idea whether or not that's still the case. There was a comment the other day on the GP32x boards (last they were up) along the lines of "those who donate will be listed as donators on the dev-fund site", but not about other perks.
Personally, I'm not too fussed about getting private betas or anything. In fact, whilst I'd appreciate them if they do turn up to donators (being that I'm a donator), I'd kinda rather everything just stayed public. There's just a slight feeling, given the way the GP32 and GP2x scenes have worked (lots of early releases to everyone), that making things private for a little while is more of a penalty for not donating than a bonus for donating. But that's probably just me.
Personally, I'm not too fussed about getting private betas or anything. In fact, whilst I'd appreciate them if they do turn up to donators (being that I'm a donator), I'd kinda rather everything just stayed public. There's just a slight feeling, given the way the GP32 and GP2x scenes have worked (lots of early releases to everyone), that making things private for a little while is more of a penalty for not donating than a bonus for donating. But that's probably just me.
cosam
Active Member
I'm with Tobriand on this one. I'm all for the developer fund, but having people pay for the "privilege" of testing beta software sounds a little too Micro$oft to me. Shutting out people who are will to donate their valuable time to report bugs, or even submit patches, really goes against the open source grain.
I think people against donation perks are making a bit of a big fuss over nothing...
If a developer has a beta or alpha app, program, or port, he's probably not going to freely distribute it until its at a state the masses can appreciate. Those who have an active interest in the development community, however, could probably appreciate an early work better, so why not let them have their hour or two fun? Chances are, if it's useful/polished enough that you don't get bored messing around after a few hours, its probably ready for release anyway.
If a developer has a beta or alpha app, program, or port, he's probably not going to freely distribute it until its at a state the masses can appreciate. Those who have an active interest in the development community, however, could probably appreciate an early work better, so why not let them have their hour or two fun? Chances are, if it's useful/polished enough that you don't get bored messing around after a few hours, its probably ready for release anyway.
gruso
thunderbox
I think once things reach a certain amount of the market (or, a certain bracket of the market) it's a good idea to keep betas relatively private until they've reached a certain stage of development.
Look at what zodttd is doing; he's working with a huge market (iPhone owners), and for a few bucks a relatively small number of people can play with betas well before they go public. Can you imagine tens of thousands of iPhone owners giving "this is shit" feedback before a release was at an app-store state of completion? Oh dear. :wacko:
The GP32 scene is not like this; it's mostly full of people who like to get their hands dirty. They understand software development, what betas are, and how to give feedback.
Pandora, however, is already showing signs of tapping into that wider segment of people who expect "working" software right off the bat. Of course it will always be rooted in the GP32 scene, and the software train will roll on in those circles. But the kind of software the dev fund aims to attract might lend itself better to a limited test crowd, before being released to the masses as a polished product.
That's what I think anyway, but my views are not those of etc etc.
Look at what zodttd is doing; he's working with a huge market (iPhone owners), and for a few bucks a relatively small number of people can play with betas well before they go public. Can you imagine tens of thousands of iPhone owners giving "this is shit" feedback before a release was at an app-store state of completion? Oh dear. :wacko:
The GP32 scene is not like this; it's mostly full of people who like to get their hands dirty. They understand software development, what betas are, and how to give feedback.
Pandora, however, is already showing signs of tapping into that wider segment of people who expect "working" software right off the bat. Of course it will always be rooted in the GP32 scene, and the software train will roll on in those circles. But the kind of software the dev fund aims to attract might lend itself better to a limited test crowd, before being released to the masses as a polished product.
That's what I think anyway, but my views are not those of etc etc.
There are many opinions in this matter, good ones on both sides. I'd love to have things continue as they have been since the gp32 days were software is released and/or beta'd by anyone who cared to try it, but I was mainly just checking if there was an official statement on this.
Kyosys
Active Member
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It's a difficult subject. On one side, it does not seem very much open-source spirited to lock people who haven't paid money out of a part of the community, but on the other hand, it's alphas and betas, versions that are not quite done, and the masses will get the product when it's good. It's also up to the dev to use it or not, and if a dev wishes to encourage people to donate to the dev fund, why not? It's not like the devs are being forced to supply content...
Who said anything about locking people out? This isn't a mandatory thing, its giving devs the option to have a bit more of a closed beta atmosphere before they make a more public release. It's creating a list of people who are actively interested in the development community, and handing it over to developers so they can use a bit of feedback filtering, should they need it.
People are taking this paid perks thing, and spinning it into something its really not.
People are taking this paid perks thing, and spinning it into something its really not.
cosam
Active Member
I think the concern is that people who choose not to pay into the developer fund, perhaps because they are planning to contribute to the community in some other way, would be "locked out" (for want of a better term) from the whole beta testing thing.gilrad said:
The problem with that argument is that there will likely be a subset of those who choose to donate money who just want to support the developers and have no interest whatsoever in the development process. There will also be a subset of those who choose not to donate (at least, not financially) who are very interested in participating in the process. If you want to form such a list, just get people to sign up; the list will be better for it.gilrad said:
My comments are based entirely on the contents of this thread. If anyone would like to clear up exactly what it is we're talking about, please feel free ;-)gilrad said:
craigix
Mega GP Mania
It's totally open to the devs if they want to reward people from the dev fund.
We won't tell anyone what to do.
We won't tell anyone what to do.
I agree with Steve M, some people just want to give money but don't want to / can't help with the development, and others that want to do their contribution to the devs in form of beta testing patches etc. and not money can't do it because they are locked out.
I somewhat agree with gruso that there may be a problem with "ordinary people" complaining about unfinished software, but it shouldn't be a problem if you are clear with that when you release it, that it's just an alpha/beta release and that only people that understand sofware development and can give constructive criticsm should try them.
Also I think that this problem wouldn't completely go away just because you would have to pay to the dev fund, because as said earlier, ordinary non hackers also donates and therefore have access to the closed alphas / betas.
However, something extra for the donators would perhaps make more people donate, and thats is ofcourse a good thing.
Oh, and hello by the way, my first post on this forum.
( I made one post on the gp32x forum, then went into purgatory mode, and I'm still there, even after two mails to hando, (this was before the forum crash))
I somewhat agree with gruso that there may be a problem with "ordinary people" complaining about unfinished software, but it shouldn't be a problem if you are clear with that when you release it, that it's just an alpha/beta release and that only people that understand sofware development and can give constructive criticsm should try them.
Also I think that this problem wouldn't completely go away just because you would have to pay to the dev fund, because as said earlier, ordinary non hackers also donates and therefore have access to the closed alphas / betas.
However, something extra for the donators would perhaps make more people donate, and thats is ofcourse a good thing.
Oh, and hello by the way, my first post on this forum.
( I made one post on the gp32x forum, then went into purgatory mode, and I'm still there, even after two mails to hando, (this was before the forum crash))
TaG
Fau-fau-faulty software.
The idea of donating to a dev fund, and possibly getting first access to betas, was floated by craigix. He has said that developers are not forced to do that.
Some people don't want to donate to the dev fund but donate direct to their favourite developers. Thats cool.
I have donated and I hope many more do too. But I could care less about getting any form of 'reward' - I donated in the hope that the funds would be used to encourage more developers to create better software. My 'reward' will be better software and a healthy community.
Some people don't want to donate to the dev fund but donate direct to their favourite developers. Thats cool.
I have donated and I hope many more do too. But I could care less about getting any form of 'reward' - I donated in the hope that the funds would be used to encourage more developers to create better software. My 'reward' will be better software and a healthy community.
torpor
hack hack hack, the little machines fight back
From my perspective, whatever happens with the Developer Fund should be *100% open* and promoted in a game-style setup; which is to say that I think there should be a "Dev Fund" website with a total-figure of how much is available, who contributed to it, and who is currently requesting - with their working applications - that they receive a bit of it.
Imagine if the dev-fund-contributors could all vote on who was going to get 100Euro's this week because of the application they had released: this would *really* promote people making cool apps for the Pandora. If I knew I could - in a live forum, with voting and such - make a few hundred bucks extra a month by hacking on a nice app released to the public, then I'd for sure be writing a kickass app.
So I hope thats how it happens. If it turns into an 'inner circle' clique, with no public view of whats going on, then .. meh ..
Imagine if the dev-fund-contributors could all vote on who was going to get 100Euro's this week because of the application they had released: this would *really* promote people making cool apps for the Pandora. If I knew I could - in a live forum, with voting and such - make a few hundred bucks extra a month by hacking on a nice app released to the public, then I'd for sure be writing a kickass app.
So I hope thats how it happens. If it turns into an 'inner circle' clique, with no public view of whats going on, then .. meh ..
Prophet
God I'm old.
Personally...
I donated to the Dev Fund to help promote Pandora development and spark interest in the Pandora platform. Not because I expect any perks in return. Getting more and better *FREE* software is already the best perk you could get afterall.
If there are some closed alphas/betas for dev funders, OK. That's cool. But that's not what motivated me to contribute, so it doesn't really matter to me if there aren't.
I donated to the Dev Fund to help promote Pandora development and spark interest in the Pandora platform. Not because I expect any perks in return. Getting more and better *FREE* software is already the best perk you could get afterall.
If there are some closed alphas/betas for dev funders, OK. That's cool. But that's not what motivated me to contribute, so it doesn't really matter to me if there aren't.
paddy
Active Member
its alot of crap ,the devfund should be just to give the devs some ways of thanks for
the hardwork ,nothing more than that .. the idea that you get secret beta builds lol
come on.
ps .. you can donate to pj64 and get the secret 1.7 beta but its crap
and you still cant actuly beta test it,if the devs need beta testers theres
plenty right here in the forums including me,i will donate when the time is right
and i hpoe the devs all get drunk on the money yey
the hardwork ,nothing more than that .. the idea that you get secret beta builds lol
come on.
ps .. you can donate to pj64 and get the secret 1.7 beta but its crap
and you still cant actuly beta test it,if the devs need beta testers theres
plenty right here in the forums including me,i will donate when the time is right
and i hpoe the devs all get drunk on the money yey
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