We Aren't Rich : Contribute Please

[calguy1000]

Hello All.

I'd just like to bring a little subject to your attention that perhaps many of you hadn't thought of before.  That is, contributing to the cause

Quite frequently either on the forums, or on the irc channel we see users that have clients and are charging them to develop sites with CMS Made Simple.  We handle the questions from these web site developers, and their concerns, and either answer their questions, solve their problems for them, or fix their bugs. We then go along on our merry way happy that we could help.  We find things that can be improved in CMS, and we implement those things as soon as we can.  These people always give thanks, and that is great and makes us happy, 

However, this process doesn't keep the machine going.

The CMS Made Simple site has expenses.  It incurrs real costs, which need to be covered.  It shouldn't come out of one or two persons pockets.  There are thousands of CMS Made Simple users, and it isn't asking much for everybody to contribute a little.  If you use the product, and especially if you profit off of the product that you can download and use for free, then maybe you should consider contributing.  Either to the development of the project, to the support of it, or in cash.  Many of you do, and we thank you sincerely.

A number of the forum members continously say things like: "It would be nice if...", "I can't understand why it doesn't do...", "If only it did...", or "I have a problem with...", when refering to a particular module or part of the core, but very few are willing to step up to the plate and say: "I have X dollars, can I get this added or fixed", to the appropriate core or module developer.  It's a shame really.

Then there's time.  A few of us developers are trying to make this project into a full time career.  Though we're happy to help, and to fix any glaring errors in what we've done, adding features, or fixing minor irritants can be a hassle.  Particularly when we're trying to do something else for the cause, or busy with our children, significant others, day jobs, etc.  We'd be happy to donate a bit of time when it helps our cause too.

I'm sure, if you told a module developer that you had $50, or $100 to solve a particular problem that was driving you nuts, that most of the time, they would help you with it.  And, given that we have managed to gather quite a good team of developers, if it turned out to be a minor change in the core, or any module, or a bug that needed fixing it wouldn't cost you a dime.  But they would gladly accept your minor contribution to their module so that they could continue debugging and enhancing it, and perhaps writing new code that you will later also use.

The moral to this story people is this:  A significant number of people are making their careers off of a product that is free, and will remain free, but took thousands upon thousands of our time to develop.  However most of these people aren't even contributing a pittance to the expeneses, or to the people that are giving them that income. 

Just a few thoughts to keep in mind.

Thank you for your time, and feel free to comment.  I hope I did not offend any of the team members, active contributors, or active forum support members.  If I did, I apologize in advance.

[leMich]

Hi man,

sorry for my english, i'm french 

I ask myself for a long time how guys like you can live by doing these kind of software (i mean open source cms like cmsms, joomla ...).  Making free software is a good thing, but if you don't earn your life, what is the final goal ?
I think that offering a free cms core is a good thing, but giving a lots of module for free is not a good thing. I asked recently to one coder of the project to create 2 mods for me (paid of course !).
My job is graphic designer. So what i need : custom mods, support and reactivity !
I think this is a good way to earn money for coders : developping custom mods and sell them (if you sell each mod mini 200$ or 500$ that will bring you money !).
By the past i tried to code custom scripts in php. This is not a designer job. So now all the time i have is for designing, finding original ideas : and clients are looking for that.

[Signex]

I`ll donate again, I have a new project closing next week, I`ll donate everytime I have project with cmsms involved

[moorezilla]

Yep. I will continue to contribute 20 bucks for every site I use cmsmadesimple on. I'd give more, but I don't do any sites for money, and $20 represents a cheap case of beer. If I ever get paid for any of my work, I'll contribute more! I promise!

am

[calguy1000]

moorezilla, that's more than fine, and we appreciate your effort.

We're mostly interested in the folks that do sites for profit using CMS (and there seems to be alot of them), tha don't contribute much, if any at all to the cause. 

if you're in need of custom development work, many of us module develoeprs would be interested in helping you.  Not always for cash upfront, but maybe for residuals, a percentage of the take, or for making a module for sale.  Talk to us, we're open to negotiations.

We're not closed minded, we're not opportunists, and we're not really greedy.  but on the other hand, we get irritated after a while of some people making profit from this free product, and it's addons without showing some appreciation.

if a financial excess was contrbuted to Ted, beyond what is needed to pay for the maintenance of our cause, I'm sure he'd save it up, and send, at the very least T-shirts, or beer mugs (oh yeah!!) to the dev team members and/or some of the module developers.  And maybe, if there were enough, save it up for one good dev team party.  Maybe the 2.0 release party would be a good reason for a party.

We're not wasting your money, and we're not getting rich off of it.  Recognition is all we ask.  if enough people 'recognise' their benefit from the free CMS made simple project, then we'll all be a little bit further ahead.  As well, the development team, and module developers will all feel a little bit better about contributing even more of their time and effort to the cause.

Again, thank you for your effort.

[leMich]

Little idea : why don't you "mark" users who donated to your team ? A little symbol in the profile to detect them. So for example in the forums, you can see users who participate really to the project, and make priority answer to these users before the others who never donated (it can save you a lot of time !). This can help perhaps others users to make donations if they don't have answers quickly.

[Dr.CSS]

Well I would Love to contribute $ but as is I've made little off using this Fantastic CMSMS I try to offer support to other users in the way I'm best able i.e. design/layout... sorry 

[calguy1000]

Other support is great mark.  Helping with the themes site, and the support work you do is just as valuable as a monetary contribution.  Keep up the good work.

[brentlydude]

I agrree. I am trying to learn the system and use it for my clients. I will donate $100 off the first site get paid for as for now I  just needed help to learning the system I am not sure if I can continue the $100 per site  but I will donate what i can back to the cause.

Everyone looks like they are being very helpful and I will contribute in that way once I have a better understanding.

Thanks every one I am very happy with CMCMS so far!!