If someone were to give BYOND a large sum of funds, let's go around the ballpark of 25,000.
What would happen, due to the slowly declining lack of interest from Tom? Would it go to improve the software itself or would it just be used to pay personal bills and/or sustain the site? Fill me in, someone. It's an honest question.
Let's keep negativity and pessimism out of it just this once. I don't care who you are, feel free to approach this if you feel you have a valid answer.
Oct 17 2014, 1:10 pm
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LordAndrew
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It's hard to say really, since it's all up to Tom. That said, $25,000 would amount to five months of funding based on the monthly donation goal of $5,000.
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LordAndrew wrote:
It's hard to say really, since it's all up to Tom. That said, $25,000 would amount to five months of funding based on the monthly donation goal of $5,000. Yeah, I couldn't really think of a clear answer myself while it was floating through my head. I figured someone else here could possibly shed some light. Perhaps Tom, if he catches this thread. | |
It would be a very nice gesture and would certainly buy us more time, but, in the long run, it doesn't really accomplish anything. What we really need is for users to just make and promote games. That's sort of the point of the product too.
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Tom wrote:
It would be a very nice gesture and would certainly buy us more time, but, in the long run, it doesn't really accomplish anything. What we really need is for users to just make and promote games. That's sort of the point of the product too. True enough. What I'm really trying to ask is - what's a complete list of essential things needed in order to keep BYOND, and its developer kit, alive? I apologize if these questions sound repetitive or mundane. The reason I ask is because I'm preparing to open a franchise with a small group soon and I believe I can sustain BYOND for an extended period of time until something can be figured out as to where it should go as a developer tool and a community as a whole. I truly believe that this a place of opportunity and people just haven't taken full advantage of it. I've grown up with your website and it would kill me for it to ever go to waste. | |
Nothing really needs to be done to keep BYOND alive, assuming we can continue to meet the small server costs. We will keep this service running as long as we can. However, that is strictly maintenance mode and not active development, as we've had for the last 15+ years. It would most likely mean stripping the site down to just the software download and a minimal signup/authentication/hub setup.
If we want to be able to continue developing BYOND, we'll either need to start regularly making more money (the point of the Fund raiser), or just open source the whole thing. The latter is a bit tricky due to the fact that we employ a central service, but I think we can workaround that with third-party authentication. Personally, I feel like the software-- once the webclient is stable-- is perfectly adequate and there really isn't a pressing need for further development. If it does what people want, they can use it. If not, there are plenty of great alternatives available today, far more than when we first started (when your options were BASIC or a C++ compiler). | |
How long after the release of the web client do you think you and Lummox would be willing to work on the software ? It seems to me that it will take a little while for games to gain traction off-site. I do think that the site will bring in more revenue after some of our more popular games promote themselves better though, especially since you won't have to download anything to play.
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Honestly, I think the cash would be better suited depositing into advertising for BYOND(any part of it really, the engine or the software made on it). For instance, $25,000 would go a long way on YouTube's advertising scheme.
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NNAAAAHH wrote:
Honestly, I think the cash would be better suited depositing into advertising for BYOND(any part of it really, the engine or the software made on it). For instance, $25,000 would go a long way on YouTube's advertising scheme. I see potential there. Tom, I'd like to talk to you in relation to this proposed idea of his. Is there any way to contact you outside of BYOND? | |
try the "contact us" button below.
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Ah! Sorry. I completely ignored that.
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