ContributorRight now, in both this site and the IPS Marketplace, I have been creating a separate entry in the Downloads system for separate versions of each product. So if a certain file has one version that works on IP.Board version X, and a second version that works on IP.Board version Y, those would be separate entries in the system. This has frequently led to confusion among my customers as to which file they need to get.
My proposed solution for this is to merge the files together, so that a given mod only shows up in the Downloads system once, and when you try to download it you can choose the correct version there. For example:
There are several advantages to this. It makes it easier for customers to find the file in the Downloads system, or to find the right topic to post their support issue in. It also makes it so the same basic product has a more visible history, so we can see which are getting the most downloads/views over time rather than just the oldest ones having their stats skewed.
I don't think this will be anything that most folks who use my free products will find at all controversial, but what does have me a bit concerned is that I would also like to do this with my paid files as well. That will have a pretty big impact, and so I want to discuss that here before I do anything.
A few months back, I'd posted a topic where I'd asked for feedback about this possible change. The response there was that while most people did like the way I handle my product upgrades, some would like to see it changed to a more time-based renewal schedule, but that either way I went it wouldn't be too big of a change to deal with. I hope that sentiment is still accurate as I would like to move to a time-based renewal schedule. I prefer a time-based schedule as it is easier to maintain, and I do occasionally get complaints from people who purchased a product at the tail end of one development cycle, then are asked to pay an upgrade fee shortly thereafter for the new version.
Now, this means a few things. First off, files will now have time-based renewal costs handled completely by IP.Downloads and IP.Nexus. To keep things consistent, I plan on making these renewals work just like IPS. If you buy a product, you can keep using it for as long as you want. You get updates of the product as long as you keep your license active. If your license expires, you can renew at any time by paying the renewal cost (those renewal costs will mirror the upgrade costs I used to use). The license term for each product will be a year. Future products may have different renewal terms, but I want to keep things easy for the initial roll out.
Next, if I'm combining all of the various versions of a commercial file into a single entry, then that means if you bought any one of the previous separate entries, that you'd now be entitled to download any of the available versions without having to make a new upgrade purchase. That means if you bought the Tutorials app for 3.0, you also now get it for 3.1 and 3.2 (and 3.3, if necessary, once I take a look at that) without having to pay an upgrade fee.
When this new time-based licensing system is introduced, I plan on giving every customer a year on their license as of the date I start this policy, not the date you made the purchase. It wouldn't be fair to back-date your license that way, since that wasn't the way these licenses worked back then. In addition, for those who already bought one version and then later bought an upgrade, I plan on setting your license to expire in 18 months instead of 12, since you already essentially have renewed your license, so I think it's fair to give you even more license time.
From a technical stanpoint, this is going to take a bit of work on my part. I've already created a hook that will assist me in letting me merge files (which I'll put out there for download shortly), but I can't merge the commercial files all that easily since I can't go back and add renewal terms to existing files. Those commercial files will have to be re-submitted as brand new entries to the Downloads systems, and then populated with the sales data for those who bought the old products. So this transition will take me a bit of time to perform all of these mergers and then clean stuff up afterwards.
So let me know what you think. I hope it will make things easier for everyone, but it will likely take a bit of getting used to. It is a bit daunting on my part to try and do this, but I think it's worth it as I am not completely happy with the way I charge for renewals currently.
