Some opinions related to the latest community update.
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I missed this topic, but I see @Flohack has already provided solid arguments.
elementaryOS is backed by "elementary LLC" which likely enables them to handle money on a solid legal base. I gave a quick look at "Houston", the app store back end used by elementary, and it seems they only support a single service, called Stripe. I haven't tested personally, but what I see is that developers might likely have to create a Stripe account in order to receive donations.
This might add a further consideration: choosing a single service implies excluding others.
We could offer e.g. PayPal support, but I'm mostly sure our developers might (legitimately) ask to support Patreon, Liberapay, Bitcoins, etc. Not to mention potential existing service bans in specific countries. It might end up in a huge amount of work, for an app store service that merely counts 400 apps and has not fully shaped yet.
What we did in OpenStore, but we still need to expose it to the client app, is to let developers to specify a link of their choice for donations. This already enabled developers to received donations through the OpenStore web UI - e.g. Dekko.
I'm in charge to get this done in the client app. Despite my expectations, adding a single button to an existing hiearchy of informations is not so trivial; as a consequence, it might take a while before we could roll this out in a new update, since we have to redefine how we provide other metadata.
I'm currently redesigning the "Package Details" page in the OpenStore client, and the idea is to ensure that our "Donate" button would always be placed above the fold, in order to ensure that potential donors would not miss the opportunity to support the work of developers and contributors.
Here's how the "Donate" button might look in future OpenStore releases
Feedback welcomed!
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@sverzegnassi said in Some opinions related to the latest community update.:
Here's how the "Donate" button might look in future OpenStore releases
Feedback welcomed!
I like the positioning!
But the icon confused me a little. My first association when seeing the heart icon was the "Heart rating" from the uappexplorer website. I'm not sure what the further plans of uappexplorer and/or heartrating are, but maybe picking an icon that has a stronger monetary association would be clearer anyway (dollar sign? pound sign?) and avoid the icon conflict with the heart rating.
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Currency symbols are not neutral. Some may not like $, others € or £ or any currency symbol.
Moreover, this could suggest that it is only possible to give in a certain currency.
So I believe "Donate + heart icon", if not ideal, is less problematic.
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Looks good, regarding the button, it could also be a gift box icon? Anyway, whichever is to be picked there will always have pros and cons against it.
I think it might need more coloring, it feels a bit monotone.
How can we make sure that the App is only installed on one device if the author wants to charge device-based?
I don't think it should be anything than per account, is there such a thing as per device? I haven't encountered it.
So do you really think this is the right way to go? Or just put a donation link in the store, and let the developer suggest a usual donation for his app wouldn´t be enough?
A donation button should suffice at the moment, but in the future when Ubuntu Touch will take the mobile front with a storm a store with an exact payment method should be implemented.
Maybe an API + third party stores? This could take it out of your hands and entities, such as Canonical(if they would be willing) can set up shop for their snap packages and everyone can benefit from.....I might be dreaming away on this one
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Thanks for your replies!
I chose the 'heart' symbol since it was the nearest symbol in terms of kindness and appreciation. I like @vadrian89 's idea of using a gift box as icon; the bad news is that our Suru icons set does not provide the icon.
If someone wants to contribute and create for us an icon that matches the Suru specs, the contribution would be very appreciated.
As an alternative to the 'gift box' and the 'heart', we could still use the currency symbol as proposed by @doniks . QML provides an easy way to get the currency symbol according to user's locale. That way we can solve any ambiguity related to its usage.
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@vadrian89 Be it per device or per account, but currently there is no way to restrict app installations. Anyone could pay for one license and distrubute it on many many devices. Thats also one reason why app purches would make no sense in OpenStore.
BR
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@sverzegnassi Can you give us a preview screenshot of how it could look like then to the user? ^
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@Flohack Sure, it's in one of my earlier replies. (still WIP)
Here's how the "Donate" button might look in future OpenStore releases
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I like that! yeah sure I think the heart is a great idea!
BR
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Hi e.g. Calibre is doing the same with the heart symbol. I belive there are many more applications out there.
But for me an essential part why I am also funding this UBports is the hope of an secure and non-spy software. And this is only possible with Free Software at least where you can read the source code. But I'd go even for re-usable code (as this needs to be read and understood to use it therefore less hidden parts, imo)
I believe Donations do work as wen can see for Matrix, UBPorts and others. Yes many are strugling but I believe this might also change if people understand the value of free software. I think that an OpenStore should be open.
And as for programms I stronlgy believe that one should be able to re-use, change the code and make a living out of it without being harrased by people who have lawyers at their hands or something happening on my computer without me knowing.
I love GNU licenses for their viral attitude
