Get them while the gettin is good.

[Rupp]

Better get them while they're still cheap. Guys today is the last day to pick up a plug-in that is priced below $30. So you better get them while the gettin is good.

[DC]

What plug-in? Did you intend to include a link to what you are talking about?

[mloebl]

DC,

All plugins are raising to a minimum price of $30 as of 1/1/05 I believe.

-Mike

[wolfe4656]

Plugin

Rupp: I downloaded the WAF Net callerID today. I dont have the unit yet it is on order. However after downloading it never asked for a registration or even showed up in HS. I wanted to pay for it now while it was $15.00 before the increase. I wont get the unit till next week then it will cost me $30.00. Any ideas.. Dave...

[sbessel]

Referring to this: http://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=101011

I guess I missed that.. and I can honestly say I am greatly disappointed, as the best thing about HS is the low priced plug-ins, now all at a minimum of $30 will definitely make me rethink my strategy and greatly reduce my plug-in purchases.

On a side note, I have purchased almost all my plug-ins from Automated Outlet at a discounted price, hopefully this will remain true.

[Skibum]

Best be careful, Scott....

http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=100913

specifically paragraph 2......

[kschorz]

Best be careful, Scott....

http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=100913

specifically paragraph 2......

Yea - what a way to treat your customers huh? Especially since their 'home automation' interests is what caused them to purchase HomeSeer and hang at this forum in the first place.

I think HomeSeer owes me a BIG apology for the insult.

In all reality they should give away at least half of the plugins they charge for since a lot of us here on this board helped them bug test them through countless hours of troubleshooting their 'buggy' code and countless hours of installing updates and finding work-arounds because of extremely poor documentation. When do I get paid for being your beta tester?
And no, I don't have to test beta code and neither does anyone else. It would be interesting to see just how commercially viable HomeSeer and their plugins remain without a very large customer base WILLING to beta test for them.
To say the least anyway. I know I will never buy another plugin after the price increase.

[fungun]

Wolfe

From Rupp-
Guys,
It's under Help > Registrations > Scripts

[smee]

In all reality they should give away at least half of the plugins they charge for since a lot of us here on this board helped them bug test them through countless hours of troubleshooting their 'buggy' code and countless hours of installing updates and finding work-arounds because of extremely poor documentation. When do I get paid for being your beta tester?
And no, I don't have to test beta code and neither does anyone else. It would be interesting to see just how commercially viable HomeSeer and their plugins remain without a very large customer base WILLING to beta test for them.
To say the least anyway. I know I will never buy another plugin after the price increase.

Remember, most of these plugins are not written by the HomeSeer guys. These are other users who have chosen this route to share their work. You can blame HST for distributing beta products if you want, but not for " 'buggy' code."

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy plugins. Much of the capability in plugins can be done other ways. And the base HS package has a lot of capability built in. When you add the free plugins, it only gets better. There are many people who are able to function perfectly well using only this setup.

Now, if HST announced that they would only allow pay plugins to be developed for HS it would be a different story. Other companies handle this by requiring developers to buy an developer's kit or something similar. HST has not hinted that they'd do anything like this. HST has provided an open framework and a lot of freedom to plugin/script developers. Even if they stopped distributing free plugins (which they have not said they'd do), the developers are still allowed to distribute them.

While, like everyone else, I'm not happy when prices go up, I also don't see this as the big problem that so many making it out to be. If I don't want to pay for a plugin, noone is forcing me to use it. I think a lot of the noise here is coming from people who either don't use any pay plugins anyway or people who are new to HS and seem to think that the only way to accomplish anything is to buy plugins. This is a lamentable state and I agree that things have changed from "the good old days." But, I think what we really need is to see people go back to developing and sharing scripts, not thinking that plugins are the only way to go. It hasn't been that long since the culture shift occured - we need to work at getting it to shift back.

By the way, my system is running only one paid plugin - and I do not rely on it for anything and will probably be removing it and replacing its functionality with a script. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Mark S.]

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy plugins. Much of the capability in plugins can be done other ways. ... my system is running only one paid plugin - and I do not rely on it for anything and will probably be removing it and replacing its functionality with a script.

I have at least a half dozen plugins so far. And I do rely on them because my scripting skills are weak. I'd love free plugins, but I don't mind paying a few bucks for them either, as long as it supplies beer money for the author.

I just resent the seemingly arbitrary nature of this increase and the lack of explanation from HST. This could have significant consequences for us Non-Techie hobbyists who want (or need) to use third party plugins.

Cheap (and free) plugins have allowed me do do things I would otherwise not be able to do on my own - it's been a great thing about the HS community. I'm all for "going back to the old days" as long as the plugins keep coming. If that is truly the intent, then HST should make that crystal clear.

Mark

[jwilson56]

Well I would have to agree that the increase in price for privately written plugins is the strange part. If a private author wants to charge $15 for his plugin why is HST forcing the higher price? I can't believe thats it just for 'image'. If so thats laughable. Of coarse all the private plugin developers can sell their plugins on the side. Maybe we could get some third party to sell them cheaper and let HST have their self delusion on what constitutes a professional image.

Had HST been acting like this with these new policies and actions I dare say that I and probably other 'hobbyists' would have kept looking. I have said it before and I will say it again.... the user base is what made Homeseer what it is and like so many others these days they have seemingly turned their backs on us in their quest for the almighty buck. I don't begrudge HST making money but not at the expense of chopping the 'hobbyist' off at their knees.

John

[Gogs]

[Msekelsky]

It has always been my experience that things are much more complex (that's not the right word, but you should get the gist) than I realize. I am certainly not excited about paying more for a plug-in (heck, I don't want to pay more for anything), but I'm sure that is a lot driving the decision of which I am not aware. While the authors of the plug-ins provide most of the support, I'll bet Rich and company have to provide some as well. There are a lot of costs of doing business, such as insurance, that have skyrocketed over the last few years. I could go on and one but my view is that Rich is probably not getting rich (no pun intended) and I want him to make a decent living. Unless I hear otherwise I'm going to assume that this is the best decsion for HS and its customers (as going under, not that I think that was immenient, would not be good for me).

[johnwpb]

With the new prices, many of the plugin's doubled in price overnight. That seems just a WEEEeee bit excessive for covering the credit card transaction! There certainly is no "shipping & handling" involved! Makes me wonder, if the plugin was $15 and is now $30, will the author of the plugin get a "bigger cut"?

I also agree that the author should set the price for somethng that they write. NOT belittleing anyones work here, but some of the plugin's are VERY simple in what they do, and just add a very small feature to HS users. This type of plugin is simply not worth $30, but would be worth $10. On the other hand, some of the plugin's are very complicated and offer a host of new features, this is the type of plugin that I would gladly, and have, paid $30 for.

[Gogs]

I have taken the liberty of sending the following e-mail to Mark, purly because I am curious as to the reasoning behind this decision.

Hi Mark,

Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year.

Perhaps you would like to read this tread from the HSMB. http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=101072

I think that perhaps a statement from yourself as to why this decision has been taken may be appropriate, as I am sure it not only effects the writters of the plugins, but yourselves, and ourselves.

After all we are, lets say, more of a community than customers!

I have taken the liberty of posting a copy of this e-mail in the aforementioned thread.

Gogs.