Example System / Community Edition Patreon Integration
2017/12/30 Patreon blog: Integration update
Synopsis
We'd like to share our experiences up to now, that since we joined the Patreon platform initially at 2017/12/15. We performed some experiments thereafter and has formed some rough initial ideas about our future strategy. Also we'd like to explain why the so-called "free nvr" CmE is not able to be downloaded freely for the time being.
Blog content
Greetings! We'd like to share our experiences up to now, that since we joined the Patreon platform initially at 2017/12/15.
As inspired by the "in the nutshell" series, also by the spamming-like message about iOS 11 request, we are entering a new area of small-amount continuous crowdfunding trial, which is totally strange to us. The initial thought is to utilize a big advantage our NVR Community Edition has, is that we have "many" users, who may not be able to pay very much. (See: main article)
In order to really do this, modifying the NVR software itself to be tightly integrated with the Patreon platform is necessary. This takes time, and it also takes the right strategy. Modification software is a lot of work no matter how you do it, so we need to collect some measurable data before deciding what is the correct strategy. To do that, we need to perform some experiments. So below we'd like to share some experiences about these experiments so far.
The first and the most important question, to us, is very simple and straightforward: "Does this Patreon platform really work? (Does someone like us really get paid on this platform?)". Subsequently, more questions like "How will someone likes us to raise fund? How much will this get us? Will it be sufficient to support a professional software development team like us?" etc, arised.
Well, it seems like a lot of questions because we're new to this concept. Patreon platform is not like most other crowdfunding platforms, which mostly require a glamorous and obvious goal to work. It just might work for us. However, the small-amount nature hinted us that it might not be enough to support a professional software development team like us, well at least not enough at the first few months, because the momentum is yet to be gathered. About this point, we have decided to separate our Commercial Edition away from this project. So all CmE we talks from now, will still be under non-commercial use (See: main article).
Anyway, we decided the first two important questions that needs to be answered before a concrete strategy can be formulated, are:
Q1: Does someone like Genius Vision really get paid on this platform?
Q2: How much will this get us within what kind of timeframe?
To answer Q1, we did an experiment, that starting from 2017/12/15, we started to put a "Help us to grow" button beside the "Download software" button. At that time, the 930 CmE software can still be downloaded just by clicking that button. To our surprise, after 4 days, no one has chosen to become our patrons. If this situation continues, all subsequent experiments, and effort toward Patreon platform won't mean anything at all. At that time, we couldn't tell if we were not doing this the right way, but we had to make a change to this experiment, one way or the other, otherwise the entire project fails.
At 2017/12/19 19:30 (GMT+08), we moved the 930 CmE software download link inside patron-only content. To our surprise, again, just one hour after we doing this, we got our first patron, Mr. Steve (thank you very much, Mr. Steve). Although it was only $1/month, already this was a huge encouragement to us.
Since that 2017/12/19, we had been keep receiving about new 1~5 patrons everyday consistently. (A great encouragement to us, thank you patrons!). Within another few weeks we will be able to answer Q2, and therefore be able to announce our formal strategy. This conclusion made us to believe that merely "hinting users" to become our patron is not nearly enough. Not even for $1/month. It's not because our software unworthy for that $1/month, but because there is "no need" to become a patron. It seems that people only put the idea of "paying" in their head, when they "need" to. I mean, if there is this button that is just sitting next to another button, which allows you pay nothing to get what you want, perhaps even I couldn't resist the temptation. So here we came to our current screen: 3 buttons there but none of the buttons will get you the free download of CmE software:
Since then, we had received about 3~4 "disgruntled" users, who were "seriously complaining" why they couldn't get the free software, as advertised by the "Best NVR, for free" wordings. Well, I admit for the time-being, the wordings could be misleading, so we have written an explanation. Nevertheless, to these disgruntled users, the explanation seems to mean nothing at all.
Our CmE will eventually be free again, but will, obviously, need to be be under different packaging. As the similar reasoning to the "3-button" experiments mentioned above, if the freely available CmE is too powerful that satisfies everyone's need, then it will be very difficult to gather more patrons. That is, there is "no need" for people to put the idea of "becoming patrons" in their heads. I guess it can't be helped. With all the good intentions the Patreon platform tries to advertise, it's still a product under the social framework of capitalism, and so is its audiences.
Thus, to make CmE over Patreon platform really work, we need to differentiate our CmE capability, and make it different to free users, and to various level of patrons. Also, in order to be able to gather sufficient number of patrons, the free version need to be "insufficient" by definition, while favoring patrons with more powerful software capabilities.
After the patron-integrated CmE is released for free-to-download again, we can make more exciting software enhancements, based on this arrangement.
That's all for now, I hope it's not too long (don't read). We'll be releasing more updates soon.
With that being said, please become our patrons at anytime to give us more encouragement forward.
See also