RonPaulVolunteer
Member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2007
- Messages
- 5,332
So we're making a Ron Paul Flix iPhone application. And we are planning to charge 99 cents for it. For several reasons.
* I have a iOS development company working on this. They are seriously professional, and I want to be able to cover the ongoing development costs.
* The app is going to be extremely full-featured. It's going to have features that you simply did not expect (not in the very first version, though soon after). Features that I don't want to reveal right now, but trust me, no campaign is going to have anything like this!!
* Free apps that have any kind of political bent get downloaded by haters and ranked right down. We don't want that. For all but the most passionate haters, the 99 cent price will stop them downloading the app just to give it a bad review.
* We want to continuously upgrade the app. We don't want to release something, and then that's it. We want at least a monthly update with more functionality, which means ongoing costs.
* We're going to have to purchase yet another server as already our web traffic is exploding, and this web app will make the demands on the server explode! We'll need to have a separate big-iron server that stays in sync with rsync to the master server just for the iPhone.
* We need to write a custom application to run on the server to grab our video content and re-encode it (if needed) and then stream it to the iPhone. (We are looking at ways around this though)
At first, the app will be simple, and won't do much more than simply view the Ron Paul Flix videos. I would agree that if that was all it was going to do in the proceeding months, it should be just a free app. But this app is going to totally kick butt!! It's going to help us campaign in ways you simply could not imagine. I fully expect every Ron Paul supporter with an iPhone/iPod/iPad will use this app all the time. I want to win this election. And I want to give us an app that will not just be to show of my website, but truly empower us to win more people into the fold.
Now, some will ask, "will you make money from this?" To be honest, I hope so, because I am working my butt off here, and my own business is suffering, and I would like to focus more and more on Ron Paul Flix and this application. But it remains to be seen if it will make money. Basically, the development company gets paid first, and any remainder will go directly to me. Bare in mind that Ron Paul Flix does not come free, and I want to be able to pay the people that help with developing the code that runs the website, and design graphics and so forth. I believe people should be paid at least something for their work. For example, those doing transcribing for Ron Paul Flix, are not doing it for free!! And that $$ comes out of my own pocket! Note that I have no advertising or even a donation widget on the website. Though again, that might change in the future.
So the poll question is: Would you pay 99 cents for the app considering the above?
If not, I'd appreciate your feedback below. Thanks.
RPV
PS. PLEASE do not vote NO if the only reason for your NO vote, is because you don't own an iPhone!!
* I have a iOS development company working on this. They are seriously professional, and I want to be able to cover the ongoing development costs.
* The app is going to be extremely full-featured. It's going to have features that you simply did not expect (not in the very first version, though soon after). Features that I don't want to reveal right now, but trust me, no campaign is going to have anything like this!!
* Free apps that have any kind of political bent get downloaded by haters and ranked right down. We don't want that. For all but the most passionate haters, the 99 cent price will stop them downloading the app just to give it a bad review.
* We want to continuously upgrade the app. We don't want to release something, and then that's it. We want at least a monthly update with more functionality, which means ongoing costs.
* We're going to have to purchase yet another server as already our web traffic is exploding, and this web app will make the demands on the server explode! We'll need to have a separate big-iron server that stays in sync with rsync to the master server just for the iPhone.
* We need to write a custom application to run on the server to grab our video content and re-encode it (if needed) and then stream it to the iPhone. (We are looking at ways around this though)
At first, the app will be simple, and won't do much more than simply view the Ron Paul Flix videos. I would agree that if that was all it was going to do in the proceeding months, it should be just a free app. But this app is going to totally kick butt!! It's going to help us campaign in ways you simply could not imagine. I fully expect every Ron Paul supporter with an iPhone/iPod/iPad will use this app all the time. I want to win this election. And I want to give us an app that will not just be to show of my website, but truly empower us to win more people into the fold.
Now, some will ask, "will you make money from this?" To be honest, I hope so, because I am working my butt off here, and my own business is suffering, and I would like to focus more and more on Ron Paul Flix and this application. But it remains to be seen if it will make money. Basically, the development company gets paid first, and any remainder will go directly to me. Bare in mind that Ron Paul Flix does not come free, and I want to be able to pay the people that help with developing the code that runs the website, and design graphics and so forth. I believe people should be paid at least something for their work. For example, those doing transcribing for Ron Paul Flix, are not doing it for free!! And that $$ comes out of my own pocket! Note that I have no advertising or even a donation widget on the website. Though again, that might change in the future.
So the poll question is: Would you pay 99 cents for the app considering the above?
If not, I'd appreciate your feedback below. Thanks.
RPV
PS. PLEASE do not vote NO if the only reason for your NO vote, is because you don't own an iPhone!!
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