The funny thing is I was going to suggest Hex go a step further and think about implementing an ‘App’ store where it gets a percentage of the sale price. I think that could be a fantastic business model that could not only help fund Hex, but afford to pay its team and keep them interested in making it (and perhaps other areas of Elixir) even better.
There is one caveat though - I would limit it to full applications/products only - such as a complete forum application, or a complete social networking application, or a complete chat application, or a complete analytics tool, etc, and even then only where the applications are fully supported (otherwise the app store may become associated with poor software/experience). Basically it would be for products/services that are of a commercial standard and where the creators want a simple delivery system.
I don’t think it should be used to sell your everyday libraries though as I feel that could ultimately hurt Elixir. It may lead to a tendency for authors to want to charge what may seem as little as 99p - thinking it is not much - but the (perhaps psychological) impact could put people off the whole ecosystem and I think that might end up being incredibly bad for Elixir.
But the App Store, for actual apps - that could forge a different path for Elixir (the home of quality, affordable software?). I can’t say whether it would be good or bad… so the powers that be (José, Eric and co!) would really need to think long and hard about it.
Reasonable, but think of it – this would need a dedicated team to actually review all the apps and decide if they are “full apps” or not. That team, even if it gets hired, is a single point of failure – since they are humans and can be bribed or threatened… or just have a bad day and give a free pass to an app that doesn’t deserve it. The possibilities for abuse or a mistake are a lot.
That would be nothing more than a promise and we would be expected to just believe it. The Eastern European in me says “if a promise or a contract can’t be enforced with sticks then it will not be fulfilled”. Cynical, but it turned out to be true far too often.
With regards to support - any apps that don’t get it can be removed from the App Store (perhaps with a 3 strikes and you’re out kinda thing). But yeah, could be more problem than it’s worth (on the other hand, could be quite lucrative )
The funny thing is I was going to suggest Hex go a step further and think about
implementing an ‘App’ store where it gets a percentage of the sale price.
I think that could be a fantastic business model that could not only help fund
Hex, but afford to pay its team and keep them interested in making it (and
perhaps other areas of Elixir) even better.
Yes. Just have a look at the high quality thriving open source
eco-system and community for applications in existing App Stores.
I guess we can inject ads in the currently uploaded hex packages so that
we can make some money even if the riffraff that writes them insists on
giving them away for free.
I’m thinking of things like forum platforms, which, until Discourse came on the scene I was always happy to pay for (they were just so much more feature complete/tested/reliable than the free/open source options - and the support was invaluable).
Of course there is a market for paid software like this. Look at all php plugins
and templates to wordpress and similar for example.
I just don’t think it should be affiliated with hex in any way.
Also, the sad part of it is that once money is involved the amount of
low quality software explodes, the number of malware and exploits
increases and the high quality software drowns in it. If you can solve
that problem you have a good business idea!
Hmm, not sure about app store, but you inspired me in another idea, so I post it here
How about join this idea:
add VIP accounts.
When it will be profitable then on hex could be added ability to request a support for maintainers of specified package. Each package could collect points.
Points could be added for example for:
1 point for each download - unique IP
5 points for share
10 points for +1 (requires connected forum account with at least trust level 2)
25 points for love (requires connected forum account with at least trust level 3)
50 points for follow - at least one method of notification (for example e-mail)
75 points for new release with at least 90% updates (another hex packages)
100 points for full test coverage!
150 points for full documentation + extra docs (CONTRIBUTING.md, LICENSE.mdREADME.md)
+5 extra points for follow/like/love from another package maintainer (at least 250 points in at least one package)
+15 extra points for like/love/follow from VIP account
Funds:
package needs at least 1000 points
package is actively supported (at least bug fix) - could be reported by users if not and then verified by hex admins
package maintainers must connect account with forum and have at least trust level 2 on it
more points == biggest priority to fund
anyone could self fund specified package
25% discount for any book for each maintainer where points per maintainer is equal or greater than 1500 points
ability to buy book from funds
ability to transfer funds to other maintainers or specified project
ability to fund feature by normal users
+10% funds if got love from José Valim
VIP (paid account):
unlimited numbers of private packages
must have connected account with forum and have at least trust level 2 on it
must have at least one public package on hex with at least 250 points
extra hex.pm functions for example package RSS or push notifications
sponsored suggestions of his packages in search results, but for package with at least 1500 points
15% discount for reaching trust level 3 on forum
free 3 months VIP account for write tutorial on forum with at least 50 likes
free 6 months VIP account for accepted bug fix enhancement/feature (for example not for fix typo in docs) PR at elixir-lang/elixir
free 1 year VIP account for appear package on top 50 packages (with highest number of points)
free 5 years VIP for collecting all badges on forum!
Some interesting ideas there @Eiji but I don’t think José and the Hex team want to go down an App Store route so am closing the thread - they can always restart the conversation should they wish to investigate it at a later date
(I actually wasn’t going to post the suggestion to begin with, but only did so since the topic already cropped up ))
where it gets a percentage of the sale price. I think that could be a fantastic business model that could not only help fund Hex, but afford to pay its team and keep them interested in making it (and perhaps other areas of Elixir) even better.
(perhaps with a 3 strikes and you’re out kinda thing). But yeah, could be more problem than it’s worth 
(on the other hand, could be quite lucrative 
