Can't wait!

[shuyki]

At the end of the day does it really matter? Even if a $gazillion was made everyday, phpBB would still be open source.

but I sadly I think it is the developers that are not getting everything they deserve

What the project leaders decide to do with advertisement money is up to themselves. If they wish to code for pleasure as a hobby and not get paid is also up to them.

The money from adverts is really no concern of ours.

[dvduval]

So if your boss is making 30K/month from your work (which you do for next to free), it would be easy to say it is of no concern, but over time it might start to bother you, and you might make less of a priority of the project, since they are benefiting financially, and you are not. Could this be the reason the next release of phpbb Can Wait?

(what if the developers were making 5-10K/month? You can bet your britches it would make a difference!)

[shuyki]

So if your boss is making 30K/month from your work (which you do for next to free),

How is that relavent? phpBB isn't our work. phpBB is one of the few open source projects where users are not allowed to submit patches, to the best of my knowledge it is coded entirely by the dev team, to whom (if I have understood this thread) some of the advert money goes.

As for phpBB3 being delayed because of this supposed huge amount of profit then so what? It is still the decision of the project leaders when to release the stable version.

[SamG]

So if your boss is making 30K/month from your work (which you do for next to free), it would be easy to say it is of no concern, but over time it might start to bother you, and you might make less of a priority of the project, since they are benefiting financially, and you are not. Could this be the reason the next release of phpbb Can Wait?

(what if the developers were making 5-10K/month? You can bet your britches it would make a difference!)

This isn't the way it is, though. phpBB.com isn't owned by somebody who makes a living off phpBB and for whom the developers work. That's not the structure that's in place; that kind of scenerio doesn't fit.

[dvduval]

You make the statement that nobody is making a living on phpbb.
What do you know about the finances?

I am saying that it is possible (even likely) that 30K-60K is coming in each month from the phpbb site, and also the value of the text links on the phpbb homepage are VERY high, each being worth 2K each at least (and I have provided supporting evidence to show the worth). Yet we are left only to guess...

Here is some more info about the value of the text links on phpbb
http://www.tripconyconsulting.com/text_link_pricing.asp" target="_blank
http://easytool.org/buylink.htm" target="_blank (PR 8s at over $1000)


Want more evidence that they are actually selling text link ads?
Let's examine the backlinks of sites that are linked from the homepage of phpbb:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl ... tnG=Search" target="_blank
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl ... tnG=Search" target="_blank
You can see these are sites that are appearing in the "Sponsored Ads" on other sites, which look like text-link-ads.com brokered ads to me. This is only indirect evidence, and I don't think I want to dig deeper, but I'll bet a couple of phone calls would clear things up.

To say phpbb is free of commercial interest...well...I am a skeptic.
If I offended anyone, please accept my apology. I think this is a great product, and I am hopeful that the people at the top are doing the right thing.

[SamG]

What do you know about the finances?

I know that the only two people who could possibly be making a living off phpBB claim not to be. Now, either I'm mistaken about that claim or they're lying. At most, any uncertainty I have in terms of my own knowledge is for one individual, but I would be very surprised if he is making a living off phpBB. The other possible individual has already addressed you in this thread.

I'm not trying to suggest that you don't have your ad facts straight, so no thank you, I'm not interested in any more external evidence. I'm trying to tell you that I have no reason to think that phpBB.com is in fact generating a living for anybody, and I have no reason to suspect that any of the one or two developers for phpBB 3 (one of which has addressed you in this thread -- remember, small group, multiple hats) is disgruntled about money and therefore leaving phpBB 3 development lower on the priority list.

You can remain skeptical, and I understand your reasons for being a skeptic. I have no quarrel with that. But the picture you are trying to paint is not the kind of picture I saw from the inside, as a team member. I'm certainly entitled to rely on that experience until I have reason to suspect that that experience was unreliable. To get to that point, I'd have to learn that at least one person has misrepresented the facts. (If that happened, quite naturally I would be very unhappy, having been misled or at least allowed to believe the wrong thing.)

[dvduval]

Good answer, SamG
I appreciate your view from "the inside", something I cannot claim.
I verily hope you are right, and I too "can't wait" for the next release.

[cyberCrank]

I too "can't wait"

well -- patience or not, you will have to wait, so get in line with the rest of us

[wGEric]

Seems to me that is for sourceforge ONLY not for the actual website, which is where the ads are. I dont really care if they're getting money, since they're not getting it from me so i dont care

Code: Select all

<a href="http&#58//sourceforge.net/"><img src="http&#58//sourceforge.net/sflogo.php?group_id=7885&type=5" width="0" height="0" border="0" alt="SourceForge Logo"></a>

Thats on every page which sourceforge counts hits to that image for your stats.



For those that still don't have a clue what the money is used for, read Paul's post. Although if you didn't read it the first time, you probably won't still won't read it.

[dvduval]

For those that still don't have a clue what the money is used for, read
Paul's post. Although if you didn't read it the first time, you probably won't still won't read it.

To really clear things up, it would be great to know the amount received for the text link ads on phpbb.com since the amount received is negligible (as expressed by Paul), and way way way way less than my estimate.

And anyone believing we could all "quit our jobs" and live on said income ...

I could certainly quit my job on a site much smaller than phpbb.com.
A PR 9 with the kind of traffic phpbb gets could easily support 5-10 people.
Do you believe me?
Shall I give real life examples of sites that are much smaller where people quit their jobs?