I certainly agree that it feels rather cheeky to enhance a free product and put a premium price tag on it. I initially had reservations about how the market would react to that. We all assign our own value to things, and each of us will look in awe at what other people are willing to pay for things.It is somewhat disheartening to read your thoughts on this as they pertain to my offering, 0xFF, but I respect and appreciate your opinion. I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling cynical about the state of the world in this regard. But you're probably right, and what's more, it's probably always been exactly as it is now.Who sold more Hound Dog 45's... Big Mama Thorton or Elvis? The correct answer is: Big Mama who?To extend this conversation a little further, I personally see value and limitations for the consumer in both open source and proprietary software business models. I also recognize, however, that for many people open source software is more than a business model: it is a value and a culture. And I do respect that.As it happened I was reading the old thread on DMT's theme yesterday before your last comment arrived. I was noticing the incredible enthusiasm that he received in this forum for his free theme. It dawned on me that I can never expect the same support here for osTicket Awesome. I can't help but speculate that, had I made osTicket Awesome free, I would have been more eagerly embraced by this community. And had I later spun-off "add-ons" or premium services (such as hosting or whatever), I further hypothesize that none of the enthusiasm would have waned.I hope you don't read this as a gripe, it is actually the inverse of a gripe. I am thinking out loud here. You are the first person to politely express your view that my theme is "too pricey". But I am willing to wager that there are far more people in this forum who agree with you than not. And thus, all things considered, I super appreciate that the status quo here has at least been so tolerant of my shamelessly self-promoting posts. :) 

Don't be fooled, stevland, I don't defend open source against closed source (even if talking about scripting language and theming on it, the question is a non sense) nor free against commercial. I gave in both fields and, as you stated, both have pros and cons... No, I'm not choked that you try to sell your creation over a free open source software on its own forum (it's even courageous), I simply expressed the fact that we've been ported in an era where there's no relationship between the cost (in term of time, material, inventivity, human investment) and the final price!Last year, suddenly my main competitor changed his commercial policy, switching his software with an attractive free forever starter plan... At first sight, one could think it was counterproductive and stupid, but their intention was elsewhere : in a short time, everyone becames fan and they increased their users base to be in position for a premedited business deal: the e-commerce platform on which their software is based (just like mine, since we are talking about software communicating with e-commerce platforms) bought them for $15M. They didn't switched to free (not open-source since it's hosted only platform) because they were altruists, but because the users were a better "products" for sale (it's not cynical, it's pure observation of the facts).So, again, I really don't opposite free against commercial nor open vs. closed source, we never know the real intention in background... We just know what we (each) are ready to pay (in money, time, creativity, etc) for a specific thing depending on our personnality, background, knowledge, lifestyle, etc.It's sure you're not at the better place to succeed to sell your theme, but you're maybe at the better place to acquire a big users base...Just my two cents ;)

10 months later

total crap.. comes to a place of free forum where a FOSS product obtain feedback and share for free, but with intentions to attract and sell .. the devil is more baby

mckaygerhard this thread is really old.

Please do not be a necromancer.
Killing zombie thread with headshot.

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