I’m very happy to use RapidWeaver to build my site for a while now, but I’m very glad to discover @willwood and his themes and stacks.
My question to the developers …
why he is the only one or… few others people that provide always a functional Demo?
It’s because he goes the extra mile to be more professional? or because he knows that he build solid material?..
Why others they don’t do demo?..
We currently do not have the possibility to limit the use of demos with serial numbers. Changing a demo to be fully functional isn’t that difficult for technical people. Maintaining a demo beside the normal product is quite a lot of work.
+1
Depends on the software and the devs policy, this is the same also in WP marketplace.
I did try Will’s demo model for a while - he was very kind to share it with me - but its negative return on investment in my case made it unproductive. I imagine developers who can afford to develop full time have the option to explore that possibility, but ultimately I think it’s down to Will’s credit that he has always offered Weavers more than most of the ‘mainstream’ developers.
The question isn’t ‘why don’t other devs offer demos?’ its ‘why does S4S offer demos?’
I admire Will’s approach but also know enough to know he’s taking a big risk, there’s no official way to have a demo version of a stack and whatever Will’s doing to protect his stacks is of his own making.
It’s not a falure or lack of skill that prevents other devs from releasing demo versions, it’s a desire to maintain an income stream.
BTW I’m not a developer, I’m just a simple user… actually I design the website for my own business that is completely different.
In the past stacks prices were $10~15 … so I didn’t mind buy and if I don’t use was ok.
I understand the developers are people and they need to make money, and I respect that.
now they went double if not triple…so I will think 2 times before stat buy and also from a developer that I’m not sure if going to help.
Again I don’t want hurt anybody feeling… but I’m curious.
For example I’m building the new website. and I just bought Poster from @Jannis … and already I have problem and I can’t see why… I know probably is a simple thing. … I will bug @Jannis ;)
Most probably you would have got a problem also with a demo. Yep, let me know in a direct message how I can help.
yes I will ask for help…
but on the Demo I will test the all the Features… and of course if I have a problem (code related) will not stop me to buy the stack.
I give you a straight sample:
Will has ProGallery 2
CosCulture has imageSlider
You have Gallery (btw I discovered after already pick imageSlider)
I downloaded ProGallery demo, tested all the features to see if I like and was the right fit for my website, and unfortunately didn’t.
So I opt. for ImageSlider, but probably if was available a demo I was try the feature and maybe… I was going to pass and look for Gallery ;-)
If the demo has the same features than the full product, nobody will buy the full product again.
I will wait for a proper serial key handling in future.
@giacomino, as Janis points out, having a demo of poster wouldn’t have helped you. Assuming a demo was a fully functioning version of the full product you’d still have run into the same problem.
Videos of the stack where you get to see it being used and published pages of the stack(s) in use are far more useful than a demo version.
Agreed - sadly not enough developers put the effort into explanatory videos - those that do (@joeworkman @willwood and @Jannis) generally offer robust stacks - those that don’t I have found offer ‘half-baked’ products.
“Caveat emptor”