@rj
Yep we have been tweeting our store. It hasn't been around long though and we could do more. We're following the same strategy you did, which you wrote about in an excellent blog, so eventually I'm sure it will pay off.

@Matt
Glad you too are in favour of a change. But it feels like we could talk and talk about this and nothing will change because the people who can make policy changes to elgg.org policies aren't here....

@Michele
Can you imagine the in-fighting that would create if there was an evaluating group? Good idea but I think would cause more problems than it solves...

Mark, good point - Elgg can't change. Look at the community page which obviously has some problems that can be easily fixed, but aren't being taken care of. Look at a few month delay in releasing new version of Elgg. Look at a few new ideas that have people ready to implement them and that are still stalled because of a lack of decision. In my opinion it's awfull and it will eventually make Elgg go down, unless situation changes.

I feel it won't change as people who make decisions don't have enought time to do all strategical decisions and in the same time don't want to change ways things are being decided.

regarding a paid plugin section - oxwall has that.. and that is a considerable part of why i am still using elgg.

the issue with money is that the entire 'economy' is bogus and not 'real'... so to attempt to explore this subject while wearing the blinkers of living on web developer island, will not yield a helpful answer.

ultimately, if you don't want to do something, its not right for you to do it.. so if you aren't happy to share your code for free, don't share it for free.

the free-ness of elgg is why i am here and free-ness when given the opportunity, will always attract support because we are meant to be free! 

@ura, if you like using the computer at the public library, eating out of the dumpster and sleeping under the stars then Live Free. But in reality, we are in a community and all love to contribute when we can but myself I enjoy having the electricity on in my own home so I can work making beautiful pages that in turn feed my family that rely on me to harvest what I sow.

@ura

Having a paid plugin section would keep devs here, look at wordpress. More devs = more free plugins. As @İşöğünçı pointed out, having elgg sotres here there and everywhere only scatters an already small market.

if you re-read what i wrote you will see that i did not say 'do not have a paid plugin section' or i am against it. i am simply pointing to the issue being one that has roots outside of coding and always will do, so to argue about the pros and cons is, to me, pointless.

@Ura

Wordpress, opencart, joomla, they all have a paid section plugins, and a more active community.

Having a commercial section is not that bad, the problem might arises if people start releasing 'light' plugins and a 'full' plugin at the commercial community section.

I do like to offer full themes/plugin 'cause I'm also a user. I look for free stuffs, but if it doesn't exist, I get my paypal account and buy it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now about the 'too many' elgg stores...

I remember there was a google group to start a unique plugin store, and we reached a dead end. Team Webgalli made one and I participated in it, but the site was totally abandoned from start to end. Even if when I offered free themes and plugins, the site was pretty much dead. It had a bad PR.

Then we started our opencart experiment which led to a Elgg store. After our success, we started gattering developers to release plugins in our store. Unfortunately, many of them left the platform (Mariano, 13net) and the idea vanished and we continued by our own.

one particular issue i have with paid plugins is that often people put a price tag on simple plugins which really don't require much code.. if i then make a similar plugin the issue arises of 'who owns the code' which is bs to me.. who owns the air? the water? someone can claim to.. 

'i invented hats'.. lol.. just wear them and be free. ;)

this also limits creativity and sharing, which ultimately limits elgg and us.

none of that prevents you from developing sites for money and you will have access to a wider array of plugins for free and thus potentially more money attracted due to less costs when developing sites.
 
money makes enomy .. oh.. and in e(co)nomy too.. this were-king mentality is biased towards inequality.. yet you are so free you can choose to put a price on freedom.. the big bank exploded into so many planets.. oh, i mean big bang. ;)

When I looked at the oxwall web site, I saw a formidable competitor. True, they do not have the dynamic and rich forums we have here in Elgg. True, they still only have pretty limited number of plugins. But many plugins they have, seem to be quite usable off the shelf. E.g. Elgg misses a full fledged Classified Ad Plugin. Oxwall has it, for sale in their plugin pages, for a small amount and seems to be better than anything we have here for Elgg (I have not tested it. I can only talk from screen shots). They also seem to have transferred a few Elgg plugin developers.

In short, they are still behind but coming up.

If we still want Elgg to be the best in 3-6 years, if we still want Elgg to be around then, we need to look at what is working, what is not working. I do feel having paid plugin versions next to free ones would only increase the supply and would only make Elgg better. Yes indeed some plugin developers would release the "light" versions as free next to full fledged paid ones. Firstly, this is already happening. Some developers have light ones on Elgg.org and paid ones on their own sites. Secondly, what is wrong with it? If you want a Market plugin, what is wrong with paying a few bucks for the version which supports online payment? If you are planning to charge people for a service using that plugin, you should as well be prepared to pay for the plugin itself! Actually what is now happening in Elgg is the worst: With the new Elgg versions, some fine plugins disappear. You do not expect this. You expect things to get only better with time!

When we look at the elgg community, there seem to be three categories: 1) Consumers 2- Plugin developers 3- Core developers.

I too feel tremendously in debt to core developers. I can only hope that they are getting rewarded (via consultancy or so) for their fine efforts. Without them, no Elgg. I also appreciate plugin developers for paying back to the community with their free plugins. That leaves the consumers which I hope pay back in some other way (donations,plugin purchases,feedback,ideas etc).

As for decision making; It is normal that the people with the most responsibility and make the most contribution have the most say in decisions. In that respect, core developers have the final say. No problems with that.

What I expect though is; decision makers listen to the community before taking decisions and afterwards explain their decisions.

I know they are reading these postings and I hope they will contribute to this discussion.

" 'who owns the code' which is bs to me.. who owns the air? the water? someone can claim to.. 

'i invented hats'.. lol.. just wear them and be free. ;)"

If you can't breathe because you ruined you lungs by some misfortune and I have oxygen that allows you to breathe who own the air then? What is the cost to produce this commodity? and will you pay or simply die?

If you saw a hat but didn't have a clue how to make a hat. I have that hat and you want it. I spent time to make this hat and found just the right materials to make this hat. I give it to you out of the good graces that I have. You look at the hat you wear the hat, then it occurs to you that you can make money selling this hat and using my hat as a guide. Who just got ripped off now?

It is all perception, there is code out there that can help you, some is free and some is labor intensive and some is because of your ignorance that you just can not produce this code. The Dev should be compensated, monetarily or by recognition, nothing is free, everything costs. Just go to the grocery store and grab some food and walk out, lets see how much that free food will cost you in court costs, lost time and attorney fees.