Any Version 4 News?

Quote from rachelandrew

The product doesn't make enough money to justify two people working on it.

Would sponsorware licensing be a good alternative to the current licensing (for v4)?

It feels like we are at a stage where rachelandrew / drewm cannot realistically commit a lot more time without making sure the product generates enough money, and on the other hand those who want to continue to use Perch seem to feel like it is too risky to do so if the product is no longer actively developed. I'm not sure we'd get anywhere this way. Neither side seems truly satisfied.

A sponsorware license ensures a somewhat two-way transparency and I think it may be easier to manage expectations for both sides this way.

I feel that Perch and Runway are quite stable and I'm planning to continue using them for sites (assuming that they are a good fit for each project of course).

Having said that, it does become more difficult to convince clients when they see Perch updates are not very frequent. I could argue that's an advantage though!

A relevant message I sent on Perchology Slack that I want to share here too:

Quote

I think open sourcing Perch without changing anything about the licensing is unwise. They reached a point where they needed to change the licensing model to ensure recurring revenue (and justify the development of Perch). They proposed to change the model to charge an annual fee for updates (which is totally optional) and what they got in return from a lot of customers is a giant middle finger. Screw that!

Sponsorware is open source. It ensures they reach a target of monthly revenue (of their choosing) before it is open to everyone. Until that happens, you only get it access if you are paying for it. Those who opposed the annual fee for the updates are not happy to pay for things either way. Might as well exclude them until the target is reached.

Support can still be a paid service (like it is the case with many open source projects). You get community support for free. Unless you are paying x/monthly you don't get first-party support.

Quote from ex-jedi

About the above quote though. How is the current situation (uncertainty and stagnation) an improvement to launching v4 with a licencing model that some customers objected to? How much of v4 is ready? What's is there to lose at this point by going ahead with v4 as planned? I don't mean to sound flippant, I'm genuinely interested.

Investing time into completing v4 knowing that they are likely to lose sales/customers (based on the feedback they received from customers) while having already seen their revenue decreases due to customers reusing old v2 licenses on new v3 projects can understandably be seen as a risk.

First let me say a big THANK YOU, to the Perch team for making the 3.1.6 update a reality.

This was a really nice thing to do and has allayed my personal concerns regarding future compatibility.

I think the answer is clear, first-party add-on's are "at risk" of being open sourced.

Now with what seems to be everyone saying they want to contribute, then do so and stop complaining because Perch is and always will be the truly great little CMS.

This thread has 40k views! Forty thousand Perch users want information about Perch 4...

Such a shame this project is no longer a priority for the Perch team.

Where do you get that 40k figure from?

Quote from Clive Walker

Where do you get that 40k figure from?

Screenshot here

Ah, OK. I see it on hover now

Perch is great. It's really a shame that this seems the end.

It really is a shame. I’ve been using perch since around 2012 maybe... both for sites working for previous employers, personal sites and more recently for my own freelance clients. It’s been an easy recommendation. Initially because the first hand support had been invaluable. We’ve seen that disappear pretty much entirely with the move to the new forum. Now with zero communication and real unresolved issues moving forward with php7.4. I can no longer say that perch is the same perch I used to recommend and therefore have moved on to something else.

I also have believe that with the current state of the project, selling licenses is misleading and to some degree unethical. They clearly ignore the multiple requests for updates and information. Posts can take days before getting approved for the forum and their social profiles indicate that not only they are supporting but still developing the project.

So long. My last post here. It’s been a fun ride while it lasted.

Quote from JordinB

with the current state of the project, selling licenses is misleading and to some degree unethical.

100% agree

Quote from Stephen Meehan

This thread has 40k views! Forty thousand Perch users want information about Perch 4

That's mostly just spammers, I'm afraid.

I've just put out a 3.1.7 release fixing what I hope is the last of any PHP 7.4 compatibility issues that have been reported. I've also addressed an issue for MySQL 8.0.4 and up that was flagged.

I've been looking as to how I can accelerate the progress of Perch 4, and one of the main stumbling blocks is the promised user interface refresh. If I can scale that back then a lot more can be shipped a lot quicker.

Up next, I'm looking at putting some of the add-ons into GitHub. That's not always as straightforward as you think, as I need to check the licensing for any dependancies etc. But my intention is to begin with Blog.