I've spent some reasonable time on POP Forums v8 lately, after, what, talking about it for two years? I have a big old feature list that I'd like to tackle, but I've got it pretty close to feature equivalent at least. I've got a build here with lots-o-data to mess around with. It's nothing ground breaking in terms of features, though I've added quite a bit of stuff on the back end in terms of logging and security features. The interim goal was to get it to a place I could manage it, given a couple of years of experience in the world.
So as I get closer to a point where I may release it, I wonder again, is it worth trying to sell? I pondered this about two years ago but never made any solid conclusions. I tend to lean toward the, "give the source away, but license it for actual use on the honor system." A friend of mine even suggested writing up documentation or a companion book to sell, kind of as a case study.
I've thought about changing the name too, to use the CliqueSite® since I have a real trademark there. Still on the fence about that one (and it really doesn't matter if I don't give sell or give it away).
This begs the bigger question though... Is this kind of stuff even worth trying to sell? I know from trying to use stuff that other developers have built that it's almost never a good value. And I'm talking from enterprise CRM packages to special use class libraries. The documentation almost always sucks, the support is worse and it never really suits your real project goals. I don't wanna be that guy. :)
Has anyone put stuff out there and asked for money and had a good experience with it?
There was a Perl application (Webstore) by a programmer going by the name Solena Sol.
He wrote a book around the foundation of the software and functionality, although the script was free.
I am not sure what kind of volume he had on his book, but you never know.