Missed Payment: Does It Automatically Become an Open Source Project = Clonable?
Hi @Andreas Møller , I ’m writing this because it ’s important for the community to understand what happens if a payment is missed (for any reason , including inability to afford it ) and to prevent going in a grey area . An open -source project means that the community can clone it , and in some cases , cloning a project that was initially private could lead to legal implications or cause damages . In such situations , what happens ? Will the project that was private become unavailable to new visitors , or will it automatically become open source and accessible for anyone to clone ? I would recommend implementing a mechanism where the project becomes inaccessible to everyone (including visitors ) except the developer (project owner ) . Additionally , it should not be published or made open source unless explicitly authorized by the owner (through payment of the plan ) or deleted . Is it possible to have a plan where the project isn ’t live (even open source ) , but you can continue creating in a private environment without granting visitor access (users that access your app ) ? For example , a plan where you pay x $ per year just to store your code and run your development environment when needed , but without access for visitors , in order to keep your maintenance costs and margins . I believe such a plan , even with a small margin and low cost , would be a success because of the affordability . Anyone would be willing to pay for having a private environment just for development (like pay to download and use Visual Studio Code , but not for publishing the code ) . Thank you and wishing you all the best ! Hey . I understand your concern . A while ago we saw a large spike in customers who simply stopped paying their invoices and did not respond to our emails , which let us to implement an automatic downscaling after 4 weeks (and several email notifications ) . I agree with your concern and going forward we will change this so that private projects get disabled after 4 weeks , this means that if you visit the site of a disabled project you will see a 404 page , and you will not be able to edit disabled projects . This is not intended as a way to let customser pause their payments and we preserve the right to DELETE disabled projects without further warning . As part of our efforts to take toddle open source we will also allow anyone to download their projects . I hope that makes sense and sheds some light on our policy going forward . Thank you for bringing the topic up ! I completely agree with you , because in your business , you ’re dealing with people who want everything for free and pay as little as possible . But instead of deleting them (it ’s great that you ’re not making them public and clonable , as that could make it difficult for the developer to cover legal aspects , like a client suing for losing a project over an agreement they signed , and the developer being responsible for the payment ) , what about adding a fee , such as $5 .99 per month , just for development (one user only , no more , like a private space ) ? I noticed that in development , the process tends to be slower (perhaps due to slower RAM , CPU , etc . ) . Why not have a slower , open -source performance for development at $5 .99 , just for development , with no visitor access ? I believe many users would prefer this over open -source and would use open -source for studying . I hope you don ’t misunderstand my message . I want the best for Toddle and your team , and personally , I would always prefer to pay and express my gratitude for great work and ideas . However , this kind of "business model " could meet a need that may be bigger than we can imagine because is like a "Private development space that make you the owner about the ideea and the work you do , but is just development not published " . P .S . The $5 .99 is just a random figure . I don ’t have any idea about your business costs , and if this kind of solution would be possible , it would be most appropriate for you to estimate the exact amount . Thank you for your time and for making some light on this ! 🙏 This makes sense in cases of missed payment due to not being able to afford it anymore . You had an idea in mind and tried to launch it , invested in a higher plan , but didn ’t catch the right wave to make it successful . You failed and now want to try launching it again after saving up some money . With this plan , you can do that because your project isn ’t deleted . Toddle says , “Okay , you keep your project , continue developing it , and make changes to improve its performance . Your work remains saved and private . You pay a small fee for this , and when you ’re ready to try again , you can go for it and tune up the engines once more . ” We have : Toddle deletes the project = client loses the project = Toddle loses a client (it would be hard to rebuild something after losing months of work ) . VS Toddle keeps you in a development environment = client is happy because of a safe and private environment = Toddle continues to receive a low fee = Toddle retains a client who can return anytime to continue . = In the long term , this collaboration can turn the client into a profitable one for Toddle . with an if (do not pay for development environment = we delete it ) . And for giving it more sanse the development can be (12 months fee advance , like we take out visitors costs , just safe environment ) . Launching an app isn ’t a guaranteed success , and big ideas often come from small teams with low budgets . Providing users with a "safe " space to keep their ideas and work is a sign of trust . Again , this makes sense at this stage of Toddle . When Toddle became open source . In case of failure (and hopefully it works this way ) , you save your copy , store it locally , save money , and try to launch again with your own server or on Toddle 's server because are more performant .