No one has posted yet... So I guess i will be the first to make my feelings known.....

WTF.... a 400% price increase..... what planet....? OMG!!!!!

Does this mean we will get a product that is 400% better than the last?

I know its a good product. You guys have just got this product to a point where it may actually be able to do something in terms of market share..... and now you go and price it out of the market????

Dont get me wrong, I think osho will be a huge improvement... I just dont think people will pay $500 for a licence, and to be completely honest (given allthe issues people have with this platform) I dont think they should.

For a start chat is still as rubbish as the day it was first made. For those kinds of dollars your users should at least get a decent chat module that works instead of having to pay for third party chat modules....

Breathe... breathe..... thats it... better now....

Anyone else got any oppinions?

i'll be buying 50 licenses to sell away later for $250 each.

(1 email account, 1 license.)

SO IT BETTER BE $499/- when 7.1 is released!!!

(See how the marketing plan backfires. Either i become rich, or boonex's lies are exposed.)

 I wouldn't do that if I were you. You should first take a look here:

http://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/Selling-Sites-Licenses-Modules-Needs-BoonEx-Attention.htm

And just so you know.. Even if it was not against Boonex agreements, lets say you really did attempt this. You would have all these licenses under 1 Boonex account without ANY way to transfer them to the people you 'sell' them to. Wouldn't do much good.

@DRautenbach,

I meant to ask, where you got that information at? I went looking for it and couldn't find it. I know there has been talk about increasing the price, but I havent seen what exactly the new prices are (may have over-looked it).

 OMG!!! I agree DR!!!

I mean couple hundred... but $ 99 to $400

so much for selling clients on Dolphin....damn, just when I was getting good at it..

I do think 7.1 is a great improvement, but really Andrew Boon, your going to gouge us with that kind of increase?

Your company must be on the verge of bankruptcy if your having to increase the price this much.

What a joke...

This is just a virtual KICK in the balls for new and old customers, what are the newbies going to think

 Somebody's quick to jump the gun.

READ: (1 email account, 1 license.)

So just sell away the ENTIRE ACCOUNT. One account at a time.

And just think, you purchase one of these outrages packages,,, you do something here or just they decide they don't like you...

Termination

BoonEx may terminate or suspend any and all Services and/or your BoonEx account immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if you breach the Terms. Upon termination of your account, your right to use the Services will immediately cease. If you wish to terminate your BoonEx account, you may simply discontinue using the Services. All provisions of the Terms which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability, download links and submitted Content.

It is your responsibility to remove all Content from your account if required. Upon termination of your account BoonEx may automatically remove all Content posted to your account.

Take this rule into consideration when buying anything here; now my market purchases are stopping, I will only deal direct with the vendors I "have" purchased modules from.

i was shocked as i was reading the email i got from boonex this morning. at the beginning of my dolphin experience i had never paid 500 bucks for a license. and i dont know if i will pay it in the future ;)

it is really a very high increase and i hope andrew and his team will think about this prices again!

@Newton27 - I believe this has pretty much always been the case. I have never known for any employee of BoonEx or Moderator to terminate (completely) someone's account based on 'not liking them'. As a rule (speaking for myself at least), there is always some type of warning to members who violate the rules in whatever way. There is also the ability to 24hr, 48hr, etc. type bans instead of blatantly terminating someone's account on the first offense. Normally it takes something drastic for that to happen on 1st warning.

@Raggedx - I didn't jump the gun at all. I was simply stating the rules. Basically you are coming out and telling me that you are going to create multiple accounts, buy licenses for each account, then sell it. In the Terms of Agreement it clearly states under Conduct:

As a condition of use, you promise not to use the Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms, or any other purpose not reasonably intended by BoonEx. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree to not use the Services:

• To sell or otherwise transfer your account;

I just think for a reality check Boonex needs to realise that 99.9% of license owners are yet to make any profit whatsoever from a license that cost them $99.  Most sites never make a profit and very few ever re-coup their initial development expenditure.

It is the third party modules and custom develpment market that makes this an attractive platform, not the platform itself.

and at this rate Dolphin 8 when it arrives should set us back about $2500 lol : )

I will be buying another license before the increase, but I doubt very much that I will be buying any after it.

Typical webmaster: 

1. Buys one $99 Boonex license (Money goes to Boonex).
2. Buys multiple modules totaling $100 - $1,500 (Money goes to vendors/developers).
3. Webmaster realizes there is no money is to be made by their boring website so it stays under 500 users and decides between shutting the site down or paying out of pocket for the server.

Loyal webmaster:

1. Buys multiple Boonex license(s) (Money goes to Boonex).
2. Buys multiple modules totaling $100 - $1,500 (Money goes to vendors/developers).
3. Webmaster realizes there is no money is to be made by their boring website so it stays under 500 users and decides between shutting the site down or paying out of pocket for the server.
4. Contributes to forums building added value to the Boonex experience.
5. Sells/pitches Dolphin to clients/friends who need a low price solution to a small business or non-profit organization. (Money goes to Boonex).

There is just no way someone would say "Hey, [client/friend] you should check out Boonex for a $500 solution to niche group... and then spend even more on modules."  They'll just go make a free Facebook fan page.

Keep the price at $99 and allow people to continue to refer your product to their clients/friends for their small niche websites (which most likely will never be able to pay for their own servers).

Wheres the link for the new pricing? Cant see it myself? Has it been removed already...!?

If this is correct, 400-500 is way too much.

Been here a few years now and spent thousands on market as well as a bunch of licenses.

I've built LOTS of dolphin sites, but the ones that end up making money are few and far between. 

90% of the sites I've played with over the years would not have been launched if I had to fork out $500 to remove the license logo first...

Personally, I cant stand seeing the boonex logo a the bottom of a new site! Makes it look unfinished so I never launch a site without a paid license! But 500??? feels like a kick in the teeth and would make me look at other alternative products again, even with the recent 7.1 developments...

Please Boonex, think this over! There a lot of positive buzz at the mo about 7.1 from your so far loyal users and customers. This could just kill all that in one instant!

The next step is to migrate sites to Joomla and their social component.

I have been around here for a looooong time, and to see this email this AM was disturbing. I really feel sorry for the other developers here who make a living and work their butt off to create functionality for the Dolphin platform. out of the box, it truly does little that cannot be attained using products out there who offer all the social integration, and the core is FREE. These developers out there DEPEND on numbers... more sites running D7.x so that they can sell more licenses of modules. Now that prices will increase, I can tell you that these guys wil get NO business since less than 5-10% of us who have licenses would not pay that fee.

So in order for Dolphin to exist, the developers creating modules must thrive.... and this will drive them away and kill the platform.

What I found funny is that in previous changes to licenses and fees, a BLOG would come out from Andrew Boon. This was sent via email... and there was not a peep on the site about it at all... until DR started this forum thread.  Why break years of predictable behavior?  The obvious reason was liability! Boonex did not want to be responsible for giving more webmasters heart attacks and peptic ulcers... and watching developers run like hell.

I am still shocked, but I personally do not drink first thing in the morning.... but it is after lunch now.... YEAAAA..... time to hit the bottle!

lol, clearly i'm asking to be chopped.

But on a serious note, what's stopping anyone from doing that?

Basically, there's NO way. Once the license price hits that high, it's going to be traded on the black market. And most probably outside of the boonex forum as well.

Hit me if I'm wrong.

I can't find any reference to the $500 price tag anywhere but here?

If that indeed becomes the new price of a permanent license, it is far too high. $500 for permanent licensing + mobile apps is more reasonable, but the platform still leaves much to be desired to ask for that type of compensation.

I think there will be more piracy in the form of explicitly blocking the code for the banner as opposed to black market trading. 

Do you guys read your mail sent from Boonex, it is the mail account used to setup your account here.

It may be in the junk folder... the image is taken from the mailing I got this morning.

Right click the properties of the image and see where it comes from if you doubt me....

 Nope, no email. Not inbox or spam. Same email used here also.

@Newton27 - I believe this has pretty much always been the case. I have never known for any employee of BoonEx or Moderator to terminate (completely) someone's account based on 'not liking them'. As a rule (speaking for myself at least), there is always some type of warning to members who violate the rules in whatever way. There is also the ability to 24hr, 48hr, etc. type bans instead of blatantly terminating someone's account on the first offense. Normally it takes something drastic for that to happen on 1st warning.

I never said a moderator would ban someone, although I have created a long list of banned ones; and some are from whom I have purchased from and of course there is no support because they were banned.. and the modules removed.

Who's to say this will not happen to other vendors, like Modzzz violating another vendors clearly copyrighted material. It looks real strange for an product in the market that is priced at $1000.00 Dollars!!

This should be a red flag to anyone using the market! So if it turns out he has done this, and clearly he has, hence the price change to $1000 (what a frickin joke) to show he IS a wrong!

So if that vendor is gone, we all those thousands of customers loose out! period!

Today is a big turning point for me...

Why would this make new folks trust anything here..

PS. There is also the ability to 24hr, 48hr, etc.

That is not explained here..

Termination

BoonEx may terminate or suspend any and all Services and/or your BoonEx account immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if you breach the Terms. Upon termination of your account, your right to use the Services will immediately cease. If you wish to terminate your BoonEx account, you may simply discontinue using the Services. All provisions of the Terms which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability, download links and submitted Content.

It is your responsibility to remove all Content from your account if required. Upon termination of your account BoonEx may automatically remove all Content posted to your account.

I didn't get that e-mail, you sure it's not a hoax? I checked spam/junk folders & nothing.

Why would Boonex use mailchimp for a mass e-mail (where the image is currently hosted)? Why would they not post this on the main Unity page as an announcement, or Boonex news like they have done with everything else?

Where does the link take you to if you click buy a license now? The way it is displayed, it sure exhibits the characteristics of phishing.

I'm calling farce until I see it in the unity notes section!

I also hope it is not true. I did receive a email from boonex, but no mention of prices.

If it's true, i see a lot of people jumping ship. Which will of course kill most market vendors as well.

The matter regarding both mods was handled by moderators here and by Andrew Boon himself. It was a simple issue of both of us using data from the same source as part of our products. The product was voluntarily disabled by me while the matter was being dealt with. This issue does involve Newton27 and I advise you to butt out. You are not privy to any details regarding this controversy and you are in no position to make any comments about it. Spend your time doing better things in the forum rather than causing strife.

For those reading, the matter has been resolved and both me and lworld has come to an agreement that is suitable to both of us.

if it is true, the price is far too high.. I hope is rethink on this decision.. dolphin is very beautiful, but very few people can afford to spend this amount for one license.. and I think that in this way Boonex lose many potential customers..

This issue does (not) involve Newton27 and I advise you to butt out.

or what?

Can you imagine the major car companies jumping the price of their cars from $20k to $80K, when there are still issues and recalls with it that have not been addressed?

For that price, there better not be ANY bugs in it, which I doubt will be the case. I've been using Dolphin for years, and there are bugs in it that  have been there since the beginning. I think Boonex is out of their mind if they think people will pay that much for something that has a forum FULL of bugs and issues that have never been addressed.

I think you'll find more people searching for nulled copies, they already exist on the web.

there is your proof...

Relax people.  This is just a common sales tactic to get an immediate jump in sales.  Once a bunch of people panic, and buy a license, Boonex will adjust the price downward to something like $300.... which is a fair price in my opinion.  I always thought $99 was a little low.  Of course, this is all easy for me to say, since I hold 7 permanent licenses.

RE:

 Or you'll look really stupid, because you have no grasp of the details of the so-called dispute.  Had you bothered to do a little research, you would have found out that the invalid dispute involved the use of a standard questionnaire used all over the world for decades, with identical verbiage.  Any product that uses data or concepts in the public domain cannot be considered unique intellectual property by anyone.

 The email I got came directly from the same Boonex email uno@boonex.com that all postings have!

The links in the message all work!

Is there an official line on this yet?

 But I do ole wise person...

 RE:

 Yes,  odds are 5:3 that Boonex will lower the price.

Over/Under is $300

 RE:

 Do not.

as long they don't take away the free permanent licenses they gave us a while ago i don't care

 it's only a two line code to place it in the right file and it's all gone, now don't ask me where and how to lol

 Your not the only one that knows how to do it.

 did i say i was the only one?

A couple things here:

• First no "Moderator" has the power to ban any one whether they like you or not. I am not sure what a "Super Moderator " has power to do, but probably not much.
• I too received the email and if you hover over the links you will see it was sent through Chimp Mail and if you did not receive yours yet it's probably coming in another batch still in queue.
• Of course it's a marketing ploy to get as many people to purchases licenses at the low low price of 99 dollars before the release of 7.1 when the price is scheduled to go up. I am sure they mean the final release and not any beta or RC. Who knows when that will be? They are running out of titles for Note posts so it might not be too far off. The email says "ONLY A FEW WEEKS LEFT". I would imagine they are talking Dolphin Weeks here and not human calendar weeks.
• The free license is still available and for all, but the serious developer that should be sufficient. You might also consider adding your affiliate code to their logo and try convincing your mind the logo at the bottom is a potential money maker.

Once the promo is over leading up to the release of D 7.1 I am sure if they can't sell any 500 licenses they will release another promo slashing prices to an amazing new level. At this very moment the price is still 99 dollars, buy one or don't, but it's no big deal in the over all reality of things.It's just a man trying to make a buck just like the rest of us.

Dwain

The issue regarding lworld and modzzz has been resolved as you can see here:

http://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/Personality-Matchmaker-Price-dropped-from-96-to-50-.htm

There is no need to continue on with this discussion. I can say that there was a bit of 'jumping to conclusions' and/or misunderstandings on BOTH parties that started this dispute to begin with. Both parties are respected vendors here at Unity and shall remain to be.

For the record, I just checked my email and in fact did received the email regarding the price increases. What Newton27 has stated is true with prices increasing from $99 to to $499.

 http://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/Personality-Matchmaker-Price-dropped-from-96-to-50-.htm

Newton 

modzz and myself have come to an agreement and there is no longer a dispute. modzz module is not priced at $1000. But rather its set at that price so people don't try to purchase a product that is being redone. If you click and read the page about the module it is explained for you. 

Let us move forward please. 

regarding this email you received from boonex.  Couple days ago we received a boonex email indeed.   today I received the email from boonex you are referring yes that includes the prices.  

Yes I can validate this information is correct

Newton modzz and myself have come to an agreement and there is no longer a dispute. modzz module is not priced at $1000. But rather its set at that price so people don't try to purchase a product that is being redone. If you click and read the page about the module it is explained for you.

Let us move forward please.

For sure.....

As a follow up to my rant today I decide to write a personal message to Andrew;

right now I could care less what happens to me. I do my work from the outside anyway. I just will never share solutions here again... only privately and via private emailings.

Dear Andrew,

I was completely appalled at the email this morning about the price increases. I reacted according to how much work I put into other clients sites and over reacted a bit, defending them and the big 400% price increase.

My god that would scare of any off my clients if I were to release new hourly rates from $50 to $450...

I don't think I would be working anymore....

I would like, if possible all my comments removed from this posting, it turned into a big shit mess and I'm basically done with dealing with topic.

I help so many here, I like this program! I am finding it hard to promote if it is 500 bucks...

I know I'm just a pee on here, as I have been ridiculed here before and do most of my background support via PM's just because of the assholes here.

Hell just today I save another client of yours from jumping ship.. and I quote...

 "I know your a busy guy and all and I just read how you almost left this "Boonex" I too almost scrapped my sites and took off because I have been ripped off by one developer and screwed over on a Mod or two .....

this thing with my site now shutting down for ten minutes at a time sucks, And I would like to resolve the problem , I am not one to mess with the server much because I have no clue what I am doing .....so if you can help please please do so."

This is from today, BTW I fixed his site TOTALLY free, others on the forums laughed at him, ... there is something wrong over there, but oh well.

Please remove my comments from this post!

http://www.boonex.com/forums/#topic/My-2-cents-about-500.htm

my motto now is to only answer my private messages and answer newbie questions where the other smart asses just condescend them.

If you think I should be banned; that is understandable but I really don't want to be.

I enjoy working here for clients..

Michael Newton

Newton27,

You have provided alot of useful information to this forum and I know that you have went out of your way to help others here as well, which is very appreciated. You (and others) have a right to voice your opinion regarding the price increases. I'm sure others feel the same way,

You are not going to get banned for voicing your concerns. Here in the USA, we have the 'Freedom of speech' which gives you that right to express yourself as you see fit (as long as it does not violate any rules here at Unity which you have not so far).

I nor Andrew should/will remove your comments in this post. You have expressed legitimate concerns, as has others, that do not constitute the removal of your posts. I will say that there is no reason to make a mountain out of a mole hill though. Your opinion is shared by more than what you may believe and involves no reason for 'banning'. Sorry, but if you feel that your actions require that disciplinary measures be taken, your request has been denied

Jesus, I amazed how much hoopla this has created. Here is what I see.

This means 7.1 beta is nearing a release date (probably very soon)

You can still use the free version until you get it working the way you want, then make your purchase. If it doesn't work out for you, delete it and start over. If it does, $400 should be a drop in the bucket for a producing site.

If ya all want, I can call the Whaaaaaaaaambulance for you?

Our existing licenses are still good right - we can upgrade to 7.1 without charge?  I think this is excessive also and this is far from being proved a winner yet.   I think Drautenbach made the best point - few sites here are profitable or even successful and the reason "why" that is should really be addressed before new gee wis technology.  I am still ticked off that they haven't fixed the search yet (the null field issue) or caught up to many of the functions that worked in D6.1 but still don't work in D7.

I got this e-mail yesterday. Says it came from uno@boonex.com.

Permanent = 499.00

Prime = 799.00

Enterprise = Discontinued

Bought my Enterprise a few weeks ago during the big sale. I knew it was the right decision then, and I'm really glad I did it now.

Still no e-mail in my inbox, but enough of you have validated that I now believe the message is true. 

My concern with this price hike is much like Newton's. I hold more permanent licenses than I need now - it's not an issue of me fussing about shelling out more $$$ out of my pocket for a license - it's about prospective customers that will quickly turn away when presented with this price tag. The appearance of an unfinished product + lack of community support + price gouging = loss of sales.

I truly hope this isn't a panic response to a lack of project funds & indication that the development team will be closing its doors - but it's definitely the vibe I'm getting :(

This gave me such a headache I have no words...

Yes I received the email this is the real deal.

A $400 increase in the middle of the worst  global economic fallout since the 1930's is shocking for most.. However, I am sure that Boonex set the price based upon research and what audience they are expecting to market too. Larger corporations perhaps?

If the license had been $500 when I bought mine, I couldn't have bought it. I suspect that is the same for most of us here. This is far out of reach of most hobbyists or fledging webmasters.

When I started using Dolphin, I did check out lots of other scripts. Dolphin seemed to offer a good balance of customisation, 3rd party modules, and ....price so I chose to commit (and it has been a big commitment time wise and financially).

Free branded version, or $99 unbranded was a good price. 

I do think the price could justifiably go up a little, maybe 200.

Or, how about a developers license?

On checking out how other scripts are coming along just now, I notice one competitor offers a standard license (logo removal) for $129, but for $399 you get UNLIMITED licenses!!!...

Ive bought 10 licenses so far for Dolphin as I cant stand launching a site with the boonex logo on the bottom. It just looks 'unfinished' to me so I pay to remove it.

At $500 a shot though, I would not have developed some of the sites I have so far. In fact, I possibly would have looked at using a different social networking script to compare...

I cant imagine at 500, many new customers will commit to Dolphin as the competition has also developed in content, while keeping prices under 500... there are also a number of new products on the market competing for our custom!

I have a number of licenses I can salvage from sites Im no longer developing so I personally will be okay for a while. But, at 500, the competition just got that bit more interesting to me...

did I hear 'developers license' on the cards Boonex?...

This increase is a joke? 400%??? WTF????

it must had been some good $#!T you smoked when you wrote this e-mail out lol.

Calm down people my God, don't you know that it's a matter of simple economics and marketing?

They can raise the price of a gallon of milk to 50 dollars. That doesn't mean you have to buy it and if no one buys it soon they will lower the price again.

The fact is the cost of a license is 99 dollars at this moment. They hope you will stock your cupboards with licenses now before the price goes up...

Actually I think the email was brilliant, look at how much attention the sale of licenses are getting and no one is complaining or begging for the immediate release of 7.1 are they.? 

They just bought themselves more time and created immediate product awareness too.

Simply brilliant.

The one thing you know about Boonex is that they love surprises - the dreaded "announcements" that come out of the blue even now and then.   Also - Dwain's point about "a couple of weeks" meaning something very different in Boonex speak that in English is spot on - as does the world "soon".   Oh, and the guy who said he was thinking about buying 50 licences now so he can sell them later and then got disparaged by the moderator because that would be "illegal".   Maybe you should make that offer to Boonex anyway - buy 50 licences at today's price with the rights to sell them later for whatever you want.   They might just take you up on that offer.  

First off, thank you very much for all the input and commentary. This move is very important and arguably very risky for us, so all the feedback is much appreciated. I will now try to explain why and what we're going to do.

WHY

Dolphin had different price points and current price is the lowest. We have done a lot of research and concluded that current price doesn't cover support, processing and development cost, especially considering our "lifetime upgrades" promise. Effectively, Prime/Enterprise orders cover the gap now. 

More importantly, we contemplated the question of what kind of value we see is appropriate for a client that's choosing to pay for "powered by" links removal. The price commands certain level of commitment from our side, and we think that someone who's ready to take their site "to the next level" and pay for links removal needs to get something that's worth more than what we ask now. We believe that we would be able to supply better product/service at the new price point, and this would the appropriate level for "professional" site. Meanwhile, anyone who's not ready to pay for the upgrade should be able to continue using free/trial version for websites that they're not committing to very much. In fact, we're making life easier for free/trial version users, by not requiring a free license registration anymore.

There is a legitimate concern that higher license price may discourage some "hobbyists", who're not ready to pay higher price, but for whatever reason don't want to put up with Boonex links on their sites. We believe that this group basically burdens the rest of the community by giving back too little to support high-enough level of development, support and commitment from BoonEx. Even just a link back to BoonEx is worth more than a one-off $99 payment.

Cost of development of future versions of Dolphin must be factored in the price. Lower price would inevitably lead to prolonged development cycles and inferior product. We are looking forward to growth and more dynamic improvement of BoonEx products. This implies higher license price.

WHAT

We have given a lot of though to what price-points we should choose exactly, and how the correlate with servicing cost/overhead created by every order. Our research and your (community) commentary helped us to come up with the following pricing structure:

Standard License prices (in AUD):

- $399 for the first order

- $249 for repeat orders (2nd to 10th order)

- $149 after you've purchased 10 or more licenses

Prime prices (in AUD):

- $799 for the first order

- $499 for repeat orders (2nd to 10th order)

- $299 after you've purchased 10 or more licenses

More details about package content are posted here.

As you may see, base price for Dolphin license was reduced to $399 (from $499 announced in the latest newsletter) and repeat orders are significantly discounted. Base price is lowered (to the minimally acceptable level) in response to the community feedback and repeat orders discounts are introduced because of the lower cost of servicing one client with multiple sites as opposed to servicing multiple clients. 

Repeat order discounts are applicable even when your account has licenses purchased (or granted) before the price increase. So, if you have 10 licenses now, no matter how or when you've acquired them, you can buy additional licenses for $149 each.

Some of you would appreciate the news that Premium Membership at BoonEx.com is going to become permanent. Current membership will also be upgraded to permanent, so there will be no more yearly payment. Once a Premium - always a Premium.

We expect all these changes to be applied when we update BoonEx.com website, which is being prepared to go online when a usable version of Dolphin 7.1 is available. With any luck it would be 7.1b2. We don't have to wait for the final release, since, as we promised before, we're going to provide beta-to-beta upgrade packs. Thus, 7.1b2 is likely to be an arguably even better choice for production site than current 7.0.9. The first beta is nearly ready and we already started working on "7.0.9 to 7.1b1" upgrade package. 

All the warning emails and posts are published now to inform anyone considering a commercial license purchase in order to avoid any disappointment when prices go up. We're preparing a lot updates to BoonEx.com, Market, Dolphin and our strategies in general looking forward to the new period of dynamic growth. We want our community to be ready for the changes and appreciate your support and understanding along the way.

$399 or $249 isn't all that bad.

Discussion is continued at Part 2.

This topic (part 1) is locked to ensure that our clarification post is well-visible.