Hello BYONDers!

Hopefully this will be the last post about BYOND's financial status, aside from reporting back to talk about swimming in money in the near future :) Recently, I've attempted to illuminate the small contingency of BYOND forum-dwellers about the money (or lack thereof) that BYOND provides for its code monkeys, and how we drastically need your help to continue developing this project. Since I made this announcement, we've received a couple of very generous monetary contributions as well as a number of heartfelt testaments to the positive impact BYOND has had on some of you. Both are excellent and most appreciated!

What we've attempted to do with the release of the new software is strip everything about the business model down and treat BYOND more like the shareware project it is. We are not a big company-- just two guys and a host of volunteers-- and we would rather not spend time trying to extract money from our users. It is the process of treating BYOND as a business that, in fact, has delayed development for so long because we've had to rethink and revamp the website and software so many times to try to make it earn money (something which has always failed by the way!) So we're doing something simple here and we're just asking you to help. We've set a goal of $5000/month that we need to bring in via Memberships & donations to justify full-time development of BYOND. Coupled with the other sources of income, that should provide a reasonable-- albeit noncompetitive-- wage for those of us working on the project (heck, it is a labor of love after all!) If we can meet this goal, it's great news because can just work on bugs & features instead of the annoying thing that is the business of BYOND. If we can't, then, while we can probably keep BYOND afloat in a "maintenance state", it will be very hard to make progress because, well, because we have to eat too. In either case, I do not intend to think about or implement other business models for this project because, honestly, it's a big waste of time. I don't want to trick or coerce people into giving us money. If you like the product, help us out.

As of this posting, we have somewhere between 30-50K unique, active users each month on BYOND. Think about that. If all of our users kicked in $2 a year, we'd meet our goal. $2! That's less than a Happy Meal! Isn't BYOND worth more than a Happy Meal? If 10% of our users kicked in $20, we'd meet our goal (that might be less than a Happy Meal too, what with prices these days). Instead, we have a few unbelievably altrustic users contributing far more than they should to somewhat keep us afloat. While the generosity of these guys & gals moves me, it also makes me sad that this is what it takes. I am hoping that the lack of contribution to BYOND by the vast majority of our userbase is largely due to being unaware that we need your help, and that this sets the record straight.

If you have even a few dollars to send our way, please consider it, because if only a small percentage of you takes that positive step, we can do good things here. We've added the BYOND Fund-o-meter to the pages as well as the new software to show where we stand each month. Hopefully that will inspire and not embarrass!

Thanks in advance!

From Lummox JR:

Hey everyone, I just want to thank those who have contributed and are continuing to contribute to BYOND's future with your memberships and donations. The future of this project means a lot to me for many reasons.

To be frank, the last year has been pretty terrifying for my wife and me financially. Things can always get worse, and I pray they don't, but your support is a big part of that. I remain very grateful for the chance to work on BYOND full time, among many other blessings. If BYOND has been good to you, please continue to pay it forward.

[Update: BYOND has changed ownership! Info here]