I dont think a lot of people see a problem with either angle,
but there are currently a lot of assumptions with paid addons, i.e.
the problem with this poll ... 55 pages later, is that it's become a litmus test for other authors potentially testing the water for paddons or donor addons that are in itself, kind of a murky grey area, with more smooshes of grey around the middle.
if it's a purchase,
does it have full time support ? yes.
explicit payment and set prices ? yes.
purchaser/donator feedback is implemented on a short timeframe ? sure.
1400 page thread talking about how the last updates were so much better than the last few updates ? yep.
adding in "my really great idea for this thing where the character jumps a random number of times in BG's" ? happens at least once a month i'm sure.
Donation addons, don't have to have those questions, or really answer them. Any ambiguities or scruples in choosing features, are up to the developer's wishes to implement or ignore.
for most authored content, most features stay, go, or become desired based on a lot of factors. if an author goes and doesn't return, the donation is not really obligating to keep them on the project. so the risk is, there's no sense of obligation to update for newer versions, no legacy or handover if someone abandons a project, no custodian or manager to vet or approve changes or push them out to the public or donators only versions,
it just happens, or it doesn't. the forum decides, or someone takes up the torch. sometimes.
though one assumes there will be a great deal of professionalism where money is involved, donation ware, does not need to go to as great an effort to keep people happy. i could point to the handful of full time devs that handle "paid" addons and "donation" addons, and they are decidedly all professional, providing support, and fast updates, etc.
i don't doubt FJ will deliver
(when it's out ... any time now)
but it's the next guy. and the next girl. or vice versa, that sets up profiles or routines, bots, presets, caches, guides, videos, etc. for payment.
the survey results, IMO kind of points to that person being the one really taking notice of the results.
edit :
i'm not beholding anyone to being on call, or setting up a contract for services, or pointing the finger, there are plenty of abandoned projects along the way. it's casual, i get that. people stop playing. it is a game after all, and RL beckons seductively at times, etc. authors are fickle and fantastic, and frustrating. that's what the label is.
the issue is more about supporting those projects under an umbrella that asks for donations, and how that's going to end up if BL gmbh has to support more donation addons that are half-paid and half-casual.
if BL handles support for an author that does something bad, they have to be a little responsible to keep the issue focused on the right person to fix it. and it's a lot of work if you break the current bot/routines into sections, and then try to corral the section leaders or forum mods into being the unofficial support team too.
IDK.
donors are fine, it's just a question of how tBF/BL gmbh wants to support 3rd/4th party groups or support the authors/users equally if things go wrong that also needs some clarity. at this point, the survey has done it's job, and i think it probably needs to be moved into actionable content or a section of the forums created to handle 3rd party content providers with some backing / sticky threads for contact info/FAQ (self moderated), responsibilities /obligations and a regular update thread obligation for public / private content.
