I was just reading this inspiring article called Five things Free Software taught me. One of the things that stuck with me is the idea that knowledge tends to spread, beyond any obstacle.
So instead of working to prevent this spread, why not encourage it? Why not get the ideas, capabilities, and functionality of any given piece of software out to as many people as possible and kindle the flame? There are many ways to make money, so why choose a method that requires investing just as much time and effort into making software that lots of people want to use as trying to prevent the usage of said software? It sounds counterintuitive and/or just plain stupid on paper, but is generally seen as the traditional and conservative way to do it. Physical products must be treated differently than knowledge.
In the WordPress world, people are constantly trying to find new business models that make sense in the context of GPL software. An interesting approach is the recently launched WP Questions site. Here’s how it works:
You ask a support question related to WordPress and put a price tag on it. Whoever answers your question gets that amount of money from you. Note that anyone can see the questions and the answers to them.*
What you’re paying for is not the knowledge itself – you could get that free of charge, by asking in the WordPress.org support forums. But by asking on WP Questions, you have a higher chance of getting a timely answer from one or more knowledgeable people, whereas in the WP.org forums your question could simply be overlooked or be given a half-baked answer.
I really think this could work. With the ever-growing user base of WordPress, a need for reliable, high-quality support is starting to appear. See WP Help Center for instance.
So what do you think? Will WP Questions still be here next year?
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* …at least until an answer is approved. There’s a search field, but it would be nice if the site had a public archive of questions answered in the past.
I covered the site in July of 2008, but the approach to having the questions answered was different. It was essentially run by a single author, and common questions were posted and then answered. There really wasn’t the ability to “earn” from the site.
In its current state, there aren’t too many answers, and like the last version of the site, it could die out if the time isn’t put into attracting more questions/answers. However, I feel that there really is a need for services like this, but perhaps run by WordPress itself.
You are so right. With the new 2.9 update, my scheduled post are no longer posting and I am unable to edit or add a new category. It is most embarrassing that I have a category misspelled and can’t correct it.
Waiting for an answer on the WP support forum may never happen. I did find a so-called “fix” link in the forum. I uploaded the patches, but the fix did not “fix”. I now await an answer that may never come and will be left with the embarrassing misspelled category until 2.9.1 is released.
If someone had the “know-how” and the “will-to” to create a forum site that actually responded in a timely manner to all WP issues – well this would be a blessing to ALL WP.org bloggers. I can foresee this type of forum to be Huge.
Thanks, much for the feedback about WP Questions. We appreciate it (I’m one of the co-founders).
I am confused by this:
“I covered the site in July of 2008″
We launched just 4 weeks ago, on December 8th of 2009. The domain name was previously owned by Leland of themelab.com. I was under the impression that he had never used the domain name for anything, but I could be wrong about that.
As to the history of the site, I wrote about some of my thinking here:
http://blog.wpquestions.com/2009/11/26/history-incubation-and-inspirations/
We want our site to function, in part, as a fundraiser for all WordPress plugin and theme development, so we offer 100% of the revenue from questions about any plugin or theme you might be developing:
http://blog.wpquestions.com/2009/12/29/wpquestions-seeks-partnerships-with-theme-and-plugin-developers/
In other words, if you are developing a plugin called “VerySpecial Plugin” then we think you should get 100% of the revenue that comes in from questions about VerySpecial.
You write:
“There’s a search field, but it would be nice if the site had a public archive of questions answered in the past.”
This is good advice, and we’ve adopted your suggestion. The archives are now public..
You write:
“Will WP Questions still be here next year?”
I hope so! And I hope by then we’ve been able to roll out similar sites for MySql, PHP, Ruby, Groovy, Grails, etc.
To Lawrence:
Sorry if I wasn’t clear on the part about covering the site. Around July 2008, I was either contacted or found out about the site, and wrote an article about it (I’ve linked to it through my name). At the time it was run by Aaron Robbins, with all the questions answered solely by him. It’s a modified approach to the direction you have taken the site, but similar in the sense that it’s all about getting answers to WordPress (etc.) questions answered.
I figure during the period after that, he sold the domain, and Leland purchased it (I don’t have any other details), but was just noting that there were plans for it at one point, but weren’t fully executed.
I really like the direction that you are going with the site and hope to see even more users (as well as theme designers and plugin developers) taking advantage of the site in the upcoming months.
“Here! Here!”, I say as I pound whole-heartedly on the table with my pint of ale. I am subscribed and am looking forward to the development of the site. It is an interesting concept – How much are you willing to pay for an answer today! Right now, must get some shut eye it is 3:30 A.M. in this wickedly cold and wintry place.