Early access updates model (open discussion)

[Acid Bubbles]

I'm releasing Timeline 3 using the early access model, and it will be public after (it's fully compatible with Timeline 2 so it'll just be a "normal update".

I'd like to make an "early access" plugin for Timeline 3, but "merge it" into the main, free plugin after. In a perfect world, that would forward ratings, discussions, etc. and links to the early access resouce would just become redirects. But this may be too complicated to implement. So what would be the best way to go?

Another option would be to have, next to the "download" button, another "custom" button which would just be a link and a title. I'd make it "Early Access" and link to Patreon. Would that make sense?

 

[MacGruber]

Yeah, I have the same issue with my plugins. There are a number of possible approaches:

1. I bought this up when the Hub started and Meshed added the feature to move resources between categories. So you move a resource back and forth between free and early access categories all the time. However, with your amount of updates you do every few days, it will probably stay in early access all the time. (Note that pushing a lot of mini updates for a paid resource might be seen as spam, you might want to go for fewer but larger updates anyway.) People only looking at the free category (a lot do that) might not see it and Meshed mentioned that he intends to "feature" only free resources.
2. Maintain two resource pages, one for the free version, one for the EarlyAccess. Both pages link to each other in the description. Whenever something becomes free, you also add it to the free resource page. The downside here is that you can't transfer likes and reviews to the free resource.
3. I currently thinking about keeping my Life plugin split into two parts. The Breathing plugin would stay free, while IdlePoser would be in EarlyAccess. Only after I stop actively working on IdlePoser both plugins would be merged. Maybe doesn't make too much sense for Timeline.

If @meshedvr could improve support for EarlyAccess, that would be cool. Now that I'm no longer the only major creator using EarlyAccess for continuously updated content, it might finally make sense to invest the dev time. (It didn't just for me, so I did not push that hard) Some ideas that might or might not be easy to achieve:

1. Ability to officially link two resources, making them share their reviews, likes, downloads and view counts.
2. As mentioned by AcidBubbles, possiblity to transfer a all likes, reviews, etc. associated with a resource version onto another resource (transfer from earlyaccess resource to free resource)
3. Multiple download buttons, that you can have point to specific versions. One button would point to the latest EarlyAccess and the other to the latest Free version. This could also be helpful for beta and stable releases of content. Of course this causes a few troubles:
   1. In which category would this show up? Free? EarlyAccess? Both? Should a new EarlyAccess version push it in the free category to the top?
   2. Does it make sense to track for which version somebody upvoted/reviewed? This might get confusing...

 

[meshedvr]

We're adding ability to have both a Hub download and a promotional link on all "Free" resources. We were planning to use this to encourage people to upload VAR files to Hub directly so that VaM can properly do auto-download while still providing a link to your Patreon page for promotion. But you would have my permission to use the promotional link to point to the early-access post for the new version while using the Download for the current free version. I could maybe add Free + Paid Combo category, but I think it better to just have it be in Free with optional Paid version using the link.

 

[Acid Bubbles]

I think this makes sense, however is the "promotional link" something that's available now or that you're adding? Having a "prominent" button, i.e. next to download, would be more than good enough. The idea is to let people know that they can get pre-releases, but it shouldn't be in any way confusing or affect automatic var download.

Where I'm a little bit confused about how this'll pan out down the road is with auto-download. Let's say I release Timeline 3.1, creators use it and publish work using it (i.e. early access available as a dependency but not a direct download), now users of those scenes would hit a pay wall. It would be nice if _versions_ were flagged early access, so their rating stay, they're part of the same resource, and it's "just a flag" to switch.

Throwing ideas here, I'm new to this so I don't have much experience with what works.

 

[MacGruber]

@Acid Bubbles You need to set the license of the VAR package to "EarlyAccess". You can then enter a date and a secondary license that applies after the date. When someone else uses your VAR, the dependency shows up as "PC EA" with red warning, so the creator would have to check the actual license of your package. Possibly it would make sense if VaM automatically applies the date and shows the correct license, but that's details.

@meshedvr Some questions:

• How would that promotional link button be labeled? Can it include the text from the "version" field so I can make buttons like "Download: v2 Free" and "Download: v3 EarlyAccess (pay site)"? If the button is labeled "promotional link" nobody will guess its a download.
• Where would I put a new resource in EarlyAccess that does not yet have a free version. Would that still go to the EarlyAccess category and later moved to free?
• Will the EarlyAccess category be removed and merged with Free? Maybe rename "Free" into "Free+EarlyAccess". If the categories are merged possibly it makes sense to display EA date as well as whether there is a free version available in the "resource overview page" so you don't have to click each individual resource to figure that out.
• There might be some people in the community complaining about "paid stuff" in the free section. While I'm personally fine with it, just wanted to mention that might cause some backlash.

 

[Acid Bubbles]

Items that are early access are really paid, until they're free in which case they are free If I had to get rid of one section it'd be "early access" and integrate it into "paid", as long as moving from "paid" to "free" still shows up as "new" in that section.

 

[MacGruber]

Items that are early access are really paid, until they're free in which case they are free If I had to get rid of one section it'd be "early access" and integrate it into "paid", as long as moving from "paid" to "free" still shows up as "new" in that section.

Wasn't this discussion about how to make the older free items hidden inside the EarlyAccess resources more visible?

 

[Acid Bubbles]

In my case it wasn't about visibility really, but rather about figuring out a sane way to deal with "early access updates". I think that visibility will be maximized if, when someone wants to download a resource, they can immediately see the "upsell" rather than placing a different version of the same resource in another category. But I'm not picky, really

 

[everlaster]

Hello, I want to raise this discussion back up. What's the current meta for how to deal with the conundrum of early access updates on a free resource?

So far, I've been employing the model where an early access update means I move the resource to the paid EA section, then move it back to free. However, I want to stop doing that for a few reasons:

1. If I want the EA version becoming free to gain publicity and the resource to have visibility in the free section, I have to wait quite a long time between posting early access updates (e.g. a few weeks EA + a week in the free section). I would like to be able to post early access updates more frequently and still be able to post free updates while there's still one or more version currently in the EA period
2. While the resource is in the EA section, it's still actually free as all the previous versions are free. But because it's not in the free section, it doesn't show up in the featured carousel and it's harder for people to find out how to download the free version. They have to first find the resource in the wrong section, then navigate to History to actually download the latest free version.
3. Moving the resource back and forth is an additional annoying step to the publishing process, I would like it to be more streamlined

@Acid Bubbles How did you end up working around this?

I've considered just directing people to Patreon for downloading the early access releases while keeping the resource in the free section all the time. But I would prefer to be able to post updates on the resource to notify people that a new early access version is released, and I'm not sure if that's ok to do if the resource is in the free section.

 

[Acid Bubbles]

I don't use EA for existing resources, which means my EA work (e.g. Timeline betas) rely on things like Discord and Patreon to let people know about it. JayJayWon has a two-resources model that seems to work for him, but in my case I only use Hub EA for new stuff.