This is hair-pulling… I made a one-off donation and yet it seems the only way to get the latest version is to subscribe.
I would of thought a donation is better than no donation… so why are one-off payments and downloads so convoluted?
I saw one page that asked for an invoice id but I haven’t received an invoice yet. I’ve tried the paypal transaction id but that didn’t work. Help please.
I am happy to refund your money, by the way.
The FAQ explains why standalone donations exist, also.
I had read the faq thanks. It says I can enter the invoice number but I have not received any emails from ardour after my donation, including no invoice.
Btw, I would rather make one larger payment than a bunch of smaller ones every month. I don’t see an option for that.
If I understand correctly, a one-off donation does not automatically entitle me to a download / substitute for a subscription? That seems a bit bizarre to me, why would you not want to reward a donation with a download? - not like you’re forcing someone to download, it’s just a thank you for donating.
on the download page there is a “buy button” its a one time payment. donations are seperate.
the “buy” button is as little as $1
I suppose I have to quote the FAQ directly to make it clear:
I gave a donation to Ardour but I'm still asked to pay
The donation system is entirely separate from the download system, and exists for a couple of reasons:
- our Linux users generally get Ardour without payment via their distributions' repositories.
- some people just feel like being generous
Either way, it allows people to make a simple one-time payment. It is not part of the download system, and any payment you make via the donation system does not apply to the download system. Remember that you may choose to pay as little as US$1 for a download.
If there is something not clear about that text, please let me know.
In addition, here is the relevant part of the download page. If there is someway to make this clearer, please let me know:
I dunno about reading the faq, maybe someone here should address what I said rather than ignoring it. I dunno, gave a donation and am now feeling tension, not really what I was expecting.
Say, for example, someone makes a one-off $12 donation… in theory that would buy the equivalent a 12 month subscription… because, you know, some people would prefer to make one-off payments than dealing with such stuff every month. Anything wrong with that?
If you prefer to make a single payment rather than a continuing monthly payment, use the “buy” button on the download page shown above. “Buy” is single payment then download, “Subscribe” is continuing monthly payments and download, “Donate” is give money to the project without downloading.
If someone makes a single $50 donation, how long can they get upgrades for?
OK. I wasn’t going to comment. Looking at your original post I see “convoluted” in reference to “one-off” payments and donations. It’s not “convoluted”. If you want to download the product, you “buy” it or “subscribe” to it. To “buy” it is a “one-off” payment.
If you want to "donate " to the production, you’re not buying the product. You’re donating to the development.
For some reason, you’re not understanding this and still asking about “donations”, in your last posting.
Paul has offered to refund your money. Where’s the problem?
Okay forget it, a donation without being able to download… unless I “buy it”. Got it, no need to try and explain it, it some how makes sense to you that donors should never be entitled to download unless they “buy it”. Bloody hell, you’re propping up your position over semantics.
It could barely be described as difficult to offer a download link in the donors account section. But geez, we’re going to argue over the wording rather than say, “you know what, we can make this better”.
paul did offer to refund you and then you can get the download by paying through the buy link rather than donating.
or youc ould build ardour from source
circleio: as veda_sticks and Hedgehog mentioned above, I am entirely happy to refund whatever you donated. You don’t seem to understand that large numbers of Linux users of Ardour get the program without cost from the Linux distribution’s software repository. As for “it could barely be described as difficult to offer a download link”, I have to ask if you are actually a web developer, because it isn’t easy or trivial. There are no fixed download links for the ready-to-run versions of Ardour.
Let me know if you like your donation refunded (I’ll need to know the email address you use with PayPal).
I understand Ardour is available for various distros, though the version of Mint I am using doesn’t include the latest stable version of Ardour.
As it goes, I do have web development skills and maybe I have been a bit too harsh because I had assumed, maybe wrongly, after producing a very nice DAW, you’d have the skills and resources here to also fix website issues like this. I stand by what I say though, I imagine a download link (dynamic or otherwise) would be relatively simple to introduce into the accounts section. I don’t know if I could do that for you, but I’d be willing to help if I could.
As for a refund, I’ve not asked for one, nor has it ever crossed my mind. I just want a download link to the latest stable version (Ardour 3.5.380 for Linux x86_64) without having to build it myself.
Well, it’s very simple: anyone can download any version of Ardour for $1 a time, regardless of any previous subscription or donations. Easy and pretty cheap for what it is - it would be like paying postage only for a CD.
I’m sure a mechanism could be installed to allow someone who had previously donated to download Ardour at no further cost, but designing such system needs several problems to be solved and decisions to be made:
If making a donation entitles you to something specific which you would not get without making that donation, e.g. a download, would it not then have to be classed as a purchase, not a donation? (maybe there’s even a legal requirement? )
And in that sense surely there has to be a distinction between making a purchase (albeit a ‘pay what you want’ purchase of a download) and making a donation, which by definition is given without expectation or guarantee of receiving anything in return.
Sorry, I had no idea the website was being maintained by just one person. Is there no one else to delegate to?
I agree a download link might need some rules in place but it’s not insurmountable. And I’m wondering if thinking about such rules might actually be a useful exercise. For example, if Person A is paying $1/month and getting free updates, why should a one-off $50 payment not also receive free updates? Btw, I am not suggesting $50 for 50 months of updates! It seems to me, this is not a coding problem, it’s an anomaly with how it works / doesn’t work right now.
This is just a thought but maybe the current structure could be replaced with a subscription-like service… any amount for 6 months of updates. And a $10 minimum payment because, as pointed out above, $1 is a bit measly. What percentage of people are paying just $1? A dollar might have a little marketing buzz about it but is it really making that much difference to the bottom line? Are we sure that the same people would not pay $10 for 6 months of updates? I am just thinking how this would be relatively easy to implement and it would make things both simpler and more attractive.