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LPF App?

Elyas said:
well I agree with some of you guys who says there is no need for it. The reason the old app collapsed was because there wasn't much smart phones users and now everyone has got one, and personally as an individual I barely go on the PC besides when I am uploading any image. Oh one more thing LPF should have a gallery with different laser categories. While google searching I see beautiful lasers from LPF but I don't see any whilst I am the forum I hope youse know what I mean.
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I really don't want to dampen spirits, I actually would like to see an android app if anything.... BUT your assumption is off :(

c0ld's attempt at doing an app wasn't that long ago. A year, maybe less. So the number of users with smartphones likely hasn't increased much at all.

For the most part it's safe to say that LPFers are somewhat tech savvy to begin with, so I can't see increased smartphone adoption driving the numbers up.

The overall pool of users is also relatively small. While there are probably ~30k members, there are really only about 1000-2000 at most who are genuinely active. I doubt that even if 10% of those adopted a paid for LPF app, the revenue at $1-$5 per app would justify the expenses in terms of support.
 





I dont think anyone was thinking about it being a paid app. (donationware maybe)

If anything it will start off as a project of opportunity for someone that wants to give it a shot.
 
Honestly I would be surprised if we had 2000 members who were active on the forum. I suppose there could be people out there who read a lot but never ever post....but the activeness of the forum is somewhat slowed since 2 years ago.
 
2000 was a generous estimate. In reality I suspect the number of active members is closer to 300, and of those the numbers that are very active... even lower.
 
Yeah, that sounds more like it. I was about to say, if we have 2000 people actively posting then I must be reading the wrong forum LOL.
 
I bought the app last time. It was something crazy like $7 IIRC. Then there weren't enough people buying it so it was changed to a free ad supported app. Still wasn't enough people using it so it was discontinued.

The only way I see it happening is if you talked to cold and figured out exactly how much it would cost per month to run. Start a poll asking if people wanted to have an app and have that amount added to the donation goal. Leave it open for at least a week so that we can be sure the core membership has a chance to vote. Also do something like 500 posts/6 months min to vote. I'd also be tempted to say it has to be at least 75% Yes to happen.
 
Id do it ^ If we are able to post pics straight from the phone, that would be epic. Im tired of moving the pic from phone>email>photobucket>LPF so i dont even post pics mostly. That would change very rapidly if we could post straight from the phone.
 
If you want a fast way to upload pics from your phone just download the free photobucket app. You can upload pics directly from your camera roll as well as videos. At that point it is: Phone's Photobucket>LPF

Much easier, I think....although I don't take pics with my phone all that much.

Hope that helps,
Isaac
 
To me this application should be completely freebie with maybe ads to cover SOME costs but I'd be doing this in my spare time and don't want/need any money for that. If you'd all like to donate to "kickstart" this project that would be OK though. If for some reason we'd decide to ask money for it anyway then I feel it shouldn't be more than 1 USD.

Also to make this as efficient as possible (and also taking into account the uploading of pics) we'd need to modify the board PHP files. Currently I'm not even sure if every user CAN upload pictures.

Also I would develop this first with Android in mind and then later see if I can port it to IOS.

Anyway I guess a vote is in order though. We'd have to agree if we'll start development and then we'd have to define the scope of the app. (Like posting pictures directly from phone, reading / posting messages, etc... ) And we'd have to talk with the webmaster of this forum in order to get DB access and access to API functions, without this it's not going to happen at all. :P

So:
1) Create poll for active member (>500 posts/> 6 months)
2) Discuss features (Posting pictures, notifications, ...)
3) Get clearance from webmaster (we need access to the DB)
4) If all is good: start kickstarter project to collect some funds
5) Let the devving begin!

I'd really like to do this for the community but I fear that there won't be enough interested users. I don't need to make any money of this though as I will be doing this as a 'fun' project for myself. Secondly, are there any other developers in here that would like to participate?

Edit: Maybe you guys could already start thinking of some functionalities that you'd really like to see, wishful thinking if you will. :)
 
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So I been researching a bit, and from my observation there isn't much active users, so as many of you guys already have said, the app will be a failure :(

I think I should first find out how many people are interested an if the app will be sustained.
 
After taking a look at the memberlist (filter on members who posted after 2012-11-01) there are currently only 391 active members :p
 
yeah and by the number of views and posts, I am determined there isn't much interested. That got me thinking about the age of the active members.... hmmmm (can they use android or IOS?)
 
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