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@Velocio
Always intended, but it was impossible to do so under vBulletin and we had to lay a solid foundation where we would be able to say "this is a conversation, and that is a classified advert". That foundation has been laid (with the ability to say "that is an event"), and the plan was to build the user numbers and get the funding before moving on to things that make sales easier (native mobile clients that felt awesome would really differentiate more clearly) as well as turn on more revenue streams for us and sites on our platform (tickets for events, paid classifieds, etc).
You can see why it was a "go big, or go home" plan... native mobile clients, and significant new projects whilst still maintaining and supporting the sites we have, whilst also needing to sell more and get new sites... this was always way beyond 2 people (now 1 person).
Even with the prospect of Microcosm going open-source, I will probably continue those features anyway. Simply because even if the company is no more, I still believe in what we've done to the point that I want to push it forward. I may not get rich off it and take over the world, but we've created a good thing that is working for the sites using us, and I'm not sure I (or the other customers) can now look at vBulletin, phpBB, and the other forums (including even new ones like Discourse) again. Microcosm is actually a solid product and a pleasure to use (though my Following page seems to be getting slower - will need to look at that).