Crowdfunding the creation of the next version of LFGSS

I'm QA and I'm in. My skillz are worth a few £$£$, so when's hackday?

I'm in for £30 (maybe more if work picks up between now and when you want the monesy), will happily contribute to UX/Interaction stuff too

I'm QA and I'm in. My skillz are worth a few £$£$, so when's hackday?

Actually, once the API is 75% along... that's a pretty awesome idea.

The way I'm working at the moment (inbetween being distracted by funding) is:

• Draft APIs
  
• Refine mockups
  
• Refine APIs
  
  

Basically in a loop until I'm sure the APIs are awesome.

When they are, and when I can have them implemented... then there will be a mad dash to convert the mockups into something tangible that calls the APIs and at the same time if we spot gaps in the APIs to fix them fast.

That bit sounds like a hackday/hackweekend.

lfgss geeks hackweekend sounds fun

Turbo trainer powered servers? You should run a cable to Herne Hill and grab power from all the people doing training tonight...

I would be likely to become a patron at the lower end of that scale, both as a gesture of appreciation for bringing us LFGSS and in return for my preferred username reserved on the next Tumblr/Stack Overflow/whatever.

I might be useful at a hackathon. I have no webdev experience, but I write parallel C++ and Python for my day job. Just don't ask me to do anything needing much domain specific expertise.

EDIT: the poll suggests you have £16k already earmarked.

I'm in.

Also in for a minimum, but would like to know figures.

And what happened to the bee?

The bee still is around and looking dapper. I guess it needs a name really.

I'm in. What's the time frame for beta operation? I know an organisation that desperately needs a good forum. Also my residents association needs a 100 user set up.

Part of the reason for this thread was to determine where I should focus.

We're really stoked at the level of support, with more than half the funding being pledged in the first 6 hours.

I need to do some work over the next 2 days to produce all of the paperwork for potential investors (I can share an initial pitch deck now, but it lacks some numbers you will want to see).

So whilst the developer (he has a name, but as he can't quit his day job until I can promise him his stipend he remains unnamed) focuses on the donation page, my focus will be on getting the papers in order for investors and seeking the advice on valuation.

It's unlikely we'll be done within a day or two, but neither of us see our part slipping beyond the weekend. We'll burn the midnight candle if need be.

I'm in. What's the time frame for beta operation? I know an organisation that desperately needs a good forum. Also my residents association needs a 100 user set up.

Our vague timeline (subject to all kinds of upset) is:

February 2013: Publish final API specs along with UX flow and some design examples/docs.
May 2013: Make the API available in beta form and open up dev on the front-end website to more than just us.
August 2013: Launch the beta website.
October 2013: Deliver the forum software on a working platform and migrate LFGSS.
At staggered dates thereafter make other forums migrateable to Microcosm.

For organisations, we will support the ability to have 100% private forums... but we didn't think we'd need that from day one. We figure that as our revenue stream (affiliate adverts) might not work for private forums and that organisations may wish to opt out of all of the affiliate stuff, that we may have to charge organisations that want wholly private forums.

We planned to leave that to a later date, but if this is what you're thinking of and you want to have totally private forums sans-affiliate links, etc... then we would definitely give you that stuff, but with the note that it may be something we charge for at some vague future date.

On those dates, I'm totally "Nah, I can get it done sooner", but experience says "pad dagnammit, pad like mad!

To investors, we will be aiming to make the investments eligible for SEIS: http://www.seis.co.uk/

This should give you a 50% tax relief that you can grab back and then be free of capitals gains tax should you later sell your investment.

The gist of that is over here: http://www.seis.co.uk/scheme-highlights/

That should be pretty attractive to anyone able to invest.

Do you have a business plan? Any projections on how you are going to use your product to generate income?

I'd consider investing if I could see something tangible about how you plan to make this work.

my focus will be on getting the papers in order for investors and seeking the advice on valuation.

It's unlikely we'll be done within a day or two, but neither of us see our part slipping beyond the weekend. We'll burn the midnight candle if need be.

Sorry, just read this. Tldr and all that.

Let me know if you need any help with the business plan etc. I've got a few years of fundraising and consultancy with startup tech companies under my belt.

Velocio - Do you have any concerns about copycat products?

Let me know if you need any help with the business plan etc. I've got a few years of fundraising and consultancy with startup tech companies under my belt.

I'll PM you.

Velocio - Do you have any concerns about copycat products?

No, not really.

Ideas are cheap, execution is everything.

I've already seen from hacking away at LFGSS that you simply cannot build this stuff into legacy software not made for it.

That means a lot of work needs to be done to start at the beginning, and any competitors out there will get that wrong.

As for copycats, they have neither the vision nor domain experience and understanding.

They might make a forum of everything, but seriously... this is the first scratch of the vision and barely starts to show what I feel the potential is.

If someone copied it, they would always be a long way behind where I will be because they don't have the vision I have which stretches out 5-10 years and adapts to learning and experience.

So no... not concerned at all.

So wishing I could invest. This sounds great VB. Awesome stuff.

This forum is great and the mock up looks superb.

I will certainly put my money up for this. How is payment made?

Someone with the skills to execute such a platform is unlikely to have the resources or support to bankroll a project this big. The amount of development to do this without butchering an existing platform is epic.

The investment will be handled through seedrs.com

There is a reason that the investment starts at £500. It should actually start at £1k but they should be fine with a little less providing they know why (and I'll tell them).

The donations/patronage will be done via a combination of PayPal and GoCardless.

We're likely to launch PayPal first as it's set up and doesn't require much work to just get started... but GoCardless is the better system.

In the KickStarter world there's the whole concept of "We need £100k, pledge and we won't take the money until the target is reached". But that's really hard with PayPal as authorised payments only last 3 days.

With PayPal we're more likely to just say, "We'll take your money, but as PayPal give us 60 days to refund, we'll refund if we don't make the target.".

That is... because of PayPal we're going to have to do the pledging backwards... money would be taken the second you pledge.

Both of these will be launched within a week.

cool

Great work!

Any idea of the tax implications if say a limited company invested?

None I'm afraid.

Though if you find out do let me know.