Greedy Umbraco

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Administrator

greedyUmbraco

Dear Tony!

I wanted to mail you, but the pissedoffWithgreadyUmbraco.com doesn't seem to be a real domain.

Our videos are free for everyone who bought Umbraco PRO, but for everyone else it's a 19EUR (29USD) bargain! How about that - we provide the a product for free, yet you're able to gain access to the same quality training materials that the paying customers get for less than a book cost.

The reason that we post partial videos as teasers is to ensure that people get a chance to evaulate the .tv product in case they want to buy. Not only do we offer ten essential foundation videos for free, but we also make sure that you can get a sense on what's going on in the other videos from more than just a title and an abstract.

I don't think your metaphor around the partially assembled product holds water. Honestly - you haven't bought anything. If you think we're greedy, I think the world needs more greedy people.

Best,
Niels…

27 comment(s) for “Greedy Umbraco”

  1. Gravatar ImageTijs Hendriks Says:

    Idiot.

    The video's are of extremely high quality and still very cheap. It's obviously a win-win!

  2. Gravatar ImageDennis Milandt Says:

    The video tutorials are brilliant, but they are not a requirement to get started with umbraco.

    The forum are always giving newcomers a warm welcome and directs new developers to relevant getting started material and answering any question you could come up with.

    On top of that, the learning curve for getting started with umbraco is very low. Try to install a starter package with a few standard best practice templates and you will get the idea on how everything works in minutes.

    Even without the video tutorials, any skilled developer should be able to implement a basic website in umbraco in no time.

    Perhaps Tony should hire such one :)

    Kind regards
    Dennis Milandt

  3. Gravatar ImageBrena Says:

    My first play with umbraco has been great. Loads of good info and nice people. Knowing videos are there when I'm ready to go deeper is awesome. A small expense for an amazing product. Thanks guys!

    Some people...

  4. Gravatar ImageMichael Says:

    I would have to agree that this guy is being ridiculous. How can giving away such a badass CMS for free make you greedy? Sure you charge for videos, but you have to pay the bills somehow, right? Given the quality of the CMS and the quality of the videos, it's a great deal!

  5. Gravatar ImageLee Kelleher Says:

    Wonder if Tony had contacted ICANN because someone tried to charge him for registering 'pissedoffWithgreadyUmbraco.com'? Surely domain-names should be free too?

    Like you said Niels, umbraco.tv is cheaper than the cost of a book... unbeatable price!

  6. Gravatar Imagebillavl Says:

    Yeah... 19 euros are too much for this guy. let him try to config a "theme" in wordpress. By the time he is finished I will be dealing with my third client. And by the time he is finished teaching the first client how to use wordpress I won't remember that I wrote this post.

    btw pissedoffWithgreedyUmbraco.com would be a great way to mock people who spend time trying to understand how to use other cms's rather than giving 19e...

  7. Gravatar ImagePete Says:

    I for one am grateful for the pricing model used by umbraco. We started out with the free version, but as our needs grew and we gained confidence in umbraco as a platform, we sprung for a pro license and are very much enjoying the additional functionality and the videos.

    If Niels is greedy, then Steve Jobs and Bill Gates must be totally evil! ;-)

  8. Gravatar ImageAaron Powell Says:

    To Umbraco Corp,

    I totally agree with Tony here, you guys are being completely unreasonable charging for umbraco.tv.

    You've produced one of the premier Open Source CMS's for the .NET platform and have made it FREE.

    You've provided one of the best support forums for your FREE CMS for anyone to use, for FREE.

    Your community has also provided FREE documentation along with many FREE add-ins.

    The nerve of you guys to charge an OUTRAGEOUS fee of 19EUR for training videos...



    In case you can't tell I'm being sarcastic ;).

  9. Gravatar ImageFrancisco Villena Says:

    It always astounds how people think that just because your work is web related it should be given away free.

    We're currently evaluating Umbraco and the videos have been a great way to quickly bring us up to speed on the main functions of Umbraco.

    While a watch each video I have one recurring thought "what they just did in 60 seconds currently takes me 30 minutes or more".

    Umbraco may just allow me a social life, no tbad for 19 Euro :)

  10. Gravatar ImageCésar Silva Says:

    Umbraco is IMHO one of the most powerful, intuitive, well thought and structured, open source tool I've ever seen... and it's for FREE!!!

    I wonder if he's also demanding private lessons for free?!

    What a moron... and I bet that on the same night we went out for dinner that costed him over those miserable 19€!

    It's not Umbraco who's being greedy here!

    KEEP UP TH AWESOME WORK GUYS!!! :)

  11. Gravatar ImageEderon Says:

    Everyone has his own idea how things should work. Tony thinks that when you give something out for free you are obliged to do everything for free. Which is rather interesting idea...to say it diplomatically. :)

    Anyway, if Tony is interested: I'm glad to pay those 19€ for valuable content provided by umbraco guys. Should I be always robbed like this I'd be very happy person :D ...I'm happy person anyway, but one can always be happier :P

    Cheers,
    Daniel

  12. Gravatar ImageMav Says:

    If you require me to pay to learn your product, I will move on. Maybe that is why Telerik is doing so well with their products. They do not charge for Telerik TV.

  13. Gravatar ImagePer Ploug Hansen Says:

    @Mav well we actually don't require you to pay, there is as mentioned already 10 foundation videos available to teach you all the basics for both webdesigners and c# developers

    Telerik has an entirely different kind of business, their videos are free, but the products cost money. So what would you prefer? free marketing videos or a free cms?

  14. Gravatar ImageAriel Says:

    Hi

    Videos are great and quite cehap, but lots of them doesn't works in chrome.

    A.

  15. Gravatar ImageJake Mason Says:

    Do people expect to get through life without paying for anything. Even if you paid the top price for everything Umbraco has to offer you would still be paying £20k less that a basic install of other "leading CMS" packages. I say a big cheer for Umbraco.

  16. Gravatar ImageNiklas Says:

    Iv'e worked with many publishing systems and Umbraco is the best one yet. Easy to set up and easy to work with. There will always be cheap idiots out there. Keep up the good work!

    / Niklas (paying for good videos)

  17. Gravatar ImageJan Skovgaard Says:

    Wow...wonder how badly that guy will react once the Wrox books hit the shelves and you are charging for that too! ;-)

    Keep up the good work guys!

  18. Gravatar ImageNik Wahlberg Says:

    Hehe, nice response. Need not say more.

    Oh yeah, one more thing. pissedoffWithgreadyUmbraco.com, get a life and some appreciation for what this tremendous open source/free community (including HQ) do for all of us...

  19. Gravatar ImageClaus Hingebjerg Says:

    Hmmmm, the domain pissedoffWithgreadyUmbraco.com is actually open for registration. Maybe i should register it :) It could come in handy, if Umbraco turned evil one day :) Thanks for a SUPER COOL cms

  20. Gravatar ImageMikael Mørup Says:

    Even people who give away high quality software have to eat.

    Charging 19€ for the videos is cheap, and the way i see it is like this: we want umbraco to live and develop, the best way to make sure that happens is to make sure the core people behind it are encuraged to continue their great work.

    Too many open source programs have suffered an early death or demise because the people behind it burned out, or had to spend their time on something else to make a living.

  21. Gravatar ImageBenny Says:

    Gee.. the nerve on some people.. Thanks umbraco ppl for this great and free product, I wish you good luck and lots of revenue for your hard work.

  22. Gravatar ImagePete Says:

    Surely you should be doing everything to encourage developers to use Umbraco? Charging for the videos inhibits that. I totally support charging for features / support etc for a live site that is being used commercially, but I suspect charging developers for training means that you are losing out on proliferation, and ultimately to other CMSs.

    Now, an online certification exam (e.g. like Google Analytics one for marketing/SEO professionals), that would be worth paying for, and this would also encourage higher standards and more developers than the rare & expensive courses that only take place in certain locations.

  23. Gravatar ImageJosh Stodola Says:

    I, for one, would be more than happy to pay for video content. That is assuming that I will ever need to watch one. I've done okay thus far without them. I guess some people don't understand how difficult it is to produce quality video content! Then again, this particular nitwit could not even spell "gready" correctly, so chances are he is quite ignorant in several areas :)

    Keep up the great work, you have a fabulous product and I am so very grateful that a free version is available.

  24. Gravatar ImageEd Says:

    I have found it to be no problem at all getting to grips with using Umbraco and I haven't gotten around to watching a video yet. Should I get stuck I will be more than will to pay $29, about 1% of the cost of the average 5 day training course, in order to progress.

    I would love to know how much of Tony's time he would be willing to sacrifice for $29. If it's the same as the length of all of the videos put together, I'll pay it out of my own pocket to have him do lines for that long.

    "I must not moan about paying for work I wouldn't do myself"

    In the wise words of Tijs Hendriks, Idiot.

    Ed

  25. Gravatar ImageEd Says:

    Ok, so I' really wound up now that I've re-read Tony's post.
    "This is the equivalent of buying a partially assembled product and being charged for the assembly instructions"
    No.
    Tony being annoyed is the equivalent of someone being GIVEN a lawn mower and petrol FOR FREE and being surprised that the store doesn't send a guy around to their house to show you how to mow the lawn.
    Again, idiot.

    Ed

  26. Gravatar Imagewebsite design Says:


    "I must not moan about paying for work I wouldn't do myself"

    In the wise words of Tijs Hendriks, Idiot.

  27. Gravatar ImageT. Jensen Says:

    It is ABSOLUTELY fair to charge for videos, as they are really useful.

    You just need MORE of them ! And you really should condisider some way of supplying source code with videos.

    Also, the sound volume is quite different in various videos. Perhaps a small talk with a sound recording studio would help, to get your microphone adjusted right.

    Keep up the good work!

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