Post
by MacQ » Mon Mar 25, 2019 12:18 pm
Having used MQ2 for over 15 years, I think the Builder is fantastic and has made my life a little easier … ESPECIALLY … since the Builder includes support/updates for most all the popular Plugins.
Yes, the Builder costs an annual fee, but that is to pay for the hard costs (i.e., hosting costs) to keep the Builder running. It costs someone (EqMule) money to have the Builder hosted and before someone says, "well I will host it for free", it ain't that simple. There are also sub-components to the Builder that make it work and also cost money.
For those who think charging for the Builder is just a ploy to get money from MQ2 users, you have no idea of the costs to maintain the MQ2 Builder (pay for hosting, etc.), and I don't want to hear "well I have been in computers and networking for years and I know the costs for building hosted systems". For 20+ years I cringed when I would hear someone say "hey my neighbor's kid is a wiz at creating websites, he could help build software for your software company", /rolls eyes. Quite frankly, I worry that the cost to maintain the Builder is more than the fees collected, which does not even begin to address the many hours of engineering it takes to support the Builder.
The cost of EQ approaches $150 a year per account and I think many MQ2 users have multiple EQ accounts. So, the $50/year for the MQ2 Builder and all the work from the volunteers is a fantastic value.