• The script is getting more and more complex and it takes ever more time to develop it further and keep doing this right. If I want to keep doing this, I need to get some money out of it. Otherwise I cannot justify spending this much time and need to start spending it on doing something else.
• There are not enough donations coming in to provide this money.

Some of you have suggested that I should ask money for support only, or offer a paid hosting solution, or else. I have considered this, but I have decided not to go this way, because I think it best to seek a correlation between the quality of the script and the money I get out of it. If I should get my money from support or hosting, it would be in my interest to make the script more difficult to use or to install, so that more people would need support or special hosting. I have seen this already with donations: the more problems there were with the script, the more users were willing to donate. When the script became more stable, donations became less and less. So this would not be good, not for me, neither for you. We all want a high quality script, that is easy to install and easy to use. When each user pays a small price for the right to use Family Tree PHP, I can afford to spend more time developing. And it will be in my interest to keep you all happy. It will be in my interest to keep the group that needs support as small as possible, and no longer the other way round.

About the terms: I have decided on a price of 14.95 EUR. Registered users will of course get free updates and bug fixes untill version 2.0 is released (which will not be within a year) and will then get a special upgrading price. Anyone who provides a complete translation for version 1.0 may use the script for free and there will be a 30 day money back garantuee for everyone.

I understand that I will now lose some of you as users. I hope most of you will accept this decision and stay using Family Tree PHP for a long time to come. Anyway, I am looking forward to your reactions.

The other thing that needs to be done is translating Family Tree PHP in many more languages. That is were I need your help. I am Dutch, so I have provided the Dutch translation myself. Jose Rodriguez, one of the users, has provided the Spanish translation. But I (and many others, I presume) would like to have at least a French and a German translation as well. So, if you would be able to do a translation, please do it! You can find more information about it here. If you need any help, just ask. And don’t bother too much about the PHP scripting of your translation; I will fix any error you make. It’s just the translation you have to do. (By the way, since English is not my first language, the English version could probably do with some corrections as well. If so, just let me know.)

The exciting thing of being involved in a new software project, is that you can have much influence on its course. I am sure all of you have wishes and all of you are missing some features that are more or less essential to you. Well, just use the forum to tell me about them, and I will most probably give you what you want!

Some of you have made a small donation to thank me or to encourage me in this work. I want to thank these people! It is one of the reasons why I keep working on this project, while I could easily give this time to one of my other projects or hobbies. So, if you would like to encourage me too or just want to speed up some new improvements, don’t hesitate…