The $30 certification fee might not sound like much, but take a developer like modzzz, who has 86 products listed... and just about all of them have a five star rating. He has a support thread for every one of his mods, and supports his customers well. Under the new system, he either forks over $2580 in certification fees, or his mods get thrown into the "Risky" category. Bad, bad idea.
I'd rather see developers themselves, in the 'Risky" category rather than products. There see more are developers here whose products I would buy without any reservations whatsoever. Other developers that I feel should be avoided, and that belong in a 'risky' category, actually have some of their products listed as a "Staff Pick".
Certify developers, not products. Certified developers could pay a fee for the certification, which would simply mean that they had to meet certain criteria. 1. They have a good history of product ratings. 2. They create support forums for all their products. 3. They resolve issues as they arise, and not let them linger for months at a time. 4. They have been a member of Unity for at least 1 year. ...etc..
There are some developers that already meet this criteria (Deano, ilbellodelweb, modzzz, ... just to name a few) That list could grow quickly if some of the devs would just create support threads. (Yes... even Rayz and AntonLV should have to create support threads for their products... no free passes) Others have a bit of work to do.
You could even make those 'Certified Developer Badges' progressive. The more happy customers you have, and the longer you keep customers happy, the better your certification badge gets. Make them different colors, with silver and gold being tops.
I wouldn't rule our a possibility of batch-certification and discounts, or even some automated process for "trusted" Vendors, but putting vendor into "risky" is likely to just make them re-launch their profile with renewed listings. Also some products are good and trouble-less despite poor support. We have "Certified" for products and "Trusted" for developers. Another possibility to determine "Trusted" is to do public nominations like we did with see more "Pundits" before.
Ummm.... you're the one that came up with the 'Risky' category... not me.
I wouldn't use the public nominations for 'Pundits' as an example. Do you not remember all the nut jobs that became "pundits"? You can't go completely public with something like that. You don't need a bunch of clueless voters making choices.....just look what happens in the US when Democrats vote.
Just come up with a review panel made up of a few boonex staff members, and some community members. I still see more believe there should be several levels of 'Trusted' badges.
I agree $30 sounds a lot for certification, but consider the time someone has to spend to review your software, an hour is gone quick.
I'm sure after a few sales you have recovered your certification fee, and a certified product will give security to potential customers and should result in a higer turnover.
It shoiuld also weed out those hacker programmers which have no idea or don't care about good programming techniques.
I know what I'm taking about I have been design authority for some major see more IT and Software Projects
I'd rather see developers themselves, in the 'Risky" category rather than products. There see more
I wouldn't use the public nominations for 'Pundits' as an example. Do you not remember all the nut jobs that became "pundits"? You can't go completely public with something like that. You don't need a bunch of clueless voters making choices.....just look what happens in the US when Democrats vote.
Just come up with a review panel made up of a few boonex staff members, and some community members. I still see more
I'm sure after a few sales you have recovered your certification fee, and a certified product will give security to potential customers and should result in a higer turnover.
It shoiuld also weed out those hacker programmers which have no idea or don't care about good programming techniques.
I know what I'm taking about I have been design authority for some major see more