Not a secret, the original team behind XOD is from Russia. Yep, some time ago the development stalled due to internal business reasons (no money) and since then the close-sourced part of XOD was just kept alive in the sense we’re paying for hosting and rebooting some services once a month.
And here we are. We can no longer pay the bills. Russia is blocked. We deserve it. XOD was created to move the world forward, to encourage imagination, to teach and entertain people. The delusion shows us our purposes are misaligned with the purposes of those people in the Kremlin.
To save XOD, we’re looking for a new owner. Here’re the bills that have to be paid:
Discourse (this forum) — ~110 USD/mo
Google Cloud Services (auth, libraries, simulation, site) — ~550 USD/mo
Circle CI (continuous integration) — ~15 USD/mo
GitHub org — ~30 USD/mo
With some effort involved, the costs might be cut roughly by 50%.
A new owner will get all the related accounts transferred along with credentials. We put our hands up and off. A new owner is in full rights to do whatever he wants with the close-sourced part: try to monetize XOD simulations, make an Enterprise Edition, whatever.
I doubt any of us had any idea how much it cost to keep this alive besides all the time you guys put into this. Thank you for taking it as far as you did.
While I enjoy supporting XOD by helping people through this forum and I could contribute some to its cost, I’m in no position financially or skill-wise to take over back-end support.
So sorry to hear this. For me XOD struck a chord as It was so reminiscent of my work in the 70’s & 80’s when I designed and constructed circuits out of CMOS chips. Then, you selected real chips such as gates, flip flops, counters etc., to create your designs. In XOD I instantly recognised that I could do exactly as back then, but virtually.
It has enabled me to finally start using Arduino for which I thank you all. I think that it is a brilliant ecosystem and I sincerely hope that new owner(s) are found.
I, for one, would be prepared to set up a monthly modest donation (~$10) towards costs, which might enable a future if enough people were to rally around.
Thanks again guys, and all the best for the future.
The stresses happening involving Russia/NATO/Ukraine will not last forever.
For $705 / month , the cost : benefit ratio is quite low. XOD is an excellent tool for humanity.
XOD should be able to be profitable, given the right leverage of users, access, and payment.
Personally, I’m interested in pursuing this. Like others have said, my programming is nowhere near good enough to code the back-end. I’m more focused on the users perspective, for sure. Though, I can contribute in other ways.
We ought to create a XOD preservation group, to discuss further, and form an official organization.
I’ve got some ideas on how XOD could fund itself. Though, I have questions on how the legal ownership of XOD could be transferred. It sounds like we need to form a type of legal entity to manage this. I’m in United States, and that could be an advantage for getting XOD funded and disseminated. Seems like Matt would have some connections at MIT, who would be an excellent steward for XOD. Or, possibly some other University.
We need to start a group that can meet and talk on this.
I’m looking into making a group on github to form a collaboration with those who are interested, and I have reached out to Victor.
We need some details on deadlines, and such, and consider how to get quick funding. Several xoders have offered to generously donate what they can. When I get more details, we can determine a sufficient donation location for the short term, while we build methods for long term funding… which will be inherently synergistic with expanding the XOD community!!
Has any kind of group been started yet? I’m interested in contributing on any way I can. I’m a web developer with good knowledge on javascript and typescript. And, just like me, surely there will be lots of developers willing to contirbute.
But the part that most concerns me right now about XOD is about legal ownership, just as @xodballxod mentioned.
Hi, folks. Thank you for the willingness to save XOD. I’m pursuing the same purpose, but I’ve messed up the process. Despite that I used to manage XOD development and the on-site team, I’m not the only one “stakeholder”.
When I created this post, some very good people (perfectly sharing XOD mission) reached me out to offer their financial and other support to keep project running. We were about to make the transfer of the de-facto stalled open-source project, and… I had to quickly step back because a potential buyer/partner/investor has emerged and I should take the interests of all stakeholders into account.
I cannot tell much currently. The process is slow and the outcome is ambiguous. But in the perspective of weeks (or a few months) we’ve managed to find a clunky way to pay the bills. So, XOD is safe in that means.
I’m looking forward for upcoming events and truly wish XOD will be alive, open and free for the majority of its users
Thank you everyone! XOD is easily the best visual programming editor that I have come across and is worth every effort to maintain its existence and continued development. Please keep me informed of your progress, in particular, how we can help to achieve this goal.
