HG forum migration to Google+

[Bounz]

I looked around and found a forum system called Discourse. You can take a look how it works on their own support forum https://meta.discourse.org/.

I installed it on my own VPS to give it a try, feel free to play with it: http://discourse.bounz.net/. Right now it has all the default settings. If we will like the system I can easily change domain name or Gene can create a subdomain pointing to the new forum, for example, http://forum.homegenie.it.

Gene, if you are reading this: could you please make a dump of forum's database and archive of forum's install directory? There is a migrator between SMF and Discourse, and archive is needed to access attachments of SMF forum.

[KaZe]

I've found this project and forum for 2 years. Since then I've been an active member. I'm not a programmer, but I'm inventing myself. I have a couple of my own programs that I've shared. There are a lot of forum members here helping me, and I hope I have managed to help you a few times. As others have written, a project must have a forum where users can help each other. Well, this is not G +.
I would like this community to survive, as many have a lot of work, especially GENE.
I support the creation of a new forum and will continue to actively participate in the tests / developments.
I am currently in a complete house renovation based on HomeGenie (http://www.homegenie.it/forum/index.php?topic=2169.0)
When I'm done with it, I'd like to make a demo video that might attract even more people.

Keep up HomeGenie!

[petediscrete]

I hear you Gene. You look around at the likes of Homeseer that retails anywhere between €80 and €800 (depending on what you purchase) and compare it to Homegenie which in my opinion is a much more straightforward and efficient product and ask yourself "where am I going with this".

From a financial perspective Gene, I suggest you partner with someone who could advise you on how to turn your product into a commercially viable income for you which would allow you to spend the time to further develop it and at the same time put food on your table.

Possibly a GoFundMe or a Kickstarter initiative could well be the way to go. I love your concept of ease of use and yes if you could encourage the community approach HG has the potential of becoming a mainstream HA and IoT product.

[raptorjr]

Not that I'm any expert, and even though I really like HG, I think that the userbase and development at this time is to small to be able to make money from it. No one than me would be happier if Gene could continue and make money on this. But it would be sad if it wasn't open source anymore.

Because of it's possiblities to customize HG so much it is very powerful. But it also demands a lot from a new user without much skill. Some things should need to be much easier, but still maintain the possibility to be customizable as it is today.

One way, that I would think could be good, is if it was possible to get good support for MySensors. They try to take IoT to the ordinary users that like to fiddle a little. They have very good beginner guides to use Arduino to make wireless sensors. From easy things to more advanced. I've tried several controllers but they often are so specialized that MySensor sensors don't really fit. And instead of the possibility to adapt the controller you have to cripple and adapt your sensor sketch to fit in the controllers small box.

Good support for MySensors and "easy" ways to make custom widgets in HG for MySensor sensors would be a huge thing I think. And could increase the userbase very much.

I still haven't given up on my goal to be able to contribute more to HG, but recently moved to another country and all hobbies have been put aside for a while. I really hope we can keep HG alive in both forum and development.