Firstly, I must say that I am impressed with the project already, however, as a user I've already been turned away by one glaring part of the application: Plutonium
Now I understand the need for funding for a project and aiding the developer, and donations to open-source projects are a wonderful thing I can appreciate (and have done myself). Currently, a friend group of mine are looking for a Discord alternative to move our chat group to. At this time, I don't think I will be using Fluxer or recommending it to my friends, as Plutonium is the behavior we've seen from Nitro in Discord that has pushed us away from using it.
For example, .gif profile pictures and profile banners only accessible for premium members, or lower streaming quality for free members, global sticker access is premium only, etc. These restrictions for free clients is the reason why we're trying to leave Discord as a platform.
Though it may be enticing to implement premium only features or restrictions, people are willing to donate to causes they appreciate without forcing their hand.
Whether Plutonium is reduced in scope or not, good luck with development! I tend to only open issues if I feel passionately about a project, and I do wish to see this succeed and form into an application I and my friends would like to use one day.
Proposed solution
Without entirely removing Plutonium as a concept, the payment could instead be a donation to the developer. Zorin OS has had success with this method by offering a premium version that is intrinsically the same OS but with more pre-installed applications and some extra user themes.
Perhaps something similar could be implemented by gifting donators premium specific themes, profile icon/banner borders, chat icons (crown floating by the user's name). In essence, just more fluff for donators to show off they'd contributed to the project, and that's enough for many people to aid your project.
Alternatives considered
Option A: Removal of Plutonium entirely - Of course I've considered this, as I'd rather Plutonium wasn't around at all in Fluxer, but I believed my proposed solution to be more acceptable for all parties.
Impact
Small (localized, low risk)
Compatibility
[ ] This might be a breaking change (behavior/API).[ ] This introduces a new dependency.
Scope / implementation notes
No response
Contribution
[ ] I'm willing to open a PR for this (after maintainer alignment).[ ] I can help test/verify a PR for this.
I don't think that's a good idea, either that or the alternative option A. Not only do i think that Fluxer Plutonium with it's 5 euros a month is pretty reasonable, but i think people don't understand that a service like that, that has running costs for hosting and getting traffic for voice and video chat, can sustain itself on one-time donations. That's simply not realistic.
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Comment by @Pandooroo