Another repeat of MacHeist, another bucketload of poorly thought out criticism by bloggers toward the way the system works. For those not aware, MacHeist which is currently in the middle of its third ’season’ is a bundle of 12 popular Mac applications been sold for the low price of $39 (normal retail price of the 12 applications is $627). 25% of all sale proceeds go to charity, while the other 75% goes into marketing and paying the involved developers, and of course the profit margin.
During the first year MacHeist developers agreed to be paid a flat fee for the duration of the event which once revealed to the media, in particular the strident writer John Gruber, hell broke loose as opinions flew all over the web regarding the fairness to the developer.
Second time around, MacHeist staff realized their mistake and adjusted accordingly, this time offering developers a percentage cut from the total number of sales. This method has carried over to the third year.
Sounds like a fair deal doesn’t it? Yet there are still a number of people out there crying out that MacHeist are ripping developers off. To those critiquing, look at it this way. No developer was forced into participating, those who have spoken out regarding their involvement seem over the moon with the results to date, and with still 13 days left in the bundle sale things aren’t going to get any slower.
The percentage cut deal has been around for the last two seasons of MacHeist, are these bloggers digging at an old matter for the heck of it or do they really believe the developers involved had a gun to their head when signing the papers?
Update: While we’re on the topic of poorly thought out criticism, have you seen this? Read into it as you will and make your own judgement.