Referring to this thread and specifically this comment.
This is community collaboration at its finest! These little nudges to extend the power of Elements is really going to make the Elements ecosystem something to contend with. The tools to make components ourselves, as a user are awesome!
However I see a possibility of a negative side effect that I’m not sure how to address.
Some of the bigger, more complicated Components are being left for third party developers. Third party developers will need assurances that their work will not be ripped off, broken into pieces and shared with the community. @dan@bon Is this part of the API that is coming?
That’s great. I think there is room for both. Sharing and paid Components. I just want to ensure a third party who spends a lot of time thinking a Component through, making all the pieces work together, creating a real solution. Can get their return on investment (ROI).
Likewise I hope that the general community will respect the intellectual rights of those 3rd parties creating the elaborate solutions. I would hope the temptation to piecemeal a hack solution, for a Component that is offered at a reasonable price, will be respected and supported.
The potential for Elements is just amazing if we self-police and respect the community as a whole. Even going so far as calling out grey areas and submitting the shared Components for review. Avoiding the temptation to be selfish and greedy.
I do wonder where the line will be drawn between free custom components and those that require payment, and at what point a user will be willing to pay. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with creating custom components myself. When I see how an average user like me, with no coding knowledge, can quickly develop certain things with the help of Dan’s videos, the manual, and AI, I wonder when someone would opt to pay. Many of the little things I’ve put together are offered as paid stacks in RWC.
Over the years, I’ve happily paid for countless stacks. However, with what I already know about the power of Elements and the enjoyment I get from figuring it out and building it myself, I might be inclined to look for my own solution for less technical needs.
I can guarantee after working thousands of support cases here over the past 2 years, there will be RWE users that will not want to bother with trying to DIY, and will simply pay for the convenience to not have to DIY.
Not everybody has the time, technical curiosity, or existing skill set to build custom components, regardless of how easy AI makes it (not everybody likes AI, and most people don’t even know how to properly use it still).
RapidWeaver’s user base has always been those looking for no-code or low-code solutions to build a website. I don’t think that’s going to radically change overnight, although I think RapidWeaver Elements is going to attract a lot more entrepreneurs (developers, designers, creative professionals, etc.) than prior versions did once word gets out to the masses how powerful of a tool it is to build with.
And I’ll surely be one of them. Even with basic understanding of HTML and CSS, I don’t want to be bothered. Not a big friend of AI (yet?). I prefer to use my very limited time for the essential stuff, not building components myself. I’ll leave that to those who have fun doing that.
. “The Components Factory” would be a nice name to start 
