Short answers to what people ask most. If something here is not covered, write to web@hildus.com.
Is the foundation a company?
HILDUS develops and distributes software for intellectual communities — see our mission and what the name stands for. It does not sell your audience, because it never has it: the communities run on machines belonging to their hosts.
What does it cost?
Building and running your own page or site yourself is free at the Start tier, and it stays free — it is not a trial. Paid work is a different thing: if you want a studio to build, design or fill your site for you, that is a service with a price, and the studios do not work for free. Tiers and prices are on shopnseo.com.
Do you take a share of what a community earns?
No. Advertising on a community server is sold by its host and the revenue stays with the host. This is the single point the whole project is arranged around.
Who owns the content and the data?
The people who created them. On a Server-tier installation everything lives in a database on the host machine, and it can be exported or moved. On someone else's server, the same applies between you and that host — worth agreeing on before you invest years of writing into a place.
Am I locked in?
The software runs on ordinary open components on an ordinary VPS; nothing depends on the foundation staying online. An installed server keeps working whether or not we do anything further, and the content is yours to take with you.
Is this only for Russian speakers?
No. Most live sites today are Russian-language, and so are the three partner studios, but nothing in the software is tied to one language or market. Studios, hosts and communities in other languages are the part we would most like to see grow — see Get Involved.
What is it good at, and what is it not?
It is built for sites made of content and catalogues: personal pages, blogs, books published chapter by chapter, forums, shops, community servers holding many of these at once. It is not a general-purpose application framework, and it will not be the right tool for a bespoke product with unusual logic.
How finished is it?
The platform runs live sites in production today, including this one. It is also actively developed, which means rough edges exist and some parts of the public documentation lag behind the software. We would rather say that than pretend otherwise.
How do I get help?
Write to web@hildus.com. If you need paid work — setup, design, development or content — the partner studios are listed on the platform and live sites.