Dolphin's end

I am very disappointed that Boonex is discontinuing the development of Dolphin.

I have 4 years of much work, a lot of money and 40 modules purchased from third-party.

That should have been all in vain now?

Due to the outdated 5.6 PHP, the security of Dolphin is also not guaranteed.

What kind of company is it that has misused the trust of its customers?

I can give staff of Dolphin, no general access to my Dolphin 7.3.5.

How can I do that where I no longer have faith.

Yes, there is UNA as an alternative.

This is really great.

Migrate dolphin and then it goes on easily?

Has Boonex forgotten the many third-party modules that are now just scrap metal?

I can only shake my head as Boonex deals with customers.

14 Jan 2019

If you read other posts on this forum you will see that several members including myself are trying to reverse this situation. As you say, it's not just the script, but it's also the modules you've paid for and the people who created them. Then there's the hundreds, if not thousands of site owners who never visit this forum, but rely on people like Geek_Girl and others to keep their sites running for them. These people will also suffer heavily as Dolphin is finally phased out. Many owners have sites with thousands of members and the entire thing is an embarrassment and a shambles.

Sadly, the reclusive owner of Dolphin really couldn't care less. He's hell-bent on producing UNA and expects everyone to abandon their modules and switch over. Just how he expects us to do that is as unclear. People like Modzzz with some 200 modules are not going to supply us replacement UNA modules for nothing. They will expect to be paid and pay you will. The alternative is to strip your new site back to bare bones and tell all your faithful members to go jump, just as Boonex is telling us!

The best thing Boonex can do, is place Dolphin in the public domain with few, if any restrictions. I'm happy to leave The Boonex copyright notices in file headers, but no links pointing back to Boonex.

When properly promoted with video tutorials and a reasonable manual, people will begin working on the script again. As it is, everyone including myself are very, very nervous about Dolphin's future.

In reference to your last comment, Boonex hasn't shown much respect for its customers for a few years now. This isn't a business operating out of a suite of offices in Sydney. It's run by one person who seems to live in a remote location and never patronises his own forum to promote the script.

When you loose interest, you loose interest and it's often impossible to become enthusiastic again.

14 Jan 2019

Not all developers has shown an interest in porting their modules over to UNA; and as John has pointed out, those that do will require you to purchase the UNA module even if they do produce an import tool to get your content from Dolphin to UNA.  There are enough differences between Dolphin and UNA that will require some work to port a module over.

I have seen Andrew waffle around with UNA.  UNA was suppose to be a platform that did not require a sys admin on board until they started adding it lots of things that required one to shell in and perform root level installs.  Then Andrew started moaning about the headaches of having all the third party platform stuff.

I won't use UNA at all; won't consider it, until they remove that awful backend.  It is a f-ing mess.

Don't worry, Dolphin won't go away even if Andrew balks on opening it to open source; from what I have been studying on the Creative Commons, we can use Dolphin as long as the current Dophin copyright notices stay in the code.  We simply add our own below the Boonex ones.  The bug can be legally ripped out, right Andrew Laughing

Geeks, making the world a better place
14 Jan 2019

We are working on Dolphin update now. Compatibility with php7 is coming. License change is also likely - we are considering some options. 

Heart Head Hands
14 Jan 2019

There is also a long term Dolphin upgrade in works, based on UNA but set up more like Dolphin. 

Heart Head Hands
14 Jan 2019

What are your plans about licensing Andrew?  

We are working on Dolphin update now. Compatibility with php7 is coming. License change is also likely - we are considering some options. 

 

http://www.boonex.com/market/posts/paansystems - your resource for Dolphin Pro
14 Jan 2019

Well not much I can say about what I'm reading.  I now have 13 licenses, I know for some that is a drop in the ocean, that I don't know what to do with.  

15 Jan 2019

For those members who don't know about Sourceforge, it's a highly respected repository for open source software, much of which is still under development. Programmers willing to assist with software development use Sourceforge to to locate suitable projects. People in the know, use it to download genuine free stuff, although they also have a commercial section.

At present, some 695 Social Networking scripts and programs are listed on Sourceforge and Dolphin is currently number 2. UNA on the other hand is well down the list, possibly on page 2 or 3.

https://sourceforge.net/directory/os:windows/?q=social+networking

Script downloads at Sourceforge for this week are:

pH7 Social Dating - 394 downloads as of last night.

Dolphin Pro - 55 downloads

UNA - 5 downloads.

The high download count for pH7 Social Dating can possibly be attributed to its excellent - easy to navigate web site, a bit of aggressive marketing and a respectable price tag. Maybe it's a better script, but judging from comments on this site, maybe not.  I understand it's buggy at this stage. It does however run on PHP7 which is a huge bonus.

Although Sourceforge isn't a place where new users are likely to find themselves looking for the ultimate script, the stats do show a huge swing away from Dolphin and UNA in particular.

An obvious reason for the trend is that any person wanting to be serious will eventually have to obtain a paid license and price does matter.

With UNA touting a price tag of thousands a month (see links above and pricing on the UNA site) and Dolphin,  also with a massive price tag and being phased out in a few years as well, it's obvious that people will shun away from these products, regardless of how good they are.

UNA probably has zero hope of taking a large chunk of the social networking market due to it's perceived cost and poor timing by being released so late in an over-saturated market, whereas Dolphin with its existing huge following and massive 3rd party support, could easily climb back when it's fully supported, realistically priced and marketed with a degree of skill and confidence.

16 Jan 2019

 

…. whereas Dolphin with its existing huge following and massive 3rd party support, could easily climb back when it's fully supported, realistically priced and marketed with a degree of skill and confidence.

Interesting. Where do you see this 'huge following'?

There have been many free downloads of the software made but not a lot of development on the websites. Many domains haven't even been renewed.

If there was an 'huge following' one might expect more Dolphin-related forum activity or Dolphin 'fan sites'.

I can't find ten of them, let alone fifty. Not huge by any means.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michel - Meta-Travel.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TravelNotes.org - The Online Guide to Travel
25 Jan 2019

 

 

…. whereas Dolphin with its existing huge following and massive 3rd party support, could easily climb back when it's fully supported, realistically priced and marketed with a degree of skill and confidence.

Interesting. Where do you see this 'huge following'?

There have been many free downloads of the software made but not a lot of development on the websites. Many domains haven't even been renewed.

If there was an 'huge following' one might expect more Dolphin-related forum activity or Dolphin 'fan sites'.

I can't find ten of them, let alone fifty. Not huge by any means.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michel - Meta-Travel.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

So, the question here remains, in case you wanted to start today building a new website, would you choose Dolphin, UNA or something else? 

25 Jan 2019

@travelnotes: Some of that 'huge' was tongue in cheek, but there a licence holders working trough people like Geek_Girl et-al. I have a couple who have never visited the forums, also two people in the last couple of days say they have 17 licences between them. As far as social networking sites go, 200 licences may be a lot, but who knows?

 

I looked at  Nathan's servers before they went down the gurgle. I found two if I recall and one had about 60 dolphin sites, the other a few more. Many may well be free (unlicenced) sites, but only Boonex is to blame for that. Who on earth would have paid almost AU$1,000 for a licence when there was no documentation and almost no support. 

The few sites I checked seemed to be working

@galonopd, you may care to look at Elgg  as a possible alternative. It needs an additional admin and photo module to work, but both are free. Elgg runs on PHP7 and like Dolphin, has its pros and cons.

If you're familiar and happy with Dolphin, why not stick with it? Boonex plans to upgrade it to PHP7 soon so it should have a good few years usefulness. All we need to do is encourage the 3rd party module developers to bring out a few much needed modules.

25 Jan 2019

@johnk42, I am already working on Dolphin, "playing" a bit with UNA too. The truth is that with all this uncertainty for the future of Dolphin, and the "war" (in brackets!) between UNA and Dolphin and at the same time the continuous % lost of the market pie as mentioned above and the lost of faith in Boonex by a few users (especially "virtuoso" ones), it is absolutely normal to be in doubt in choosing this or that. One thing for sure is that I would like to see Boonex united and not divided and all users happy under one umbrella. This would give hope for the future and vanish this uncertainty...

 

Just thinking out loud with a cup of tea before going to bed... 

25 Jan 2019

I'm thinking about working with Drupal for content management.

Cool

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michel - Meta-Travel.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TravelNotes.org - The Online Guide to Travel
27 Jan 2019

I spend £1000 buying dolphin and have spent about the same on modules and put in a lot of work so unless everything can be upgraded as is I would never use una. It looks kinda bland to me. I'm trying to build a site and brand so don't want it to look like una looks at all.

 

Over the past couple of years I have had the same  thing occur with other scripts and modules as well as software. Seems like a way to get more money out of existing customers. But that's like prodding me with a stick.

 

Its the same when a phone company offers a massive discount for new customers??? Hello, what about your existing customers that you just kicked in the nuts with your massive discount?

 

Its unscrupulous. Not saying that Andrew is but its the image I am getting of the company in general. Hopefully by that time (2023) I will be able to afford a developers fees to update dolphin where needs be?

Enhance Your Onlne Experience. 4eLife.com
27 Jan 2019

 

There is also a long term Dolphin upgrade in works, based on UNA but set up more like Dolphin. 

OK but my concern is the backend.  Seriously, the backend of UNA is not good.  I am sure at the time it was created; some five years ago or was it six, that the coder thought it was cool.  It isn't.  It is very convoluted and difficult to actually administer a site.  The current Dolphin backend is 1000% better.  Also, sliding buttons, eye candy, is not needed by sys admins, we just want a very clean functional control panel.  Studio is not that, not even in the least amount.   You should put your coders to work porting the Dolphin backend to UNA and remove that; well, crap is the only way to describe Studio.  I am not going to use UNA as long as the crap Studio is the means to administer the site and if that becomes what is the backend for Dolphin then it is forking time.  

Geeks, making the world a better place
30 Jan 2019

 

 

 

…. whereas Dolphin with its existing huge following and massive 3rd party support, could easily climb back when it's fully supported, realistically priced and marketed with a degree of skill and confidence.

Interesting. Where do you see this 'huge following'?

There have been many free downloads of the software made but not a lot of development on the websites. Many domains haven't even been renewed.

If there was an 'huge following' one might expect more Dolphin-related forum activity or Dolphin 'fan sites'.

I can't find ten of them, let alone fifty. Not huge by any means.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michel - Meta-Travel.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

So, the question here remains, in case you wanted to start today building a new website, would you choose Dolphin, UNA or something else? 

I am getting ready to help set up a new Dolphin website; the person looked at UNA and said no. 

Geeks, making the world a better place
30 Jan 2019

 

I'm thinking about working with Drupal for content management.

Cool

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michel - Meta-Travel.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So you were using Dolphin for a CMS only?  

Geeks, making the world a better place
30 Jan 2019

In my humble opinion, there are only five things that stop Dolphin from continuing as a market leader:

  1. The Boonex Company: The organisation needs a shake-up to stop it destroying its major asset.
  2. Documentation: Shear madness. It's like a train wreck.
  3. Price: It's ridiculous. Pricing yourself out of the market is the biggest mistake a lot of small firms make.
  4. Lack of PHP7 support: They're working on it. Let's hope it's finished before we have PHP10.
  5. Shocking Photos Module: As it's an essential part of Dolphin, it needs to be made easier to use. It can easily be done with minimal coding.

As Geek_Girl mentioned, there's nothing wrong with the admin section, especially when you know how to use it. Once again - lack of documentation.

My single gripe is the sliders on Page Builder. They've given me RSI. Please let's type in a value or use the sliders Modzzz uses.

Finally, the third party module creators have been frightened away. Come to a better deal with them which will help support Boonex and "Let's get the show back on the road!"

 

30 Jan 2019

 

In my humble opinion, there are only five things that stop Dolphin from continuing as a market leader:

  1. The Boonex Company: The organisation needs a shake-up to stop it destroying its major asset.
  2. Documentation: Shear madness. It's like a train wreck.
  3. Price: It's ridiculous. Pricing yourself out of the market is the biggest mistake a lot of small firms make.
  4. Lack of PHP7 support: They're working on it. Let's hope it's finished before we have PHP10.
  5. Shocking Photos Module: As it's an essential part of Dolphin, it needs to be made easier to use. It can easily be done with minimal coding.

As Geek_Girl mentioned, there's nothing wrong with the admin section, especially when you know how to use it. Once again - lack of documentation.

My single gripe is the sliders on Page Builder. They've given me RSI. Please let's type in a value or use the sliders Modzzz uses.

Finally, the third party module creators have been frightened away. Come to a better deal with them which will help support Boonex and "Let's get the show back on the road!"

 

 
PHP 7 support is pretty much done. They have been pounding out some bugs recently as well as adding export ability for most data dolphin stores.

The sliders in the page builders do kinda suck. But here is a tip for that in case your not aware of it. Use the slider to get it close to where you want, then use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to fine tune it.

I am hoping they will be releasing it under the MIT license before they stop supporting it. I plan to fork it when they do.

https://www.deanbassett.com
30 Jan 2019

 

 

In my humble opinion, there are only five things that stop Dolphin from continuing as a market leader:

  1. The Boonex Company: The organisation needs a shake-up to stop it destroying its major asset.
  2. Documentation: Shear madness. It's like a train wreck.
  3. Price: It's ridiculous. Pricing yourself out of the market is the biggest mistake a lot of small firms make.
  4. Lack of PHP7 support: They're working on it. Let's hope it's finished before we have PHP10.
  5. Shocking Photos Module: As it's an essential part of Dolphin, it needs to be made easier to use. It can easily be done with minimal coding.

As Geek_Girl mentioned, there's nothing wrong with the admin section, especially when you know how to use it. Once again - lack of documentation.

My single gripe is the sliders on Page Builder. They've given me RSI. Please let's type in a value or use the sliders Modzzz uses.

Finally, the third party module creators have been frightened away. Come to a better deal with them which will help support Boonex and "Let's get the show back on the road!"

 

 
PHP 7 support is pretty much done. They have been pounding out some bugs recently as well as adding export ability for most data dolphin stores.

The sliders in the page builders do kinda suck. But here is a tip for that in case your not aware of it. Use the slider to get it close to where you want, then use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to fine tune it.

I am hoping they will be releasing it under the MIT license before they stop supporting it. I plan to fork it when they do.

There is a community building around Dolphin.  John is wanting to build a community site.  I am thinking that module developers can sell directly from their sites but can list their modules on the community site with links to their site; that will remove us from having to support a Marketplace for developers.

Deano, have you given more thought on at least posting the Deano's tools in the Market?  I have a few of your modules but understand your reluctance on working on them.  You said that you had a advert supported Deano's Tools and a paid version that was about ready to go.

Dolphin will not be disappearing; I think we can legally fork under the CC license but would want a lawyer to verify that.  To be honest, a lot of us are losing faith in Andrew since he keeps changing things around.  We are losing trust and it is not good when customers lose trust in a company.

Geeks, making the world a better place
30 Jan 2019

Looks like they are close to the first beta. The version number was changed today in the github repo to 7.4.0-Beta1

@geek_girl - Yea, i will be releasing it at some point. I recently had 3 weeks off from work due to the restaurant closing for cleanup and repairs during the slow time of the year. So i decided i would add more goodies in deanos tools. Well, i did not quite finish all my changes within the 3 weeks, so i am still finishing that up.


https://www.deanbassett.com
31 Jan 2019

HOLY CRAP!!! I've been out of commission for almost a year developing new content, now I'm ready to reinstall & upgrade Dolphin and I find it's being DROPPED?!?!?! WTF?!?! ... This is the same thing the guy from (Prochatrooms) did - get thousands - maybe TENS OF THOUSANDS of people to invest in their programs, then take the money, drop the program and RUN!! ... WOW!! I never thought I'd see this from Boonex though, it had SO MUCH SUPPORT, and SO MANY PEOPLE developing mods. smh..  

 

I guess this is what happens when we try to support INDIVIDUALS instead of HUGE CORPORATIONS. Once these guys aren't "hungry" anymore, it's like - (THANKS FOR YOUR MONEY, BUT FU** YOU... WE GOT WHAT WE NEED!!) ... smh..  Very disappointing! Why would anyone buy (UNA) now after seeing how he dogged them on Dolphin??  Just absolutely FU**ING AMAZING!! Embarassed

31 Jan 2019

@rcbiz5000 as you've been outside the loop for some time, it may pay you to read through other threads on this subject. They're a bit of "all over the place" but search for my name and posts and you you'll quickly get the drift.

You're correct that Boonex is a one-man-show, He operates from somewhere in Australia and it wouls seem, sometimes from his phone. He has a network of developers, but I'm not sure how that side of things works. What I do know is that the owner rarely appears on these forums and lets serious questions languish. When he does appear, it's only to promote his pet product UNA. More recently however, he has made comments about upgrading Dolphin to PHP7 and other mysterious things before the pin is pulled in 2013 or there about. (5 years). Who knows where any social networking program will be by then? People may no-longer communicate with each-other.

In the meantime there are a few of us who plan to keep Dolphin alive one way or another. That may be by convincing Boonex to make an about-turn (best option for all), or we eventually take it over as an open-source fork. (See deano's comment above). I keep saying that this has happened with other scripts. OSCommerce and Zen Cart spring to mind. The former was languishing, It was forked to Zen Cart, now both are prospering.

Don't give up. Continue developing, Come here more often to voice your concerns and try to support the third party developers when you can. They helped make Dolphin what it is and we need them.

When I get home from a trip to the city (1800km away) I plan to create a user group because Boonex has indicated that this forum (etc) will eventually be phased out and we'll be asked to join the UNA community as a minority(?) group. I and others don't want to do that, so an independent user group is the obvious solution.

31 Jan 2019

 

Looks like they are close to the first beta. The version number was changed today in the github repo to 7.4.0-Beta1

@geek_girl - Yea, i will be releasing it at some point. I recently had 3 weeks off from work due to the restaurant closing for cleanup and repairs during the slow time of the year. So i decided i would add more goodies in deanos tools. Well, i did not quite finish all my changes within the 3 weeks, so i am still finishing that up.


Great!  I am doing a happy dance 

Geeks, making the world a better place
31 Jan 2019

I own 4 Dolphin Pro licenses ... I feel very disappointed...

5 Feb 2019

 

I own 4 Dolphin Pro licenses ... I feel very disappointed...

As you wander through your life,
Whatever be your goal,
Keep your eye upon the donut,
And not upon the hole!

Dolphin may prosper once Boonex chucks in the towel and gives it over to the Open Source Community. It's happened before.

Just press on as if nothing has happened, continue to purchase third party modules to keep the developers interested, participate in the forums and help generate more interest.

5 Feb 2019

We were used to Dolphin and frankly I tested una but I am very disappointed with this new kid.

Dolphin Pro is a great system for anyone who knows how to use it and it is a simple system to understand for the user.

 

UNA is totally different and it does not meet my expectations. I'm still trying to tame UNA, but I'm afraid I have to change CMS completely. If ever I will strongly regret Dolphin 7 pro after 12 years to have learned to use it and modified it for our needs.

 

I am very very angry.

http://www.maillarbaux.org/support
6 Feb 2019

 

We were used to Dolphin and frankly I tested una but I am very disappointed with this new kid.

Dolphin Pro is a great system for anyone who knows how to use it and it is a simple system to understand for the user.

 

UNA is totally different and it does not meet my expectations. I'm still trying to tame UNA, but I'm afraid I have to change CMS completely. If ever I will strongly regret Dolphin 7 pro after 12 years to have learned to use it and modified it for our needs.

 

I am very very angry.

Dolphin will continue in one form or the other.  If we don't get ownership of the platform and name and Boonex drops it in five or six years, then we will fork it and give it a new name and it will continue to live.  What is in a name; a rose by any other name will smell as sweet.

Geeks, making the world a better place
6 Feb 2019

wow, I cant believe the negativity being sent to boonex, no wonder they're jumping ship. I get pissed too when developers stop providing updates or whatever after I purchased a script but hey, if they stop developing its time to start thinking about growing  your business and taking on the project of getting it done yourself through a team.

 

Which is ok for me to say as I'm not a developer and cant afford a team like I suspect most, but in the end. Its a business. If it ain't producing profit for the owners then it goes the way of the dodo. Pisses me off too but that's business whether there are 5 or 50,000 users... makes no difference.

Ive had a it a few times with a few companies over the years but it makes sense I suppose from their perspective. 

 

Saying that, there is also nothing in una that would even get me to install it. Looks boring.

 

whew, vent over.

Enhance Your Onlne Experience. 4eLife.com
19 Feb 2019

Hawk007, the negativity being sent to Boonex is due to the treatment of Boonex to the Dolphin community.  To understand you need to go back through the forums several years.  You need to see the history; see the constant changes on position by Boonex concerning UNA and Dolphin.  At first most of us thought Andrew was just being stupid by having the same name for two different products; what we didn't know at the time was that Andrew was planning all along on giving the Dolphin community the dirty end of the stick; he always planned on UNA being Dolphin.  Andrew got side-swiped a bit because he didn't want to be honest back then about Dolphin and came up with the UNA monikier; which even changed about what the UNA acronym meant.  When you have the company owner being dishonest with you; constantly changing positions, it is going to lead to negativity from the community.  Just look at the new Boonex site; the writing is on the wall for all to see.  Now to try and placate the Dolphin community, he is trying to mislead us that Dolphin will continue but will incorporate UNA into it.  No, what will eventually happen is the Dolphin platform that we want to use, the current Dolphin platform, will be terminated and UNA will be morphed into Dolphin.  That is important from Andrew's point of view because he wants the Dolphin name; it is a name that has been around for some time, it has brand recognition that UNA won't have; UNA isn't a name, it is a acronym.

Now, I am fine with Boonex retaining the name; what we want is the code and we will rebrand it.  Boonex will still be in the code headers.  Andrew doesn't want the Dolphin platform; I am not even sure Andrew has the resource team to maintain two different platforms to be honest.  Since Boonex isn't a publicly traded company, we have no idea what the finances of Boonex is and we don't care.  We just want the current platform to continue.  Now, I have the skill to do code changes on Dolphin and there are lots of developers that are the same.  The problem is that we can't redistribute Dolphin with our code changes.  Deano has already openly stated that he plans on forking Dolphin if it is released under the MIT license.  There is a whole group of people that will rally around Deano when he does.

The reason that Dolphin has not improved over the years is because Andrew did not want to put resources behind Dolphin, he came up with the idea to dust off the old Dolphin 8 code; along with the horrible Studio (coded some eight years ago and is outdated) for some strange reason; I am guessing that Dolphin license sales dropped; of course the huge increase in license fees, some 600% probably lead to that, and UNA was going to be this new shiny platform.

Geeks, making the world a better place
20 Feb 2019

The price increase of 600%, was the stupidest thing that could do here at Boonex. I did not understand that at the time. It was just stupid.

I do not know how long my site will run without support. But before I invest so much money in a project again. It will definitely not be una. What happens here at Boonex can happen to me at una. There are enough alternatives to Boonex or una, socialengine, phpfox.younet, phpfox. To name a few. Here you will also find developers who have sometimes been at Boonex.

Most of the programs I have from Modzzz and I do not see that he goes to una. Why?

I would like it to continue with boonex otherwise this will be my last project here.

20 Feb 2019

 

There is a whole group of people that will rally around Deano when he does.

 Hear, hear!

7.3.5 with responsive UNI
21 Feb 2019

Now the current license for Dolphin is $2800.00; all to just remove the Boonex bug that pops out and to remove the backend nag.

Geeks, making the world a better place
22 Feb 2019

 

I have been reading the dialogues silently for the last days and I wasn't going to say anything but I see things getting a bit worse here. I am not the one to judge what Boonex and Andrew does but at the same time I understand why people in this forum are upset. Actually I wanted to buy a lisence myself but after the price increase of course I turned it down. Moreover, I do not want to pay on a monthly basis for something that seems not to be customer oriented considering today's strategy. IMHO, the whole thing started wrong and I strongly believe that it was due to lack of awarness. It is 101 basics but there is also huge bibliography out there and it is described in detail as the path to Organizational Change. Then one mistake lead to another... Treating people, supporters, customers with the wrong way and in general not taking the right steps, made Boonex probably land today to the unwanted (but expected) point to make use of the  "Management of Crisis". 

 

Here we have the Dolphin, a product that people loved and supported including the owners (Andrew, etc). At one stage I believe the owners realized that money was too little for the work done on their end. Fair enough, I do understand this, it is one of the important factors to go on... but creating the new era with UNA and at the same time taking steps NOT to support existing customers of Dolphin and sacrifice it (Legacy), is risky. I think UNA and Dolphin should find a common path, all developers should contribute to this, price to remain at 600 for existing members of Boonex such as myself because we have worked to develop Dolphin towards our needs, having in mind to buy the product at the end. We have spent money to buy modules and spent hours of work on it. Boonex should show that it cares, give value and show support. The Change that will bring the money will come from the new customers that will discover the product, from the market share, from what is called "the turnover" and NOT from the price increase. Your power Boonex is your customers, and to achieve this increase in market share, you need a strong team, people to say good words and everybody enters this forum to be happy and buy the product, believe in it, believe in Boonex. People NEED to feel safe and in this I think Boonex fails at this stage...

 

Andrew and his team should give benefits and allowances and make customers united, a team...  Try to hear and use the power of resistant voices in this forum as vehicles for the good of boonex and its bright future.  After all it is not a war between the Boonex and its customers...it is MAYBE wrong strategy that it was taken because Dolphin was not producing enough money. 

 

I think Boonex should hire a couple of professionals for the management of this situation... being a good developer is a totally different thing from being a good manager. I don't say that Andrew or the rest of the team are not good managers, on the contrary. Dolphin managed to reach the "top", a good manager does this...but maybe lack of similar past experience can bring unpredictable situations due to wrong decisions and then the castle collapses just like that! 

 

All I say is always in good will and I do believe that the game is not lost..there is hope to take the right steps and make Dolphin, UNA, Boonex the master of the game again. One degree change in direction, leads the ship to another country ;-) Act fast...life is short to have problems!

 

23 Feb 2019

At one time there was a strong Boonex/Dolphin community here that stood behind Andrew.  When Andrew lost his home to fire, the community was there to give him support.  I am not so sure today that anyone would care; I think it has gotten that bad and it is all due to the way Andrew turned his back on the Dolphin community.

When I first came here I did a great deal of research on Boonex the company and on Dolphin the product.  Andrew has changed licensing fees before.  Licensing fees use to buy support, then that support ended, Dolphin had a relatively low fee; that covered the removal of the attribution, and support was turned over to the community.  Now the community was giving support for free; there were no benefits given to anyone in any form for providing the Boonex support; we didn't get any sort of discount for each problem we helped to solve, or any other type of benefit.  We gave support for free because we believe in Dolphin and wanted to support the company so they could continue.  Then Andrew raised the license fee to $599 something.  Even with this increase in license fee the community continued to provide the support for Dolphin.  We still wanted to support the company so that Dolphin could continue.

Now with this outlandish increase in license fee; a fee that Andrew knows will drive away anyone interested in Dolphin, it clearly shows what Andrew thinks of the Dolphin community.  Someone mentioned that perhaps it was to match UNA license fee.  UNA does not have a license fee, it is released under the MIT license and Boonex hopes to make money from hosting UNA.  They are also offering hosting for Dolphin.  It would actually make more sense if Andrew had dropped the license fee completely for Dolphin and release Dolphin under the MIT license while continuing to offer Dolphin hosting. 

Geeks, making the world a better place
23 Feb 2019

It is all about Boonex getting everybody back to the table to talk, make them understand why and hear what they have to say. Find common solutions that work good for everybody showing this way respect to the community. If they changed things was definitely because it couldn't go on... I understand them and I respect that... But the fact that they didn't ask the community at all, that was a mistake. When we do changes we make the people part of the change so they help towards this direction. Anyway... I am sure that logic will prevail at the end. Besides noone wants this software to vanish... Not Boonex, not the Community. It is all about money.... 

23 Feb 2019

The only changes we've seen has been increased licensing fees and less interest in the Community.

In fact, I have never seen a site owner take less interest in a community that supports his product. 

23 Feb 2019

As often in life, the big question is: WHY?

 

Why UNA? Why not continuos improvement of Dolphin? Why not easily change licensing model from one time payment to montly fee for new customers like in UNA? Why the late change to PHP7? Why the often change in strategy? Why the lack of communication? Why was there never a manual? Why create such a fantastic CMS like dolphin and then let it crumble? For what? Was the only motivation to have monthly dollars? 

23 Feb 2019

Good questions all.

Maybe Boonex simply bit off more than they could chew?

Without knowing anything about Boonex or its owner, I can't be judge and jury. I do live in the same country as Andrew Boon and I did offer to have a round table debate with him some time back. I'm not looking for blood, I'm looking for a solution, but that will never come when the product owner wishes to be reclusive and not communicate with the hands that feed him.

Incidentally, I personally don't own a Dolphin license. Until recently I was trying to maintain a licensed Dolphin site but that arrangement fell through. I now run two community sites that will never make money. I can't afford to spend two months income as an age pensioner on a product that seemingly has a limited future. It's better off in the public domain where interested people can keep it alive.

As one writer here said, the money is not in selling the product, but receiving a income from offering a decent hosting service.

23 Feb 2019

 

@johnk42

Good questions all.

Maybe Boonex simply bit off more than they could chew?

Without knowing anything about Boonex or its owner, I can't be judge and jury. ......

 

=================================================================

@mrtn

... Why the often change in strategy? Why the lack of communication? Why was there never a manual? Why create such a fantastic CMS like dolphin and then let it crumble? For what? Was the only motivation to have monthly dollars? 

I think that it is wise to say "I can't be judge or jury" concerning Boonex, we simply don't know. Also, as I commented above, all this change in strategy I believe was simply because they wanted to find a way to make the Boonex financialy stronger, support employees, expenses, etc. I understand that, as I said, fair enough. But the UNA idea on one hand and the Dolphin legacy on the other seems not to be the best move. First, announcement of Dolphin discontinuation. Second, Announcement of incorporation with UNA (kind of continuation). Third, extreme increase in price of Dolphin. The whole thing shows that although there was a plan, they didn't take into consideration the unstable or unexpected factors and now they try to find ways out to control it. A VUCA analysis and a few other things were neccessary prior to moving into change. Anyway, I said all I had to say... Just remember, we are humans and we do make mistakes. The point is to correct them and use the human ability to talk and solve our problems. I have spent a life on International Business Management and multicultural environments. Solution is always constituted of 3 factors  ...Communication, communication and communication!

23 Feb 2019

I've read a lot of postings here, where it comes to the high royalties.

I wonder now, why are not they doing the same with Boonex as with vBulletin?

At vBulletin you buy a license for a version. For example, the 7.3. Then they get the updates until 7.8 and then comes a new version, the 8.1. For the new version, they will need a new license and they will go until 8.7 or 8.9. Then comes the version 9.1 etc

 

The advantage is that many more licenses can be sold.

But most importantly, I do not need to build a new page. How I would have to do that if I switched to Una.

and you could keep Boonex alive

23 Feb 2019

 

Saying that, there is also nothing in una that would even get me to install it. Looks boring.

 I see many people say this.

Yes, it looks boring with no content and direction. IF others would be willing to actually take time to build a site for them, to make them different from any other UNA site. The reason I got away from D7 is that all the sites looked the same, I could spot one that looked just like another. UNLESS you spent thousands for custom templates that had to be updated all the time.

They've (UNA) also started work on pre-configured sites for those that can't make it happen themselves.

 

I just hope some of the vendors I purchased mods from here eventually or also develop for the UNA market.

pre-configured.JPG · 85.6K · 707 views
ManOfTeal.COM a Proud UNA site, six years running strong!
10 Mar 2019

 

I just hope some of the vendors I purchased mods from here eventually or also develop for the UNA market.

To be honest, I am not sure there is a future for Boonex under the guidance of Andrew Boon.  His constant changing storyline here has alienated too many people.  Many question his honesty since he has change the story so many times.  That is why we are going to fork Dolphin and give the developers some hope of a future.  Why waste money on UNA only to see Andrew drive the company into the ground.  His latest move here was crazy, raising the price of removing that stupid Dolphin bug to $2800.00; he actually lost $599.00 from someone that was getting ready to buy a license.  Even if Andrew does not give his blessing on a fork, we have lawyers looking at the CC license and we can fork Dolphin.   We don't care about the name; we will call it something else.  Let Boonex dry up and blow away.  Andrew chased away all the developers and they are afraid of spending their resources developing for UNA only for that time to be wasted.

As for the style; all UNA will look alike.  Dolphin has a robust template system and it is easy enough to learn and create a unique site.

Also, it appears that support from Boonex is as bad as ever.

Geeks, making the world a better place
10 Mar 2019

 

As for the style; all UNA will look alike.  Dolphin has a robust template system and it is easy enough to learn and create a unique site.

 GG you couldn't be more wrong about all UNA a looking alike. I've seen commercial sites using UNA and you wouldn't recognize them.

 

Again you should learn more about the templates for UNA with more control that you ever had with D7, I know you won't take the time because you're so obsessed with D7.

There seems to be only a few here so bent on keeping it going because it's only what they know.

 

An example of a site that has many $$$$$ sunk into it but still looks like a D7 site, https://indimusic.tv/ 

Good luck with your forking.

ManOfTeal.COM a Proud UNA site, six years running strong!
10 Mar 2019

@Newton27, I will respect you're past involvement with Dolphin, but falling in love with another script doesn't give anyone the right to push its virtues on a forum devoted to a single product. For example, I can't go on the WYSIWYG Web Builder forum and tout the wonders of WIX (if any). If I did, I'd be banned or suspended.

Your comment that all the sites look the same is probably true for those who know little about Dolphin or how to manipulate templates, but what the heck? People are always asking for a "Facebook" look-alike because they either think that looking like FB will attract more members or make Dolphin easier to use. In any case, the average user doesn't look for anomalies like "similar look and feel" in the same way people don't worry about cars looking the same.

Dolphin is still very high in the rankings of sites that review social networking scripts, whereas your baby is hardly, or never mentioned. The problem with Boonex is itself. The founder seems to be operating from a mobile phone. His contributions on this particular forum amount to nothing. Instead of throwing fuel on his product to keep the fire burning, he's literally peeing on it to put the remaining fire out.

One of the reasons people don't contribute to this forum any more is because they feel like the passengers on the Costa Concordia. There's little reason to hang around when the ship has been left to sink,

Only a fool would believe they're all swimming to UNA when there's so much on offer elsewhere.

 

10 Mar 2019

 

push its virtues on a forum devoted to a single product. For example, I can't go on the WYSIWYG Web Builder forum and tout the wonders of WIX (if any). If I did, I'd be banned or suspended.

 This forum is not devoted to a single product. (see the bottom of this post)

I've promoted UNA here since it came out. As does the Boonex Team that no one here seems to give any respect to. The years I've been here, I've seen so many negative comments about Andrew and Alex here recently and all the past years. You know these guys have been through tough times just like any human.

 

I've tried many of the "other" scripts. D7 and UNA are years ahead of the rest.

 

IMO the downfall here was/is the market. Shady vendors and the like. I know they worked hard on the cleanup but it was too late for me and I lost interest. I've been experimenting with UNA for a long time.

 

Also, you go so low to state he is working from a phone which is a joke. I wouldn't respond here either when everyone is talking so bad.

 

What IS funny, the people here on the forums like I was, work alone on a few sites, mostly as a hobby, for corporations that use both formats. Don't come here as they hire Boonex team or outside developers.

I've met many developers here that have corporate clients via PM's. I learned long ago not to share here on the forums. Mostly the attitudes of bitter members.

 

This is what the banner says above.

"Below is the legacy version of the Boonex site, maintained for Dolphin.Pro 7.x support.

The new Dolphin solution is powered by UNA Community Management System."

ManOfTeal.COM a Proud UNA site, six years running strong!
11 Mar 2019

Dolphin isn't a solution, it is a platform.  However, what Andrew wants to do is to end Dolphin and rename UNA Dolphin as he started to do years ago when we told him how stupid it was to have two platforms with the same name.  Well, now we know he never planned on having two platforms with the same name.

All we are asking is that Dolphin be released under the MIT license and we will continue it away from Boonex.  After that, I don't care what happens to Andrew and Boonex.  Andrew Boon himself claimed that Dolphin was Open Source; so that alone gives up the right to fork Dolphin.

We supported Andrew and Boonex all these years but in the end Andrew is the one that shafted the community.  You think we are suppose to feel all warm and fuzzy about Andrew and Boonex after all this?  Think again.

Geeks, making the world a better place
11 Mar 2019

 

Do you think we are supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy about Andrew and Boonex after all this?

 No, but some common respect maybe. I'll stay out of Boonex forums again from now on unless someone posts to one of my older post.

ManOfTeal.COM a Proud UNA site, six years running strong!
11 Mar 2019

 

Now the current license for Dolphin is $2800.00; all to just remove the Boonex bug that pops out and to remove the backend nag.

 

I'll gladly sell mine for $1,800.

 

Cool

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Michel - Meta-Travel.com
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TravelNotes.org - The Online Guide to Travel
16 Apr 2019

I'm disappointed.

21 Dec 2023
21 Dec 2023
 
 
Below is the legacy version of the Boonex site, maintained for Dolphin.Pro 7.x support.
The new Dolphin solution is powered by UNA Community Management System.