A Newbie's Perspective

Anomaly posted 20th of February 2010 in Community Voice. 7 comments.

Overall, I have to say that I am very impressed with the Boonex vision for Dolphin 7 to date.

I will definitely be leaving this up on at least one of my community sites though I am working with some other programs on other sites in the interest of learning and understanding which features work best for the different needs the sites have.

One concern I have is the large number of files that remain set with permissions of 777. Not having found anything on the forums but having been fortunate in finding Arvixe as a hosting provider, I have had really good support there.

While most everything is relatively self-explanatory, there were still numerous issues I did not understand but with some creative searching on the forums, I was able to find most of the answers.

How "Open Source" is a program that legally restricts you from removing their links without paying? If the program works well I would market it and recommend it to my clients no matter what but it seems like that would rightfully be a decision for the webmaster to make and not something that should be forced on them. How much of the program has to be changed before I have the right to set it aside as Open Source and remove the links? Would bypassing the code be enough to grant me that privilege? Again, I do not mind posting the links on my site and they remain unobtrusive placed as they are on the footer but it does seem a bit like they want to "force" you to promote it ... whether or not they accept you as an affiliate or not.

Would I recommend Dolphin7? Absolutely and I am. I may have a bit more to learn before I can recommend it to my clients and get it set up and running properly for everyone. Like many others, I am a Joomla Junkie so the adjustments are not major but they are there.

I would like to see a wiki module for the Dolphin7 script. I do many community based websites based on Geographic areas and the ability to add a wiki would give the entire community more incentive to actively participate. Maybe this module is already available in the marketplace but I figured I would get my site up and running before I started trying to add even more for me to learn.

Still, Dolphin 7 does remain a very impressive program and to date at least, I am definitely happy with it.

Those are just my thoughts though.

 
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mydatery
mydatery•20th of February 2010
 
1. Buy a license and you don't have to have the footers. The footers are only in place as a way of you compensating Boonex for the script they are providing to you. The majority of us pay for licensing and thus we don't have to have the footers.

2. No amount of additional development of the script gives you the right to bypass those links.

3. Open Source does not mean "Free" as many would like to claim it is synonomous with.

4. Even hackers who believe in "Open Source" see more will admit they have a right to make a living from what they do, why should a company not have a right to profit from what they do?
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Anomaly
Anomaly•20th of February 2010•to mydatery
 
I absolutely agree that they do have every right to make a living and to put this script together as they have is more than a bit impressive. To even make it available for no cost is pretty amazing and I do not begrudge them links especially on the footers. It just seems that the way they are pushing it ... and yeah, I know a lot of people will remove them if they did not require the licensing too ... which was actually pretty intelligent and a great method for insuring that people do keep everything see more on the up and up .... but the way they write it and present it, it just sounds kind of pushy to me. Hopefully my efforts with this site will be successful and when I see, I will very likely be buying the licensing though I doubt I will remove all of their links. All-in-all, this really is too good to pass up. As for my clients, I will very likely encourage them to not only use the software but also to sign up for the affiliate program (if they can get any more response than I have to date) and keep at least a couple of active links on each page. I will also have them purchasing their own licenses and not trying to "blanket" them under mine when the time comes that I do have one.

Your second point was responding to a facetious question. Perhaps I should have been more clear but many people I am certain have already and will continue to try to disable the license so that they can get rid of the links. It is human nature and that is not to say that it is right, only that I would be willing to bet that a thorough search would find many such sites.
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Anomaly
Anomaly•20th of February 2010•to mydatery
 
Nope, open source does not mean free. It is an opposition to Proprietary software where everything is locked up and "kept secret" and therein lies the problem. Windows must constantly "improve" and "upgrade" their software to keep people out. Such was the case with their NTFS file system, the new programs for Office and Excel with the docx and xlsx extensions. These are merely efforts to prevent open source software from being able to compete with them and are often see more released before they have gotten out of beta.

Linux Rocks, rocks break windows ... coincidence?

In the open source community ... as I have seen here, there are many people who have already been where I am. We work together to make things better and improve them. Unfortunately, since my strengths are not in programming, I have to research what other people are doing and follow their steps. When I can contribute something, I do but mostly, when it comes to scripts, I am pretty worthless.

As for making a living from their work, again, it seems like this product is actually very solid and while there may be some issues, that need to be addressed, it seems the community has done very well. It is hard to imagine that something this good would not gain some serious recognition. Even so, it would also be nice to be able to customize the links a little bit as I have done with the BoonEx link at the bottom of the page. In that case, I simply included my logo and "An Open Source BoonEx Community" and while I realize I am running Dolphin, not BoonEx, the BoonEx name was on the original link. Should such an "indiscretion" make me a bad person for making it look like something more relevant to my site and thus, my readers so that they are more likely to click on it and learn more about the BoonEx community?
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Nathan Paton
Nathan Paton•20th of February 2010
 
The permission settings vary for different people. Generally, 755 for directories and 644 for files works just fine for most people, including myself. It depends on the server configuration. BoonEx has also place .htaccess files in every directory, which denies external access, so I do not see an issue even with 777 directory permissions.

Dolphin is open source and licensed under the Creative Commons. As part of this license, you have access to the source code, and permission to modify it as you see more see fit, but you cannot remove the link-backs without the payment of a license. This does not mean that the script is not open source, as open source (as said above) does not necessarily mean "free" (though the script is still free, just with the limits explained before). BoonEx is a company, and requires a source of income, which they have every right to have, and deserve to make money off their hard work. If you have a problem with this, then this is not the script for you.

You have no right to remove the link-backs directly, and you cannot claim that the script being open source will allow you to do so. Open source software can still be under a license, like most of the popular open source software, which restricts what you can and cannot do with the source code. No amount of changes to the script can warrant the removal of the link-back code. It is either you purchase a license, or you leave them be.

A wiki module has been planned by BoonEx since the beginning of Dolphin 7, and will become available some time in the future. An exact date is not yet known, but I expect it will be when Dolphin 7.1 is released, which will be the first "feature" release. I could explain how to replicate wiki functionality in one of the current modules, but I don't feel like it.

Limit reached...
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Anomaly
Anomaly•20th of February 2010•to Nathan Paton
 
The 777 settings were set up by my server when I installed the script using softalicious. I have gone over it with my hosting company and they do not seem to think it is a problem so it very likely is not. However, having lost a couple of sites to hackers, it makes me nervous and if you saw how many "attempted hacks" emails I got, you may be a bit nervous as well. Add to that the insecurity measures that are unheard of here ... like one govt network I know that is actually set up in the see more root directory ... and I am just paranoid perhaps. Nonetheless, I have my site backed up, I keep a close eye on the stats and I do all that I know how to prevent losing my site to anyone.

Yes, I am familiar with open source being a Linux Lover. I am also familiar that many people contribute to make open source better yet even on my linux boxes I need to run security software to keep some people out and to keep my systems clean. The only issue I have with the backlinks is the fact that they "must remain as they are" or other wording that seems to make demands or threats. I will happily promote the Dolphin7 script and whether or not I am ultimately accepted into their affiliate program or not, it will fulfill the needs of some of my customers and as such, I will use it and recommend they use it. Still, it does not seem unreasonable to allow us the option to customize the back links or even adjust them some so that they fit in better with our sites. Even after I have the licensing, I will be promoting it both on site and off but again, that is not my personal peeve there.
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Nathan Paton
Nathan Paton•20th of February 2010
 
I will go out and say it now: this script is not for nubs, but for those who are either experienced, or are willing to face a steep learning curve. Dolphin is in many ways, a beast, and there is not a single example where someone here has not had to manually edit files or database tables to make something work the way they wanted it to. To all those unwilling to do this kind of stuff: choose another script, as this one is not for you, and we will not hand-feed you through the installation and further see more management if you are unwilling to learn how to do things on your own.
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Anomaly
Anomaly•20th of February 2010
 
As for the Wiki, a straight mod with an installer would be ideally suited to someone like me. As it is, if it becomes important, I can always have some of my friends working on a bridge to another one but for right now, I am just trying to get a better feel for what I can and cannot do with the scripting here. When I am more comfortable with what I am doing, I will be more comfortable backing up and "tweaking" things a little.

Hehehehe I do not figure on giving up on my education and see more the learning process until about three days before they bury me. Unfortunately, when it comes to scripts, I am only good enough to get myself in some serious trouble. It is for that reason that I back everything up before I change anything, make my changes, see what happens and if it works, leave it be and if not, replace it with my backups. Yet another pretty amazing feature here is that built-in backup which I only discovered as I was reinstalling my backups the first time. Also, all the more reason I am such a fan of open source software as you generally can get in and change things around until they are the way that the individual wants them and not the way that some college kid up in Redmond thinks they should be.
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