I am not going to make many friends with my comments, but I appreciate this opportunity to speak my piece and hopefully some one will glean some understanding from my ranting.
I’d like to point out that this community is not just expertzzz, or only members of the “Mod Squad” and their customers. When I first came here I was under the impression that it was a close-knit group of people who had come together to help beta test and develop the best community software in the world, not for other see more coders and nerds, but for the common folk who want to put their own mark on the world and share their lives with their old friends as well as ones they hope to meet in the global internet community.
I believe in Boonex and I have a love / hate relationship with this community. I love watching Baby Boonex grow and mature. It never ceases to amaze me how far its come, but I hate that we have failed to bring forth a product that any one can download and install with little or no previous experience. I love that before I can work out the bugs in one version there is already a new one waiting for me, but I hate that there still is no documentation and support. I am no coder but I am learning and I really feel bad for those potential customers who think they have found the holy grail only to go through hell with no one to help them.
I love that some of the Mod Gods are helping potential customers in their emails, but I hate that the general community and potential new customers are left to flop around on the shore like helpless fish gasping for knowledge and receiving no help. After all this software is for the masses is it not? The more people who can download it and have a working site, the more people willing to buy licenses and mods.
I also want to remind you all that we are not alone here. I am really ashamed at the some of the childish unprofessional behavior I have seen. How must this theft and finger pointing and bickering look to the potential customers who pass through? I am sure it demonstrates unity and inspires confidence in the product.
1. Navigation and Structure: We need to make everything more centralized and easier for the customers to find the answers they need. Focus has been turning to making money and away from supporting software.
2. Buyer and Seller Protection: The focus should be on Boonex products and not mods or services. Separate the two. Get all of the mods off of Boonex site. Policing the creation and sale of mods or services IS NOT Boonex responsibility. That responsibility lies with the mod owner. Before you form a lynch mob hear me out. How do you reward those who work so hard if you take away their ability to sell their mods? That’s simple really. Encourage people to create their own Dolphin sites featuring their modifications and services. Show the world your talent. Let your products and expertise speak for themselves. Sell from your own storefront. I have many years of experience with PayPal and Ebay. Learn PayPal’s dispute resolution process and police yourselves. PayPal can be deadly on unscrupulous sellers. Also those less proficient people are not going to be able to stand the competition from those who are really the Mod Pros.
3. Spam: Outlaw all spam of any kind on Boonex . Boonex can sell or reward those deserving with ad space and licenses for their contributions. Those obnoxious little ads on free Dolphin and Ray? Sell that space to developers so they can entice people to their sites. We have an affiliate program, make money selling boonex products from your own sites. The key here is that we need to concentrate on getting a good product out to the general public. Produce a pleasing product that millions of people want to buy and make our money from our own sites created with and supporting Boonex.
4. Support via forums: This is very important. Forums are for solving problems and answering questions and not for self-promotion. Therefore I don’t think it’s a good idea to have the forums moderated by people who might abuse that power. Instead it should be some one impartial whose best interests are with Boonex customers. As Boonex continues to grow and become more stable and customer friendly more sales will naturally come. As that happens hire and train professional support personnel.
5. The one feature that has been neglected most is support. It’s time to place a stable product on the market that contains links to a help file. Those of you who have mastered the art of installing and configuring all phases Boonez problems should start thinking how we can get more satisfied customers and not selling every little piece of code that was inadvertently left out of the product. Lets combine all of our little tricks into a easy to read and understand manual.
I am looking forward to the future and wish us all the best.
1. yes, I agree. Current layout became cluttered and messy, so it's getting difficult for less experienced visitors to find something and things just don't "flow" well. I will work on a better structure this week.
2. full move from Expertzzz to vendors' sites doesn't feel right when i think of customers... It becomes even more difficult to compare products, browse and buy in bundles, but your idea still brings some interesting points that we should consider.
I’d like to point out that this community is not just expertzzz, or only members of the “Mod Squad” and their customers. When I first came here I was under the impression that it was a close-knit group of people who had come together to help beta test and develop the best community software in the world, not for other see more
2. full move from Expertzzz to vendors' sites doesn't feel right when i think of customers... It becomes even more difficult to compare products, browse and buy in bundles, but your idea still brings some interesting points that we should consider.
3. Right on about the see more