Add-on Anyone else think it's a disservice to have all the XTR modifications deleted?

Seeing old timers, @Paul B and @Forsaken, in the same thread is like watching my favored childhood cartoon characters from the 50s. Whenever I watch a Russell Crow movie I remember @Forsaken's post from 2010 about the actor on the set in LA. It's good memories from the early days of Xenforo.
 
@XDinc has not been around either here or on xentr.net in almost a month. I have tried inquiring as to whether he is going to release a compatibility update for his Thread Ratings mod over a week ago without any response. This is the last issue preventing me from upgrading XF to 2.3 and at some point I'm going to have to abandon the mod in order to upgrade my site.
 
cwe said:
and at some point I'm going to have to abandon the mod in order to upgrade my site.
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If I were you I would take advantage of this update to do it as soon as possible. Apparently (if I'm not mistaken) he didn't even bother to reactivate his deleted addons. At this point... Why waste time...
 
Just adding my 2 cents:

I've contacted @XDinc through his site and here for the last year to help with an automatic "SPAM" ban after registering, but I've gotten no response. The support is a joke.
 
brian22 said:
Just adding my 2 cents:

I've contacted @XDinc through his site and here for the last year to help with an automatic "SPAM" ban after registering, but I've gotten no response. The support is a joke.
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This is actually the reason I never ended up using any of their products, because I am still waiting ~2 years later to be allowed to register lol.
 
Paul B said:
Previously we have not disclosed the specifics because we didn't want resource authors doing the bare minimum just to keep their resources listed.

However, as the details have now been posted in this thread, I have updated the housekeeping thread.

Paul B

Post in thread 'Resource Housekeeping'

In light of the recent discussion, this is why resources are prefixed [Unmaintained], or deleted.

Criteria for prefixing paid resources as [Unmaintained] are, author:
  • has not logged in for 30 days

Criteria for deleting paid resources are, author:
  • is no longer licensed
  • has had forum account deleted
  • is permanently banned
  • has not logged in for 45 days

Criteria for prefixing free resources as [Unmaintained] are, author:
  • is no longer licensed
  • has had forum account deleted
  • is permanently banned
  • has not logged in for 45 days

In addition, if the author...
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Would there be a possibility of action being taken when reports of unfixed issues, or (severe) lack of support are made?

AddonFlare has essentially been MIA for quite some time, and even before they completely disappeared, they were providing terrible ticket support. With the release of 2.3, and 3.0 in the future, there is going to be continued problems with people buying the add-ons without understanding they're not currently supported at all.

This is likely going to punish people who have extended unannounced hiatus (such as the recent one by @kolakube), but it is impossible to know if it is a temporary hiatus, they've just ghosted their customers and community, or they got sucked up in a wandering black hole or something.
 
Forsaken said:
there is going to be continued problems with people buying the add-ons without understanding they're not currently supported at all.
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Unlikely because it is very clear when forums are unmaintained, or that the latest versions of XenForo are not supported. It is very clear in the addon overview which versions of XenForo are supported. If your version is not listed then why would you pay for such an addon?
 
Forsaken said:
This is likely going to punish people who have extended unannounced hiatus (such as the recent one by @kolakube), but it is impossible to know if it is a temporary hiatus, they've just ghosted their customers and community, or they got sucked up in a wandering black hole or something.
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I was a little surprised and grateful that no action had been taken on my listing, which may have been likely to the addon still working even across the 2.3 update. That may not be true in most cases and if a queue of customer support plus errors/breakages build up, it is fair to take action against the listing.

Still, I have faced deserved consequences by market forces that I have to work to recover, but I am glad that the majority customers have still been able to use the product during that time. Lesson learned that if you ain't around to do the talking, somebody else is going to for you!
 
kolakube said:
I was a little surprised and grateful that no action had been taken on my listing, which may have been likely to the addon still working even across the 2.3 update. That may not be true in most cases and if a queue of customer support plus errors/breakages build up, it is fair to take action against the listing.

Still, I have faced deserved consequences by market forces that I have to work to recover, but I am glad that the majority customers have still been able to use the product during that time. Lesson learned that if you ain't around to do the talking, somebody else is going to for you!
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It's unreasonable to expect that there will never be an unexpected hiatus where the developer cannot communicate; it is also equally unreasonable for that to still remain without communication for a very long period of time. In your case, you've come back and you're working towards recovering the trust that you may have strained for clients, whereas there has still been no word from AddonFlare for quite a long period of time, and he was actively ignoring tickets even when he was active.

I used you as an example as you're one of the few positive examples I could think of, so meant no shade or anything.

Mr Lucky said:
Unlikely because it is very clear when forums are unmaintained, or that the latest versions of XenForo are not supported. It is very clear in the addon overview which versions of XenForo are supported. If your version is not listed then why would you pay for such an addon?
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The issue isn't just that they're unmaintained, the issue is that there is no communication path with the developer at all. The developer has not even responded to Paypal disputes from what I have heard.

Also, you only see that it is unmaintained in the resource, and not in the thread; a lot of people find the thread first, read it and then immediately look to click the button to purchase the add-on. Version support also is only shown within the resource, and not in the thread or in the resource listing.

I could go into a whole break down of the issues with the user experience, and what improvements could be made, but my post was solely about procedures for problematic developers who have completely abandoned their product, to prevent issues arising from lack of support or communication.
 
one-person shop type addons cannot be considered stable, ever. that person may get hit by a bus or whatever at any moment and none of us will ever hear about it, especially if the dev is in a country where news doesn't get out like that.

If you're running a pro site, your add ons need to be enterprise grade, which means some diversification in delivery, updates, support, and a disaster recovery plan of some sort. As expected, those cost more for those very reasons.
 
It’s brave of you @kolakube to come clear. And your add ons are still well maintained and asked for.

But yes, agreed with Forsaken. As a community I think it’s our duty to help each other out and make sure no funds are being lost to developers who disappear.

Although it’s also the responsibility of the buyer to check the add on and developer.

Perhaps, and this is only an idea but, perhaps we could get some kind of verification program on XF? I know this may not be in favor of the XF team, as it only requires more following up and work.
 
Mouth said:
And what % of XF addons would you consider as stable? Less than 5% is probably a reasonable assumption?
So pro/enterprise sites are constrained to ~5% of the addon marketplace.
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yes, it's a very low number.

It's also why a lot of corporate groups don't use any of them, and instead roll things out in house instead with their own dev team that they manage.

DR is a real thing.

If (god forbid) Kier, Chris, Jeremy, and Paul go to a conference and something happens... the fate of XF would be dangling and all of our sites will be at risk of stagnation, or worse. What happens then? would love if it went open source (per my previous comment in this thread).

Even better, and what most companies do, you can't put all your eggs (people) in the same basket (room/flight/etc).
 
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kolakube said:
I was a little surprised and grateful that no action had been taken on my listing, which may have been likely to the addon still working even across the 2.3 update.
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To be clear, the process is automated.
We did not make any allowances for your resources.

If your resources were not marked as unmaintained or deleted then it's because they did not meet the criteria.

Paul B

Thread 'Resource Housekeeping'

In an effort to keep the resources relevant and to prevent purchases being made for unsupported paid resources, or resources being installed with no obvious indication that there is no author support available, they will be checked periodically and any which meet the internal criteria we have defined will be marked as Unmaintained (paid and free resources) or deleted (paid resources only).

This will typically only apply to resources where the author is no longer licensed, has had their forum account deleted, has been permanently banned, or has not visited the site for a period of time...
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