CTA Featured Threads & Portal [Paid] 2.17.0

[Brent W]

However, it works brilliantly, and like has been said there isn't much more to add

Yea, I get that. It works now. Not a single person in here is worried about what is happening on Oct. 2. Well, unless you count the one person who Brogan already told wouldn't have his issue fixed because development was stopped.

 

[Mike Edge]

Yea, I get that. It works now. Not a single person in here is worried about what is happening on Oct. 2. Well, unless you count the one person who Brogan already told wouldn't have his issue fixed because development was stopped.

Agree, my concern is not today or next week. It works great and does what it is intended to do. My concern is what happens come xF 2.0.

 

[Paul B]

Are you going to label this as Unmaintained? Stop selling it? Or continue taking people's money?

No. No. Yes.

Why would I do any of those things?
I am still answering questions and providing support.

Apart from a very minor overlay scroll issue, for which I will shortly post a fix, the add-on is bug free and fully featured.

People like you annoy me.
Just because you buy a license you think you own the developer's soul until the end of time.
I have some news for you. You don't.

You paid for a license with the functionality as it was at the time.
There were no promises made about any future features, functionality or anything else.
So everything since has been a bonus and provided free of additional cost.

It's ironic that you of all people should be whining when you were caught running multiple unlicensed copies and then reacted in an extremely hostile manner when I challenged you about it.

Agree, my concern is not today or next week. It works great and does what it is intended to do. My concern is what happens come xF 2.0.

It would need to be rewritten for XF 2.0 anyway so the point is moot.

Also, as Chris has already stated, development had more or less come to a natural end.
Other than some very niche features which I have been contacted in private about, there's not much more that can be added to this add-on.

 

[Paul B]

So what's actually broken right now that needs to be fixed?

Nothing, other than an extremely minor fixed overlay scroll issue.

 

[Brent W]

No. No. No.

Why would I do any of those things?
I am still answering questions and providing support.

Apart from a very minor overlay scroll issue, for which I will shortly post a fix, the add-on is bug free and fully featured.

People like you annoy me.
Just because you buy a license you think you own the developer's soul until the end of time.
I have some news for you. You don't.

You paid for a license with the functionality as it was at the time.
There were no promises made about any future features, functionality or anything else.
So everything since has been a bonus and provided free of additional cost.

It's ironic that you of all people should be whining when you were caught running multiple unlicensed copies and then reacted in an extremely hostile manner when I challenged you about it.

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

You specifically stated that it would not be fixed to a member of this forum due to development being stopped. That is an exact quote from you. I don't own your soul and never said that I did. You are the one being a drama queen right now.

I would need to make a change for that but it's unlikely to happen as development of this add-on has now come to a halt due to it being pirated.

As far as me and you go, the issue was resolved as soon as it was brought to my attention. This also happened with one other developer, @Chris D and he handled it in a much more mature manner than you are doing now. Since you wish to bring that up here, lets talk about how unprofessional you have been over the course of XenForo's existence. Especially during the lawsuit days where you abandoned XenForo and made cryptic, unhelpful comments on admin sites about the owners here.

If you can't handle people disagreeing with your methods after you take their money then you should probably stop selling **** here. I have been nothing but polite and asked nothing but legitimate questions that others have also asked.

You are the one that has now stepped outside the realm of courteous. If you have a problem with me then feel free to try to resolve that with me privately. I asked questions, simple as that. Questions that others also asked.

 

[Paul B]

I Think I can reproduce the issue in the support site:

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Edit the cta_featuredthreads_images template.

Change this:

<form action="{xen:link threads/featured-thread-images, $thread}" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" class="formOverlay ctaFtImageEditor">

To this:

<form action="{xen:link threads/featured-thread-images, $thread}" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" class="formOverlay NoFixedOverlay ctaFtImageEditor">

I have already edited the support site so you can see how it now scrolls with the page background.

 

[Lisa]

Just because you buy a license you think you own the developer's soul until the end of time.

We don't? Damn it, @Brogan it was your soul I was after!

 

[petertdavis]

I bought a bunch of licenses to it, doesn't that entitle me to at least a small chunk of your soul?



/just kidding, I'd be happy enough to just know there's a long-term future for the project

 

[Shelley]

Your biggest mistake was adding a portal to featured threads. Personally, I would have been happy with just featured threads. I'm sure you'll not take this advice but you should break the portal side of this add-on away from featured threads because I think your crazy providing this much work/quality for so little return.

I personally haven't used this add-on for about a year now (10 months to be exact) but I can only imagine the time and effort spent to the point quite a few people think they own shares on your life.

Eitherway, whether development stops I couldn't really care. I paid for featured threads and got an array of features (more than I expected). Break the portal away from featured threads if your carrying on development your selling yourself, your time short.
@Brogan

Brogans portal - Needs increased in price plus yearly renewal. And broken away from featured threads.

 

[petertdavis]

I think it would be fair to have an annual fee for the upkeep, and/or an upgrade fee to rewrite it when 2.0 comes out (which is a long time off, of course). Breaking featured threads away from the portal wouldn't work for me though.

 

[Shelley]

I think it would be fair to have an annual fee for the upkeep, and/or an upgrade fee to rewrite it when 2.0 comes out (which is a long time off, of course). Breaking featured threads away from the portal wouldn't work for me though.

Of course it wouldn't work for you, or 99% of other people because they are getting an absolute bargain. Featured threads should be just that, featured threads and I don't say that as a complain for the inclusion of portal threads but rather that because the portal is an add-on that deserves exclusivity.

Why? Well, because it's an add-on that can be improved with many features added to it plus the developer could be adding to this for years. In it's current form there is absolutely so little return on it, the developers is spending wads of time adding to it, and more disturbingly - PEOPLE ARE SHY OF EXPECTING A CMS.

Not here to take sides, I'm not, but i know exactly how it feels when people want more from you and expect to own your time and I only provide for free. When anything paid is involved some will act like they own you (bit like some of the players on TITANFALL) where I'm currently trying to do the next gen challenges, it can be frustrating.

- Portal - New pricing = annual renewal. << suggestion
- Featured Threads - Standalone. Always thought highly of this add-on. (I think i was the first customer) #fact Break it away.<< suggestion
-Titanfall next gen challenge - I should have it done today, but boy, it's driving me bat **** crazy.

 

[The Sandman]

Needs increased in price plus yearly renewal.

I don't disagree with you, but the issue du jour is piracy, and I don't see how a significant price increase would help to solve that.

 

[petertdavis]

Of course it wouldn't work for you, or 99% of other people because they are getting an absolute bargain. Featured threads should be just that, featured threads and I don't say that as a complain for the inclusion of portal threads but rather that because the portal is an add-on that deserves exclusivity.

Why? Well, because it's an add-on that can be improved with many features added to it plus the developer could be adding to this for years. In it's current form there is absolutely so little return on it, the developers is spending wads of time adding to it, and more disturbingly - PEOPLE ARE SHY OF EXPECTING A CMS.

Not here to take sides, I'm not, but i know exactly how it feels when people want more from you and expect to own your time and I only provide for free. When anything paid is involved some will act like they own you (bit like some of the players on TITANFALL) where I'm currently trying to do the next gen challenges, it can be frustrating.

- Portal - New pricing = annual renewal. << suggestion
- Featured Threads - Standalone. Always thought highly of this add-on. (I think i was the first customer) #fact Break it away.<< suggestion
-Titanfall next gen challenge - I should have it done today, but boy, it's driving me bat sh-it crazy.

It's not about price for me Shelley, it's that the separating wouldn't work. To me it would be like a book without pages, or pages without a book. I use the portal as a place to show featured threads, featured threads are shown on the portal. Take one or the other away and I'm standing on only one leg. I've already bought licenses so raising the price of the license is moot to me, but I've already stated that I think it would be fair if Paul charged an annual maintenance fee or an upgrade fee for a new version when XF 2.0 comes out. I also think it would be fair if you charged for your smilies and mood icons, and I'd pay you for those too.

 

[Shelley]

I don't disagree with you, but the issue du jour is piracy, and I don't see how a significant price increase would help to solve that.

It's far from just piracy. I like to think that looking at the long term rather than short term (what you can gain) yields better rewards both for yourself and the developer. Xenforo community is like the Apple of this world. Apple will pay peanuts to it's employees yet customers here are doing the same thing. Whether you think this doesn't relate it most certainly does, if there is minimal return due to piracy (which I'm sure there is) then this does not motivate the developer to continue. IMO - A new pricing structure needs to be entertained due to piracy (users using multiple instances on 1 license) It most certainly does relate, obviously more than you would like to admit. It just doesn't affect you as the consumer because of the bargain we're all enjoying.

I could argue that we got what we paid, Featured threads. Reality is the author delivered a year ago on this.

A price increase I agree but that is a short term outlook imo, renewals are also needed.

 

[The Sandman]

You and I don't set the price - Brogan does. I don't presume to know him well enough to understand the reasoning behind the decisions he makes, but I get the sense that he's the kind of add-on developer who creates something that he wants, or that a limited circle of friends want - not to make a profit. The fact that FT went viral and became so popular is both a blessing and a curse in this case. I imagine that the price he charges is the amount he feels is necessary to justify the time and effort he puts into the thing. He can certainly raise the price if he wants, and/or charge a yearly renewal and/or break it into bits if it suits him. My point was that a price increase will most likely make piracy more enticing to unscrupulous individuals.

I think that Brogan is taking the piracy personally - feeling that he's being disrespected in spite of his hard work and reasonable price. Understandable, but unfortunately unavoidable as long as he continues providing us with his work, which I believe is his point.

 

[Martok]

My point was that a price increase will most likely make piracy more enticing to unscrupulous individuals.

Price is irrelevant, scumbag pirates will make available both free and paid add-ons (cheap and more expensive ones) available of pirate sites. I don't know what drives them to do this - someone will have paid for the software in the first place, so why do they then make it available for free to heck knows who on pirate sites? To me, if I have to pay for something then so should others too. I just wish there was more that XenForo could do to shut down these pirate sites - I've reported several yet they are still up and distributing pirated software.

 

[Paul B]

I would be the first to admit my business plan was non-existent and all wrong for this add-on (now).

When it was a simple block of a featured thread it was fine.
The add-on is so much more than that now though.

Although sales have been relatively high, the time spent on developing and supporting it means I haven't even earned minimum wage on it.
Far from it.
That's my own fault and no-one else's though.

Still, we live and learn.

When I write a new portal for XF 2.0, I won't make the same mistakes.

I may even crowd fund it...

 

[Lisa]

You already know my thoughts on the whole thing, @Brogan - I'd be happy to pay a yearly renewal on FT. It's gone way above and beyond what it was initially designed to do.

I can't do anything about the piracy, I actually think you've done an amazing job to keep it locked down as long as you did. But, in all honesty, it was just a matter of time before it leaked out. An unfortunate byproduct of the most-wanted addons.

 

[sami simo]

I agree, an annual fee would be fair, but until the portal for XF 2.0 is out. anyone can support this addon by purchasing additional licenses. I have purchased 3 licences, when in the reality I'm using only one.
the no existence of business plan is bad for both: developer and customers.

 

[Gazhyde]

FWIW I'd be prepared to pay an annual renewal too.

As an aside, and I was saving this for the next time I had to write a review. This add on isn't just something which makes my life easier, but is really valued by my members (although they don't understand that it's an "add on" or particularly care). This was something I hadn't really considered till I was chatting with a couple of them at a recent car show meet up. I had assumed (and probably through my own ignorance) that it was mainly viewed by new visitors who would then once signed up go straight to the forums each time. It appears a lot of the regulars use it too!

I guess what I'm waffling about is that sometimes we forget that we have "customers" and they do appreciate what a quality "product" we give to them. This add on truly adds value to my site because I was told it does by my customers

From a feature point of view though, I can see why there isn't really any need to develop it further. It already has 20x more features than I expected from it when I bought it.