Have you seen...?

[CedricV]

I now understand why Invision Community has closed their marketplace.

 

[Paul B]

Perhaps a good future measure to take is to update your automated housekeeping process.

A solution that could have prevented this could have been to simply provide XF staff an alert if no reply to a resource thread was made by the developer in X days after another person made a reply there. Essentially, count the days from the developer's last post in the thread to the reply and add X days after no developer reply, reaction, or engagement (to include "last read") in the thread whatsoever (as they could be reacting in order of responses to fixes). If it's over X days total, flag it for manual review and investigation. It would be even more evident if 10, 20, or even 50 add ons by the same developer were flagged on the same day.

This matter would've been taken more seriously weeks ago if there was some kind of thread monitor for resources in place, because by your own admission, no staff are assigned to check into resources until it's too late and reported, only relying on automation as a fallback.



I understand that there are 1000s of resources and this could drastically increase manual moderation, but it could be applied to paid add ons at the very least (not template modifications, etc.), or the premise of this suggestion refined to a point to not let this happen again, even if it's for 1 add on by 1 developer, as that could more easily slip through the cracks.

Apply it to the most clicked (popular) add ons? Paid ones? Etc.?

It was also mentioned that he's been bypassing housekeeping by logging in and not responding.



That begs the question, as a developer with so many add ons, does he have a XenForo API key, and are those logins done via API requests to perhaps automatically alert him of issues on his end? Because if that's the case, it could've easily been picked up on too, much sooner, if you can differentiate a XF forum login from an API request that might record it as a "login" (I am only speculating as I don't know if an API request would log user interactions the same way as on the forum itself, but if it does, that should be looked into).

Or ... members could just use the existing report function.

 

[Suzanne O]

Or ... members could just use the existing report function.

Or make it a rule for addon creators to submit a support ticket with the message that they are going to be away for a period of time. Asking you guys to help them out whilst away.
Integrity goes a long way.

 

[Paul B]

Are you denying this possibility to avoid any sort of liability?

We have no liability at all for third party resources.

We are just not going to waste development time on a bespoke system for the 1 in 1,000 instance where an add-on developer tries to circumvent the automatic housekeeping.

 

[cdub]

Jezus, give the guy a break. I’d walk away too with all these nasty comments.

What nasty comments? I haven't seen any nasty comments. People are just wondering where they are and why it's been 3 months since they've received a response.

i dont expect personal details but seriously this is very unprofessional....even a simple, "i have some personal stuff going on, idk how long it will last, but {xyz is being done, and im intending to see the update work completed, or....im not positive if i will be able to but im trying, or im hiring help as needed}....etc whatever....anything.....

Yes this is literally all that's needed and I think everyone would be very understanding if they had real life things going on. I'm mostly concerned that they're ok.

 

[Chris D]

So I don't look crazy and why I'm so vested in this to find a future solution:

View attachment 312283

$1,105 in custom development over the past year.

If Ozzy has to pass on development to someone else, things that need addressed for my custom developed add ons go on the backburner, because they will be handling development of his regular add ons.

XF could've done better is all I'm saying. There's obviously no legal liability, but there is a moral obligation, which especially holds true if my suspicion is correct about the API key logging in to bypass housekeeping—that, if possible, should not be tolerated and the key revoked, if there's even a way to differentiate.

End rant.

Waiting till Monday to see the outcome.

You keep talking about an API. There is no API active here. If the methods of logging in are automated, there's no way for us to detect that.

 

[CedricV]

What nasty comments? I haven't seen any nasty comments. People are just wondering where they are and why it's been 3 months since they've received a response.

Agreed. Nasty was a bad word choice after waking up and reading this thread. I shouldn't be replying when I haven't had coffee yet.

Still, some replies could've been worded with a bit more respect. Maybe they didn't have coffee yet either.

 

[Chris D]

Big assumption. You don't think that would be a feature we'd advertise if it was the case?

Regardless

 

[Forsaken]

Thank you for clearing the air with such great transparency after the nth request.

The matter about how he's circumventing housekeeping, when it comes to XenForo involvement, is laid to rest.

You need to see a therapist.

 

[James]

The matter about how he's circumventing housekeeping, when it comes to XenForo involvement, is laid to rest.

He's just circumventing it by logging in and doing f-all.

 

[Forsaken]

It isn't hard to circumvent; you could do it with a scraper (Scraperr/Crawlab are both open source and easy to setup), could do it with a refresh script on a VPS .

This isn't the first time that Ozzy has gone inactive, which is the main reason I'm not worried even though I've funded multiple custom plugins. I do hope he comes back and explains things to XenForo, but people who are demanding he answer for his crimes of having a life outside of XenForo... Really need to grow up.

 

[🔥Iggy🔥]

i dont think "last post per support thread" makes sense but last post anywhere could possible be a flag....i think most active forum owning members noticed this a while ago....i didnt realize it was something that could be reported, but im also not sure i would rush to push them to delete everything ASAP when an issue came up...

it could be nice if free addons were not deleted and simply moved to unmaintained....as many of them still work.....idk if its a copyright concern or what but it does seem like there may be a little middle ground here to improve dealing with cases like this.

 

[Paul B]

it could be nice if free addons were not deleted and simply moved to unmaintained

That is the case.

Thread 'Resource Housekeeping'

Feb 17, 2016

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...

• Paul B
• Replies: 2
• Forum: Resource and add-on discussions

• 

 

[Forsaken]

Sure.



Or see my PayPal balance go up if my custom developed add ons will no longer be supported so I can find a new developer.

But spending $1100 and trying to find a way for others to not be in my situation in the future makes me the crazy one.

Ok.

You fixate on things and argue them until you're left with no way to argue, but still cannot have the decency to just admit you were wrong and apologize for spreading misinformation multiple times within said argument. To date, whenever XF has said they are handling a situation they have handled it, and they quickly said they were handling it .

And I'm not going to argue about money spent on custom development, as I have spent way more than $1100 . We already know that he is likely to be back from @Max Taxable, however he is busy with something, but you know that the add-ons are not being abandoned.

It's a ****ty situation, but it happens, and being toxic because you're obsessed with the subject isn't helping anyone, especially when you're badgering XF staff when they're already handling it.

 

[cdub]

I do hope he comes back and explains things to XenForo, but people who are demanding he answer for his crimes of having a life outside of XenForo... Really need to grow up.

3 months is a very very very long time to be away with no communication when one has 600+ addons available for purchase/download and even more so in the middle of developing a custom Paid Registrations addon a bunch of us have given money for them to do. Thankfully the addon is fully functional but not officially released. Being MIA with no communication at all for 3 months when you are responsible for 600+ addons is why people want responses. Of course people have a life outside of XF... I fully understand that. It's the lack of communication that is off.

 

[cdub]

We already know that he is likely to be back from @Max Taxable, however he is busy with something, but you know that the add-ons are not being abandoned.

Where has this been communicated?

 

[Forsaken]

Where has this been communicated?

On his site, link on the first page of this post.

3 months is a very very very long time to be away with no communication when one has 600+ addons available for purchase/download and even more so in the middle of developing a custom Paid Registrations addon a bunch of us have given money for them to do. Thankfully the addon is fully functional but not officially released. Being MIA with no communication at all for 3 months when you are responsible for 600+ addons is why people want responses. Of course people have a life outside of XF... I fully understand that. It's the lack of communication that is off.

I feel he should communicate if he needs an extended leave, but that is also up to the person himself. I do not feel he owes an actual explanation as people are demanding, as purchase of an add-on doesn't give you the right to know every detail about someone's life which is how some people act.

Even if he (or Max) post an update, people are still likely to be entitled *******s, but that's what I just come to expect of most people here.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Ozzy's absence is a glitch in the matrix.
seems like a solid character.
I hope his situation improves. Rooting for you Ozzy

 

[MySiteGuy]

I now understand why Invision Community has closed their marketplace.

What they did is a classic case of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[JamesBrown]

Whatever is keeping you away from here Ozzy, I hope you get it sorted soon mate. Best wishes.