Add-on XenReviews [CrowdFund]

[SelfSufficientMe]

Jeff continually expressed how he couldn't commit much time to develop XR due to various reasons until he eventually gave up.

I understand you are now implementing measures to give you more time with XR and that's good but the project has lingered on far too long so what it needs is somewhat of a resurrection to give us (and potential new) customers confidence that we haven't peed our money and time over the past 2 years up against the wall.

If you find the extra time still isn't enough then perhaps open the project up in partnership with some of the other developers here - there seems to be quite a number of active individuals and teams very capable of doing a good job I'd imagine many would jump on board if they got a share of the eventual sales.

At the end of the day as Alfa1 says - something needs to happen here - so I hope it does because I still think a dedicated reviews system is a much needed addon for Xenforo.

 

[Alpha1]

The project has a lot of commercial potential. Probably enough to feed a small team. And its very close to an initial release.

 

[cdub]

doh - site is still down

 

[HWS]

XenReviews needs a massive rewrite. The only person who was easily able to look through the complicated bloated code was the original developer. He should have brought it to version 1 and not leave in it's alpha stage, this is really disappointing. It would be just a few days work for him to get to a base where another developer could easily overtake. It is also a bad sign if the original developer quits in that stage. It means he also has lost his trust into his own code and to ever be able to get it "right".

Now, most licenses are already sold. I doubt that this project has commercial potential to pay for the lot of work it needs. Which is very bad because there was a good idea behind it.

 

[eberkund]

XenReviews needs a massive rewrite. The only person who was easily able to look through the complicated bloated code was the original developer. He should have brought it to version 1 and not leave in it's alpha stage, this is really disappointing. It would be just a few days work for him to get to a base where another developer could easily overtake.

What makes you say that?

 

[HWS]

What makes you say that?

Which part of my comment needs explanation?

 

[Daniel Hood]

I think, why in the world it needs a rewrite for example.

Sure, there's some bloat. However, this code is nowhere near unreadable. There is no way I'm rewriting it. You're also implying it's too complex or written in some hard-to-understand form. That is not the case.

As far as it being a bad sign that Jeff left.. Jeff didn't leave because the project was going poorly or he couldn't finish it. He left because his time has been consumed by much more profitable ventures. While I understand that you guys don't want to hear that, because he (and I -- despite already being removed from the project) have an obligation to finish the project, it is incredibly hard to blame someone for turning down a ton more money.

Anyways, I'm back, I'm working on the project, have been for a while, and everything is fine. I wish he'd get on Skype to get the droplet transferred and back online, but aside from that, everything is moving along. Let's please not start rumors about there being a rewrite or that there needs to be or that the project is doomed or anything of the sort.

 

[cdub]

Any idea when you'll put another build up on the XenMods live site so we can help you test it there too by adding items and reviews etc?

 

[eberkund]

Which part of my comment needs explanation?

Mostly the part that I quoted about it needing a complete rewrite because it is bloated. And also that spending a few days to get it to a point where another developer could easily take over seems to contradict the first point that it needs a complete rewrite.

 

[eberkund]

As far as it being a bad sign that Jeff left.. Jeff didn't leave because the project was going poorly or he couldn't finish it. He left because his time has been consumed by much more profitable ventures. While I understand that you guys don't want to hear that, because he (and I -- despite already being removed from the project) have an obligation to finish the project, it is incredibly hard to blame someone for turning down a ton more money.

I completely disagree, I can very easily blame someone for that.

When you commit yourself to something it is, like you said, your obligation to finish it or at the very least work out an acceptable arrangement with the people you were in an agreement with. I wasn't part of this project when it first started out but in retrospect it seems like this sort of thing should have been addressed in the contract (if there was one). I have had to tell people in the past that I am currently busy with other things and sometimes the person might be willing to work around your schedule while other times it might mean losing an opportunity, but that is just the way things go sometimes in order to keep your word.

If Jeff knew that he would be dropping the project the moment something better came along he should not have accepted people's money before he had actually delivered anything.

 

[Daniel Hood]

your obligation to finish it or at the very least work out an acceptable arrangement with the people you were in an agreement with

I'm not going to argue with anyone about this.. that's the exact reason I came back to it after all this time. I know that development on XenReviews is essentially costing me money, but I also know that's nobody's problem except for mine because I did start this. What happened between then, and me starting back up on it, doesn't matter. I still have the obligation, and I'm back.

I get both sides of it though. I feel like I'm good at putting at myself in other people's shoes. Because of that, I can't blame you guys for being mad and I also can't blame him for taking better opportunities. While I may not agree with it, as I'm in a similar situation and still working on it again, I can still understand the rationale.

 

[Mike Edge]

I wish he'd get on Skype to get the droplet transferred and back online, but aside from that, everything is moving along. Let's please not start rumors about there being a rewrite or that there needs to be or that the project is doomed or anything of the sort.

I would like to donate a VPS to you from my server nodes. Then we can move past this obstacle of the server going off line monthly because Jeff didn't pay for it and you having no access to the account to fix the issue. VPS will be yours, free of charge from me, you'll have full root access and access to the SolusVM control panel, to reboot, re-image, whatever you need to do. PM me how much RAM and disk space you require and will make this happen over this weekend. I'll even install whatever you need too, MySQL, Webmin, PHP, GIT, whatever.. This just helps you have one less thing to deal with to focus on the project instead.

 

[Daniel Hood]

I appreciate the offer. The issue is that I really need the content from the droplet either way. The $5-10-20 a month really isn't a big deal. It's just the fact he couldn't transfer it before because of having personal content on there, and now he's not online to do it. Once I get in touch with him to get the content back, I'll consider it more.

Thanks.

 

[Mike Edge]

I appreciate the offer. The issue is that I really need the content from the droplet either way. The $5-10-20 a month really isn't a big deal. It's just the fact he couldn't transfer it before because of having personal content on there, and now he's not online to do it. Once I get in touch with him to get the content back, I'll consider it more.

Thanks.

Sounds good, you know how to find me when your ready.

 

[HWS]

I think, why in the world it needs a rewrite for example.

Sure, there's some bloat. However, this code is nowhere near unreadable. There is no way I'm rewriting it. You're also implying it's too complex or written in some hard-to-understand form. That is not the case.

As far as it being a bad sign that Jeff left.. Jeff didn't leave because the project was going poorly or he couldn't finish it. He left because his time has been consumed by much more profitable ventures. While I understand that you guys don't want to hear that, because he (and I -- despite already being removed from the project) have an obligation to finish the project, it is incredibly hard to blame someone for turning down a ton more money.

Anyways, I'm back, I'm working on the project, have been for a while, and everything is fine. I wish he'd get on Skype to get the droplet transferred and back online, but aside from that, everything is moving along. Let's please not start rumors about there being a rewrite or that there needs to be or that the project is doomed or anything of the sort.

I hope, you are right. Time will tell…

And about the developer: He has been paid to do this job! Leaving it after a year of hard work and (those are his words) "shortly before finished" (he promised to release an RC next) is a bad sign you cannot interpret in any positive way. This is really all you can say. Hopefully the "ton of money" allows him to pay for the restart of his server soon...

 

[cdub]

Daniel - any idea when you might be able to get a new build up and let us know how much progress you've been making?

The site still appears to be down.

Maybe with the git repositporty you're hopefully working out with @eberkund we can do some crowd sourced developing since we aren't doing any more crowd funding.

It's coming up on film school application season again in a couple of months and I'd love to have the review section up and running.

 

[Daniel Hood]

I'm working on it. Bout to start doing front end stuff that you guys will see reflected on www.xenmods.com/reviews. I'm not sure when I'll be putting up another build. I kind of need to get the data off the droplet before I can release a build -- I can do it without the data but it'll be a more complex process.

The sites still down, I could get it back up by changing the dns of the server but I need to export to have all the latest posts and I can't do that without the old droplet being online. Currently my plan is to wait for Jeff to come back online so I can see what's up with it. If I have something impressive for you guys before then, we'll go the much more complicated route so I can get it out to you all. It's just not worth it at the moment.

I've talked with @eberkund, he doesn't seem so sure what all he can contribute but he's going to try. I'm just trying to get to a point where we can have some organization and a good starting point for him to start.

I understand your need and trust me, I want you all to have your reviews system.

 

[Digital Doctor]

@Jeff Berry - can you give Daniel what he needs to keep the project going ? It's one thing to quit a project, but to block progress on a project you left ... seems pretty unfair.

FWIW.


I am pretty sure I know which parties were responsible for encouraging XRGrid, XRblah-blah.

A version 1.0 of a SIMPLE reviews addon should have been hammered out in 3-6 months.

 

[Daniel Hood]

@Jeff Berry - can you give Daniel what he needs to keep the project going ? It's one thing to quit a project, but to block progress on a project you left ... seems pretty unfair.

Jeff has been helpful, until he stopped getting online. Posting messages like this isn't going to accomplish anything for two reasons:

• He's not online to view it
• All it can possibly do is start an argument resulting in making things more difficult.

With the exception of XenRepo (which was never really started from what I can tell), those things were needed. They didn't have to be separate add-ons, they didn't have to be as complex as they ended up, but the concepts for them had to be included. Having them as other add-ons made sense so that people could turn them off if they wanted. There is no reason to revisit this discussion though, which has happened several times, it's done now.. undoing it would be a complete waste of time. May as well take it for what it is.

 

[cdub]

Currently my plan is to wait for Jeff to come back online so I can see what's up with it.

Oy... that'll take a while based on my experience. Oh well.

Thanks for keeping us posted. I completely uninstalled the old version of XR on my test site as it was doing so much strange stuff. It'd be good to start again with a fresh version anyways.