Hey there,

The reason that we are removing it is because conversations in EasyDiscuss is starting to show its age and many sites powered by EasyDiscuss either do not utilize conversations or uses a different conversation system. This is why we are now removing Conversations from EasyDiscuss 5 altogether.

You would need to find a conversation system for your site.

This really *****. It was an integral part of my community and most forums allow users to private message each other. What conversation systems do you recommend?

Hello Dexter,

To be honest with you, we have mixed thoughts about this as well but its not going to be possible for us to maintain EasyDiscuss if we keep a feature that is so huge and being redundant across our extensions

For instance, the conversations in EasySocial is so much better than the built-in conversation in EasyDiscuss. If we were to update the features in EasyDiscuss, we end up maintaining two different conversation system (which is also the same problem we have with Komento)

If you are seeking a similar conversation experience, I would stick with EasySocial instead. In the near future, we will be making ConverseKit as a standalone product instead of relying on EasySocial.

Just an update on this, we are looking at the possibility of adding this functionality back into EasyDiscuss 5 until we are able to find a better transition for existing users who use the conversations feature on EasyDiscuss in the future.

Makes sense. Why take away something people are already using when there isn't a replacement? It would be very hard for me to explain this to my members. Thanks.

No problem Dexter. Our intention is to have a centralize conversation system instead of having to maintain a conversation system in several different extensions.

Just an update on this, we are looking at the possibility of adding this functionality back into EasyDiscuss 5 until we are able to find a better transition for existing users who use the conversations feature on EasyDiscuss in the future.

I'm happy to hear you are planning to reconsider this feature for ED5. In my opinion, there seems to be a spectrum in Joomla extensions that either starts on the social side and may have forum/discussion functionality, or starts on the forum/discussion side and may have some social functionality.

If you were to remove the social /conversation piece from ED5, I think you are missing out on an important strategic option. I believe there is a gap "in the middle of the spectrum" and people would prefer a forum/discussion product with STRONG social features over a HEAVY social product with light forum/discussion features.

So I would like to put in my suggestion to not only maintain a Conversations function in ED5, but to go as far as possible with the ability for users to interact. I don't mean photo/video/audio stuff as is common on true social extensions, including I believe your EasySocial one also. I mean more of a Microsoft Teams concept of direct chat, group channels, that kind of thing.

Looking at what happened with Slack and the Salesforce acquisition of that platform to compete with MS Teams, I think there is some message and lesson there even for EasyDiscuss strategy purposes.

Also, you can really differentiate yourself that way in the market vs the other forum offerings. I have looked and tried the "leading" one but think it is a big mess - they can't even put up a decent website. Another common one is provided by what seems to be a very anonymous company, unlike your approach. You have the longevity, clarity of StackIdeas team members behind the product, transparency of product history, changelogs, well-organized website, proper support, etc.

ALL these things are necessary IMO for a website developer to have sufficient confidence a product so one can be assured to not be making a commitment to what is potentially a dead end street in a few years, after the community has grown and depends on the product.

So I would highly recommend a clear strategy for EasySocial as the starting point for one set of users and EasyDiscuss as the foundation for the other type of users, with enough social functionality in EasyDiscuss that it too works well for building communities.

I look forward to what ED5 will bring and remain fully committed to your product!

Just an update on this, we are looking at the possibility of adding this functionality back into EasyDiscuss 5 until we are able to find a better transition for existing users who use the conversations feature on EasyDiscuss in the future.

I'm happy to hear you are planning to reconsider this feature for ED5. In my opinion, there seems to be a spectrum in Joomla extensions that either starts on the social side and may have forum/discussion functionality, or starts on the forum/discussion side and may have some social functionality.

If you were to remove the social /conversation piece from ED5, I think you are missing out on an important strategic option. I believe there is a gap "in the middle of the spectrum" and people would prefer a forum/discussion product with STRONG social features over a HEAVY social product with light forum/discussion features.

So I would like to put in my suggestion to not only maintain a Conversations function in ED5, but to go as far as possible with the ability for users to interact. I don't mean photo/video/audio stuff as is common on true social extensions, including I believe your EasySocial one also. I mean more of a Microsoft Teams concept of direct chat, group channels, that kind of thing.

Looking at what happened with Slack and the Salesforce acquisition of that platform to compete with MS Teams, I think there is some message and lesson there even for EasyDiscuss strategy purposes.

Also, you can really differentiate yourself that way in the market vs the other forum offerings. I have looked and tried the "leading" one but think it is a big mess - they can't even put up a decent website. Another common one is provided by what seems to be a very anonymous company, unlike your approach. You have the longevity, clarity of StackIdeas team members behind the product, transparency of product history, changelogs, well-organized website, proper support, etc.

ALL these things are necessary IMO for a website developer to have sufficient confidence a product so one can be assured to not be making a commitment to what is potentially a dead end street in a few years, after the community has grown and depends on the product.

So I would highly recommend a clear strategy for EasySocial as the starting point for one set of users and EasyDiscuss as the foundation for the other type of users, with enough social functionality in EasyDiscuss that it too works well for building communities.

I look forward to what ED5 will bring and remain fully committed to your product!

I couldn't have said it better. I've tried other products but there is nothing in between.

Thanks for your input on this. This is why we plan to move the existing conversation features out of EasyDiscuss so that we only focus on a single conversation system (ConverseKit in this case).

As of now, we have to maintain 3 separate conversation systems in 3 different extensions and it is starting to wear us down.

Thanks for your input on this. This is why we plan to move the existing conversation features out of EasyDiscuss so that we only focus on a single conversation system (ConverseKit in this case).

As of now, we have to maintain 3 separate conversation systems in 3 different extensions and it is starting to wear us down.

Thanks for the update; appreciate it. I'm not familiar with ConverseKit's features and just looked at them. I'm assuming you will make multimedia features things that can be turned off, I hope. For some sites, it is more the community functionality and not the Facebook like features that matter. Just talking with people about topics and connecting with them in modes other than "forum postings".

I like where this is going and understand it is impossible to keep 3 code bases going.

Thanks!

Thanks for your input on this. This is why we plan to move the existing conversation features out of EasyDiscuss so that we only focus on a single conversation system (ConverseKit in this case).

As of now, we have to maintain 3 separate conversation systems in 3 different extensions and it is starting to wear us down.

Thanks for the update; appreciate it. I'm not familiar with ConverseKit's features and just looked at them. I'm assuming you will make multimedia features things that can be turned off, I hope. For some sites, it is more the community functionality and not the Facebook like features that matter. Just talking with people about topics and connecting with them in modes other than "forum postings".

I like where this is going and understand it is impossible to keep 3 code bases going.

Thanks!

Yep, definitely. Currently ConverseKit requires EasySocial but we are going to make it standalone so that like you said, it would work for sites that do not require extensive social networking functionality.

Yes, every feature in ConverseKit will be made configurable

What is the status about this at the moment?
We did use this so people can assist others with problems on there site. They could exchange things such as passwords to have access.
This is no longer possible at the moment and a big loss.

Hello,

You could actually enable the legacy conversation feature in EasyDiscuss 5. Are you having issues with that? It was initially disabled in the beta but we have since added it back in 5.0.1

Yes we did, but it will be removed in the next release. Which release will this be?

Hello,

I am really sorry for the delay of this reply as it is a weekend for us here.

As of now, it will not be removed. It will only be removed once ConverseKit is released for free and everyone can then migrate to ConverseKit with a built-in migrator.

ok whats happens to users who use easysocial and easydiscuss togehter will there not be an option to have notifications of easysocial conversations will you remove them too? is not possible to add in the toolbar the letter notification icon back? maybe a mod position that adds the notification module of easysocial in easydiscuss toolbar?

Our plan is to move all our conversations into one single system, ConverseKit. We'll figure out a way on how we could handle the toolbar integrations in the future

Right now we have 3 different conversation system:

1. EasySocial
2. EasyDiscuss
3. ConverseKit

We are also receiving feedback from customers using EasyBlog that they want their own conversation system too. If we do that, we will have a nightmare maintaining all these different conversation systems.

οκ it sad though that a free option goes commercial but if it is like facebooks one then who knows maybe we pay some extra:D

Let's see how this goes. We may even make ConverseKit free version along with a paid model.

My two cents worth... whether it's paid or not, any decent forums system includes private messaging.

Nearly had a fit when I upgraded and discovered it was being removed, only to be somewhat relieved at finding this discussion.

I've enabled the legacy Conversations mode and look forward to a unified solution across all your products in the future.

My two cents worth... whether it's paid or not, any decent forums system includes private messaging.

Nearly had a fit when I upgraded and discovered it was being removed, only to be somewhat relieved at finding this discussion.

I've enabled the legacy Conversations mode and look forward to a unified solution across all your products in the future.

Yes, we will be unifying our conversation extension which will be made available for free which can be used alongside the rest of our extensions and EasyDiscuss.

The problem we have right now is we have redundant features on each different extensions and moving forward, we need to have a better solution rather than having to update the conversation feature in each of these extensions.

Can we get an update on this topic.
I am assuming that the new ConverseKit developement is ongoing?

Hello Joey,

EasyDiscuss still includes the conversation as of now. It will still be maintained until we release the free version of ConverseKit.

Any time line for Converse Kit release?

- 2022
- 2023

Hello Joey,

We don't have any time frame as of now but the conversations in EasyDiscuss will still continue to work.