Sa-weet!

I'm also really eager for ES 1.4. However someone asked "When will you release the next version of EasySocial?" in which Mark replied "Probably in a week or two. I have published the API for the points here, http://docs.stackideas.com/developers/application_triggers/points".

This could just mean a maintenance release. Before raising one's hopes too much it's a good idea to know which kind of release he is talking about. They have been busy with working on EB 1.5. However if they do happen to be far into the development of ES 1.4, it will be a big delight to many of us.

Hey guys,

I don't really like to be a bearer of bad news but we have decided to take things one step at a time currently. In short, the entire team will be working on EasyBlog 5 to get it out as soon as we can and as great as ever. We want to be creating history and not just another "minor" update to the extension itself. We have refined our workflow and we believe that it's the best for everyone. As soon as EasyBlog 5 is out, we'll be shifting the game over to EasySocial again.

Some of you have been questioning about the release cycle of EasyBlog and as posted on the rest of the threads in the forum, we are bogged down by both support and holidays. We don't want unhappy programmers working on the project eh Apart from that, EasyBlog 5 has been rewritten for almost the fifth time now and it's not because we are having issues with it but it just didn't felt right and we definitely want the best for everyone.

With the above being said, we always believe in a win-win solution for you as a customer and for us as the vendor. Most of you guys that has been very supportive by renewing your subscription despite the delay of the release will be rewarded, whether is it EasyBlog, EasySocial, EasyDiscuss or Komento. We only ask that you have a little patience and with the upcoming releases, I am very sure that you will be extremely satisfied with the results

Also, I have been bashed lately with very similar questions like this, and I really hope that if you are going to post something like this again, my answer would remain the same:

Please let us know when it's going to be released. We will only want to renew the subscription when it's released.

This is a feed back that is certainly very disheartening to see simply because when you are renewing your subscription, it's not merely just for the product itself. You are also getting support out of it and we still do release minor releases now and then which also has minor enhancements. In fact, for the prices worth, you are already getting a bargain on our support itself.

Mark,

This is not bad news at all to me, it's actually good news, as getting EasyBlog 5 first makes most sense to me. I am sure it is not bad news at all to many others who have the same full faith and respect for you and your management decisions to put the entire team on development of EasyBlog 5 to get it out as soon as you can, and as great as ever. Patience is worth it to get what I believe will be revolutionary new version of EasyBlog 5 first, and I know you will deliver the same with EasySocial 1.4 when you focus on it next.

I believe in you and your team Mark. You always come through with developing awesome extensions to deliver win-win solutions for your customers, and your support is the main reason why I upgraded both my subscriptions when they expired. I also made my decision to support you and the rest of the StackIdeas Team, by reneweing my subscriptions for both EasySocial and EasyBlog earlier this fall, because I know that each day people work hard to deliver deliver the most kick a$$ products put out by any Joomla vendor or social solution/blogging vendor.



You can count on me and have my full patience for whenever you deliver what you believe is what you think is you and your team's best work. Everyone deserves to be with family during holidays, and you and your team are no different, and anything I can do to help just let me know.

Thank you for your continuous support Randall This is what keeps us going and speeds up development too!

I appreciate the thoughtful responses Mark and Randall. I'm curious what inspirations we might be able to take away from EB5 and possibly apply to ES. I'm still very pleased with ES 1.3.13, it's still by far the best Joomla extension I have ever seen. Joomla does decent on it's own, but if someone asked me why I choose Joomla over any other CMS out there, I would tell them that EasySocial combined with Joomla goes far beyond any other extension/cms that meets my needs on the entire internet.

But putting the awesomeness of the extensions aside, the stacked team has had my back since day 1 back before I was even allowed to own a debit card (due to my age). This is an honorable staff that I would gladly support which is also why I try to make sure the best practices are being used. Don't let the quitters bring you down. There are many of us who have patience and are very excited with the work you are doing even though we have yet to see it in terms of EB5. I for one believe in the Stackideas and have full confidence that it will be something exciting for bloggers and their audiences. Keep up the amazing work, and don't over work yourselves. I know what it is like to want to produce a perfect result and continue to keep crafting it to maintain the best practices, so from my end I very much understand/appreciate why EB5 is still in progress.

I have cancelled my subscription today. Not because I do not want to support Easysocial, I have been a subscriber since the very first release without actually deploying on a live site and don't really require support until that time. I've really been waiting for 1.4x and some of the proposed Photo album enhancements. I don't use EasyBlog so the reasons for delayed progress with EasySocial 1.4 are just that to me, delays.

I do understand the the focus on getting one product right before moving onto the other. I witnessed the Azrul empire collapse with Jomsocial eating up all the resources for MyBlog and MyBlog disappearing altogether with its loyal customers. Dont really want to go there again

As soon as EasyBlog 5 is on the right path I will resubscribe again and watch the Easysocial 1.4 roadmap patiently again.

Dave

It is a frustrating time for all, I understand that, but suggest we just need to be patient a little bit longer.

I remain (as Mark knows) fully committed to the Stackideas team and will be using their products in a new project launching later this month. There are always times in business when unfortunate delays occur but in this market, where the end product and long term support are critical, Stackideas provide top quality in both areas and are a benchmark for other Joomla suppliers to follow.

If Stackideas had moved forward with ES1.4 in the last quarter of 2014 and said EB5 would be released in the first quarter of 2015, we would all have been happy with the schedule but they tried to do too much too soon. They raised our expectations with an offer matched to an unrealistic deadline and as we were used to expecting miracles it seemed perfectly normal.

It is a rare event but they screwed up, they know that, it happens, there will be a correction for those who signed up to the offer and we move on, wiser for the experience.

I am sure EB5 and ES1.4 will both be excellent updates and look forward to using them when they are ready for release.

Like a good magic trick, Stacked makes "Easy" software, but you don't always see how hard it really is to pull it off and make it happen. Each day innumerable commitments are made and kept by company team members in our support forums. However, if a company lives long enough, they will encounter a rough patch. But Stacked maintains day-to-day transparency and honorable dealings with customers and enjoys a long track-record of delighting customers with powerfully "EASY" software. This demonstrates to me that they remain the best and will carry the year.

There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple [a/k/a/ "EASY"] that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.

– C.A.R. Hoare (British computer scientist, winner of the 1980 Turing Award)

Another way to put it

Nine people can’t make a baby in a month.

(regarding the addition of more programmers to get a project completed faster)
– Fred Brooks (American computer scientist, winner of the 1999 Turing Award)

Dave Logic wrote:

I have been a subscriber since the very first release without actually deploying on a live site.

I understand this and am in the same boat. I've been working on my Joomla site for 6 years! I've worked with a lot of developers over this time and have abandoned a lot of ships. The Stack Ideas however I know is going to pull it off quite well and are constantly aiming at doing it right. So yes I'm not gaining my audience just yet, I'm supporting the stacked team to be able to pull off their next major release. As for support, even if you do not need any support (due to no user contributions) there are always minor issues to look for as well as better practices to identify. While the stacked team is busy with EB5, this is what I'm aiming my support requests at so that once ES 1.4 is out, it will be a rock solid component. So while it may be slower than before, I'm not waiting silently for things to work out for the release of ES 1.4. I've even made a few CSS corrections recently (one that is going into the core in the next release) as well as one that is considered. My point is that we as the community can still get things in that use the best practices as long as everyone benefits from them.

Mark's point was that telling him that one is quitting due to no ES 1.4 is not going to make him go faster (or make him feel good). The main reason because he knows that he will not push a release with lots of issues/less quality just to speed it up. If we wanted a basic video system we all would have gotten a separate component by now.

Mark,

Proposal to Volunteer to Assist You and Your Team
The project I am working on requires the best extensions that StackIdeas can deliver in EasyBlog 5 and EasySocial 1.4, and I will offer my assistance (volunteer basis/no compensation expected) to work with you and your team to develop world class documentation/tutorials, marketing/sales material, and anything else I can do to assist you to offload tasks that can free up you and your team members to work on development tasks to make these two extensions the best you and your team have ever delivered.

I will maintain complete confidentiality to keep the EasyBlog 5 and EasySocial 1.4 projects confidential, and if given access to early alpha versions to create the documentation for the extensions they can be installed and tested on the locked private access prototype StackLessons.com site that will be kept strictly confidential with you full access as Administrator. I have been slowly working on this past few months at the same time as my main project. This new StackIdeas Extension focused education training based site would also allow for a good showcase site when both extensions are released to the public.

Imagine the value added by delivering full end user documentation and video tutorials to customers, as it can help to lessen the tech support requests etc.

I believe in you and your team, and extra hands and assistance can help take mundane but necessary tasks to free you and your team up for more important development tasks. Let me know what I can do to assist you and your team.

Randall

Guys, give the Stackideas team some fresh air. Don't mean to be harsh but i spend almost a year working on my project JUST modifying open-source software to achieve what i need, and when not possible developing my own stuff from scratch.

Imagine that these guys while they code new versions with the right hand, they respond to support request with the left hand and fixing bugs on current versions with their feet

They must keep up with a suite of products, in the same time they must provide us support .... and belive me that the support you are getting is TOP NOTCH (not once they provided me with simple or medium complexity custom code ... for free, hardly you will find somebody out there doing this)

Of course i needed certain features on EasyBlog part
Of course i need some features on EasySocial part.
What about EasyDiscuss ? Rembember the good ol' fellow EasyDiscuss? No discrimination, ok ? Of course i need a better uploader there and some other improvements.
Of course i need a "unified" editor for all products that will support @mentions across the entire product line.
Of course i need other optimizations or features ... everybody needs them, according to their own scenario.

What i learned ?

1. DON'T HOLD your product waiting for some possible feature that open-source software might offer in the future.
You are just being "cheap" hoping to get the impossible in a specific timeframe without you putting a dime out of your pocket for your custom needs and just invest a lame subscription amount.

2. Work with what you have NOW and do your own custom stuff as third-party development OR WAIT for the open-source software to implement it .... when they can, if they can but don't "cry" like a baby and pushing open-source software developers to offer you the entire galaxy, in 2 days if possible, for 10$ and a coffee.

3. Again, don't be cheap and please get out from the "newbie" mindset.
NO, with 100$ you will not build the next Facebook, no matter how hard you try, no matter how many subscriptions you buy

4. You need a EasyBlog version that will make sandwiches ?
Ok, inspect where this feature is to be expected in the releases timeframe, add a certain amount of time (weeks,months) for the delays .... and if this timeline does not suite you. Write your own code or hire a developer to write it for you.

Just my 2 cents. Hope i didn't upset anybody, and if i did .. i am sorry !
Let's just be realistic !

PS: And yes, i have an active subscription for 4 products EVEN if i don't really need specific updates for all of them. I just know that whenever i need support in my project where i implemented those 4 products, these guys from Stackideas will help me right away.

Mist wrote:

if they can but don't "cry" like a baby and pushing open-source software developers to offer you the entire galaxy, in 2 days if possible, for 10$ and a coffee.

Very well said Mist, love your word choice about offering the galaxy.

my initial response to this thread was going to be that I hoped EB5 would come first. I didn't respond based upon Mark's previous request not to badger the programmers and sink their morale. I've also held back asking for support hoping to see EB5 any time soon. So I am happy to hear that EB5 is a priority.

That said, Dave Logic makes a valid point and the same concerns that I expressed to Mark when EasySocial was first conceived. All of us also have morale concerns and people we are also accountable to. Some of us have been working for years with Joomla since it was first forked from Mambo (heck I go back to php nuke). Watching promising products come and go (and investing our time and money into them as customers) because of poor support and developers who are always chasing the next big thing regardless of their customers is discouraging. Hoping that a team like Stackideas will come around and do things right for the long haul is what is encouraging.

Paul said:

I didn't respond based upon Mark's previous request not to badger the programmers and sink their morale. I've also held back asking for support

I followed the same path Paul, my post above was the first since October and I have not raised any support tickets over the past few months (tbh i found what i needed by patiently searching the mass of forum posts made since the launch of Stackideas.... )

I don't have any concerns over Mark and the Stackideas team, they are a very dedicated and professional group of people. The current situation is (imho) a small error in forward planning and managing customer expectations and just normal 'growing pains' as Stackideas moved from a new to an established premier company within the Joomla community (and beyond).

I am sure 2015 will be their best year to date as (if I assume correctly) they update the initial portfolio items (in turn) to integrate with EasySocial as part of a centralised platform instead of development as individual products and move on to add new components once that process is complete.

Hi guys,

Thank you for all of the input. We welcome all sorts of comment and critics, as long as it's conveyed in a well-mannered and shows respect to all parties involved. Mark is currently in the midst of some development tasks (he's allocating more hours in dev and sacrifices his time in support... and his sleeps) so he can't give out fast response like how he used to.

We will continue to push the development's pace and will deliver EasySocial and EasyBlog as soon as possible. Thank you all for your kind words and support.