By Sabih on Sunday, 10 June 2018
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For years I have been a customer of Stackideas and have tried in vain to implement my vision of websites. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that my vision simply does not coincide with that of the developers here. But before I finally give up, I would like to point out my motivations, in the hope that maybe this vision will be taken up.

If you're reading this and you're a customer, you're probably running EasySocial and wondering what to talk to your visitors in the stream or why your visitors are not participating in the stream. The answer is simple, a public social network on a topic-specified website can not work. So the goal should be to bring the topics back to the theme of the website. I want to explain how this works.

I'm going to focus on EasySocial because it's the only component that I think can become a must-have and not just an add-on.

I think that EasyCocial's biggest problem is not dynamically adapting to the content. It's a static component that works completely independently of the content. This must necessarily be changed so that you can finally work more creatively. Only a merger of Easysocial, Joomla and the content of each page will be successful. How this can work quite easily, I would like to show once.

We have several areas within EasySocial. The main stream on the start page of the component, which shows all posts within the stream. Thanks to the stream module you can also show it on all other subpages of the page. With the help of the Stream anywhere module you can also display page-specific streams.

Right here we have to start. We want the user to call, read and interact with the content. At the same time, other visitors should also be able to see this interaction and assign it to the specific content.

For example, EasySocial should automatically read categories from Joomla and other components such as EasyBlog and Jreviews, and then create filters for the stream. These filters should be selectable in the main stream and filter the entries accordingly. Not by Just Friends, but selectable by checkbox to create your own stream as a visitor, based on your own interests in the entire content of the site.

When creating an entry in the mainstream, these categories and the articles contained therein, content or whatever should be selectable to post by means of Anyhwere_ID his post on the page in the right area.



Example. Movie ratings page.

You run a movie database with JReviews and want to use EasySocial. On your subpages with Jreviews you can either use the normal stream module or the stream anywhere module. With the usual stream module, someone writes something on the subpage and no one can understand which movie this post is now targeting in the stream.
This is possible with the stream anywhere module, but the main stream of the main stream must necessarily be on a subpage to make this link. In the main stream, no post can be submitted to a specific movie without first calling the subpage of the movie. You will hardly be able to motivate the visitor to do this every time. Similarly, a visitor sees entries in the stream of areas that may not interest him. If he is not a comedy fan, he nevertheless sees all entries from the category.

With my proposal, this would not be a problem. Likewise, a visitor on such a site could create their own stream filter according to their favorite movie genre. For example, on such a page we would have action, comedy, sci-fi, etc. So the user could filter for action and science-fiction and his personal stream on the main page would show all entries from those same areas. New entries would be made film-specific and directly mapped perfectly.



Why the whole thing ?! At the moment the visitor is constantly forced to call the main page of EasySocial, which brings him away from the content again and again. Basically, it operates on two sides. Once the Joomla site with the content and once the social network. But my solution would give the visitor the choice how and when to use something. It would be a freedom where the user decides. If he just wants to use the content, he can still participate in the social network. Likewise, in the stream, the users of the social network are nudged directly to the content, without the need to share links within a page.

The vision in simple words:

Your members are on the road, sitting in the bus and calling your page mobile. At first glance, they see a personal stream thanks to the previously created personal filters and can directly see everything new to their subjects. You can join topics within seconds, because they act within the stream. After all, it's a gigantic chat that uses all the content on your site. Thanks to the previous range selection when creating a stream entry, it is no problem to find the right category for your post. At the moment you have to visit the subpage to post correctly. A nightmare when traveling with a smartphone.

In short, an elegant mix of Reddit and Discord with content.
If I understand you here, you are expecting EasySocial to adapt to existing contents from other extensions and I think that is technically possible but just not feasible and maintain-able.

Unless of course, EasySocial has it's own reviews addon instead of relying on JReviews but this also means we have to build all the extensions that people are looking for and it's pretty insane.
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Sunday, 10 June 2018 20:36
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To be honest it would have been better not to comment if you did not read the whole thing, what is the case obviously.

EasySocial should automatically read categories from Joomla and other components such as EasyBlog and Jreviews, and then create filters for the stream. These filters should be selectable in the main stream and filter the entries accordingly. Not by Just Friends, but selectable by checkbox to create your own stream as a visitor, based on your own interests in the entire content of the site.

When creating an entry in the mainstream, these categories and the articles contained therein, content or whatever should be selectable to post by means of Anyhwere_ID his post on the page in the right area.
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Sunday, 10 June 2018 22:10
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Hi Sabih

I read your post and I think I get about 80% of it.

For what it is worth. If anything at all. I am just giving you my honest opinion and telling you a little about my experience.

I have being buying Stackideas Components for going on 7 years before that I was tinkering with Community Builder for another 3 years. So lets call it a decade and thousands and thousands of Euros. Not to mention the man hours I put in. Or other people put in when I broke something or tried to get some one to help me customise something.

Two basic facts are very clear at this point.

a) I have invested a lot of time and energy and money.
b) I have not got much money back (had some sponsors from time to time.)

So I can only conclude that I am insane to be doing something like this.
And I am ok with this.

Here I take some inspiration from Thomas A. Edison
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Over these 10 years I have become way more focused and what started out as a multi user blog is slowly turning into a website where multiple users can react in different ways eg reacting to videos. In my case videos about video editing. Where my selling slogan is “Truly effective learning has interaction at its heart!” And this is my vision. I have taught in the real world and know that is where the really interesting stuff happens. Eg when student A says to student C. But you know you can also do XYZ and then there is just this magic moment.

I think it is important not to blame the tools (components) for a site not working.

In the parallel universe where I live I spend a lot of time in video editing forums.
So for a long time it was this one here was number one:

http://www.lafcpug.org

That site looked as ugly as it does today 10 years ago.
But they had their golden days with 1000s of people online the same time.
It was mainly a forum.

Or today in the video editing world I am in this site here is number one:

http://www.fcp.co/

Frankly the way it is built is horrible.
There is a Joomscoail component in there.
But even the guy who built it admits that he has put the Social side on hold = given up for the moment.

So this second site kind of took off where the first site left off.
And the thing is it has become the number one source for editing and FCPX.

The thing is that on both of the above site there has been a huge amount of interaction.
I sat with a man on Friday night who told me with tears in his eyes that a friend of his whom he had met on one of these sites had died. The guy had a heart attack whilst swimming in the sea! So that is real.

To cut to the chase these sites took off despite serious flaws for two reasons.

1) Timing.
2) And the great minds they attracted.

Leaves me with:

a) Vision.
b) More hard work.
c) And creating the best content on the planet that inspires people to interact.

If I remember correctly you are based in Germany so I guess you have heard of the “eierlegende wollmilchsau” which translated from German to english = an egg-laying-wool-milk-pig. For other none German readers (I am Irish myself.)

The idea of this fabulous animal is that it is perfect. It provides eggs, wool, milk and, finally, bacon. It is therefore the German term for a jack of all trades. Something, or someone, who can do absolutely everything.


http://blog.inkyfool.com/2013/11/eierlegende-wollmilchsau-perferct-animal.html

I mean this in the best possible way I think it is important to focus on the content and reaching some kind of critical mass of visitors via the content. And of course to be in the right place at the right time. (I believe that great minds will figure out how a not 100% perfect web site will work.) Whilst not getting too obsessed about the tools working exactly the way you want them.

Hope that all makes some kind ion sense.

Sorry have to run now as I have an edit client on the way and I need to earn some money so I can pay for another year SI support.

just my 5 cents

Paul
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Monday, 11 June 2018 15:29
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Hi Paul,

I really appreciate your reply and you are totally right with your post. There are lots of websites that have a lot of visitors and as someone who is making websites I never understood how people can visit these pages regularly.

Maybe I am too focused on the functions, I need to think about it. Frustration can have a lot of sources.

I have to admit having a vision of a specific website since I started with PHPNuke years ago. I never had a chance to realize it and it feels like now there is just a more or less small step missing and though this would push the whole component not just for me, it is getting ignored for no reason. Nevertheless I should maybe just let it go. Reading your reply and thinking about it made me think about just making it more clear and making a customization request and if it will not work I will have to leave it to be able to go on finally.

Thank you very much for taking so much time for replying to my post and even more time reading my (probably confusing) thread.
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Monday, 11 June 2018 16:43
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Hi Guys,

Personnaly I feel tired of Easysocial, Jomsocial or Community Builder.

A social network needs to be modern, intuitive, ease of use for users, with new functionnalities but also with some core tools like Search, hashtags, categories, filters, apps... really really improved and efficient. It's not the case for Easysocial.

When you compare Easysocial with Facebook, Twitter, ... you will never get the same functionnalities, improvements, constant innovation... You can't argue.

At this time, I am thinking to remove Easysocial. I am thinking even to change CMS.

With Easysocial, the time passed and it is the same thing with some gadgets in more.

I was a great supporter but sorry, today I am fed up (to hope, to wait, to ask, to waste my time ...)
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Tuesday, 26 June 2018 17:02
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Hi Tony

A little bit about me:

I have spent 20 years in the film world as a working editor which I guess makes me a young man as a film editor.
I have spent 12 years in the website world as a site admin. I guess makes me a teenager as a Site Admin.

The site that I work on started out as:


  • Page with some html announcing a monthly meeting.
  • Then it became a blog
    Multi user blog
    Site with a social element
    Site offering courses in groups.
    Finally a working shop*


*Which I will probably swap out with Pay Plans some day.

I have not made any money.

But I am building templates, so for eg I can swap out videos in Blog posts, Groups or whatever.

And videos I can make. believe me :-)

Then I have course version 1.1 and 1.2 and 1.3. With videos 1.1.101, 1.1.102, 1.1.103 etc etc etc.

As of now in a weird kind of way I can almost do pretty much every thing I want today.

Looking back in hindsight maybe I should have used Moodle as it is more suited to what I want to do today.

But one of the problems with Moodle is though that the Social side really *****.

So I am kind of riding this one out. (And the thing that I am really interested in is interaction = Social Element)

As some one who has taught in class rooms the interaction really rocks my boat.

Maybe I do not get the subtle in and outs of interaction as I am relative new to this site admin game.

But if you will allow me to borrow a metaphor closer to my editing world:

It's NOT about your Gear!



I really do not get it!

What are you waiting for?

What is that special sauce you want?

I mean this in the best possible way.

I just do not get it!

best

Paul

ps I use Twitter/Facebook and whilst they are insanely powerful I do find it very easy to get lost in noise. Particularly FB.

I saw this on FB and found it looked cool. Maybe this is the kind of thing you guys want!?! Some how?

https://www.kialo.com/tour/

Are a lot of the building blocks not already there in SI Land?
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Tuesday, 26 June 2018 18:49
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Hi Paul,

Thank you for your reply but sorry, I don't understand the aim of all your words.

What are you waiting for?


For being simple, a customizable and powerful social network with features at least equivalent to Facebook and Twitter.
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Tuesday, 26 June 2018 19:36
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When you see this: https://invisioncommunity.com/features

All is possible.
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Tuesday, 26 June 2018 19:43
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Hi Tony

By asking "What are you waiting for?"

I was trying to figure out if you were resigned to things as they are or looking for a solution and if so some idea of how it looks!

I will check out your link for inspiration.

My problem is that I have spent literally years of my life working on the perfect solution. (Used both CB & ES)
At the cost of content.
The solution that I have (Stack Ideas) might not be perfect but it is good enough for me.

Where I am at now I need to focus on content, content and content.

I guess you are in a very different place.

all the best

Paul
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Tuesday, 26 June 2018 20:37
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@Paul,

I am not resigned to find and get what I need.

Quickly now, I am looking for the right solution.

Here, I am customer since a long time and I know the improvement of Easysocial but it is clearly below for what I expected.
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Tuesday, 26 June 2018 21:04
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Hi Tony

Then good for you.

I wish you luck.

all the best

Paul
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Tuesday, 26 June 2018 21:12
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Hello,
That you give, this is what you get!
pay a few thousand dollars and get what you want!

Thank you
Ilias
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Wednesday, 11 July 2018 03:04
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Hi guys

At first, i'm using since years stackideas. And before that jomsocial.

I love everything which - the team is realy small - have done in those short time. The support works fine and also customizing things, which do not belong on them for free.

If you want a second facebook, twitter or youtube, then try to build it on your own. Easysocial can't integrate thousands of 3rd plugins/components. Better to have a small system which works internal.

On my sight, it was the best choice to use stackideas. I got everything i need. A small funny social network, a cool easy to use out of the box blog system, great comment system with a little forum like kunena. And everything works smooth with the package. Can't wait for payplans and using sellacious with this.

My opinion is, that i will never ever change to another solution. im happy with it. Those who wants to earn money from their site, shouldnt ask what the users want. Better is to improve yourself and take focus which users you will get. Stackideas doesnt do marketing.

If you got a great product - like i do - and no one has a clue why to use it, isn't it a problem of the marketing?

btw. Mark if you reading this, you and your team rocks! I want to read soon about payplans
joy
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Wednesday, 11 July 2018 05:27
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@Ilias

pay a few thousand dollars and get what you want!

I take a look to your profile and it seems you are customer here only since 2 months (first post). If you didn't some interesting information to bring to people, please let people using Stackideas components since years speaking between them. Concerning me since 3/4 years.

No need a lot of money, please check this:

59$ Breeze - Giant Social Network Platform - https://codecanyon.net/item/fasebook-social-network/20045878?s_rank=4
51$ iSocial - Social Network Platform - https://codecanyon.net/item/isocial-social-network-platform/21164041?s_rank=2
46$ Socialite - Laravel Social Network Script - https://codecanyon.net/item/socialite-laravel-social-network-script/17553328?s_rank=8

Some of these PHPScript with mobile app included (of course)

@Joy
If you want a second facebook, twitter or youtube, then try to build it on your own


No need, please check this:

59$ Breeze - Giant Social Network Platform - https://codecanyon.net/item/fasebook-social-network/20045878?s_rank=4
51$ iSocial - Social Network Platform - https://codecanyon.net/item/isocial-social-network-platform/21164041?s_rank=2
46$ Socialite - Laravel Social Network Script - https://codecanyon.net/item/socialite-laravel-social-network-script/17553328?s_rank=8

Now, if Easysocial is so perfect for your need why ask you a lot of stuff in the request section or why did you write +1 in comment on others users requests? Please take a look to my request about #hashtag https://stackideas.com/forums/top-trending-hashtags-hashtags-improvement

you have written:
+1 i was also thinking about that :> i use twitter and love this feature!


Some things must be integrated into Easysocial as announced, and these things were not; and I was disappointed.

After an interesting discussion, it could be possible. Now all is ok and I am waiting, indeed they have a lot of work to do.

I am pretty sure, if there is some major improvement and new stuff you will be so happy.

So please, if some people need to explain how they feel about some components or function, I am pretty sure that Mark or his team can understand.

Yes to me Stackideas team and Stackideas components are the best among all joomla component providers (the worst are Techjoomla to me) but all is not perfect and I think it's important for someone to tell something when something goes wrong. Everybody wins. Sometimes I can get wrong and sometimes it could help.
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Wednesday, 11 July 2018 06:46
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Hi, hi

I suspect that the whole GDPR Compliant thing threw a spanner in the SI teams works. As always if they are going to do something they are going to do it properly and that takes time. Also I tried to get Pay Plans to work on two occasions in the past. It was a nightmare. I would not be surprised they more or less reworking/rewrite the whole thing from the ground up. Coming from a family of architects I know that it is often easier and cheeper to build a new house than renovate an old stone cottage. But then what would I know.

am not going any where fast but that is ok. I do this on the side and hope some day to make some money of it…

Am very curious about Pay Plans!!!

Paul
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Wednesday, 11 July 2018 15:32
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Easysocial can't integrate thousands of 3rd plugins/components.


It can and I already gave an instruction about how it can:

There is the stream anywhere module. The way it works is simple. It creates a new row inside the database to make the module know which items to display on each page. This is called the "anywhere_id".

Now you just need to make a filter out of each anywhere_id which is simple because it contains the url of the page and the title of the page. Filter's name is the name and the path is the url.

Next and final step, read all articles out of Joomla and create a dropdown menu inside the EasySocial story box beside the "share" button with all articles to create the anywhere_id of the selected category when posting inside the main stream. To make it perfect, better have two dropdowns, categories first, then articles. By options possible to choose maybe even only categories, just be creative.


That's it. But nothing was done yet. This is the most powerful thing for such a component, not even Facebook got something like this.

But did you ever hear of the stream anywhere module? Probably not, because it was advertised really, really bad. I assume you do not even know what I was talking about when you read the bold text due to missing knowledge about the stream anywhere module.

Do not get me wrong, I do not blame anyone for this. But it is disappointing to see if such a great team as Stackideas does not smell this potential and despite of integrating it, goes for Twitter login or similar crap.

Imagine having a Reddit like page with the technology of EasySocial and the content of Joomla. That would be the result. You can use any component availabe and make it work with EasySocial without any configuration and instant.
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Monday, 16 July 2018 04:45
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I look at these posts from time to time and read carefully how other people work with EasySocial Products.

My opinion is that many private social media web developers try to compete with Facebook or Twitter, LinkedIn etc. Or at least dreaming about a copy product.

Considering that such companies with a huge budget work with hundreds of programmers, I find it remarkable that one person can build a product with Stackideas bundle packages.

I'm not a coder but I can buld nice looking websites. I find the support of Stackideas remarkably good. I work alone and no matter what software I will have in my mind, it will always turn out to be a 1 man show.

It always starts with a prototype at the beginning. I have seen a lot of documentations about startups in Silicon Valley. An apartment in the Bay Area cost about $ 3,000 a month. If you start a company with 5 -10 people you already need some 100,000 dollars.

Because of such immense amount of money people cannot start without investors. We should leave the church in the village. With Stackideas products, a single person can make fantastic prototypes. I'm from Germany (Sorry for my English). I have lived in California for some years and can say - I am glad that I can work with Stackideas solutions from home.

Conclusion: The software is good, on a very high standard and the support is simply fantastic. The software is not the problem anyways! In my opinion it all starts with a good idea, an exciting topic and a lot of energy.
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Thursday, 27 December 2018 23:52
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Conclusion: The software is good, on a very high standard and the support is simply fantastic. The software is not the problem anyways! In my opinion it all starts with a good idea, an exciting topic and a lot of energy.


Agree with you 100%

As a matter of interest, where are you based exactly?

Greetings from Berlin Germany (from Ireland)

Paul
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Friday, 28 December 2018 01:55
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Thank you Paul,

I am from Emsbüren Germany which is close to the Dutch border very close to Lingen or Osnabrück.
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Friday, 28 December 2018 11:42
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