The opening post contains a list of requested features. I do not develop myself. This thread is intended to either make developers aware of the demand for a reviews CMS, or to collectively hire developers to create this for us.

In recent months we have been waiting for various developers to come through. Unfortunately this does not seem to result in the release of a working & advanced reviews CMS. Its getting time to either attract a reliable party to create this solution, or to hire a party to create it.

vb-commercial is indeed one of my sites.

Alfa1,

I just found this thread because I was looking for a review site. I have written to a few other companies out there that make reviews, but do not yet have a plug in for vB, but they do have plug ins for other forum platforms which would lead me to think they might do it for vB. If they would charge we could pool our money and get it done. If that does not work then let's just go hire some programers with the specs you have created, pay the money and get this done. Have you priced this with programmers yet?
Brandon

Okay I have an Idea of a featured content widget with no slider or javascript. Very plain, and doesn't put extra load on to your home page load times.

How about we make a Featured Content Box type of thing like Wordpres. It will be a widget that will static images and text below with a read more link all pulled from the 3 -4 articles we want to feature. it has to be done in a way so that it doesn't load every time and cause server loads or delays.


something like this...

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachmen...5&d=1335271748

Finally got so tired of waiting for others to climb on board here, ireviews looked the best so I just bought it.

Thanks for the link and good luck to everyone!

Cheers!

Can you please post a thorough review of ireviews? Does it work with VBSEO? Thanks.

Full iReview (vbcover) is: Don't waste your money on iReviews . ( http://www.vbcover.com/ireviews.php ) It was a waste of $129.99, bloated and did not work the way I expected. It needed template alteration ( okay, I can do that, but you cannot customize it to our need). It needed support code changes because it was dated, and we are not able to customize how reviews are rated in the open post. In other words, if I want to populate my content first and allow my users to comment or rate a product, I must always be forced to rate it too, otherwise it disabled the entire rating process!

This is not acceptable because it would be like a store always giving their product a 5 star. Something so simple like that cannot be disabled. After that downer, it was in the garbage.

Unfortunately, there demo is really lame. You cannot know the details until you download it and iReviews has your money. After one hour I knew it was not for us and begged for a refund. Not a chance there. No refund. You touch you pay.

To describe what I need in words: I want to be able to add products exact to what the manufacturer specs are ( unrated), with one image and then below, allow readers to rate the product or add a comment of any size.
I don't want to be forced to rate a product I add.

Here is an example of what we are looking for (without the need to sell it), we are not a store:
http://www.sweetwater.com/c542--Pro_Tools_LE_Systems

So you need the function to just have a product presentation without editor rating, but with user rating?

Anything else?

Yes!

ROFL!

I will add it to the feature list:

• Option to choose to only have editor rating functions or only user rating functions or both.

perfect.

If adding content was as easy as creating a thread, that would be ideal. Everything I do is copy/paste.

Super. We have May and so far no Beta 3. Money paid for a beta version and now the forum is offline for 1 week. I think our money is gone or has anyone information about what's going on


Greetings from a very disgruntled customer

It looks like we've spent the money for nothing...

It does look like forumsmods has fallen through completely.
Never pay for a product unless its fully functional.

Hello all,

Even if I'm sure that my post will "moves the water", and most probably it will takes negative comments, I dare to make this post, as I'm sure that some users will understand my point of view, and will agree with me.

First of all, I want you to know that, except coder, I'm also client just like you. I've spent a lot of money buying 10+ vB addons, and over than 100 PHP scripts. I believe that I've the biggest collection:D.

I don't know if forumsmods gone offline for ever, and I don't wish it. Maybe the coder, just felt broken, and wanted some days of relax. Happen to me too.

But if he really adopted the project and the site at all, what's the real reason for it? I believe that most of the reasons below are enought for him to get such a decision:

1. @Alpha1 : With all the respection to you and to your rights to ask the best value for your money, don't you think that your feature list is extremely long even for a standalone script? Have you ever wonder how many of the opther members who participated this thread, are really needing all these exotic features?
2. According to that list I don't think that should be someone who will gets the decision to code it for public use, but only as a custom work. Yes, I can code a mod having 100% of the requested features. But it will takes me more than 100 days which means (according to my rates for custom work), around 25,000 Euros. Are you willing to pay such amount? Or are you able to guarantee that you'll find 1000 clients to pay 250 Euros each? I don't think so.
3. That famous "GARS" compatibility. I wrote it in a previous post here. It can be done, but only by copying the database structure and work the mod on this structure. Why? Because the analysis of this mod is totally wrong. Have you ever find any reviews site where category "A" has rating scale 1-10, but category "B" can have rating scale 1-5 and so on? Is this normal? This is the best way to confuse your members. Everybody can accept 5 stars as best, ot 10 stars as best, but to all products. I'm nearly 100% sure that forumsmods, stoped at that point. To copy something wrong just to be able to release an importer.
4. Now the critical point... Lets forget my own proposal above, and lets think realistic. Even if the original post and the first ones are showing a passion to have such a mod, how many do you believe that are ready to buy it? Reading the posts an unexperiant coder maybe thinks ..."Ochhh, there are 1,000s who will buy it". Wrong. I can guarantee that there are no more 30-40. Lets say 50. 50 Sales X $50 = $2,500. Who of use will waste 100+ days of hard work for $2,500 ???????????

As a last word, I'll use Alpha1's suggestion "Never pay for a product unless its fully functional" is a different way: "Never ask for new features, before you have the 10 most important ready".

As for me, I adopted the project just for this reason. Because every day a new feature was added in the lists. I prefer to adopt one month's work, than to add daily headcaches in my head.

PS: A last comment for BigTree and his bad experiance with Lionel. I had the same bad experiance with iCart and vBMultipages. But I have to admit that Lionel is doing the best (from business side view). He has a dozen of commercial mods, but none free. Even the simple ones (eg vBMultipages) he is selling it. But he comes here very often just for asking. Never to give. And by having ALL the files 100% encrypted is sure that for every custom change, you have to pay him for it, even if its something that you can do free on your own.


Thank you for reading
Chris

On many points you're right Chris, that was the reason I asked first for a basic functional working product instead of implementing all this extra stuff only a few people may need.
And I'm sure if he would have done it this way we may have it right now.
All what I've seen on my install but especially on his test site was the proof of a great product.
He only had to make it bug free, write more instructions how to use it and the importer.
Then the sales would be way more than only 50. I would have bought at least 2 licenses.
Basically there should be a volume of > 500 sales.
But as I said, it needs more than just throwing out a non finished product without any instructions.
Don't know why he shut down his site but as I could read he was working on some custom stuff and couldn't deliver.
Maybe he expected more sales in the beginning and was confused about all this extra feature wishes he wanted to implement, don't know it...
I just can hope he can get his act together and finally present a working product.

This is the right (and most fair) way for both sides. For the coder and for the Clients. By giving the basic functionality, the coder is not investing a lot of time. So it can sell it for a low price eg $30-35. That price covers for sure his work as should be many users who will buy it, just to have a simple reviews system in their site.

From that point, everything can be done right based on a fair agreement between the coder and all those clients who want something more. eg "I can add these 10 extra features" but I want $500. If the clients who want those additions are 20, then its just $25 for each one. I reasonable amount for something specific.

But even if the coder does not want to add more features, you're always free to hire another coder to add the extra functionalities. The most important is to have the main script.

By giving a list with 100 features since the first release:
1.- It will cost a lot of money
2.- It will never be finished,
3.- (...worst of all...) as it will be coded in rush, it will be full of bugs.

That's my opinion. As for forumsmods. To be honest I was following his site aftre his first release. Nothing bad at all. I was just seeing the incremental of user registrations. When, after a month, I seen that he has only 20 new members, which means 10 (at least) spam registrations and 10 real members, I understand his feeling. I bet that he hasn't more than 6-7 sales. So he spent a really long time on coding, expecting the thousands of porential clients, and finally he got nothing.

But I'm also feeling you as client. I've also payed eg for AWC Donation Pro, Subscription PRO and other mods, and I seen recently that forumcoding.com is actually not operated.

Chris

This thread is getting close to seeming like price negotiation. That is not going to be allowed here.

The original post was to get a list of people willing to pledge money to get this mod created.

Please select someone to speak for the group and they can negotiate with a coder in private, via PM, email, or other means.

Please do not turn this into a negotiation or it will be locked.

Don't see this happen, but it's your decision.

This thread was started because we are a BIG bunch of people still stuck in 3.8 due to being tied with Gars. So regardless of what you think is right or wrong in that code, at least an importer/converter (tell it what you like) must appear if you like your product to be in any way sort of helpful for us in this thread. If you can't provide that, then don't waste our time, it's been too long again waiting for nothing to happen and it's getting quite a frustrating situation.

No, I'm not wasting your time. I've wrote since my first post here that I don't plan to release any importer. So, I'm not saying something new now. I post my comments trying to make clear why none coder released anything 11 months now.

Chris

This project has started as a request for a CMS content type. Later on it turned out that the vbCMS is not a feasible platform for this and it doesn't look vbCMS will get a rewrite ever. So the project changed to an integrated CMS.

22 people each pledged a substantial amount to hire a coder. No coder has been selected yet, as Adrian and you came in announcing that you would release a reviews addon. I thought it fair to give you both a chance to release something and see where that leads.

The list of features is not an arbitrary list, but is the compilation of what these 22 people want.

Nonetheless, you are free to release any feature set that you think is right, and I am sure that there will be people who are interested.

Regarding GARS: you are correct about the insanity of some features, but the reality is that some of us have many thousands of GARS entries. 11.000 in my case. As you can imagine its not an option to loose that data.

You are right that its a big project. Not every coder is able or willing to do a big project. I've seen that many times before. But there are coders who do deliver such projects. Its time for that now.

I didn't said that importer can't be done. Actually is an easy job BUT ONLY for those who where using one rating scale. eg When I was using GARS, even, as you know, there was the option to set the max rating scale, I was always using 5. So, in this case is easy. But if you've mixed rating scales, most probably an importer will mess it.

Chris

I have no stake in this project from either side but if the arbitrary rating in GARS is an issue it seems like it would be easy math for an importer to convert any scale to a 5 point scale during an import.

So 3 of 10 becomes 1.5 of 5 which rounds to 2 of 5... It's not perfect but a lot better than nothing.

To avoid wasting your time, I want to inform you that I'm out of this project. As BirdOPrey5 wrote, this thread became just like an auction.

I think that the best way to have real results trying to combine funds, is to make a post in Paid Request, and when you'll have a quote for it, then try again by changing the title to something like "Lets combine $xxx dollars for a Reviews CMS".

Regards
Chris

I think coders are permanently damaging their reputation with thousands of clients by promising a product, having people wait a very long time, and then never delivering. It would be far far better to release a version with only the most important features and the other hundred features could be potentially for future releases if sales warrant it. I certainly don't expect even 15% of those features to be implemented in a first retail release. my 2 cents.

I think that you're dreaming. There are no thousands of clients anymore, not for vB, not for all forum scripts, but for all php scripts platform and scope independent. There were thousands till 2008-middle 2009.[/quote]

Because I'm one of them, what I've to say is that, as long I didn't got a single cent from anybody I'm not obligue to do anything. As you're trying to find out how many coders will be interest to get over this project, on the same way I'm trying to find how many potential clients there are. And unlike what you're saying I bet that there are no more than 50. Go throught the full thread which is already 11 months old. How many shown interest for it?
Another point that you must give attention (if you're fair in critic,,, i believe it...), is that there are already 2 mods in the market, plus one free. I believe that they're enought for a specific market. That's why I stopped working on it when Forumsmods released its own addon, even if I had wasted more than a month working on it.

Chris

Thousands of clients sounds like an overstatement. Though popular addons like photopost, vaulwiki, vbseo do have a high volume of sales. The demand for a reviews CMS is widely documented. Its one of the top voted requests for vbulletin. The response in this thread gives a good indication.
If you would have finished your product. Even if forumsmods would have come through, then you would have had sales.

There has been interest from coders. But its a big project and its my experience that big projects tend to fall through if 1 coder does the entire project.

The only that I can do from my side is to give for free full copyright rights of my current code to anybody who is interest to continue developing it. I believe that I've clear and well commented code, and ofcourse I'll be beside him for any advice that maybe he/she will needs. Maybe this will be a good way to prove that I had never in mind to tease all those who were waiting this mod.

From the other side I'm doing this work for living, and this period is the worst for my country and me as citizen of this country. In addition I need to take care for my daughter too, who, after 12 years in Airlines fired from her job.

So, if anybody is interest, just contact me. And when I'm saying full rights, I mean full rights. Not even any refference to my name inside the files, not even a thank you. Actually I'll feel better knowing that someone is using it, than having it in my disk.

Chris

I wasn't talking about thousands of clients for you specifically and for this specific review add-on. I'm talking about the thousands of people who may come across threads like this and see how things are handled, promises broken, etc.. When someone says they are developing something, people rely on that and put other things on hold (and wait a long time), then, after making people wait, they get absolutely nothing (or close to nothing). I wasn't even referring specifically to any one developer. It's not about money, it's about reputation (which can affect future earning ability). If you say you'll do something, in my book, you do it. If you find out you can't do it, you tell people as SOON as you know and don't leave them hanging. That's just my beliefs, not an attack on anyone specifically.

--------------- Added [DATE]1336600095[/DATE] at [TIME]1336600095[/TIME] ---------------

...Then you should have posted in this thread and told us months ago that you decided to stop working on it. Making people wait and wonder is not a good thing. That's all I'm saying. I think you're a very talented coder, I'm just expressing some frustration about the wait that I'm sure many other members have. Thank you.

Chris, why not finish the basics of the mod and release it to get some cash?
I am willing to pay for it if it is working OK. I don't need half of what is in the feature list in the first post, at least not right away. I think it is always a good thing to let mods develop over time. That gives bett quality...

--------------- Added [DATE]1336813940[/DATE] at [TIME]1336813940[/TIME] ---------------

Another question for Chris: how far are you from a proper release?

...lol.. Do you mean from donation? ... After 2 years still I haven't completed $75 :D

Proper but medium in features release? 2-3 days max

Chris

Years to days seems like simple math to me. If you only have twenty member purchase it for $30...that is $600, sure that may only be 5 cents an hour :) , but those 20 members could snow ball into 200-300 then thing start looking good. Keep product updated and start adding more features then step price somewhere between $30-$200.

How many product have others purchase because of a great implantation someone is using on their own site.

Two things that bother me for add-ons.
1. Free add-ons that seem to always just fall off map with no more support. (expected for free)
2. Paid add-ons that seem to have had heyday period in 2009 and now nothing.
Scariest thing for me is implementing an add-on that admin,mods and members love but just falls off map. (probably why lot of large sites still using 3.8)

Either way support or at least the illusion of support and interest is what keeps a product viable.

Take vBulletin as an example,sure it seems like I'm constantly doing an upgrade but VB does a great job with announcements and what is on the horizon.

ChrisTERiS I have been to your site several times and have a tough time navigating site to find products...for a vB coder my perception is your vB site would be setup properly. I know it's hard to be a one man show and try to make products and keep site up to date but unforgivably enthusiasm and professional projection is also required to grow a great product. We all need a little dose of excitement every so often.

Even with just few members posting in this thread I bet it has a ton of silent members waiting to pounce on something.

Sorry for mess of rambling but trying to watch Formula 1 qualifying also.

I see the same pattern over and over... Vastly unrealistic time-lines, unrealistic estimates and unrealistic promises. I'm not saying it's intentional but it's what keeps happening, and I don't mean being off by 10-20%, but being off by like 500-2000%....

Sorry, but do you have something against me? In everything that I'm saying you've always something negative to say. I don't think is polite. Final I'm not a criminal. I'll appreciate if you let me alone. And finally I'm not posting in random. All my posts are replies to specific questions. And finally... have you seen any estimate? He ask me how long it will takes me to finish it and I said: in 2-3 days max. Didn't said on Tuesday. I've 7 custom projects on hands now. When I'll finish them, and if I decide to waste my time with this mod, then (and only then) it will takes me 2-3 days to finish it. I don't plan to let out some thousands of real money, betting for some hundrend possible dollars.

Thank you
Chris

--------------- Added [DATE]1336853270[/DATE] at [TIME]1336853270[/TIME] ---------------

Have you seen anywhere a buynow button? A Cart with products? No. Well, only this means that I'm a honest person. As long as I know that the reality is that I'm very busy with custom works, and thus I'll be unable to support well my clients, I turned it off.
But my forums for my current clients is working. Right? My response time is very good.

So what you prefer? To find a nice site, with a nicer shop system open, and when you'll pay you money which most probably are coming from your hard work, you'll find that nothing except the download links works? Have you visited forumcoding.com? It has everything and the shop is open. But just read the forums and you'll understand how "soon" you'll get a reply in case that you want support. Forumsmods.com which has release a review addon. He got the money and 2 weeks now they're ...upgrading the system.

Sorry I don't like to do it. When I'll be ready to support my clients, then I'll open my shop. Till then no orders accepting.

Chris

--------------- Added [DATE]1336853602[/DATE] at [TIME]1336853602[/TIME] ---------------

..... especially if you compare those 5 X 8 = 40c with 250 Euros which is my daily rate. If I haven't custom work on hands, yes instead of nothing I had to work on it. But as I said before I've currently 7 projects opens. Only an idiot will drop them for some cents.

I know that I sound rude but this is the reality worldwide. Everybody of us (I believe you too), we're giving attention to the jobs with the higher income. Or I'm wrong?

Christeris,

No I'm not attacking you personally.. I've only stated my opinions on time line estimates in general. People are responsible for what they say and do and the reputation they create. I haven't said a nasty word, and I don't know if there is a language barrier. When someone says 2-3 days, I don't think people think that means it's going to be after they finish all their other 7 projects, which means it could easily be 6 months, 12 months or more, who in the world knows. I'm glad you cleared that up for everyone to see a perfect example of what I'm talking about and how things get miscommunicated.

This is not an attack on you. I have had to give estimates myself in the past and have learned a LONG time ago that my gut reaction is usually WAY less that it will really take -- I have learned through experience to increase my estimate on how long I think it will take by 50 to 100%. Many developers are ridiculously overly optimistic on how quickly they can get things done. I stand by my statement that I do see the same mistakes over and over with estimates -- that's my honest opinion and I think people should get used to this reality. I also think open honest and frequent communication is essential. If a project is dropped, people should be told as soon as possible. I don't think I'm the only one with this opinion, especially one who has been around as long as I have. Again, I don't have a problem with you, so please don't take the attacks personally. You don't have to defend every comment I make, many of them are general statements about development in general and not targeted specifically towards you. I, for one, am glad you are a vbulletin developer. As I've stated, you are a talented coder.....

I too wasn't attacking you. You were have been on this topic from day one and think you haven't gotten a fair shake here.
The way it read was you have 2yrs in it and would only take 2-3 more days to finish it.

As to your site I personally would like to see more on the Info pages that include some screen shots and descriptions.

Well i have started making Reviews Mod for vB 4.x. (already written 800 lines of code). My mod has its own section and category like vBCms has. (i have not integrated with forums like other have done in past).

Category and Sections (backened) pages are done, today will be doing custom fields part.

http://awesomescreenshot.com/0585hxu9e

Will release two version of this mod (Free here and Pro on My site)

Here we go again. :rolleyes:

keep them updates coming.

@Chris: with cash i mean sales, not donations.
If the mod is working fine and has at least some more then the free review mod i am willing to pay for it. (as long as i know that you have the time to support it and develop it, but i know understand that that is exactly the problem)

Maybe you should try to team up with some other codes, like dbtech did.