At a crossroads, need some advice!

Long story short...

Waited months for issues with my original install to get fixed or updated, never happened...

I have clients ready to spend some advertising money, and plan events around the launch of one of my sites running Dolphin.

I've put them off for far too long, and am at risk of now losing them to some rumored competition who has a lot more money to spend on a system similar to Dolphin's.

So now version 7 has come out in "beta", and as I check the forums almost daily, there is no end it seems to the bugs and other little issues keeping it from going to RC1.

So my question is, should I scrap this whole project together and sell the domain I was going to develop (thus far valued in the low 5 figure range)?

OR

Do I install 7, tell everyone it'll be a little longer, but there is definitely progress happening?

I know there is no hope of converting my old site to the new version, but I am in a position now that I have to show my clients SOMETHING, anything, showing what they can expect as far as ad spots and a general overview of what the site will look like.

I get a couple of sign ups a week right now, all pretty much accidental, considering I have never publicly launched the site.

I am just afraid if I wipe my old install, install the latest beta, then do my marketing, that a month from now I'll run in to the same situation I am in now, and all the people signing up or looking at the site will have to do it all over again, for a 3rd time.

My site/idea has a tremendous amount of potential, like 10k-15k/month.  I already have bids as high as 5k from one local company to brand certain pages each month.

I'm under a tight time deadline here, and need some advice on what to do before I lose it all sitting here waiting on firms answers.

Thanks,

Bill

Hi Bill,

It is almost impossible for me - or I think anyone, to know whether you should sell your site or not without knowing more about your goals and situation.   Does your existing site work at all?  Just having anything there might dissuade your potential competition, so, I wouldn't wipe it out.   Why don't you install D7 beta in a sub directory and call it your alpha or beta test site?  That way you could show it to potential clients and they would know that you are making progress.  I hope you are not correct when you say there is "no hope" of converting your old site to the new version.  You should be able to convert at least part of it - for example the member profiles, so there may be ways to avoid losing your existing member base.  Good luck with your project.

Rob

Hi Rob, thanks for your reply.

Let me try to give a little more detailing my concerns.

1. From what I've read here and on some blogs, the database structure of D7 is set up a lot different, optimized in some places and re-done in others since some features are now "modules", etc.  This is what I based my concern for no upgrading from previous versions of Dolphin on.  I do remember seeing at one point one of the Boonex team said that migration tools may become available, but without confirmation on that, I'm just scared to go too far too fast.

2. I've considered doing a fresh install in a sub-folder, may do that later this evening.  I agree that having it there to show existing and potential clients/advertisers would be at least something.  Only thing I am afraid of there, is if it's going to be weeks or months before we see a RC, I don't want to over-promise and under-deliver, if that makes sense.

3. My existing site does work, yes.  But, once I saw the first Ver. 7 demo, I can barely even look at the old site.  I have to say that the newest (even default) template makes Dolphin look so much more appealing to the user, and Boonex did a great job on that.  Literally I am ready to scrap my old site, and start trying 7, from the look of Ver 7 alone :)

4. If I knew what the migration plan was, I would feel a whole lot better.  For example, if I install Ver at some point to replace my current install, and it goes to creat a ne database, will it drop all my old tables?  Or, when Ver 7 hits RC status, will there be migration tools built in to the installer?  Those are the things I am curious about.

My site has HUGE potential to know only bring a community back together, but also as a potential financial wind-fall for me.  I have other scripts I have had created that integrate into some of my pages that make my site very sticky, and my marketing pitch to advertisers is so simple and effective, I have hooked every single person I've shown it too.

I like Dolphin, I think it's a great product, and this is a great community to learn from.  But at the end of the day, the anxiety over this project overall is beginning to really weigh on me, and I just don't know what to do right now...

Hi Bill,

I'm in more or less the same boat- except that no one has offered me a big wad of cash for my site :-(  I haven't looked at it in detail, but I think the profiles table in the two products in similar, so I hope a conversion there won't be too difficult.  Of greater concern is the profile pictures - Boonex just wiped out its entire beta test site because they couldn't or wouldn't convert their member pictures.  I really, really hope I don't have to do this, as it is tough to get people to post their pictures and I hate to have to start all over again.   I also have heard there will be migration tools, but I think they will be down the road a bit.

Yeah, see it's the little things like that I think have us all a little worried.  It's hard enough getting a new member to figure out how to navigate to the photo area, then upload a profile picture (why this isn't required or prompted at the sign-up stage I still don't understand) without buying that one mod available or having something custom coded.

Ugh, for now I guess I will just make a pro/con list, as well as do a test install of 7, and maybe give it another week or so to make any kind of rash decision.

Just don't want to regret this choice sooner than later...