Customer satisfaction - or how not to get new Users :-)

First let me say that I just start evaluating Dolphin. I'm using a different CMS for 10 years now, but I like to change to something more professional, and so I give Dolphin a try.

But now I get stuck - ok I can write to the forum, but I need to ask question to some of the developers, but before that I should get a membership.

From my point of view thats no good - because I don't change worlds from one day to another. As I do my websites in my free time I can't "learn" Dolphin within a few days or weeks. So I need more time to get into the whole thing.

I already noticed that for many things I need I need to invest - thats ok with me. But I would need to ask a developer if he is able to give me a testversion of his paid module, so I can evaluate it on /localhost, ask questions if necessary and maybe ay for additional modifications too.

But I get blocked because I should pay first.

I'm still at the beginning, but as I don't know if Dolphn is my choise in the end, I'm not willing to pay now - but on the other hand I dont get the modules I would need to test if Dolphin can solve my needs.

Why is it forbidden to send a mesage to module developers? I think they should be happy about every possible customer they can get to dolphin and to using their modules.

Well technically, Starter memberships are not even suppose to be able to post in the forums, but as you can see, you can.

The reason for paying for at least an Advanced Memberships is to reduce the spam risk involved. It would be really easy for someone to come to Unity and start spamming all the members with who knows what.

I understand that 'you' may not do that, but others would . The price is only ONE TIME FEE of $5. That's not alot to ask in order to help keep the BoonEx website under control and even then it can still be a job :)

Starter members are allowed to post here because the forums are pretty easy to moderate, while it's pretty much impossible to moderate comments and messages.

It's meant to keep the spam down while separating the professionals, or people willing to spend some money, from those who are taking a test drive without much commitment.  I admit there are problems with this, like not being able to contact developers.  I recommend you either purchase a membership option or contact a developer via email.  If you have questions for a developer about a certain product, check to see if they have a support topic.  You can post any questions there and get a response.