Free Modules Repository for non-premium members.

In order to post modules, one has to be a premium member.  Over the years a lot of free modules, both fully contained modules and modifications to core files to achieve desirable functions, have been created by regular members.  Unless you are planning on developing and selling modules, obtaining a premium license just to post a free module you may have created is prohibitive.  Why not a place where non-premium members can list their free modules and core modifications?  This could be an account in the regular Market own by a general overseer.  I see sites out on the net that does this but they come and go.  I was working with ModMyCMS.com but it is off-line and I have not heard back from the site owner.  We had built up a good site so I hope it is not gone as well.  Which brings me back to a place on Boonex.  Members could present their modules for consideration and one of the Boonex team/moderators could then add them to the "Free Market" account.  Premium members could still list their free modules under their Market account.

I think I'm your biggest fan! What a great idea Geek Girl.

I can not begin to say how much time I have wasted searching for things in the forum, modules as well as core changes, posted by members.  You remember seeing something that a member posted but just can not manage to track it down.

It's one of the perks of premium membership (which is now one-time instead of annual) - it helps keep the lights on at BoonEx.

For non-premium members, there's the Tips, Tricks, and Sharing forum.  Some moderators (myself included) also offer to host free modules from other members as long as the module doesn't eat hamsters or anything.

I think i remember another reason mentioned besides it being a Premium level perk.

I do not remember the exact wording but had something to do with keeping the amount of unreliable mods from amateurs out of the market that would be used by other amateurs.

I understand your reasoning here, but i have been here for a number of years and have seen countless times people trying to use code that was posted in the forums years ago with a modern version of dolphin and wonder why it does not work.

I see a disaster waiting to happen if it's allowed without someone heavily keeping an eye on it. And as we all know, keeping a eye on the market has proven to be imposable to do. To many posts and not enough people to look them over.

They tired to do that in the past with the market. Posts had to wait for approval before they would be posted in the market. They gave up on that because the queue of people waiting for their posts to be approved was falling weeks behind.

Then figure out a way.

Seriously, the market mods as far as being compatible is left up to the mercy of the vendors.  Some won't even take the time to list the compatibility of their modules.  So Boonex, figure out a way to punish them.  Boonex put in a new compatibility thing and you go there and it says, 7.1.4, not compatible and that is it.  Make them list the compatibility of their modules so people don't download them and get stung.  At least with a free module that does not work you are not out of cash.  Plus, free modules are free, open source, which means the Dolphin community will support them, will update them.  That is the beauty of open source.  Figure out a way for members to post opens source mods and the community will support them.  May I point out one of the most successful software in the world is completely free, and completely supported by the community that uses it and the lights have continued to burn for decades.  You may have heard of Linux.

Of course i have heard of Linux. I have used it all my life.

I am not saying it can't be done. This site is not really setup for it. Changes will have to be made to make it work.

Developers list compatibility. It will say either Compatible, Not compatible. Or not defined which means the developer has not checked it so that should be assumed to mean the developer is not active. Especially if it's been like that for a couple of versions of dolphin. That not defined is actually a excellent indicator of how active a developer is.

Anyhow. I am just saying it will take a lot of changes here to make that work reliably.

I thought someone was hosting these offsite. Did that site close down?

Here it is http://www.dialme.com/ newbies and a lot of freebies can learn so much in this site..

Great idea - I had a site here for Boonex developers and community producers that I built in Dolphin - I had a good start with about 20 members, all using their real names and posting their real sites,   I had it completely locked dowh - every page.  I couldn't get anyone to help me with it - even though I was giving anyone who asked full users access so I eventually let the domain go but someone should pick up on this.   

It is hard to see unless you have been away for a while, but this place has really lost "the spirit of open source".   I think there should be an independent users association for Dolphin software of some kind. 

 That's Gameutopia's site. Another good one is boonexnerd.net which is Jtadeo's site.

Both sites are completely free and those are two super nice guys who are driven by their love of programming and wanting to help people. Newton's site boonexsupport.com is another free resource.

Most new people have no way of knowing about these sites and think the forum here is the only place for help. Then they get soured on the whole Dolphin project because there are very few people left here who can help.

 Could links to those sites, and others that may become available and are approved by mods, be made a sticky so they won't have to be (repeatedly) hunted down? 

 That sounds good to me. They could even go a step farther and put another option on that top menu bar that says "Other Resourses" and have it go to a page of links.

That also kind of fragments the community a little - those sites are good but are centered around an individual expert - we need something for the "community" - what is left of it.   A place where members of different skill levels could help each other.  Boonex is paying the price for their lack of leadership and involvement here - this used to be a really dynamic place.  A hackathon of some kind might be fun.  I am on Google+ all the time and there hangouts are pretty well set up for that if anyone is interested.   

I have a crazy idea.  How about we stick to the forums instead of launching our own sites?

People wouldn't be bringing it up if they didn't think it was a problem.  Go back to the original issue then - why should people have to pay to produce a free mod to give away to us? 

Well, that's what people are complaining about. It is too difficult to find code snippets that have been posted to the forums.

Hell, even i can't find them half the time. So i do have to agree with them here. The forums are not working for this.

 In a way it does but if you look at other successful open source projects like phpBB or Wordpress there are tons of active sites that provide fixes, mods and free advice. If the Dolphin fan base doesn't become fruitful and multiply then it won't grow. Right now people come to the forum, post a question, bump it three times, then give up. The balance here has shifted, it used to be lots of seasoned people answering the questions of the few new people who came along... now it's tons of new people asking questions with a handful of people who know the answers.

Yes, I just saw where AlexT answered a question after 21 days.  I am surprised the person even continued to use Dolphin.  There are some really knowledgeable members of the community that work to answer questions but they can spread themselves only so thin.  Deano, and Newton, and Prashank25 and others that I don't mean to slight are the Boonex support team.  Boonex should give each one of them a percentage of each license that is sold.

You know I just found that old site I built on my server - it was the domain name I had let go, not the site.   I just re-bought the domain name for a dollar on Godaddy to just look at it and it still seems to work - not even sure what version.   I only got about 20 members, but actually I think I made a pretty good start here.  Dolphin is actually very well set up for our needs - Boonex just doesn't use Dolphin.   Anyone want to kick the tires on this?  I could be really loose with administrative accounts.   I wasn't trying to make money off this or anything - I just built it for pretty much the same purpose.   It is at: http://social-accelerator.com

 My membership is still active as I see.. 

@newton - yeah, not many members but it was kind of a "who's who" at one time.   I do think I set this up right - why not just let people do whatever they want? - including admin access if they want it.   It was never going to be a big site, but could be useful for some kind of "repository" or knowledge base as described. 

@msscott - I think you kind of nailed it.  The community is very "binary" now, with a small number of members with lots of know how, and a bunch that know little.   In a way, I think it is even worse than that though - there used to be a bunch of people at all levels, so if you couldn't get the attention of one of the power players, someone closer to your level could help.   In a way, we were all growing together.   I'm not sure what is going on now, but I doubt if these people who ask questions and then go away are going on to build successful communities.  I think one of the dark secrets here is the low success rate and I think Boonex should have done everything in their power to address that.  Not all problems can be solved by more "development".    I am also surprised that they let this community go so far downhill.  At one time, it was fairly dynamic and should have been a major asset for Boonex. 

I have tried a few times to join but was not let through the gates.  The site is locked down to non-members which sorts of defeats the purpose I have in mind.

Boonex has no problem listing shared hosting that they know a full blown Dolphin social network will not function on.  Well, here is an idea, list all the sites out there that provide support and free modules and tips and tricks.  And do it on the front page.

The big bump in licensing fees did not help either,  Yes, I understand that the fees support Dolphin.  However, it is a determining factor for people considering using Dolphin.  They have to see they are getting value for their money and the support from Boonex is not there.  I have seen posts here where new members thought they would get some kind of support for the fee they paid and find that it is only the forums.

If a business is lack of supports then it's going to collapse eventually. Maybe 10 years later people won't use Dolphin even it's free. There are Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal and the likes that are Free and with plenty of support/mods. 

I think phpbb is working on something for social networking, facebook like.

@geek girl - I must have locked it down a bit too much.   Trying to figure out what the hell I did - will write you shortly.  We can change anything that doesn't work for people, if we decide to use this.

Agree with what you said about the pricing.  I think Boonex made a big mistake with the increase.  It is not that it is overpriced or anything, but that $99 licence fee ensured a big and growing market, that was of benefit to all of us.     Now the increased fees gives them some additional funding but not much, and just high enough so that people will expect better support, and also high enough to make it a somewhat more serious decision - so fewer people will buy it.    

No, it was Jtadeo's site that would not let me join; Maybe it was the donate thing, I thought you signed up first but maybe the donate thing came first.  Not very clear about that on the page.

I think it would be nice if Boonex released a financial statement and I am serious.  Perhaps a 400% increase in licensing was necessary.  Or if not a public release, then a release to the major players of the forum with a non-disclosure agreement.  The major players of the forum; and I name the ones that came to mind above and there are some I left out but not on purpose, are the Boonex support team.  If those players left the forum, Boonex would lose a lot of the support for their platform and that would not be a good thing.  I hope Boonex is doing well and that Dolphin continues for a long time, although the preview I saw of Dolphin 8 (and it was the backend) doesn't exactly make me jump for joy.  I have invested some money, and a whole lot of time, on the Dolphin platform.  I would ask this of Andrew, if at some future time Boonex considers ending the life of Dolphin, please release the platform to the Open Source Community and we will continue it.

 I think that's what they did with aedate.. when they swapped over to Dolphin you could do whatever you wanted to with aedate. That was the positive, the negative was if you had bought a lifetime aedate license you suddenly became sad.

Yes, but the lifetime license became un-lifetime anyway since the project would have died. 

 Exactly, hence the sadness of the people who forked out money for it.