This has me thinking about my future

This is a re-post of an article I came across and has me concerned about my future here.

"I had to laugh to myself when I took a look at the Boonex website earlier today. True to form, and as predicted by me many months ago. It would seem that Boonex are preparing to move on from their Dolphin 7 script and replace it with... you guessed it... Dolphin 8.

As predicted, Dolphin 8 will not share functionality with the earlier version rendering all purchased modifications, templates etc useless. Those choosing to update to the new version will be at the mercy of the vendors when it comes to updating and it is likely that many vendors will use this to force users into purchasing products again. This was certainly my experience when I upgraded from Dolphin 6 to Dolphin 7.

Another issue that I faced when I upgraded was that the URL schema was changed between D6 and D7, this was a major headache as it had a huge effect on my sites SEO rankings, and was something that was not fixable. It would not surprise me to find that Boonex will change the URL schema again on the new update.

The dolphin community are anxious with the news of the upgrade, especially those members that have been around long enough to have experienced this before. Amusingly Boonex seem to be using similar excuses about D8 being the next best thing, and so much better than the last best thing. Quite rightfully there is a lot of frustration amongst the older community members.

The same question relating to fixing the existing bugs is also being asked, and the same answer is being given that was given to Dolphin 6 users, namely that D7 will continue to be supported in parallel to D8. Well sorry Boonex. I'm going to have to call B$ on that one. I was one of those frustrated D6 users. Boonex's reply thread's title say's it all... 'Finish What We Started or Move On' I will leave it up to you to decide on what will happen there.

Interestingly, I did a Google for 'Dolphin' to see what the discussions were out in the web community, and still there, in the top search rankings are the words 'Boonex is a Scam!!'. It seems some things will never be forgotten, and the more I look at the way that Boonex operate, the harder it is to ignore such sentiments. Those newer Dolphin users should take heed to some of the bad press that Dolphin gets, there is actually some credence in those words.

Whilst I was poking around the Dolphin site I couldn't help but notice that it bared an uncanny resemblance to the old expertzzz site, it made me wonder if there had been some role changing over at the Boonex camp and they had reinstated someone from a past era. If my memory serves me correct, this would be the same person who was responsible for the bad coding of previous dolphin versions which in turn was one of the big selling points for upgrading to D7.

Ironically the same selling point is being applied to D8 - an improved codebase, with newer features, replacing the old (outdated / bad / in need of repair) codebase of D7. LOL. It seems to me (and I have stated this before) there is a severe lack of project management over at Boonex. The goal posts constantly change, and the code gets changed for no reason other than someone wants to change it. Admittedly, D7 is far from being a great piece of coding, and to be truly competitive needs a complete rewrite, but the way that they fail to manage their business is laughable. That is of course, unless such moves are part of their business strategy.

The lastest post A More Modular Dolphin. Dolphin Studio Screenshot! shows some of the groundbreaking new development thinking that has gone into D8. (LOL) But this itself has already caused some conjecture about whether it is an actual screenshot of the new code in action, or simply a created image. The answer is very telling indeed. The comment made abut D8 that Boonex could possibly a competitive product to Drupal literally made me ROFLMFAO. The biggest change is the same change that Boonex always seem to sell; a change in the base philosophy of how the web works. Well, suffice to say. Whilst Boonex try to reinvent the wheel, the rest of the web will move on at it's normal pace leaving Boonex lagging some paces behind.

Looking back, it's not too far off of a year ago that I made this post about revisiting Boonex two years from the date that I decided I'd had enough with Dolphin, it's bugs, the bad support and the lack of integrity displayed by their developers. And whilst it's pretty amusing that a year down the track it's contents are still holding true. it is of no real surprise to read the posts about D8, and how it's being handled. I still feel sorry for those sucked in by the hype, but there is some hope. Migrate to Joomla. LOL"

What are your thoughts about your future after reading that?

I'm surprised you were able to read it so quickly. I'm still on the second paragraph.

 Not being able to update the sites I have built over the past two years..

Telling customers, "oh guess what, there has been another update to the software..." Then I see the look of despair on the face.

I jumped too soon into this never-ending story, it's my fault.

i think your concerns are extremely valid. and the transition from 7 to 8 is sure to be a painful one. and the fact that none of the modules are going to transition from 7 to 8 presents a large problem, not only with the modules 3rd party, but the content and data.

since boonex does not support the 3rd party modules at any level, then i can see where many are going to take a financial hit on this move.

i of course will not consider Dolphin for at least 6 months after its released, and even then shall be hesitant.

i am still waiting for the Dolphin 7.0.7 patch to fix some of the crap that is still wrong with Dolphin 7. so we are on version 6 now, and still nowhere near complete on the bug list. the deeper you dig, the more bugs you find, and at some point they will not support dolphin 7 and  you will be forced to upgrade, whether you want to or not.

I guess that timeframe will also be a factor (for myself).

If v8 was to launch this time next year, and there was no support for 7, plus paying again for every mod that was needed (already purchased) then I would just stick with what I have and not bother with 8. 

Maybe for clean installs, but I wouldnt be bothered about jumping all my sites up to 8 just because its there...

Im about a year and a half into my Dolphin experience, and have just about found how I need to have my sites setup, and how to do it. Im happy to work with what I have for the time being.

But... I have also become aware of a number of other social networking type scripts out there that seem to be looking better towards what I need. Only reason I dont bother with them now is Im happy with what I have, it does the job I ask it to do - although pressure testing with larger numbers on site is gradually on its way..

If I was asked to abandon my ship and jump to 8, at the cost of starting over, (both financially and datawise) I think I would certainly at that point stop to consider the other options out there.

Especially for new site builds.

end of the day, Dolphin is not the only ship in the sea thats going my direction...!

Boonex will need to keep its passengers in mind with such a big change, or it may be abandon ship time!

While the article doesn't outline anything most of us didn't already know, it is striking to see it laid out in a consecutive piece.

I too jumped the gun and dove head first into Dolphin without making many of the considerations that  I should have. I am not completely regretful of it at this point, as in my market I feel running with the D7 platform has given me the edge over some of my competition, which are mostly running variations of phpbb3 or joomla, nuke etc. What's the edge? It's something that our members have not yet seen (you guessed it, we're not a dating site). I didn't have to mask the fact that it was just another joomla site that somebody stood up overnight, it truly was something different to my members.

On paper (actually the promo video), Dolphin had me sold hook line and sinker. Look at all these features I can take advantage of that are already built in. Look at all these modules that are readily available in the market. Look at the community of 100k+ ready to help me along the way should I stumble.

The nightmare began shortly after the installation, I blamed many of the bugs on myself for not doing something right. I had immediately migrated my site members from phpbb3 because I was anxious to get them interacting on the new platform (my bad). It was then that we discovered many things didn't work quite right, even in the dev installations I stood up for testing. Members start to drop off like flies because they were frustrated with things not working right. I decided to let it run as it stood and keep the core members interacting while I went back to the drawing board with fresh install. It's taken me a year now of 40+hrs a week working on molding D7 to my needs, keeping up with version updates in between and just finally a few weeks ago turning everybody on to the new site.

I fixed what I could and have paid several developers to come in and fix or enhance things that were clearly left behind by the D7 team. It wasn't worth the effort to put in a ticket and wait at their mercy for a fix, only to find it passed off as not important anyways (by that I mean add it to the bucket for 7.1 or 8).

But who are we kidding? It is foolish to think that we could pursue any platform with the expectation of a successfully community without the expectation of heavy modification, fixes and design enhancements. I will pursue 7.1 when it comes out and assess just how much effort it is going to take to convert my functionality over, same goes for 8 if it's truly on the horizon.

My fear is that 7.1 is going to be the same story with Boonex. Look at this fresh new Dolphin with so many great things, that you'll forget about the bad from previous versions. Only to find that under the covers, shortfalls and bugs galore.

Is it truly worth it to try and upgrade? For me, it may not be. 7.0.6 will forever be my fate until my memberbase grows so large that I can hire a full on development team and build a true community from the ground up.

Sorry for the rambling, i've had far too much coffee this morning.

Well I have read all that blogs about boonex Scam before I entered the game here. My personal feeling is that maybe initial versions of dolphin were really more scam than a real product ...altrought I dont know if scam is exactly right word - It was simply nonusable product full of millions of bugs with sold license to people by clever marketing techinques. WIth version 7 I think dolphin evolve to something much better than before, .... but its not so bad now as before :-)

The thing is that after Andrews decision to make d8 makes me wonder if its really worth to stay here as we heading about 2 years before d8 wilol reach some usable version. Personally I believe we will see some first versions at december 2010 but first stable will expect around  june 2012 (probably similar stability how was 7.0.3) but than we have to count at least anothe 6 months for proper testing and bugfixes so d8 get similar stability as will hopefully be 7.0.7. This is long time of waiting guys and in mean time alot change in IT word - new explorer, new windows, new version of javascript and everything and all that will need furthed code modifications...

As I must I think with a  market rules there should be guarantee that modules which will be updated to d8 have to be give out free for a customers who already bought otherwise that will be real scam and lots of people here who invested a fortune into their d7 modules will prolly go suicide as they loose alot of money.

Personally I like d8 idea but what I think that should be done after proper release of 7.1 as many people was waiting year to find out that now they have to wait another 2 years which is quite ridiculous and I do understand frustration of people around including myself. SO by my opinion Andrews decision wasnt greatest ... he should firstly really fix all bugs in 7.1 trac and than start work on d8...

I have switched most sites that I wanted dolphin for to joomla with jomsocial and other few joomla modules which brings similar functionality I wanted . And also its worth to mention that joomla commercial modules are a fraction nof d7 3rd party prices. Like similar module subscription module for dolphin cost nearly 100 usd with one site license while similar mod for joomla cost 20 usd with unlimited site license. See...difference is quite huge even at that point.

I still dont lost my faith that dolphin project can actually evolve into something I can finally really use ... but dont know what I gonna think after another year of waiting..