Vendors Licensing/Third Party Scripts Must be List

Boonex needs to make it mandatory that if any vendor has a product they are selling in the market that requires licensing or additional scripts that it be clearly stated in the requirements.  If a vendor fails to do so, then there should be clear sanctions in place that will be applied to that vendor, no ifs ands or buts.  I recently purchased a module for someone that asked me to check the technical requires and the list contained "Not Specified"; which would lead one to believe that is the default from Boonex when a vendor did not list any requirements.  However, I find out that the module requires a license from the vendor as well as the installation of a third party script on the server in order for the module to operate.

Now, Boonex official stance is that they are not responsible for the market, it is entirely caveat emptor.  The dispute forum is merely a courtesy that does not have to be answered.  Andrew Boon's official policy is:

Market

If you choose to use the BoonEx Market ("Market") the following terms and conditions apply in addition to the general Terms.

BoonEx Market is a Service provided by BoonEx that allows sellers ("Vendors") to post products and advertise services for sale to other users ("Customers").

Any disputes regarding arrangements between the Customers and Vendors of any type of products and services remain solely between Buyers and Sellers. We are not involved in any transactions between You and any other users of the BoonEx Unity web site. You acknowledge and agree that BoonEx will not be a party to any such dispute or be obligated to take any action or refrain from taking any action toward resolving any such dispute. If you have a dispute with any other users of the Site, you hereby release BoonEx from any and all claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, related to such a dispute.

You may terminate your Market listings at any time in your sole discretion. BoonEx may remove your Market listings at any time for any reason or no reason. Removal of listings does not release Vendors or Customers from any contractual responsibilities connected to their use of BoonEx Market.

Posting any products or service advertisements to market constitutes a "Vendor" status. Vendors must read and agree to Market Terms (http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/wiki/MarketTerms) before submitting any materials to BoonEx Market.

Recap: Vendors need to agree to Market Terms. BoonEx is not responsible for any issues between Vendors and Customers.

If you were checking out the technical requirements for someone, I would have to ask why you would purchase the module? If the  technical requirements had "Not Specified" listed and this concerned you, why not contact the developer first? Not sure if that is what happened or not so I am just asking.

The 'License' portion of the Market posting seems to misunderstood across the board. According to the terms you posted, BoonEx is referring to the licensing of your work.

License

You are required to specify a license when submitting your product to the market. It's recommended you take advantage of a well-established license. If you are writing your own license, it should be written in detail for potential customers to read. It's also encouraged that you provide a license.txt with your product that includes the full text of the license.

For example:

Taken from one of Deano's products:

License: IMPORTANT: This is a commercial product made by Dean Bassett Jr. (DeanBassett.com) and cannot be modified other than personal use. This product cannot be redistributed for free or a fee without written permission from Dean Bassett Jr.

Another example from one of AndrewP's modules:

License: One per domain

So the entry within the 'License' field tends to vary from product to product - vendor to vendor.

As for the 2nd part of your discussion, I have not heard of having to install an script/product from a website outside of BoonEx in order for the module that you are purchasing to work. I have seen where some modules may require you to setup an account at a website in order to obtain a specific type of 'key' that is tied to your account (ex. an API key). If you know of a market listing that is requiring you to download/install and outside product BEFORE you can use the one listed in the market, please let me know the details immediately.

Similar topics like this have come up before regarding file encryptions. I agree that more details regarding products should be entered either in the fields and/or the description. I don't know about anyone else, but I have not had the time to go through every market item to see what is filled in and what isn't so............. 

My rule of thumb when buying products in the market is:

- View each screenshot carefully. Particulary if there are admin panel images. Sometimes you can see if keys may be needed here.

- Read the descriptions and decide whether or not I fully understand what the product will do.

- Read the support forum (if applicable) and reviews to determine if users are having bad experiences.

- See if it states that core file changes are required.

If I have ANY doubts or questions whatsoever, I contact the developer directly. No reply means "No buy"!

Then why even have the technical specifications, just toss that out the window; and why you are at it, toss out the compatibility markings as well.  Just let vendors crap on the customers any way they wish, let them lie and steal from Boonex members.  Boonex can just shrug their shoulders and say, "Oh well, looks like you are just SOL."  Time and again we see that Boonex does not want to do anything but take money; and I say this because you can not sell in the market for free so Boonex makes money off the market.  It is bad enough that Boonex doesn't want to support the Dolphin product but to let the market operate this way is inexcusable.

And by the way, when I say license, I am not talking about the GNU or whatnot licensing.  I am talking about having to input a license code provided by the vendor before the module will work.

These technical checklist items are required:

• Name
• License
• Demo
• Demo Username
• Demo Password

This information is required and checked before a market item is submitted. The rest of the items, like the encryption notice, is optional. If nothing is entered for an optional item, "not specified" is automatically added.

I'll echo what Zarcon said: If a market item has a technical item that says "not specified" or doesn't have version compatibility information listed (in which case, there's another "not specified" notice added), ask the vendor before making a purchase. Same goes for any other concerns not remedied by the technical list.

This can technically be covered by the encryption item from above. However, the market terms (which I wrote) do state that vendors are recommended to include notices about encryption and license/domain restrictions. Again, ask the vendor before making a purchase if something seems unclear, or if you have any other questions.

Yes, we vendors are required to think of absolutely everything that could possibly go wrong or all possible questions that would be asked by a buyer. Yup. We vendors are infallible.

Dream much?

So tell the vendor that info should be listed in the market entry and be done with it.



BTW and i am sure you don't care. I used to list a lot of information in my market posts. But i got complaints. Too much info causes lazy people to stop reading. Thus i was asked anyway because they did not bother to read it. So i determined it to be a waste of my time.

And while i am also ranting and complaining, i also believe product support forums are a waste. 90% of most people contact you directly anyway with a question that was already answered in the forums. Yea, we vendors also have tons of free time available to answer the same questions over and over again.

And there is a market item for Support in which i list FORUM in some of my entries. Guess what. No one reads it. And i do provide a forum for ALL of my products. SO i no longer bother with that courtesy item anymore either.