I think you need to consider this from the vendors point of view. A understand your frustration, but you did the right thing by offering to purchase an additional mod or two if the vednor will help. I did the same thing by offering to spend $100 on new mods if the vendor could sort a few of my problems problems out as well. I will stand by that promise, which some may see as a bit one-sided, but at least the vendor will get some money from me. That's money I originally never planned to spend.
The problem is not with the vendors. The problem clearly rests on the shoulders of Boonex, who from the outset used shocking marketing strategies for the core program and the 3rd party modules. Almost every software vendor in the world only offers free upgrades for and existing product for a certain time (say one year) or until there's a major change to the product itself. Dolphin 7.3.5 was really the end of the line for the existing Dolphin series. Moving from one operating system (PHP5.6) to another (PHP7,2) was a major change involving a lot of work for the Boonex team and all 3rd party vendors and they were entitled to recover their out-of-pocket expenses.
Sadly that wasn't possible due to Boonex's shocking marketing structure. They offered free upgrades for life and expected 3rd party vendors to tow the line. It didn't take long for Boonex to realise what they'd done, so they pulled Dolphin 8 from the Dolphin stable and rebranded it UNA with a completely different marketing strategy. Who was let to suffer, the 3rd party vendors mostly because licensed Dolphin users are given the opportunity to procure UNA for nothing.
In all honesty, I think Boonex really thought that everyone would dump Dolphin and embrace UNA, but that wasn't the case. So they set about slowly destroying the Dolphin product hoping that Dolphin users will eventually bite the bullet and move over to UNA. The one saving grace for Dolphin users is that Deano is working on a Fork, but it's a huge job for one person and he doesn't seem to be seeking help. Even if the Fork is successful and released in the very near future, will it accept 3rd party modules created by major vendors such as Modzzz and Anton, or will they be forced to make further changes to get their modules to work?
More importantly, will the fork be successful? How many people actually use Dolphin? Nobody knows and it's Boonex's best kept secret. Will it cost a fortune like Dolphin, will it be reasonably priced, or will it be free? Will the 3rd party vendors support it and how? Most have moved on to hopefully greener pastures.
So before we criticise the 3rd party vendors who seem to have deserted us, please look at it this way. Boonex were forced to make Dolphin PHP 7.2 compatible because of the marketing arrangement between them and their paying customers. It was something they probably didn't wish to waste time on because it's being phased out anyway. Dolphin 7.4.2 should have been branded Dolphin 7.8 because it's essentially a new product like a car that's designed to run on electricity instead of petrol. It's essentially the same design, but the motor is different.
Because of the arrangement the 3rd party vendors had with Boonex, some volunteered to upgrade their old modules to work with the new product. I believe they had every right to charge a nominal fee for those upgrades and $5 to $10 per module would not have been unrealistic, provided the users were out there, but are they? I say NO. I ran a survey on this forum a couple of weeks ago to see how many Dolphin users actually use the forum, but only ONE person a has voted and that person was not you. In a year or less, we could lose this forum and all Dolphin support. We need to establish an independent site where we can take over the forum when Boonex wants to get rid of it and help our members. I have dozens of tutorials I can share, the forum is a trove of information, as are the various Boonex pages out there. but we could lose the lot. I was prepared to create a special site, but for what? Two or three members?
I don't have a solution. Boonex has done a wonderful job destroying Dolphin and it will be difficult to pick up the pieces. I firmly believe that less that 50 people actually use use the Forum and about 100-150 currently use Dolphin with the view of using it well into the future. I for one would have gone a year ago, if it wasn't for my investment in the product and the dozens of modules I own.To all the 3rd pqarty vendors who have stuck with the rapidly sinking ship thus far, I commend you.
