BoonEx Turns 8. Happy Birthday!

Andrew Boon posted 1st of September 2008 in . 88 comments.

“It’s not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better, the credit belongs to the man of the arena who’s face is marred by dust, sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who knows the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat”

Theodore Roosevelt

BoonEx Turns 8

Eight years of work, dreams, changes, surprises, disappointments, joy, glory, tears, praises, complaints, huge releases, losses and most importantly - 8 years of passion. BoonEx is changing the world, making it better, uniting people.

We did a lot of things wrong and a lot right. We always look for new ways, new solutions, new approaches. What works - stays, what doesn’t - gets scrapped. It’s a constant forward motion and a never-ending search.

Looking Forward

Same day, one year ago we had a huge launch. This year we’re trying to be a little more patient - not rushing things out of the door, BUT I am happy to tell you that this year is going to be even more revolutionary and exciting.

“8” is a symbol of new beginning, and this year we plan to come up with products and changes that would build the foundation for a new era of BoonEx development.

So, it looks like it’s time to reveal some plans...

Dolphin 6, Ray 3, Orca 2

ALL of our sea-creatures are going to be upgraded this year. The Dolphin roadmap is publicly available, so you can track what’s going on. This year we’re focusing on ‘quality’ upgrades, incrementally improving and polishing every feature. Ray is also being improved - all widgets are re-written under the Flash 9 platform and new features come aplenty. Orca 2 is being improved in both functionality and integration.

Additionally, we’re just about to launch a cPanel auto-installer, so that you can install Dolphin on your server with a few clicks right from your cPanel.

iPhone and Android Apps

BoonEx is all about innovation, so we couldn't just miss the iPhone and Android hype! Both the iPhone App and Android App for Dolphin are now under development and the iPhone App is due for release very soon.

The Next Big Thing

We’ve been keeping details about NBT under the table for some time - for a reason. The thing is that we take it VERY seriously. This is not just a product version upgrade or new widget...it is much, much more and what you read next will reveal a lot!

Boonex's best, most experienced developers have been working on NBT for a few years now. It was supposed to be called Shark, but we found that we had to re-work Shark and to do better. There’s still a lot of development going on with even the core architectural part, but we’re finally at that stage where we can reveal some details. I now believe that no one from all of our competition will be able to catch up.

First, let’s talk about WHY we need NBT at all...

Dolphin, Orca and Ray are great, but they all have some fundamental flaws that no version upgrade can solve. In fact, all comparable products from other vendors have the same problems, and none of them is any better in that respect.

We’ve been reading your forums posts, blogs and comments. We conducted extensive research, exploring the latest versions of Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, ExpressionEngine and others. Finally, we outlined a very ambitious plan... AND now we are working on it. We call it...



...and it is the core of Dolphin 8, Orca 8, Barracuda 8 and Shark 8.

Why would you want, say, Dolphin 8? How about...

- 100% separation of core and functional modules. Poseidon treats everything as a plugin. Blog, search form, photos browser, comments, video player, you name it. Upgrade, modify, delete, activate or add new plugins and your site is still rock-solid.

- Super-simple upgrades. Thanks to full separation of plugins and core, you can upgrade separate plugins selectively. Upgrade the core with minimal impact on plugins and with proper compatibility verification.

- Ecosystem. We have Unity, Expertzzz and a few 3d party partners that we’re getting together to develop modules for Poseidon. Unlike Dolphin 6 mods, Poseidon Plugins distribution and installation is very simple. Ever purchased music from iTunes? It’s THAT simple.

- Designed for colossal performance. Poseidon is intended for massive traffic loads. Not “adapted”, but developed from the ground up with millions of users in mind. This is what so many of you have written about and have waited for!

- Latest technology. While Dolphin 6 is a product of evolution, Poseidon is based on the latest and greatest web-development technologies, solutions and practices. Completely new design, thought-out user interface, superior site structure and an all-new approach for the admin interface.

- Stability and security. Again, thanks to separation of the core and plugins we are building a lot more stable and secure core.

- Better code. Poseidon development is heavily supervised to ensure highest programming standards.


- Openness. Poseidon is going to be released under an open-source license and will support 3-rd party modules/apps the same as native plugins. From the very beginning, Poseidon will support OpenSocial apps and will treat them as plugins. Plugins developed by Unity members or even your own team would all seamlessly become parts of your site.

- Top-notch templating and language systems.

- Simplified licensing. Poseidon-based products would have a lot less hassle in terms of licensing than the current version of Dolphin, Orca and Ray.

- Built-in Ray Widgets. All, and some new, Ray widgets are going to become Poseidon plugins, without the need to buy extra licenses and without separate installation.

and a lot more

Dolphin 6/Dolphin 8 Controversy. Migration issues. Mods. Now what? WTF!

I know that while many are going to get excited, some of you may have quite a few concerns. You developed, bought, installed mods. You re-designed your site. You finally have members adding-up and bang! - Poseidon.

No worries. We hear you. Dolphin 6.x will live on and will be developing up until Dolphin 7. Dolphin 7 would become a “bridge version”. The idea is to let you gradually upgrade your site step-by-step up until both Dolphin 7 and Dolphin 8 are ready for hassle-free upgrade without loss.

When and how much

First, we’ll be running private testing, then public testing. SmartPro customers, Unity Pundits, Moderators and Experts would have early access.

SmartPro customers would have free time-unlimited licenses.

The version with BoonEx links will be free. Links removal pricing will be announced later.

Thank You

Thank you to all loyal customers and supporters. You were patient and caring enough to stay with us, often in spite of huge shake-ups, delays and problems. You are the major driving force, and your support is the foundation of BoonEx success.

Thank you all not-so-loyal customers and competitors. Your critique, refunds, bashing, attacks and complaints made us stronger, more experienced and inventive. You’re the best source of our motivation.

Thank you developers, affiliates, web-masters, experts, moderators, pundits and contributors. You are turning BoonEx into a global community - a virtual eco-system that makes BoonEx a true “community software expert”.

Thank you BoonEx Team. You are the best.

8 - The New Beginning

So, 8 years behind. Versions “8” coming soon. We have high hopes and huge plans. The next year is the BoonEx year!


 
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LyubovL
Happy Birthday, BoonEx!!!

Thanks to all our customers for being with us! Thanks to every BoonEx worker - it's a great pleasure to work with you!!!

Let our dreams come true!!!
AndreyP
Happy Birthday, BoonEx!!!

And lets go ahead ;)
OlgaP
Eight years..................
Eight years of Tremendous work! Unbelievable progress! Great community behind!

Happy Birthday, Team, Friends, Community Members and all who want to be a part of our world!

Congratulations, Andrey and Julia!
VictorT
Happy Birthday, BoonEx!

Let's rock this world!
leondesign
Happy Birthday, BoonEx!

Thank you for the great software
Let rock ...
Stuart038
Happy birthday!

I really like the idea of plugins...

Well I know I've got to do it... I feel a headache coming on :-)

When is it likely to appear??

Stuart
Andrew Boon
We're at the stage of plugins development. This means that the main part of the framework is ready. When you have a right framework - plugins come fast.
schnudel
Happy Birthday, BoonEx!

and thank you for the great things..
clubbeyourself
Happy Birthday Boonex,

Looks like we are in for another exciting ride
umeshtmi1
Happy Birthday Boonex...!!! And congrats Andrey... you not just provide us with some of the greatest products but also inspire us in many ways... Please don't change...
sanalbaykus
Happy Birthday, BoonEx!

Thank you for the great software
chrisk
Happy Birthday Boonex...

...your on the right way. 8 is a good number... ;-)
rubendk
happy birthday !!

can't wait to see what you'll fish out of the sea for us next :-)
hd4real
Happy Birthday, BoonEx!

I can't wait. Cool news.

Keep it up.
Rusty
Happy Birthday, BoonEx!

and thank you for the great things you have done and even better things to come...

Hope and pray that we can be BoonEx partners for the years to come.
(How about a multi domain database? :-) )

Kind Regards
Rusty
Andrew Boon
Multi-domain domain database is there - Unity. It does need some changes to be more usable and clean though. We have some improvements in the pipeline.
intel
Happy Birthday bOOnEx :)

I can't waiiiiiiit....

I like your software community script :)
danielmarseille
Happy Birthday, Joyeux anniversaire BoonEx !!!
gameutopia
Just to clarify? Who is 8 years old exactally? Boonex website or aedateing or a combination? Not that it matters but I look them up and I am confused whois.sc 8 years old?

Domain Name: BOONEX.COM
Created on: 19-Nov-04
Expires on: 19-Nov-11
Last Updated on: 20-Sep-07

When I add the numbers up it don't equal 8. But I could be missing something. I have been following dolphin much longer than most users but not 8 years.

Don't get me wrong guys I'm certainly gonna hit you see more with some postitive feedback. Posiedon or however you spell it is nice. But a little more input would be nice. Many have already asked what this means for their current mods, and I honestly don't know what to tell them. I tell them I don't expect it to happen soon as they mention dolphin 6 and 7 then 8. So who knows for certain.

I do support you but I don't know how to support some of the questions I am already getting.
Andrew Boon
It has always been a little bit challenging to say how old we are exactly. BoonEx, as a name, appeared in 2004 (domain creation date), was incorporated in Kyrgyzstan in 2005, then incorporated in Australia this year.

Before BoonEx it was AEwebworks. And even before AEwebworks we were developing LoveCompass and smaller sites, that were later used as a foundation of our first version of aeDating Dating Software. Dolphin evolved from aeDating.

So, we actually started dating/community/software see more business in September 2000 and we count years from there. Names and domain can change, but we're the same people with the same mission anyway.
gameutopia
It's cool. I still wonder how exactly the Australia thing works. It's confusing and don't matter too much either.

Just curious that is all. Where you big programmers are from, how you relate to Australia and I've even seen mention as you state Kyrgystan.

It's intersting how it all works.

Look forward to the future of Boonex!! 2 thumbs up!!
sammie
Happy Birthday, BoonEx
hope this year is as good as last, and even better by the sounds of it.

some of us might sound harsh at time, but we still tell everyone its the best product out there, and it is, the best.

having been here a year now, i love it, i know dolphin and what the vision of boonex it, that cant be faulted, people just need to understand you cant develope something this big over night.

congrats to all involved for a job well done

Sammie x
Andrew Boon
Thank you Sammie. We could really "feel" your support during this year and very often it helped us cope with problems. I hope to see you around even more and wish you luck and success.
Happy Birthday Boonex Team,

Thats lots of stuff to look forward to.

Good luck for all the projects.

Enjoy the Party
shaneed
Happy Birthday! I hang with Boonex for two years and a half by now. You had achieved a lot in all those years, you supplied us with great things and we are proud of the work you do for us. Keep up the good work, you're the best. I hold my breath for the next releases to come.
RCRG
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Wow... now that was a mouth full ! I am anxiously awaiting further news. I have a Smart Pro Site and I am thinking that I will receive some type of notification of the release and early access / limited license?

Also, I have a big curiosity about costs. Please let me know how best to get notifications of happenings. I want to be informed!

Thanks!
Andrew Boon
SmartPro customers, Unity Contributors, Experts and Pundits will receive early notifications and access to private beta. With current SP license you should not worry about costs whatsoever.
hakknslash
Happy Birthday Boonex. And Congratulations on the upcoming NBT!!! looking forward to Poseidon.
Gigo
Happy Birthday Boonex. We waiting Poseidon. ;)
Nighto2007
Happy Birthday Boonex Team

Thank you for this big works, best scripts and best support .. my site started with the dolphin script from 1.5 years ago ... all things was great and exciting.

Now, you tell us with new news and more more than great .. I'm really I can't wait for release NBT and dolphin 8 :)

I wish you new year great and the best

best regards
Rawaf
DosDawg
Happy Birthday Boonex and the Entire Development Team.

you guys have put out some great stuff, and i like the post, it was absolutely spot on.

please let us know when you need beta testers, there are those of us who are waiting and willing to get you the feedback you deserve on your products.

Happy Birthday Keep The Good Times Rolling

regards,
DosDawg
Terabyte Hosting Solutions
Andrew Boon
Thanks DosDawg. Looking forward to start testing Poseidon-based software with you. You would also be able to get your hosting ready ;)
lrepton
Have a piece of cake on me!

Happy Birthday Boonex!
laurent
Happy Birthday Boonex , May the Force be with you!
mikesta
Happy birthday boonex.

Your announcement sound more than great. I think there will be the next revolution in the near time.
theGhost
A VERY Happy Birthday to you, my friends. Always at that top of your game. I look forward to the next 8 years.

TR quote hangs above my computer...How ironic :)
Evandromar
My day was very run today, but near the end of the day succeed as usual, take a look in blogs Boonex.
Boonex Congratulations, thank you for any, and make my dreams reality.
hay2x
let me just say: " :-) thank you. "
Vdate
Happy Birthday BoonEx :-)

/SmartPro customer
WOW! this is big news, big plans, and next big thing! Happy big 8.
treedguy
Sounds sweet, happy big 8!
RumpyBumpy
Happy Birthday Boonex!

I look FORWARD to the good things to come .....

Just to be clear ..... are all the ever increasing bugs/problems/annoyances/avoidances/ommitances/quirks/inconsistancies, etc going to be DEALT with and FIXED with the emergence of Poseidon to JUSTIFY all the big talk, or simply swept under the rug and ignored as in the past?

It seems you have (possibly) got your head screwed on right but are you going to actually support and sustain it? (all the big talk)
.
Andrew Boon
That is the plan. While we'll be addressing 6.x line problems and fixing/polishing it, we're launching a new version, which is being designed to be more secure and though-out from the very beginning.

6.x is a result of huge work of lots of different developers, different groups, even different tech management. It's a great product, but has its drawbacks, most of which come from that huge life-cycle.
handsconnect
Heading to 9, is looking fine, happy 8th.
Happy Birthday Boonex

Now we know the secret:
The Next Big Thing will be the "POSEIDON ADVENTURE"

Poseidon sounds great and the natural evolution of everything that came before.

I admire your perseverance and your always positive outlook.

Dolphin 6 taught me patience and with all things Boonex I have learned that anything worth having is worth waiting for.

Patiently awaiting Poseidon

Dwain
antrackz
YEAHHHH, that is GREAAATTT
CALTRADE
Thank you for posting this - it provides some hope, but not much useful information. For those of us who have been struggling to make Dolphin work in real world applications, we need to decide whether to modify the product - and then have a more challenging upgrade - or wait until the product gets some critical features. For example, should I go through the mod to be able to have a website url as a profile field - something that is pretty basic- or should I wait and hope you put it in the new version? see more What about tinyMCE for the DescriptionMe field - lots of us want that - how do we know when or if it is coming? Lots of stuff like that- I've been waiting forever for a phpBB integration mod and haven't been able to find out if this is planned (the one in 6.1.4 doesn't work). This post says that "the Dolphin Roadmap is publicly available" but that is simply not true - see for yourself the http://www.boonex.com/dolphin/roadmap link is broken as are similar links. I don't mean to be negative - this could be great news- but it could also be more false hope.
LeonidS
Exact link to roadmap is here:

http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/roadmap
Happy Birthday, happy 8, happy happy happy. :-)

As always, let us know what we can do to assist and look forward to bigger and better things ...

From all of us at:

CyberXing
Javito
was about to launch a Site with dolphin, now believe it is better to await the launch of the shark before opening the site?
privateventureclub
Happy Birthday Boonex!

I look forward to the new dolphin...
Synergy
Happy Birthday , BoonEx! As always I'm excited to see the next generation of your software. I've always been able to see the big picture and wait patiently for the your software to mature into what I know will be the best in social networking. Thanks for all your hard work.
okweb
Happy Birthday BoonEx, looking forward to Poseidon.
playasurge
Here's an Idea, How about you guys spend less time on developing new stuff, and focus more on customer service and support. I payed for my licenses 3 days ago, and wrote 2 emails, and heard nothing back, and still waiting for my licenses.You cant spare 5 seconds of your precious time to write back to my emails?
Andrew Boon
The catch is that we're not doing the development at the expense of support. We have different groups working at support and development, and it turns out that just adding more people doesn't help much. We used to have 3 times larger support team with worse results. If your question is not answered for 3 days chances are that it's been lost or something. Try to email to org@boonex.com for investigation, please.
leafy
Congratz on 8 years! I wish I had made a comment on 8.8.08 to get my free lic. but I wasn't sure if I was going to use Boonex.

In my research in trying to find the right product for me I ran into the whole Boon Ska issue. My thoughts on that is, it's mostly BS. If you want an example of name changes just look to the telecom industry. Cell phone providers. They seam to change names all the time. How about Att labs, that was spun off into Lucent then changed it's name to Actel when it's stock see more plunged. Brand name changes often reflect an evelution. But to be fair there are companies that do change their names to brush off the bad news. Think, American Coretions Corp. or Diablod. But I don't believe this is the case with Boonex. They seam to be upfront with their mistakes.

I know that Dolphin has some performance issues but I hope that Boonex will spend the money with MYSQL Enterprise Services (MES) to optimize the SQL queries. It really is a cheap solution that would benefit everyone quickly. MES could have it done within a weak or two.

Currently I am developing a site with Dol/Ray the free ad version before I buy. I like that. I hope to launch no later then Feb. 09. I'm looking forward to seeing what 8.0 brings.

Well, enough said for now. Again, congratz on 8 years.
Andrew Boon
BTW 8.8.8 offer is still running. Until we have 888 comments there ;)
DanT
see moreA solid core and a good plugin system is the right way to go. Wordpress and Joomla have great plugin systems that makes building different types of sites very easy.

Question: So if someone were to start a new social network in a few months, is it better to use Dolphin 8 or Dolphin 6/7?

Dolphin 6: There are some bugs with it but it works for the most part and it continues to be better with each fix.

Dolphin 8: Sounds like a step in the right direction but its completely new and untested.

Hmmm....
AndreyP
:)
Dolphin 7 and 8 still not released at all, Dolphin 8 just under development progress. Nobody can`t have it and test.
DanT
True, but I was asking about in several months (or whenever) when both products are out, is it better to stick with 6 or go to 8?
Andrew Boon
In several month - you'd be able to choose. Dolphin 8 will need some time to catch up on terms of functionality. So, if the very early release of 8 would have enough features for you - it's the way to go.
carnid
Happy Birthday Boonex - Keep up the great work!
nuccca
Happy Birthday BoonEx.

Sounds awesome.
BrooklynRebel
Happy Birthday Boonex. I can't wait to get my hands on Poseidon.

Thanks for listening to us. Don't forget your 8-8-08 promises ; )
Andrew Boon
;) 8.8.8 will sure work as promised.
2979
Happy Birthday BoonEx!

I can't wait to see everything that you will bring us in the next 8 years. Keep up the excellent work!

Thanks from all of us :)
deansyme
happy birthday boonex...keep up the great work
lp897
Happy Birthday- BoonEx!

so lets see whats going on!! :)
shariq
Happy Birthday Boonex
Now the charge should be given to the Open Community Coders and make it really Open Source like Joomla and Drupal and Wordpress and PHP Nuke.
Great Work and great team of Boonex , Congrats...
Andrew Boon
We're actually considering going "true-open". It's a bit difficult "money-wise", but if we find a way - we'd do that.
Happy Birthday Boonex
I never realized all the work being done in the background
I wish you much success in your continuing endeavors
for this great software and look forward to Poseidon.
Thanks
jpmorris2008
Exciting! Very exciting. Patiently waiting.
Simion
I am very proud to say I am a part of this community. The level of experts, support, and staff is AMAZING. The staff here has shown me that there are others out there that is like myself... Dedicated to nothing but the BEST!

Great job my friends... NOW... Call me when you turn 16.. Better yet.. Call me at 18, so then your Legal and not gonna get me 20 years... HA HA HA HA HA... JK

CONGRADS MY FRIENDS!!!!
Keep up the AWSOME WORK!!!
uxmenet
Happy Birthday Boonex!

I have a question - what about those of us who have bought the unlimited version of Dolphin (but didn't buy Orca, Ray, etc). Do we get the upgrade to Poseidon for free or are we going be stuck using Dolphin 7/8 until we can afford the upgrade to Poseidon?

Thanks.
Andrew Boon
Poseidon will power the new Dolphin 8. If you have an unlimited Dolphin license, you'd get an upgrade for free, since it's still Dolphin.
thidayat
happy b day

keep it up .....our team already decided continue using BOONEX

from now.

CONGRATULATION & and please let us know your POSEIDON
soons
michaelmorris
Happy birthday. I'm really excited to see Poseidon!!
bambie
Happy birthday boonex!!!!!

____________________________________
Bambie Murphy
hd4real
------------
First, we’ll be running private testing, then public testing. SmartPro customers, Unity Pundits, Moderators and Experts would have early access.
------------

Have you changed that sentence? You had Contributors there too but now it's gone. ???
Im new here, anyway I just wanna say belated Boonex... :)
Keep on rockin' and rollin' Boonex...
gajananps
Sounds Great....
Happy Birthday Boonex

Thx
brendalizallen
Could someone clarify the time frame for the new engine or NBT? Is this a 2008 or 2009 thing? Is there a ballpark estimate?
Rusty
Hay BoonEx,

When will Poseidon be available? I need to know because I want to make changes to 6.1.4 but it will cost a lot.

Kind Regards
Rusty
museeki
Hi Boonex,

Ive heard of mid Jan 09 for release of 7 and an early summer 09 date for 8, is this accurate or rumour?

Rgds.
Mi
 
 
Below is the legacy version of the Boonex site, maintained for Dolphin.Pro 7.x support.
The new Dolphin solution is powered by UNA Community Management System.
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