My thoughts: Unity and Boonex

Ok, these are my thoughts, so I hope I don't get hate mail.

The word "Unity" has a number of definitions that without clarification, can be misleading; no one understands that more than me since joining Unity in December 2010. If nothing more, this experience has been as interesting as it is frustrating.

Some developers in Unity are personable and approachable while others, not so much. Truth is, Unity is more of a jail than a community of developers. A jail in the sense that most of the people here understand that they have been thrown together in the same place because of their Boonex affiliation and investment in Dolphin, which makes it difficult to exit (for reasons of their own). The jail is crappy but it could be better. The food is not bad but there enough fellow Boonex inmates to make life hell.

A member buys a product in the seedy Market, which should resemble any honest capitalistic market, but instead it does not. There is no disclosure, "Buy At Your Own Risk", but there should be. There should be. This market makes the Internet a scarier place, unfortunately. The Market, I believe, lacks integrity and the appropriate oversight, and therefore, new members are/will not be confident about purchases. I think the lack of certainty around purchases impacts developer sales and ultimately the quality of products and services offered, which is evidence by some of the current product and service offerings in the Market.

I've read the complaints online of Dolphin and the complaints about products in the Market, and they are not good. Even the good press isn't really that good, but the similar emphasis in both the good press and bad press is that the community of developers are not willing to answer the most basis questions. Of course, developers don't have to say anything, it is their  prerogative, but they don't make the community better. Their inactivity actually makes the community worse because they have the answers or responses to the basic questions as well as the Dolphin experience(s), but for reasons of their own, they are unwilling to share them.

In truth, I will not buy from a developer who has NOT answered basic questions. I urge no new member to purchase from any developer who is not answering basic questions in Unity regularly.

Boonex (including its director, Andrew) is the equivalent of a deadbeat parent. They are so estranged. How can they say, "we (Boonex) created this community for you (Developers) and we wont get involved in transactions that occur within the Boonex Community (we created) BUT you have to follow our (Boonex) rules?" They own the community, financially benefit from the community, created rules for the community, but claim little or no responsibility for the community?

The software could be better if some restrictions were lifted. For example, Boonex should make it easier to access certain features across various parts of the Dolphin site; that is, for example, the page blocks, whether created by Boonex or for Dolphin by a developer should be available to every page. There are at least 50 of those types of recommendations that I've come across since December, but I'm not going to give to a company and community that gives close to nothing in return.

As is, I wouldn't recommend Boonex and Unity to anyone I like.