Dolphin's reliability

Hi, what do you think about Dolphin's 6.1.6. code stability and reliability? Do you think that it's necessary to clean up the code and make some changes to make it rock solid?

I really appreciate your opinion and experience.

Thank you very much!

ED

6.1.4 and 6.1.6 is a solid foundation, there are some tweaks and adjustments that are required to make the site functional and less prone to insertion attacks. but for the most part, and for what it is, 6.1.4 and 6.1.6 are solid and production ready.

Regards,

DosDawg

but do you think that it is necessary to hire a programmer if the site has some hundreds or thousands of people? and at what stage should I do this? I think that as yearly as I have money in order to give a reliable service. what is your opinion?

I respect you!

That would all depend on your personal position and a few other items such as:

1.  Can the site cover the additional cost of hiring a programmer?  Programmers cost money and will quickly deplete any independent webmasters personal funds if the site is not making the money to cover the cost.

2.  What are trying to do to the site that it would require a programmer down the road? 

3.  How good are YOU at programming/coding?

4.  What is the arrangement between you and your hosting company?  Do they manage the server or do you?  This deals with upgrading server software, dealing with Server based errors and so on.

There are many more questions, I would suggest you take some business management courses before you attempt this if your asking these questions in a software development forum. 

Frankly speaking, I agree with you that in this case a special education is necessary, but it takes time and it's better to grow with your project as I think.

I had some thoughts and only wanted to get responces from people who have more experience. To give a quick answer, I'll say that I'll invest money in programming and hosting as I get the first income from it. It was my plan.

I thought about a programmer, because there is an opinion that there are a lot of bugs in dolpin. THat's why I get an idea to clean the bugs up as yesrly as I can.

My programming skills are equal to zero. I only can make see the differences in files, copy and paste smth and then look what happens. This is my method of learning technic :)

And speaking about hosting arrangements, now I'm at Arvixe hosting on a shared plan (temporary, of course). I found this type of hosting (with some hosting company) the best variant for me with my level of knowledge in this sphere.

And on that shared plan you will forever chase bugs.  Move to the VPS and you will find life much better, bugs much less and money will stay in your pocket longer instead of finding it's way to those who kill bugs.

OK, I'll move to VPS  and share my experience ))

ED5 It may be a bit late but here is my opinion of Dolphin, relative to your question.

Dolphin is probably as solid as any other software that you are likely to come across.

BUT... and it is a fairly big but.

before you can relax with a Dolphin site that does what you want it to do, there will be a load of fairly complex work making it behave in a predictable manner. Most of what you will need to do is posted right here on Unity, but it will take quite a lot of time and an increasing knowledge of the codebase to actually find the fixes that have been thoughtfully worked upon by the community.

How that equates to money is a matter of opinion, I have kidded myself that I have saved a small fortune by spending months getting to know the code (I am still only scratching the surface). But if I had paid myself my standard day rate for this invested time, I am sure it would have worked out far cheaper to farm it out to someone that knows boonex inside out (I wouldnt be paying for the learning curve).

Though this may seem to be a matter of economy - looking back, I have actually lost quite a lot of other work and chances to develop the profile and advertising of my site, because I have had my head stuck in the labyrinthine code that makes Dolphin tick.

So I would say that if you are serious about building a business on the back of Dolphin - farm it out to someone knowledgable about Dolphin (perhaps someone here - not a programmer that has never worked with dolphin), and devote your precious time to what you do most efficiently, whatever that may be. That way you will get the best value out of all the effort that is expended on your site.

and, by the way, Good Luck.

IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE OPINION I'VE EVER GOT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!