I think almost every developer on here to some extent (and this is not a dig at anyone or ment to be disrespectful) is guilty of releasing modules with either bugs or very obvious functionality flaws. Of the mods i have on my site MOST have had to have custom work done to cover basic functionality issues where the obvious has been missed or overlooked in the rush to get the mod to market.
Fair enough, some custom work is to make the mod fit our target market and to pretty it up, but much of it isnt. I have many mods that are unuseable ($800 worth to be exact) that I have had to pull from my site and take a loss on. On the plus side I think customm work is always good value for money on here. This is part of the prosess I think. which is a shame...... but why does this happen???
It is all to do with market forces. Dolphin is an incredible product. If I had built my site with SocialGO it would have been rubbish and would not stand a chance in hell of making a profit. But there are some good social engines out there. The developers on here release products quickly - they often have flaws, have not been thought out correctly or have bugs, or in the worst case (and I have seen this) do not work at all. Beta testing of mods in amlost non existent and is not controlled. The quicker a developer can get a mod onto the market, the more money he is going to make - simple! Then they begin the next one, so customer service for the last mod suffers! I do understand this mentality in a money orientated and competetive market.
The real problem lies with boonex. They should controll the market, but if they impose restrictions such as auditing and beta test certification then the developers will run from dolphin and go ellse where. Dolphin without the developers would be like a car without fuel. It will stall and fall behind its competition. This is somthing I think Boonex knows this and it is why Boonexis reluctant to impose restrictions on developers. It is the mods that give dolphin its flexibility, and it is this flexibility that makes dolphin the best option in a highly competetive market.
Boonex minus developers = faliure
Developers minus customers = poor developers.
Pherhaps the way forward is for developers to come to the custopmers and ask us what kind of mods we would like to see in the market and how we would like them to function, and what functions we would like to see included. I would be glad to work with any developer on here to cousult on what may be missing, what could be added and what could be done differently on any mod they are building.....
I have a whole bunch of ideas for great mods for developers to work on with good solid foundations and good functionality. I have even begun to get together with other site owners and begin to develop joint ideas into design briefs for mods so that we can collectively hire a developer to custom make them for us. But it is a shame we have to do it this way as the mod will be for those that have contributed and will never appear on the market.
So, developers.... please... if you have an idea for a mod... ask us, the user, what we think, how it might work, what we need... then build it and test it with us....
It time to work together!