Hi amejat. You do have options. You could create your own version of a community-building component for Joomla 1.5, and put the alpha and beta releases out for the public. Then you could have a support forum where there are thousands of posts to deal with and many duplicate posts about existing bugs. And you could spend all day trying to weed out the bug reports that are new. And you could have people angry at you because your component broke your website because of an obscure and specific server configuration (not necessarily the fault of the component). And you could be evicted from the place you are living and be homeless on the street with your laptop, borrowing wireless access from the nearest coffee shop so you can continue working on the component and make it available absolutely free at every step of the release.

I have attended a lecture with Richard Stallman, the man who created GNU/GPL and I also had a chance to speak with him. During the lecture he mentioned several times that there is a misunderstanding about "Free Software" and that there is nothing wrong with charging for software, as long as it is released under the GNU/GPL license endowed with the "four freedoms". Also, Stallman doesn't like to refer to it as "Open Source Software". Instead he prefers "Free Software" as in freedom. But, as you can see this creates confusion because then people expect the software to be free as in not having to pay for it.

If the CB team wants to take their time and release a stable product (that you will be able to download absolutely free) either be patient, or chipin a small amount of money so that you can get the RC release.

Post edited by: undoIT, at: 2008/08/13 19:48

undoIT wrote:


Thanks for the advice genius, he's already a doc subscriber. Way to talk to someone that supports the community though, you're a real hero, makes me want to subscribe immediately

It gets annoying when people put demands on the developers who are working on this and making it available for free to the community. I don't see amejat listed as a doc subscriber, but if he already did subscribe, then I apologize and direct the post to everyone else who is complaining.

I don't know that people really understand how much work goes into developing a component as complex as CB (I certainly don't fully understand). Maybe it would've been better just to ignore those posts. But at least I appreciate all the hard work and I'm happy to pay a small feel to get the release early. I will also be donating more once the stable release is out.

I have been watching this thread and have noticed that when a post is too critical of the "release only to doc subscribers", the post will disappear after a few days.

UndoIT, I hope that someone over there is smart enough to delete your posts. You are rude and offending the loyal users of this product. You cannot even take the time to see who it is you are bashing. You tore into a doc subscriber because he thought it would be better to have more people involved in the testing. Do us a favor and learn to keep your mouth shut.

Am I a doc subscriber: no. My problem, I need to get a P.O. in order to purchase the subscription. I cannot get authorization to buy a piece of software that will be released free of charge in ???. Please give us a release date so that we can justify the purchase. I am disappointed in the way some of the people associated with Community Builder have been treating their loyal users. For a group specializing in building community you sure have done a good job of alienating people.

We are your users. We are not deadbeats. We are not too cheap to buy software. We just cannot justify paying for something that we have no way of evaluating. Do something so that we can justify the purchase. Give us a date. Give us some screens of the new software. Who knows show us some of the documentation that you keep telling us about. (You have my apologies in advance if you have already done this.)

You guys are taking a great opportunity to build anticipation for your new product and turning it into negative publicity.

To make a few things clear, amejat (the user I was speaking to) is not listed as a doc subscriber. If you don't want to subscribe, that's fine, but then please be patient for the stable release. Once it is out, you don't have to pay anything unless you are feeling generous.

Secondly, what I am posting on this forum is my own opinion. I am not involved with the CB team other than reporting bugs and being happy to use the software. They might not even approve of what I have posted so don't direct any criticism towards the team for what I have added to the forums.



If you don't have a personal bank account or credit card you can use, then just wait. It will be out when it is ready for use on a production environment.



Joomlapolis.com is using CB1.2 RC2. You can demo the frontend just by using this site. There are also sites listed in the showcase that are using it:

www.joomlapolis.com/component/option,com...nc,showcat/catid,16/

It is very similar to CB1.1, which you can install on a sandbox site for free to try out the administrative area.

@undoIT - thank you for your comments, your understanding and your support. Also thank you for helping out your fellow Joomlapolitans on these forums - much appreciated.

@amejat - I understand your frustration but this is the way this team has chosen to function. CB's success indicates that something is functioning properly. We will not release such an important component to the public without proper testing - period. CB is used on too many sites and this forum is not properly supported by the community members. If we were to follow your suggestion and release everything to everyone without proper testing, then imho we would be bombarded by thousands of duplicate questions (already answered). With this process, imho, we get a small percentage of doc subscribers that are already familiar with the system that migh just help out other community members.

@all - we do not charge for download. we do offer a yearly CB documentation subscription as a means for existing users to further support the team. Giving this group access to RC builds is just a means of thanking them for there support.

@johnjake - some posts that are nasty and disrespectful are indeed moderated. Opinions expressed properly are not touched.

Back to helping out on the forums and then whatever time is left back to fixing CB 1.2 towards stability.

@all feel free to help with the forums and make more time for real work.