- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Sorry for my rant but I started thinking there’s not trustable script developers in the adult industry anymore.
1st experience
Few months ago, when I decided to start my first paysite and program I decided to rent a CMS for the members area. I paid and got installed 10 days after the payment. I started using it and its templating system isn’t easy to use at all so I had to open few support tickets. Usually the tickets were replied and closed in about 48h. This delay “online” means like 2 months offline.
I opened a very simple ticket during US working hours (the script company is based in the USA). I have yet to get e reply. I feel lucky cause it wasn’t a problem, just a “how to” regarding templating.2nd experience
A couple of weeks ago I asked to another popular developer if it was possible to get 15 days free trial to test out his script. I also asked to subtract this days from the first month of licensing. So in case of a sale the script wouldn’t have lost anything. They normally offer setup for free. So they told me that the free setup was already a damage for them cause the resources involved in installing their script cause the a loss in profit. But since they are so nice they offer it. They added that usually serious buyers are happy to waste money trying a script. Because of these reasons they couldn’t offer me a 15 days trial.Is it normal?
Not exactly the same, but similar is Theme Forest, where you can go to buy themes for WordPress. People ask a lot of pre-sales questions and most developers are happy to answer them, but I’ve seen a few who just say, “Must buy theme for support” and that always leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Similarly, once you buy a theme, OMG! people ask so many questions: can i make it blue? can I move this widget over here? can I have two columns instead of three? It’s a great system because all of the comments and answers are public, so it can help you decide on a developer’s responsiveness or willingness to respond. But good grief, the developers sure do work hard for their $45.
With a CMS, I see both sides of the coin. I wouldn’t want to spend $5000 to see if I liked a CMS. But from the developer’s side, if they give you the script for a trial period, they’re using resources to install it and potentially not making money, but it may not end there as trial shoppers could potential bog them down with: can i make it blue? can I move this widget over here? can I have two columns instead of three? and so on. It’s a lot of investment to end up potentially with no sale.
I’ve seen script sites where you get access to the admin area and can play around and see the script in action, that seems like a pretty good compromise.
I guess the best option in your scenario is to ask on the board about the various CMS you’re considering, see what others say about their experience, and then try and make the best decision.
In your first experience, the non response to a ticket is concerning, so I’m not sure they’d make the short list. And the lack of ease to use their templating system could potential add to your costs as you have to hire them to do it for you.
Your second experience sounds a little better, although their lack of respect for your money — serious buyers are happy to waste money trying a script — doesn’t charm the pants off me. We’re not all walking around with a million bucks in our pockets to toss around.
I think for first scenario it depends on what their support actually covers. I would never expect templating advice to be given urgent attention unless it was specifically part of the support package. A lot of developers will expect you to have experience with Smarty or whatever the CMS uses. Of course if the support covered templating I am with you on this, I would expect answers in much less than 48 hours.
Really a CMS should be offering demonstration versions on their servers which are easily replicated for each new potential customer and offering trials using that method.
I have to say that I’ve lost my trust into small-miedium size script companies. Too many potential issues involved. So I decided to hire a friend to code a custom cms for me. It has exactly what I’m looking for. He coded it in front of me explaining almost every single line of the code. Then I bought a book about PHP and I couldn’t be happier. Total investment? $1500. This script doesn’t do 1000s things but it does exactly what I’m looking for. When I need something to be added I haven’t to find work arounds.
The only script company that I trust is TooMuchMedia. I know it’s been used before in a sad situation but it’s “too big to fail”.
Their support works like e clock. Enter a ticket, wait for few hours depending on how severe is the issue (sometimes minutes), get contacted on skype. That’s what exactly happened with each ticket I’ve entered.
@rob,
Their support covers templating. It doesn’t use smarty, it uses its own templating language. Not very well documented.
To be honest this delay warned me and I’m really concerned about it. I really don’t want to play with a delayed support in case of serious errors.
I have paid so much money over the years for scripts that I paid full price for including installation but not knowing much about scripts and the poor documentation I have just written the vast majority of them off.
Any decent script should have some way of either testing it on your own server or use one hosted by them. Specially if it’s a more expensive script. If they can’t offer that it’s probably not worth using.
BUT if it’s something cheaper and “homemade” then you can’t really expect any free trials or real support. Personally I more likely to trust bigger brands or well-known scripts, not only because the support is better but also because of security. The more users you have of a product the more likely it is that it will be safe and any bugs or security issues get detected quickly. I just wouldn’t go installing any old script on my servers. A very good example was some of the old TGP scripts people used. The programmers left backdoors into the servers the scripts were installed on.
I would agree with the sentiment of others, if they can’t offer you a trial of it, or to experience it in some way before buying, then it’s probably not worth buying. These people should be doing all they can to sell their product, and if they’re not willing to provide a trial of it before hand it suggests to me that they’re not confident they’ll get the sale.
