I totally agree with you. Some of the features are fundamental, and should be added for the software to be perfect. If I may, your list misses the edit feature.

I suggest we begin a Kickstarter campaign to raise fund for outsourcing these developments, since the core developers don't seem to bother by these basic features.

Good point about the edit feature, Jean.

In terms of funding, isn't Oxwall a commercial entity, as part of Skalfa? I notice that oxwall.org now redirects to oxwall.com entirely, at the bottom of which it says "© 2016 SKALFA LLC". Are Skalfa not making enough money from SkaDate to make improvements on Oxwall?

I would have thought that a not-for-profit would select a .org rather than a .com as its primary domain. I would be up for helping to put a kickstarter together, however I'd need clarification rom Skalfa before we all put a tonne of time into it. Additionally, it says "We build. You grow." at the top of this very page!

I would also like to see a customisable app for android and iOS, so that users can access the community natively rather than through an equally clunky web interface. Skalfa already offer this with SkaDate, so I am sure that it would not be too much of a stretch to include this with the Oxwall offering.

By the way, Skalfa, did Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Will Smith and others give you permission to use their photos on your marketing?

Topic was moved from General Questions.

Hi James and Jean :)

Skalfa has apparently partnered with Oxwall.  This was done i believe to give them some professional options regarding doing business in the USA since Skalfa is based in the USA and sharing some internal responsibilities.

However they are still two separate entities on the product side of things. An upgrade or feature with one does not necessarily mean an update or feature for the other.  One is a specialty software for dating and the other is an open source project.  The two can be very different but have the same core at their base.  So being part of or associated with Skalfa, Oxwall can still exist as a non-profit foundation under the same umbrella.

 

Im not an attorney and not giving legal statute however it can be structured this way and has been done not only with some of my old companies but also in the corp world in general. Lots of major companies have within them a non-profit faction which operates independently within.  They have their own rules, thier own business plan, their own tax structure and all of that.  

The bottom line is that Skalfa does not perform code updates on Oxwall.  The Oxwall team works on Oxwall and the SkaDate team works on Skadate.  They may have some administrative shared responsibilities such as when someone is sick or on vacation but they are assigned to two different entities.  

Its much the same way that Ford set up Lincoln and Mercury.  You have seen ads for Ford-Lincoln-Mercury.  But Lincoln and Mercury run independent of Ford.  You dont see 2016 Ford Mercury or 2016 Ford Lincoln, you just see 2016 Mercury and 2016 Lincoln. 

With regards to the images on their marketing page, again im no attorney and one should seek an attorney if questions exist. However, as i understand it from doing some reading on this, as long as Skalfa does not specifically place an endorsement of any kind on that page indicating that anyone of those people endorse them, then it is no different than seeing the picture on google.  

Now it could be alittle stretch there on the Jolie one because they could be indicating that Jolie has a profile. However, a profile where? It does not say with them, its just a profile somewhere on the net.  So again as i understand it as long as its just a picture and is not actually endorsing anything, i would guess it was safe to do so. 

With regards to the core features, remember that Oxwall is just a core with a few base plugins in the box.  Anything else you need would have to come from a third party plugin.  Some of those features you mentioned above actually could be added to the core at a later date, however that is totally up to the team as to where, when, and if they do so. 

I think maybe alot of people might compare Oxwall with paid scripts in which paid scripts surely do have more base features.  

Also please remember than the more that is in the core, the more that has to be supported and fixed if broken. That means manpower and talent which is expensive. So i like the idea of puting together a fund raiser to do this and send it off to the Oxwall GitHub when done.  Honestly this is probably the best way to get what you need in the short term.  

I hope that helps :)

Quote from James Geddes Hi everyone,

I love Oxwall. It is a great platform for building a community, however it is missing much of the basic functionality that users expect from any platform in 2016. This makes it feel clunky, so much so that engagement on our site is actually being affected.

These include but are not limited to;

- Multiple device sign in

- Permanent sign in

- Highlighted Text to Hyperlink

- RSS

- "mobile version" creates an entirely distinct site

- Native API to enable integration with other platforms such as MediaWiki or to build apps for iOS or Android

- Remove reliance on URL Rewrites

- Export user list from the front end

- Emoticons

- Event calendar for individual groups

"So why have you not put these on uservoice, James?" I hear you ask. Uservoice is for exciting new development ideas, and that is what gets the votes. These are not exciting or new, they should be in Oxwall already!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Add to this list support for emails in languages other than English. This is a definite gap as oxwall supports multiple languages on the front end, but all emails are in english (with the exception of verification email)

Skalfa and oxwall are sitting on a goldmine of a potential awesome product but are oblivious. They have strong support from a community of customers and developers who year after year keep asking for the same core features but are never listened to. 

Any other organisation would turn this around into a huge success story but unfortunately all you get with oxwall is volunteers like Dave telling you why these things are impossible. All backed by skalfa developers just randomly delivering features that they deem are important. 

It's not that hard to develop software that your consumer wants, someone just needs to break the barriers of people stuck in the "I know what is best" mentality and collaborate with the communities that are ready to step in and deliver an awesome product .

IntrigU, i never said anything was impossible. What i was leading to is that if you want it fast then it has to be done yourself.  The wheels do turn at Oxwall but they turn slowly, it is a very small team.  Hiring team members takes money, none of them work for free as i understand it,  and all of them can go out and make tons of money on the open market which i suspect some do and then do Oxwall on the side. 

Anything is possible with the right funding and the right manpower, at the moment Oxwall does not have huge funders nor huge manpower to source from internally.  This is why if you want to code it yourself and submit it to the Oxwall GitHub, im sure they will consider it. 

If i had the money myself i would try to purchase Oxwall because i feel as you do that it is a goldmine just waiting to be tapped.  However under the current structure only so much can be done at one time, its just how it is. 

You do realize that since Oxwall is open source you can change it, modify it, and even offer it to others. But if you offer it to others you have to leave the Oxwall attribution on the software always, that can never be removed if you plan to offer it to others.  That attribution as i understand it can only be removed if the software is used for a personal site and the $50 donation requirement is met. 

If you are a developer and wish to contribute please do, im sure that Oxwall will greatly appreciate the assistance. 

There is manpower and there is focus. If you get a small team to focus on features that the consumer wants you are setting yourself up for success, and with success comes funding. That has not yet happened but I am hopeful it will.

Me too ;)

+1 IntrigU

+ James Geddes

I was thinking i was alone thinking the same you guys doing.....

Agree with you guys, but the core question here: if there is a team at all? There were no updates and no other activity for half a year. It more looks like the project is abandoned by developers whatever the size of the team was.

llja  -  i think alot of that time was spent coding the new SEO feature. It is a large feature and probably took quite a while to finish.  

+1 lija

Hello there!

I started the following "fundraising campaign":
https://www.leetchi.com/c/community-oxwall-freelancer

Of course you'll have to trust me for managing the freelance recruitment and monitoring. I'm a professional software engineer, I'll certainly do that seriously. If you don't trust me, don't donate, simple as that !

Trust your fellow being :-)

Hi Jean DeJean!

Can you give us some background? Who are you? What do you do? Can you share your facebook profile, LinkedIn profile or something?
I'm worried of this:
<<<The project will be submitted to the freelance, who will have the final word on the validated features, the proposed list should be seen as a wish list, not an engagement.>>>

I been told several times donation system is a super great idea for make things go much faster at oxwall.com and it should bee run by "oxwall team" no other people and it can bee done if they really want implement it and it would not cost very much money implement such system.

I doubt they want it because i have suggest it to they already and i did not get any respond at all for bee a great idea make things go faster. I think the speed would double in 1 year and they could hire developers for that money because they always complaints they not have people work with many things and this should bee a great tool to fix that.

vote system is a slow system replace it with donation system, oxwall will loose 0 usd and we get things fixed faster.

/Marcus

Quote from Senior Developer Hi Jean DeJean!

Can you give us some background? Who are you? What do you do? Can you share your facebook profile, LinkedIn profile or something?
I'm worried of this:
<<<The project will be submitted to the freelance, who will have the final word on the validated features, the proposed list should be seen as a wish list, not an engagement.>>>

I am not willing at all to share these details, I hope you understand. If you are willing to take the lead for that donation campaign, please do ! I'd love the 20€ (yeah small amount) I donated to be transfered to another campaign if it's considered better suited.

I agree with the proposition from Marcus: instead of "voting", the features should gather donations.

I agree with SD that Jean should share more details who you really are if you will recieve big money from people. I fully support that.

I agree with Jean about "replace vote system with donation system" but oxwall should bee the one that handle the system no other people.

Anyways i will soon hopefully take a holiday from this forum because i feel i spend to much time here and not on my business. But my business is build on this business so it goes hand in hand and maybe thats why i still posting at this forum.

Bye from now i have nothing more to say about this....and i hope oxwall team is reading and analyze waht we are saying here. i think they do im 99.9% sure about it.

/Marcus