Hey everyone, this might be a long post but its very important. I wont bore you with all the email details other than to say i have finally gotten an answer to my question regarding Oxwall Development and i wanted to share this with you.
None of the following changes my passion for helping you on the forum and otherwise. I will continue to do my tasks here on Oxwall with professionalism and pride until Oxwall is no more.. You have my word on that. The following does NOT change that personal mission of mine.
Preface:
More than a month ago i sent Emil (owner of Oxwall) a email asking about updating Oxwall because time is running short on it even functioning any further out of the box. Emil wrote me back and stated he needed a few days to speak with the team on the issue.
Approx 10 days after that, i sent a follow up email. (no reply)
Then just over 10 days ago i sent a third email. This last one was heartfelt, it was passionate about Oxwall, it was passionate about YOU braving the challenges over the last 4+ years, it was passionate about him making a public announcment one way or the other. I begged him to take some kind of action one way or the other and take a stance for the users who have remained loyal all this time. I inquired about the free version and offered to take it over from him and further develope it. I am saddened to say that once again it has fallen on deaf ears with no reply.
The reason i am writing this now and not sooner is because i wanted to give Emil every opportunity to do something. I found out today that such emails are not a new thing. Others in the past have also pleaded with Emil many times in the same way to show some loyalty, grace, commitment, and character. Sadly ALL of that has also fallen on deaf ears.
So in my opinion, no longer does Emil need to say anything, he has already spoken by not speaking. So now i am 99% sure that there will be no further development of Oxwall and in particular the free version which is what most of us use now.
Please understand that this is NOT about being mad at Emil, he made a business decision, it is his property and he can do with it as he wishes, even if it is doing nothing at all, that is his right. This is about the challenge ahead of us and how we move forward. Emil has a number of investments and he made a choice to move his resources to other ventures. I dont fault him for the business decison, we all have to survive. I wish he had been more transparrent about those decisions, but that is not the case. There is nothing we can do about that.
So Now What!
So now the time has come to decide what we do. You need to decide what you do in your own situation. How do we move forward with our investments.
Here are your options:
I am not being negative here, i am giving you hard reality and facts!
1. If you stick with the current environment, you will experience more and more issues. And just like the past, without developement authority all anyone can do is put a bandaide on it and hope that it will continue to perform for alittle longer, with no confidence if the site will go dark or not.
Even if you fork the script and do your own white label version, it will always be a version of Oxwall that you do not have developement authority over. In other words it will never be an official new release. And there is no plan at this time to ever release a new version.
2. If you move to something else on the market now, then you stand the chance of losing your data and all your investment. It will be very difficult to find smooth import options to move your data over to something new because those options are limited. Its never easy to start over.
3. Build something new from scratch that will meet all your needs, and commit to the growing pains that follow. In the end you will be better off.
Those are your choices, but many of you have had many years to think about this moment.
Here is my feeling:
If you are thinking about the short term, here today gone tomorrow, then choose option 1. You will get some mileage out of it until it fails or gets shut down.
If you have not invested much in the way of time or resources in your project then choose option 2. Better now than later.
However, and this is my recommendation: If you think long term then choose option 3, join me and lets work on something that will meet our challenges.
My idea is to build a new fresh core, nothing from Oxwall will be used, it will all be new, current coding standards. You can read about my idea at this site socboxcore.com
As a team member i am NOT permitted to build a white label of Oxwall as it would be a conflict of interest. However i am permitted to build something outside of oxwall. This is another reason why this makes sense.
The new core will have features that we do not have now such as easy import and export, bridges to other software and better custom pages with more options, a focus on both desktop and mobile communication and features, with mobile being the more important focus. You will be able to use your current plugins with some minor adjustments or the devs can convert them over to the new plugin process which wont be difficult. You will also have a new store with more current features and commitments by devs. We will build a new team.
I could go on and on but none of this mean anything if no one is on board with it. If no one really cares and you just want to stay where you are until the tires fall off then why waist my time building something new and exciting.
This option comes with growing pains and will take time to develope. I am doing this for all of you, but if its not what you want then tell me.
In summary:
So lastly i ask you... what do you want to do?
If its option 3, do i have volunteers to build a team?
Thanks Dave :)
