Pre-announcement: Commercial Support Options Coming Soon

The issues of multiple languages has not be discussed but I would love to see multilingual support. Personally I only speak English and Redneck.

I speak Spanish, and I’d be happy to help out (and I certainly will still be active in the free forums, since I love the idea of a community helping itself more than anything).

Back when I created sites in Etomite, I used to add a line item to all of my project proposals for a donation to the Etomite project. No one ever complained, especially since I told them this was required (I had worked out an agreement with the Etomite folks that they were fine with me removing all publicly-visible Etomite branding if I kept sending them donations). This idea offers me a similarly convincing excuse to twist my clients’ arms to make donations to the MODx project.

I imagine from now on I’ll add a line item to my proposals for MODx Commercial Support Services, and I’ll explain that this means that even if I’m hit by a truck tomorrow (or if I’m on an extended vacation in Hawaii, which is probably much less likely than the truck scenario), they can count on expert support for their website.

hehehe Ryan, you are probably right.... one of those days....
back to work!!!

Oh, no, have to go... the CIA is after me!!!

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean the CIA isn’t after you...

I thought I’d wait to mention multi-language, but since you bring it up : we have quite a nice bunch of qualified people at the french boards (we frenchies are beginning to represent a nice share here !), and I think we could definitely offer high-end support in French too (I think we’re covered with Heliotrope, Laurentc, Gildas, Aour, Perrine, Soda, OncleBen31... can’t name them all !).

I’d love to see a show of hands from long-time (or very active) users that can get by in English but also that would be willing to help patrol in the new commercial support section. David, did all those folks volunteer for duty there?

Uh, no I didn’t mean that they did. For all I know maybe they missed the annoucement, I’ll relay the info on the french boards and count heads but I’d bet quite a few of them will sign up

I like the idea of having a subscription section of the forums. but have one question:
will the knowledge and build applications and snippets etc be available for all? or will this be decided by the persons(s) requesting the applications etc.

Quote from: rthrash at Jun 29, 2007, 08:35 AM

I’d love to see a show of hands from long-time (or very active) users that can get by in English but also that would be willing to help patrol in the new commercial support section. David, did all those folks volunteer for duty there?

for dutch speaking people English is often the 2nd language, as you can see in the forums not much going on on the dutch treats, but I will be happy to help.

Quote from: Dimmy at Jun 29, 2007, 10:58 AM

will the knowledge and build applications and snippets etc be available for all? or will this be decided by the persons(s) requesting the applications etc.

There’s the obvious argument for wanting to let information be free, as it certainly would likely benefit the community at large. That’s a tremendously strong argument.

There’s also a very clear need in some circumstances for more private discussions that won’t be indexed for all the world to see, including competitors. If there’s not a semi-private forum there’s likely to be a less open flow of information and ideas in critical situations, which is contradictory to the goals of the pure-online commercial support offering.

If it were me and I’m paying for the privilege, I think I’d lean towards a more private forum so I could bounce ideas and strategic plans off folks without worrying about making silly statements or letting strategic plans be instantly viewable by the world at large.

For the purposes of the offering though, I think I’ll let the commercial support subscribers make the choice. That likely means that they will be private for the immediate future (when available).

Quote from: Dimmy at Jun 29, 2007, 10:58 AM

will the knowledge and build applications and snippets etc be available for all? or will this be decided by the persons(s) requesting the applications etc.

I’d imagine that if things are generic/general enough, the knowledge would somehow make it outside of the private forums. Like, a Ditto enhancement or something. But (with my clients anyway) most more advanced ideas might be either: a) too specific to be hugely helpful to the community at large, or b) so specific that the company probably wouldn’t want it broadcast to potential competitors, as Ryan mentioned.

That said, I think this could actually tremendously benefit the community. I could easily see a lot of private forum posts asking about core/API functionality, which would probably only help the doc team build out the API pages. If I were paying, I’d probably open a post like, "Hey, there’s no docs on API call XYZ. Can I get some docs on the wiki?"

Maybe that’s just me, but I think the net effect on the community at large would be extremely positive, even if certain "knowledge" isn’t public.