Pre-announcement: Commercial Support Options Coming Soon

How’s this for a commercial support plan? I like their plan, not fond of anything associated with dotnet.

http://wiki.mindtouch.com/Deki_Wiki/Deki_Wiki_Support_Pricing Read the page all the way to the bottom.

There is still a risk of core developers being overloaded by becoming highly paid consultants for trivial problems. But I suppose developers could review the more intensive paid support levels to be sure they meet minimum requirements and help move the project along, not bog it down.

Anything that would tend to restrict the open sharing of information that could benefit the entire "community", that ruins the spirit of "open" source for me.

I have a burning question for the development team about commercial support:

I really need a couple of issues looking at quite urgently - If i buy a one-time support ticket could you please let me know how soon you can get onto the problem from time of purchasing? as that’s not stated on the comm-supp info page.

I know it’s one issue per-ticket and I have 2 issues. If i buy 2 tickets could the issues be addresses in parallel?

Your advice on this would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks

Commercial support tickets are answered very promptly. The SLA is first response within 24 hours though typical responses are 10 minutes to a couple of hours (we’ve never gone more than four or five I don’t think). We can tackle more than one thing at once no problem.

Quote from: bugugly at Aug 28, 2007, 11:57 AM

Managing the middle, often overlooked, and possibly the achilles heel of open source.

3 developers can’t take care of 3000 customers specific needs and continue to develop.

As soon as you create a privileged group, you have broken the sharing and contributory spirit of open source. The middle level should be the bridge from developer to neophyte. And along with new users, the source of some of the best ideas. For this middle level to grow, it has to be nurtured and rewarded.

Tremendously perspicacious comments. As one of those lower-middle types who’s relatively new here, I too look at code and have tried to help out when I can. I can certainly say that I’ve been astounded by the thoughtful and encouraging help I’ve received from core members of the MODx team (even with relatively stupid questions that I should have been able to figure out on my own). Frankly, I don’t know how they find the time and I do fear that they’ll burn out. I can see where creating a fee-based support tier might threaten their ability to support the "middle." I don’t know what the solution might be, but I’m glad you brought up the issue.

Bob

I don’t think we have any short term issue with "supporting the middle", nor that the core member will burn out (though it’s true the workload is not light ). Don’t underestimate the significant number of people who stand "in the middle" and are proficient enough to provide a good share of the "middle support". I think core team members have proved their commitment to the open source model and their presence on the "public" forums alone speaks for itself.

And don’t forget the MODx team is now pretty wide (I can’t provide numbers but I do think you’d be impressed). We have quite a bunch of Testing & QA members, and developpers are rising up to the challenge : check out how many resources are being contributed !

Commercial support plans were needed precisely to insure the project would not collapse under its own weight and core team member can sustain MODx development.

This doesn’t mean I don’t understand (or share, to a certain extent) the concern about managing MODx growth. Rest assured, we’ll keep an open ear to your input (as we always did) and do our best to rise up to the challenge !

As the project co-founder and someone who has lived by and for MODx for ~3 years now, I can assure you that my top priority is maintaining the community and having it continue to grow. The reality is that without a commercial support channel, you’ll see some things start to go unanswered on the forums as paying jobs (out of necessity) have to take priority over getting the next release delivered and answering questions. Commercial support can help change priorities, as it directly funds ongoing MODx progress. In addition, commercial support subscriptions lead to full time commercial support staff (plural) if things go according to plan.

As we move from a early adopter community to a more mainstream solution, commercial support with an SLA is a requirement. Businesses want the assurance they can get help when they need it, or they’ll go elsewhere. That’s smart. Getting MODx into a commercially accepted place has long been a goal and we’re getting there.

In the end you’ll have to decide if the inevitable minor changes as the project matures outweigh what it offers. My guess is that you’ll continue to find it an amazing and open project.

Hope this is not too much of a dim whited question

I have never used any form of commercial support in the past, actually this is the first time that I have had this option (hurray for MODx). Anyway, I am not 100% clear on what to expect from this sort of support. How does it work and what can I get out of it.

For example: Let’s say that I am developing a site and I need help with a specific feature. Do I get orientation (theoretical assistance) on how to do it (...have you looked at so-and-so snippet or read the documentation...)? Or do I get a more detailed instructions type help (...to do this you need to first do this then do that...)? Could it get to hands on help (...here try this bit of code, or send me access info and I will login and install it for you...)?

Obviously ’support’ != ’custom development’, but I was just wondering what to expect so that I can understand when it would be a benefit to seek support. Better to understand the parameters before hand.

I will definitely budget this into future projects.

Quote from: rthrash at Aug 31, 2007, 11:39 AM

Commercial support tickets are answered very promptly. The SLA is first response within 24 hours though typical responses are 10 minutes to a couple of hours (we’ve never gone more than four or five I don’t think). We can tackle more than one thing at once no problem.

thanks for your reply ryan and sorry for not acnowledging this before now.

your commercial support looks really together and comprehensive - i’ve noticed the latest thread has some of the initial questions (reservations?) which i had as i’m aware that it is still at ’soft launch’stage - but i will certainly be going for it.

it really is a major help to know that an open source product has structured support.

Soft launch is simply so we can continue documenting our internal procedures and work out billing issues with international credit cards. We’ve had to adjust some AVS settings for instance as not all card issues support Address Verification ... (why they don’t is another issue entirely!).

Although it seems I’m a little late a the the party, I thought to share some thoughts.

At first, developing a paid subscription support service seemed like good one to me. However, reading this thread some worries slip my mind.

1- If the core developers start to spend too much time on trivial issues bacause of subsription liabilites, the community might be waisting talent...
2- In a world where we hire offshore developers, a too strict support schedule could jeopardize the users’ ability to choose the most commercial and global sensible way to solve matters
3- The attraction of Open Source in general is the ability to contribute in exchange of recognition. In particular bugugly’s middle-man is performing this task, many issues are trivial. The risk is, as soon as the middelmen get the feeling they "compete" with the paid world, their source could dry out... a killing field for Open Source. I for one would start to hesitate, feeling that the issue at hand no doubt is already handled in the area where the have-nots do not have entry to...
4- the high level of the forum was what me made me decide for MODx in the first place. Differentiating paid / non paid is not helping those would need to get encouraged to join.

So, somehow the subscription might give the solution for some but could put of others and working contra productive. For us, I would love to see a more open environment in the spirit of E-bay:

- where I could post my issues if I get stuck in the forum or need asap answers
- on the issue I could offer a price, with a certain minimum of let’s say €5,-
- any expert or even forum member can decide to offer to solve the issue for that amount (if there’s noone, I will need to raise the price)
- If more than one expert offers their help, I can choose an expert based upon recommendations by others and/or core team endorsement on various fields of expertise
- upon which my account get’s immediately deducted with the fee
- later, after my acknowledgement of solution, the majority of the fee gets to the expert; some smaller % to the Modx environment
- the solution is fed back into the forums - which ALL are open for anybody, moving Modx forward in the highest gear possible!

Now, wondering if you like the contribution in this stage and place...
Tom