Pre-announcement: Commercial Support Options Coming Soon

@Tom
As soon as you can build a system like that I’d love to take advantage of it. The potential problem though is that often times a seemingly simple little problem can turn into a monster once you get a real peek at what’s going on. I’d guess to build a system like that that really works and is usable would take a few folks 3-6 months, and that would mean a HUGE distraction for the developers.

From the standpoint of low hourly offshore workers, they’d first need to know the ins and outs of MODx extensively. While our hourly rates are astronomical by comparison, what we can get done in a few minutes may take others not so familiar with platform hours or even days, and then you’ll never know if it’s implemented in an ongoing supportable manner, that will survive upgrades. Cheap rates don’t always translate into low cost in the end.

In the end, I don’t think you’ll see the general non-commercial support fall off or suffer anyway.

For anyone unsure of commercial support:
I bought 2 support tickets and had my issues resolved very quickly and efficiently

you’re running an excellent service and priceless resource... thanks guys!

@Ryan: for now I can see your direction and appreciate the solution you’re offering. From this end, I will invest some time to see if it makes sense to develop a "support auctioning system" that tackles the workload x quality and other issues that come along.

I am totally in favour of commercial support and can only see positives for the community at large.

1. For mission-critical commercial projects time to fix is essential - paid for support addresses this in a way a free forum cannot.
2. I would guess addressing a issue/bug through commercial support would result in that fix/enhancement filtering down to the community at large
3. I don’t see any dilution of support for the forum at large - indeed only positives and the forum would benefit from the commercial side. There is no reason to assume its a diversion of skill and closed shop - Ryan is not like that
4. Anyone handling demanding commercial customers or seeking new orders will be able to win more business as the customer can be more confident a strong service is in place
5. Overall, if the paid-for service results in more full time resourses that is good for everyone, especially if answers/solutions to problems find there way onto the main forum

The biggest single benefit is a guaranteed response quickly. For example the SMF bridge has had some issues, and I see there have been delays between posts. If that was a critical commercial installation running a large forum, the delays could eb a issue, so having the option to tackle commercially means its gets resolved and then everyone benefits. I appriciate this will mean someone ends up paying for support while other will benefit later- but the customer gets a resolution, its done quickly, it filters down to the forum and everyone is a winner..

Quote from: Tom at Sep 11, 2007, 06:22 AM

@Ryan: for now I can see your direction and appreciate the solution you’re offering. From this end, I will invest some time to see if it makes sense to develop a "support auctioning system" that tackles the workload x quality and other issues that come along.

That really would be very cool and I do welcome it indeed.

Quick Question on commercial support, at $99 it includes 1 support ticket per month. If you don’t use a ticket in a given month do they carry forward, e,g 2 tickets following month available etc.

Thanks

Yep... rollover tickets that don’t expire.

Nice one Ryan, Time I signed up I guess....

@Ryan: I’ve been out of loop for a while, but was wondering how commercial support is doing so far.

Reason I’m asking is that that I am ready to bounce of a new project for 2008 and maybe it would be beneficial to contribute in some way. It should be something in line with I earlier described in http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,16100.msg113229.html#msg113229)

Indeed, when realizing it would take 3-6 months to develop a solution, it is a serious matter. In any case, whatever we do must fit the needs of the MODx community, have some kind of "blessing" from the founders and should commercially be sustainable and "self-fertilizing".

Hello Tom,

I’ve been out of the loop a bit myself (relatively speaking) due to a total home remodel where we moved and a new baby girl (a week old now). We’re still not actively promoting commercial support, but it is working and we’re still refining our processes. 2008 should see lots of expansion on this front. The "ebay/bounty support" idea is still a good idea that bears exploring further as well. Discuss it offline if you’d like?