MODX Core development team abandoning MODX development as 1st priority? Please read!

The "team" is certainly more than just two people!

Quote from: sottwell at Apr 05, 2013, 09:55 AM

The "team" is certainly more than just two people!

Hi Susan and sparky,

I apologize. I should have been more specific: MODX developers which contribute to the specific core commits are 2; the team is much larger than 2 and this team encompasses all areas, including professional services.

Quote from: sparky

I'm slightly concerned this thread is now deviating into a "let's expand into ecommerce". The 2 man resource team is barely sufficient to respond to posts on this thread, let alone develop the CMS. As to branching into ecommerce can everyone please take a reality pill.

Sorry about pulling this thread in another direction and that I wasn't more clear on the e-commerce thing. My specific recommendation isn't that MODX themselves do the e-commerce module-- instead, with the blessing of Ryan and Jay, that the community does it.

I'll start a separate thread on this.

I disagree that other hosting offers ten times the features.

@RX, I was merely making the point about how cut throat hosting is.

Plus I would hardly call Adobe a cheap competitor. Their plans start from $6 a month, for $38 a month they give you a complete ecommerce solution.

I just don't see how Siphon labs can be competitive in that space. Remember the purpose of Siphon labs is to offer extra services like wordpress and magento, so it's competing in a much larger pool, space it is not just offering services for Modx users.

Note: I'm certainly not recommending the Adobe option, I've looked at it many times and while all the integrated services are attractive, it's just not as flexible as Modx.

I'm just illustrating that there are some seriously big bruisers already operating in this space.

@Tom I look forward to your new thread on ecommerce.

Moving on

It seems that what this thread and the Siphon labs decision has done is bring things to a head, and ultimately that should be a good thing, but there will inevitably be tears before bedtime before the whole thing is resolved.

But to me the recent decision comes completely out of the blue. I don't remember being surveyed, I might have been but I certainly don't remember being asked "Do you think we should set up a separate company to offer Wordpress and Magento?" If I had I would have screamed No!

I really think there should have been more discussion within the community about it beforehand. (Maybe there was and many of us missed it.)

But in reading all the comments in this thread a number of things are clear:

1: Everybody understands and is supportive of the developers' need to make a profitable business.
2: Modx has a very passionate community.
3: The current decision has provoked that community and made a lot of them uneasy.
4: Several experienced marketers have questioned the wisdom of the direction.

Ah well, at least we're now having the discussion.

Well, I've been through this before, with the advent of Revo. And not only did MODx survive the "disaster", it's actually taken a serious leap forward. Some of the people who made these decisions are big players themselves, with impressive backgrounds. I'm willing to ride with this and see where it goes.

In any case, MODx the CMS is obviously still rolling along (I have been getting regular automatic email notifications of attention paid to bug reports, fixes and feature requests I've made on both Evo and Revo lately), so it's looking good so far.

I am one who has been reluctant to switch to Revo. I love Evo. I forget which post-er here said it but I have seen others who feel like I do on this thread.

But I'm with Susan who has definitely been around for all of it (and who I highly respect). I've been around for a while too now. I'm not uneasy, I totally trust Ryan and Jay. I also know that we are going to need to step up as a community and here's the thing. If you want something then find a way to help make it happen. This is open source. You're allowed.

I'm riding with this and I believe it's going to the top, because I know the platform(s). Growing pains.

:-)

As far as e-commerce goes.... for a lot of smaller businesses that don't have high volume, integrating something like FoxyCart or Mals-e.com is very simple and meets their needs. We use Mal's for the nonprofits we work with and some of the smaller vendors and it's just golden. The caveat is inventory management. For something like that, implement a full platform.

just my .02.

After talking to some Siphon people I think they are doing what they think will grow the best and I wish them the best of luck. The direction they are headed is just not where my needs are.

I'll add here that now that Evo is rolling again, the temptation to backslide has been strong. But the reasons why I made the switch in the first place still obtain (what has happened to the videos from MODXpo last year?). I'm not really regretting moving from Evo to Revo, just feeling a bit nostalgic. I am looking forward with great interest to MODx 3 in the hopes that it will at least be a beginning towards blending the best features of both systems.

One thing that strikes me about MODX 2.x is that is much more aimed at high end developers than Evo was. That's probably a strength, as it should be able to cater for both groups, but I don't know how much work has been done to bring in those kinds of high end projects by either businesses or MODX the company.

All that said, it would also be handy for MODX to be visible in the tech community at large. Maybe MODX businesses should seek out some projects that have that kind of profile. FWIW the group I belong to (I'm Exec Director) - the Open Rights Group - does that kind of thing in the UK. I am sure we'd welcome some 'official' involvement from MODX if it was offered.

We're launching an international project highlighting and documenting legal requests for web censorship, called 451 Unavailable - and I've asked a MODX developer to quote for the initial design work for the UK phase. The aim is to be for court orders what Chilling Effects is for the DMCA.

The bigger project will require more development and internationalisation, of a reasonably complex nature. If this is of any interest to MODX developers, or the community, and you think it could help raise MODX's profile (I certainly think it could) then let me know.

Indeed, along those lines I directed a client (a large corporate support site that had inherited an old Evo site) to the Dell Design Library page as an example of what a rewrite in Revo could accomplish, the client expressed surprise that MODx was so "big". Personally I was impressed with the fact that the engineering company that built the Hoover Dam uses MODx.

Hi all,

I've started a new thread on the e-commerce discussion: https://forums.modx.com/thread/83712/discussion-on-modx-and-e-commerce-started-2013-04-06#dis-post-461969 so that there's no [further] hijacking of this thread

Regards,
Tom

One thing that bums me out about the separation is I feel like there are some interesting things that could have happend that likely won't:

• Community Rewards
• Student Accounts

Wouldn't it be cool if say every so many forum threads you answer or participate in you get a Development cloud? I have 15 Clouds on my account, and I'm counting 7 of them are used for OpenSource extras I plan on releasing or already have in the MODX Extras repository.

Maybe SiphonLabs will still make moves with student accounts but it seems less likely to me. I think to grow the MODX community gaining interest of college students is imperative.