Making me want to put a bullet in my head

[zoomnbyu]

First, to all those who have been so helpful to this non-programming newbie, thank you so much. You've been wonderful. That said for a community that is focused on an incredibly robust and complicated web based software product and whose users are so technically proficient the old site and this new site want to make me scream!!! Mods, owners, someone can we please:

 

1. Realize that not being able to go directly somewhere from the homepage (ie drop down from product straight to addons, download, etc or or support straight to Forums etc) ranks up there with 1995 porn site design. Click on the icon to go to the landing page if you want but how about the option to go straight to where we want? Even this short bus, barely able to separate an ini from a php, business owner can figure out 10+ years of internet directional use programming.

 

2. SO... We click on support, click on forums, and it takes me to a description paragraphon the same page!!!! Are you f'ing kidding me??? Really it's 2013 if you don't know what a forum is and are on a technically driven product site you should kill yourself because your the same person whose driving everyone else nuts with everything else you do anyway. Click on forum end up at top forum domian. Done. BTW it works this way with the Add-Ons. Speaking of which...

 

3. Add-Ons - The developers on here are amazing. Even when an add-on doesn't work you can see the amount of effort that went in and the amount of support is incredible from so many. Which makes the fact that the add-on search sucks so (^%^&&*)(*&*()&^&*( bad an absolute travesty. Seriously, in the 10+ years this has been out there no one once has said "Hey, how about we let people search just a particular category?" or I don't know "How about we let these morons sort the search by something other than date so the guy looking for a basic search utility can find it without going through 20 pages of bullsh*t?" or hey lets really go bat sh*t crazy and let someone search in just the category they want based on the version they want and then let them sort the results? Holy *%*$ (&*^&* *((*)&%% that's like 1983 Excel insane, it could cause a riot!

 

OK, you're either laughing, I hope, or think I'm a dick, have an ex-wife so used to that. I realize I took this a little over the top but seriously this is an amazing tool and the people here are amazing and while I don't have a prayer of being able to code the above it's really frustrating, particularly search. And while there's no way I'll put a bullet in my head I'm already pissed off at the cat and one more thing could put him in a real bind .. :devil:

[TomB01]

Numbers 1, 2, and 3 seem like reasonable requests ... and I've experienced everything you've mentioned.

 

I would add a 4th complaint - there needs to be some sort of controlled standard for add-ons/contribs. There a couple out there right now that hit me locally. The developer locked the add-ons from any other contributors, then disappeared from all active participation. Since when can someone lock a contribution from others' uploads? So the peeps install said nifty contribution and it's absolutely dependent on one single person and no one else can update or fix it later? Isn't there some community responsibility inherent in that?

 

Seems to me if someone offers a contribution, it needs to belong to the community righ then and there - no locking the contrib from uploads/corrections/revisions/FIXes by other members of the community.

 

I'm stating this because I almost loaded a couple of these in the last week or so. Then through further reading, realized this particular individual is gone, the contribs are locked from anyone else's uploads, etc. No way am I going to install those now ... but I almost did.

[♥toyicebear]

Numbers 1, 2, and 3 seem like reasonable requests ... and I've experienced everything you've mentioned.

 

I would add a 4th complaint - there needs to be some sort of controlled standard for add-ons/contribs. There a couple out there right now that hit me locally. The developer locked the add-ons from any other contributors, then disappeared from all active participation. Since when can someone lock a contribution from others' uploads? So the peeps install said nifty contribution and it's absolutely dependent on one single person and no one else can update or fix it later? Isn't there some community responsibility inherent in that?

 

Seems to me if someone offers a contribution, it needs to belong to the community righ then and there - no locking the contrib from uploads/corrections/revisions/FIXes by other members of the community.

 

I'm stating this because I almost loaded a couple of these in the last week or so. Then through further reading, realized this particular individual is gone, the contribs are locked from anyone else's uploads, etc. No way am I going to install those now ... but I almost did.

 

The "locking" was added so that the author could prevent "unqualified" persons adding up "buggy" versions of a mod.

 

It is a non issue anyway, since anyone who wants can download the add-on make their own version and then just upload it as a new add-on which they in turn can choose to "lock" or leave open for others to upload further "fixed" versions.

[bigbob2]

It is a non issue anyway, since anyone who wants can download the add-on make their own version and then just upload it as a new add-on which they in turn can choose to "lock" or leave open for others to upload further "fixed" versions.

 

Very good point!

 

Kev

[TomB01]

The "locking" was added so that the author could prevent "unqualified" persons adding up "buggy" versions of a mod.

 

It is a non issue anyway, since anyone who wants can download the add-on make their own version and then just upload it as a new add-on which they in turn can choose to "lock" or leave open for others to upload further "fixed" versions.

 

"the author could prevent "unqualified" persons adding up "buggy" versions of a mod." Why the heck is there a community? What's the principle of a contribution anyway, if people can't come along later and update it, make it better, make sure it complies with the latest changes (USPS stuff, in particular - they break my shopping cart every year and another break is scheduled for 1/27)?

 

A "non-issue?." How the heck is a noob supposed to trace that? If they're no uploads to the original contribution, then it may take days of searching (see item #3 from the OP above) just to discover that there's another one. And who the heck is going to tell that person that there's even an updated version if it's not linked from the original contrib?

 

No offense, but you guys are assuming a lot, IMHO. I think I may be taking on the OP's frustration. ;)

[♥toyicebear]

Well, look at it the other way around.

 

You want to use an add-on, this one is open and free for all to upload a version too.

 

And alot have done so, at times 20 different "authors" or more.

 

You download the latest and try to install it in your shop, lo and behold it does not work. (it might include some code which is only relevant to that authors particular shop/version, or include fixes which are simply wrong and so on)

 

You then go to an older version and try to install that, and the same might happen again and you move one more version down and so on.

 

This can be very time consuming and of course "irritating".

 

What i have described above is not just conjecture, its an example taken from actual add-ons where alot of the uploaded "versions" are buggy hacks.

 

These packages are usually not a good "base" for further development eighter since you would be building ontop of a "rotten" foundation.

 

On the other hand choosing an add-on which is "locked" to only one author, the latest version will in most cases work well. If it has not been "updated" in awhile then again it is usually a good "base" on which to further develop it to work with new changes/cart versions.

[burt]

Your post is excellent and the comment about your cat made me laugh.

 

The point about addons is noted; http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/topic/390578-bad-addons/#entry1656543

 

Would you rather use an addon that looks like this: http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/4135 or this: http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/5743

 

This is an example only, and not a great example at that.

 

@@TomB01

[jhande]

@@TomB01

 

Hey Tom

 

When setting up my 2.2 shop I ran into the problem mentioned above...

So many "updated revision" to a contribution that just plain didn't work.

Sometimes there was multiple choice of a similar contribution by different authors; "gee, which one to chose?"

There was a lot of trial and error until I smartened up so to speak.

Check the support thread of the contribution, check if the author is active or contributed more than that particular contribution.

Is it a pain in the butt searching for contributions and still a risky business, but such is an open source community driven world.

 

Just my 2 cents. :-