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Thursday, 02 October 2008 |
Upgrades highly recommended. After listening to community feedback, I'm pleased to announce some significant changes to Rapid Forum
for 1.0.x. And dare I say, we're almost stable? If you haven't
upgraded, it's time, because the latest release is far, far superior to
what it's been.
1. We've removed the AJAX that was causing so many browser problems for some of you.
2. All English text is now in a language file to make translation much easier.
Remember to save your language file before upgrading.
3.
We've replaced the "SAVE" function, which allowed end-users to save
posts to get replies, with a more simple "[ ] Email Me Replies To This
Post." We found that very few end-users used the SAVE function and that
it wasn't clear, so we needed a new strategy to notify users when they
got replies to their posts.
4. We've fixed about 10 bugs that made RF annoying and unusable for some.
Rapid Forum for 1.5 update
Our
first attempt to release a version for 1.5 was a disaster (won't get
into it). I've moved to 1.5 on all of my client projects (my day job is
Soapbxx.com), and I love it, so I am pushing the 1.5 release through.
It's been completely recoded and has only 3 bugs left (we hope) until
it's ready to release. I have 9 people on a list who want it when it's
ready. Reply to this email if you'd like to be added to the list. I'm
not going to estimate a release date because I am sick of being wrong.
Did I ever say how much respect I have for extension developers? Much
respect!
Got any live examples?
Is RF doing wonderful things for your online community? If so, please send me a link as I'd love to see it.
My conundrum
I have a
conundrum. Due to my thriving day job, I have very little time to
commit to RF, but I love the project, so I've been paying to fix bugs,
enhance it and rebuild for 1.5. I can't afford to do this, but I want
to. I've researched revenue models, and the only one that seems viable
(donations don't work, adsense generates too little) is to charge a
tiny nominal annual fee, like $10, to download the code, do
whatever you want with it, and get updates for a year. I know, I've
read the argument for and against it here:
http://dev.anything-digital.com/Forum/1.5.x-General-Discussion/1363-JCal-Download-cost-$$-/
(a great read if you have the time and interest)
There will be about 10% of you who protest angrily and call me
names. And I think the rest of you (assuming a) it works beautifully
and b) you get support when you need it) won't hesitate to give me $10
for the 9 months I've put into this. For those 10%, I'm scared. I want
to be liked by everyone. But truth is, my wallet needs you even more.
So, consider this a heads up. Some time in the near future, when I see
both 1.0x and 1.5 releases are stable, I will be implementing an annual
$10 for the source code. I've posted this note on the Rapid Forum demo and invite you to reply.
In gratitude,
Amanda
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
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Thank you for contacting me about the 1.5 alpha. It's not ready for testing afterall -- but we really hope to complete it soon. We want to perfect 1.0.x version first to make the adapation to 1.5 easier.
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
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Many things happening here with Rapid Forum. We'd like to announce that plans are underway for Joomla 1.5 native. You ask, we respond. More updates soon. Register with us to get email updates.
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
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[Updated May 14th: These changes have been implemented]
We've heard from lotsa people -- great component, baaad interface. So, here's our new interface design concept. Please share your thoughts. One usability issue we still haven't solved is that it's not clear that you click on a post to see who posted it and the reply/save buttons. We don't want to clutter the interface with underlines or too much more. Any suggestions?
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Monday, 05 May 2008 |
After 3 long months of development and a painful coupla weeks smashing bugs, we are proud to offer you Rapid Forum - a simple, light Joomla forum component that's unlike any other Joomla message board. Please visit the demo (you must login to post), or register to download.
It's not yet available on extensions.joomla.org, as we would like to see at least 10 sites running it before we launch to the larger community. So please report your bugs! We really want to know about the bugs!
So what is Rapid Forum? Rapid Forum is a simple forum designed to cultivate conversation online.
It flows like a chat room, though messages are saved and organized like
a traditional message board. It's design to be easy to use and light --
no more clicking through categories to find the topics you're looking
for -- it's all right there in front of you.
- Conversations are tagged by topic but sorted by date (most recent first).
- Conversations are searchable.
- Conversations offer indented threads for replies, and for replies to replies.
- Users can choose to view conversations posted to any combination of topics.
- Users canchoose to save any post to receive an email for each reply are posted.
- Administrators can unpublish or delete any conversation.
- Administrators can choose to make the entire board anonymous so usernames aren't tied to posts (great for medical forums or sensative
topics).
- Administrators can add/edit topics.
- Administrators make Usernames linkable to Communinity Builder profiles (CB must be enabled).
- Please post all bugs to our JoomlaSimple support forum.
We would like to thank the developers that made this possible including Dung (Vietnam), Giao (Vietnam), Sean (Ireland), Taras (Canada), and Vitaly (Maldova).
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Thursday, 13 March 2008 |
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Enclosed are the rough specifications that I am using to develop an RSVP function for the very popular JCal Pro extension. Feel free to check them out and comment if you'd like to weigh in or be a beta tester.
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Wednesday, 30 January 2008 |
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The following extensions make Joomla Core more intuitive and easier for non-technical developers to adapt layouts and hack extensions. I only promote harmless hacking. Know what you're hacking and save backups.
JCE with File Manager Plugin
JCE makes it easy to paste from word, insert images, create internal and external links and attach PDFs.
Content_Item Module
Templates are rigid. Multi-window content displays aren't easily achieved with Core. Install Content Item Module and you'll be making magazine-style interfaces in a snap.
Content Links Module
Every website these days includes some variation of chrnologically listed content with the newest one first. Problem is, once again, the Joomla "blog" layout is limited. This fixes that. Label warning; requires strong hands-on knowledge of CSS.
JoomlaXplorer Component
A filemanager for your server. You'll need it for everything from changing your .htaccess file to editing your templates (Core template managr stinks).
JoomlaStats
All the statistics you care you know about, or have time for, packaged in tight little columns.
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