Where are the VM Developers?

[Terence O]

Hi I hate to be a snitch but it seems to me that there have been no (zero) responses to forum questions by the VM developers to questions on this forum. I am a fairly seasoned web designer and - somewhat of a newbie to VM. Nevertheless, VM is to survive, the developers have to participate in the serious business of using an open source product to develop a reliable solution for clients. If the Developers have all found new jobs at AIG then just be strait with us and we will not use the product. We have our clients and families to protect too.

I would be happy to pay for support for a shipping issue or other work arounds in VM but who is at the helm of this now? Is it that that idiot at the computer in the header at http://vm-expert.com/ page with most of the copy greeked in?

EARTH TO VM ARE YOU STILL THERE? IF NOT PULL THE PLUG! and let us all move on.

We realize this is open souce but it seems shop is closed for good. I have not seen a single forum where a developer has answered a question since March 08.

- T

[Nirm]

Would this constitute a reply from a developer since March 08!!!!!

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=52864.msg173393#msg173393

[Daniel Jonsson]

I do under stand your frustration about problems in Virtuemart. I can assure you that the Virtuemart isn't dead. Most of us is working on the next version, some of us does even have our own modifications or addons and I doubt noone has answered anything since 2008. If you don't think I haven't answered question please see what I have posted, most of them is after March 2008.

So instead of writing down all your frustration try to write down the problem. Basicly write what isn't working for you and someone might help you. If you do need more help than some questions, I do recommend that you pay a consultant to do the work for you.

If the problems is connected to a module inside virtuemart it might be better to talk directly with the person or group of persons that wrote the module. Since core developers of Virtuemart doesn't really have that much to do with it. Example of most common external modules are shippment and payment modules. It's usually written in the top of the file who is responsible for it. I hope that helps.

/Best wishes, Daniel

[macallf]

I have to agree, but a forum is for all members to offer advice not just the developers! I have personally posted roughly 150 times this month alone about 3 of which were my own posts but again these were providing general help to everyone!

Sometimes we miss things, but after all we are only human and you can't expect us to answer everything.

I can see from your profile that you have one unanswered post, one post asking for a shipping expert to help you and 7 duplicate posts of this message!

Please also remember to help yourself! It's hard to give answers based on a vague description of the problem especially regarding layout. If you can, please provide a live url so that we can actually see the problem. After all, you wouldn't describe a problem with your car to a mechanic and expect him to fix it without taking the car!

[dorjano]

Well guys it's not just about answering questions. It's about having a clear vision ahead. I think that Terence 0 is missing some vision about the future of VM. I said it already in another post; ecommerce is a serious stuff it's no joke! So a serious approach is needed. I think that the you DEV guys lack some communications skills. You should tell VM user what's laying ahead, and the term "...It will be when it will be..." is simply not acceptable. All this frustration comes out from the lack of communication and when you are uncertain you are scared and you are looking for some answers and some alternatives.
I do like J!+VM and I'm using them daily, even writing custom stuff, but every day I'm asking myself is this really a horse to bet on? I'm not so sure anymore. For example there was a talk about multivendor capabilities in VM two years ago!! So I decided to wait for a while. Nothing happen to this date. If I went with a different solution then, now I could have a eShoping Mall up and running and providing better for my family.
So DEV Team make up your minds! Where are you heading? What is the future of VM? What is the plan for next year? What features will be included in next VM?
Oh to finish this; I still believe that you should be payed for DEVing VM!!!

Cheers and thank you for you unselfish and self-sacrificing good work.

[bunglehaze]

I must admit I am a little disillusioned by Virtuemart these days and it saddens me to say so, when I first started with phpshop (pre VM) I managed to find a few solutions to issues while building the product but not very often anything from a developer or moderator who in my opinion should have dev knowledge of a product. Instead there were people scrabbling around for titbits of information from other users who knew perhaps not much more.

Over the years the amount of users has increased exponentially and yet the volume of posts I come across on here going unanswered is astounding, not even single posts but if you search for any number of terms you will finds loads of unanswered posts about the same thing and perhaps after searching 20-30 of the same you may find a link to some info - as a newbie user this is very disheartening and frustrating.

I would love to see virtuemart's forum turn completely around and become the place where people can find information they need but from my perspective it seems things are just getting slower and slower - I am sorry to say I have been looking for an alternative to VM for the last 6 months and other than a complete redesign on my site which is simply massive I would have switched long ago.

The user forum is not new user friendly, the documentation is not really indepth enough for a component with the sheer amount of settings that can be tweaked and with it not being in the docs it needs to be readily available for discussion here - by people who know what the hell they are doing and not the blind leading the blind. I appreciate devs work for free and in their own time but as someone who has in the past I am disappointed that things never really seem to move here.

cheers

leigh

[aravot]

Not everything has to be done by developers, after all we have our own life to take care too, can't spend all are free time working on VM, you want better documentation lend a hand, you want FAQ, submit it and we will add it, most of the unanswered forum posts are repeat questions, users need to learn to search and read before posting the same question that has been asked. I personally don't answer post that have been answered, I don't have time to repeat myself.