VM modifications - Joined forces?

[gregdev]

i would propose to restructure the way vm is handled, and not be at the mercy of 1 person to decide what happens to the core!!

Do you mean restructure the VirtueMart project itself (i.e. the core team, etc)?

Also, by '1 person', do you mean the lead developer (and the small core team)? Currently as a small core team, we decide what happens to the core code, based on the our desires & resources, the community needs, and other provided feedback or help.

We are often discussing how to get help. (The perception may exist that the core team is unapproachable. We do not want that to be the case. If it is, it probably results from our limited resources.) We are a small team, and just need good, qualified, committed, sane/rational people to help. There are few who are willing to take the time to establish trust by helping in the regular project work. It is good to see the desires to participate voiced in this topic. Would it be helpful if I opened another topic to discuss participation more generally? I don't want to take over this nice topic.

Greg

[aravot]

Any takers for this issue http://virtuemart.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=71&topic=28759.msg88186#msg88186

[Joachim A]

Hi Greg,

Voluntary work and payment for projects: I don't see them as exclusive:  On the contrary. It seems to me that People are more willing to contribute to get a specific request met. So why not provide a way so that those members of the community who have specific requests can get their funds together and get their feature done. This can also provide much needed resources for the VM project, including the regular fixes etc.

Let say peter is  a webmaster for XX store with VM. His client  is requesting an affiliate component ASAP. Right now as far as i can see there are two ways  of getting it done. One request it to the teams and wait till its done or hire a developer to do it. Let say its really urgent and peter hires a developer and gets it done. Fine and dandy,  peter has his component which will probably become obsolete with the next release and only his store  benefits. Now if peter proposes the project within the VM project his specific request becomes development for the whole community. The way i see it its a win win situation. Peter and his customer get the component, VM get resources, and the community gets new and better features. There are several posts with great ideas and different points of views on this thread .

Summarizing I see it as a way to provide fresh  resources  for the VM project. Please note that when I talk about VM getting resources I'm talking about the project. Of course this invites a new question. How will these resources be allocated. This is a great topic for discussion but at least there are resources to discuss about.

Most of your ideas seem to revolve around getting a new, needed feature added, often for money.

Yes thats true. That is basically the topic of this thread: Modifications Joined forces. I think voluntary work is great and very commendable. But I also think that financial resources for the project open new doors and that there is nothing wrong that VM gets them. Additional financial resources can also be used to outsource some of the work. Some other ideas (not money realted) I posted in a separate thread.

From what you are saying I'm getting that there is need for more coders for Vm. I'm no coder so I would be of little use for that. From what I have seen in the forums there are many non coders  willing to contribute to the community, including me. There are important contributions that can be made by many people according to their areas of expertise.

Joachim


 
 

[myth2112]

Let say peter is  a webmaster for XX store with VM. His client  is requesting an affiliate component ASAP. Right now as far as i can see there are two ways  of getting it done. One request it to the teams and wait till its done or hire a developer to do it. Let say its really urgent and peter hires a developer and gets it done. Fine and dandy,  peter has his component which will probably become obsolete with the next release and only his store  benefits. Now if peter proposes the project within the VM project his specific request becomes development for the whole community. The way i see it its a win win situation. Peter and his customer get the component, VM get resources, and the community gets new and better features. There are several posts with great ideas and different points of views on this thread .

 

This is exactly my situation. I am willing to pay to have mods done, as I am not a coder and want to get the modification done sooner rather than later.

That being said, I would be happy to share the modifications made with others for their own and the community's benefit. Its a win-win at least from my viewpoint.

[Joachim A]

Hi Greg,
This really great. There is Action here. 

I think you are right. There is a perception of the core team not being approachable. I also understand the team is small and the community actually pretty big, and there are a lot of requests of all types. How can we take these conditions and adapt to a more participative project?
Please check the Organizational development post for a more general point of view.
http://virtuemart.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=71&topic=30314.msg88502#msg88502

Joachim

[Joachim A]

Hi myth,
I have been in that situation too;
Actually I believe most Vm users would rather give the request and the funds to VM than anyone else.
Who is better suited?
For now, until a system is developed to support this,  a good alternative maybe to hire a developer to get the request done (in or outside the VM team) and make the module available to the team for integration. 

Joachim

[gregdev]

I think you are right. There is a perception of the core team not being approachable. I also understand the team is small and the community actually pretty big, and there are a lot of requests of all types. How can we take these conditions and adapt to a more participative project?

I created a topic for discussing exactly this:

http://virtuemart.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=71&topic=30342

I chose to not just append to your well-worded post, Joachim, that you referred to. I'll admit that I wanted to frame the discussion in a particular way. I hope that is forgivable. With the creation of this new topic, I'll quit commenting off topic in this wonderful topic.

Greg

[Joachim A]

Hi Crackdaddy,

This topic relates specifically on how to create a stucture that facilitates feature development, its finacing etc.
and yes many related problems have surfaced here. It all interrelates and the way the project is organized right now does not make it easy to participate and implement solutions. In my opinion a more decentralized structure would help.  There is a lot that can be improved and  we got a good start here.  I summarized this discussion and ideas along the thread. Please check it out.  I think this is the good first step to make this idea  a reality. From what I'm getting from Greg's posts the team is pretty much open to new ideas and suggestions.
Joachim

[Soeren]

Off Topic: User crackdaddy has been banned - mainly because the words in his posts were offending. On the other hand he or she has seldom/never helped us in a way that would have helped the project.

ciao, Sören

[kessels1234]

Off topic too:
Hi Soeren. I have no connection with crackdaddy but I think this punishment is too hard. I know he sometimes is a little rude and has bad language but I guess he has done some good things to the community and as far as I can see it he knows how to program.
The way he behaves is just a statement. Have you ever heard of the rich jerk (internet marketeer)? He's acting the same way as crackdaddy but is one of the most succesfull internet marketeers. I think it's just an act and we have to accept this act and benefit from his  contributions.

Danny

[Joachim A]

Hi Soeren,

I think Crackdaddy has been a valuable point of view to this Thread. His tone may not be diplomatic, but his observations and participation say to me that he cares about Virtuemart.
It would be really interesting if all this situation could be channeled into tangible solutions.

Joachim

[jmds]

I agree with Soeren's course of action on this.

Crackdaddy may have made contributions to this project and he may have a valuable point on this thread. However his manner and attitude to other users on this forum was very offensive. I think you would be hard pushed to find any decent forums that allowed that kind of post to be made without the poster being banned.

[aravot]

Permanent ban or for some time?

[myth2112]

I am interested in;

Gift wrap option
Gift registry, there is one available but has some issues may someone could take over and make it better.

Im in for the gift wrap option. I posted a similar post in the commercial thread here:
http://virtuemart.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=71&topic=30524.0

I think a permanent bank is too harsh,  he has some valid points, but has a heck of a way of expressing himself. IMHO.

[aravot]

I have requested for stock notification hack / module, my budget is $50 I know is not enough but that is what I can offer for now, anyone interested in joining please post.

http://virtuemart.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=71&topic=30574.0