I'm Loving It!

As I mentioned on BoonEx, I took a break from BoonEx all together for about 2 years or more due to the constant failures I encountered. When it came time for me to start another project, I came back to BoonEx to power my idea.  

After years of trying, I found that you get that first surge of users joining and then all the sudden.. nothing.. and about 95%+ end up never coming back. Spend $1000's on modules and custom work. What I heard from users was 'This is way too confusing', 'This is too difficult to navigate', 'It's not very user friendly at all' - just to name a few. Eventually, I just shut everything down, server and all.

After reviewing Dolphin and UNA and all the changes that had been made in my absence, I decided UNA was the way to go for my new project. I was not disappointed. I was able to finally give users a simple, powerful, user friendly website that was easy to use. Of course, my new project and targeted audience had a lot to do with it also 😁 . All I wanted to do was build a website that people appreciated and actually 'wanted' to come back. I have much more to do but, I can definitely say that UNA is going to help me finally achieve what I have always wanted in a website.... Appreciation

I am really looking forward to the RC10 release. Specifically for the Notifications upgrade and the 'Sender' app. I feel these will take me site to a whole new level of user control and member communication abilities. 

I want to say GREAT JOB to the UNA team for giving a simple but yet, powerful new platform to explore!!!!

P.S. Whoever asked for comments to auto-populate in the timeline, it is YOUR fault that RC10 is now going to be delayed!!! 😡 😡 😡 😡  hahahah

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Replies (10)
    • Hey Chris ! Thank you. Awesome feedback. 

      The RC10 is chunky, because of the overall volume of fixes and enhancements that came into the picture all at once and interdepend a lot. For example, the new "Channels" module is not just a context, it's an auto-generated context made from hashtags. And we also added "labels" that admins can pre-create and associate with channels too. Then, channels can be followed. It may seem straightforward (or does it?), but the devil is in details - multiple associations create multiple cards in Feeds for the same event, which we have to group on output. That alone is quite an undertaking. 

      Anyway, not too far now. Mostly we just need to update external libraries, add a few more fixes and start packaging. 

      • Well, sorry to come and ruin your enthusiasm. Well, I have a different point of view. Of course I trust the Una project, and of course I know it will work one day. Otherwise I would not be there so active.
        Dolphin is old, yes it's true, a little complicated yes it's true, bad on mobile, yes it's true BUT everything works, it does everything we ask!
        So, Andrew, I'm your advice, I let Dolphin run, I create my new Una site, I've already done it, and I'm creating the bridge with Connnect dolphin and life is beautiful.
        Well no, because if I do this today, users take the bridge, they land and they visit a little and say oh that's very pretty.
        And then they start doing what they are there for, that is, they do a search and there BAM. Ten results only and ranked upside down.
        You seem to think that they will go back and forth until things get better. And on this point, I do not agree with you.
        Andrew, it's like when you meet a girl, you only have one chance to make a good impression. Users are returning to Dolphin that's for sure! So I wait, and believe me, I can not wait.
        Do you know how I discovered these two problems? Well I fired everything that was not essential to focus on the simple things, basic functions.
        When the simple things are perfect, I will incorporate A new module, etc, etc ...
        You have noticed, you never hear me speak about your novelties and it is for this reason. All the problems that I raised, and there is a long list, only concern basic problems, always!
        When members say that they do not know anything about research, I will answer them, yes it's true, wait a month or two and hear, enjoy the channels, the spaces etc ... And well you know, he will say but ... this guy is crazy!
        So I found the weak point of Una, no, not Una, Una team. They are all high performance horses and because of that, they forget to take care of simple things.
        So Will it's a little contradictory to what you say, since you speak of simplicity.
        But if I'm wrong, then explain to me how it is possible to still find bugs like these in the 9th RC? Nobody, absolutely nobody has done a single search so far except me?
        Do not forget, we members of your communities, we are patient people, understanding, because aware of the difficulties of the tasks.
        Our members? None of that, my friends! Our members, it works they stay, it does not work, they leave, and good luck to recover them and make them come a second time!
        Another point that I wanted to address. Dolphin Migration. Question for Andrew, who will he serve? I know, a few have asked, I'm even the first to have it done on boonex.com.
        But after all this time thinking about the problem of SEO, is not it a waste of time to develop it? It's a real headache. Now, the transfer of accounts is almost ok. Album Ok, but the fields, I wish you good luck! If still it was a solution to transfer everything, but I know you know it is not good. So what?
        I really appreciate Team Una, be sure. I can not even say, such person I do not like, no I love them all. If I say all this it's good for that reason. Otherwise, I would simply be silent.

        • Very good points Baloo ! You’d make good friends with Alex T⚜️ 

          We have decided to lockdown featurendevelopment after RC10 for at least a month to produce a stable full release. RC10 will bring lots of new stuff and fixes, and then we’ll just make sure it’s perfected. 

          • Baloo  - The same here, pal!

            • Well he wants to say that Alex is a great sage :-)
              Andrew, did you say that how many times already? I stopped counting myself ...

              • Hahahaha but good points Baloo

                • Yes stable release good idea :)

                  There are many little simple problems. They need to be fixed for the ordinary user.
                  (For example multifile uploader in Android gives an option to voice recording as default etc.)
                  We will report everything during the development of the stable release.

                  • Don't get me wrong, there is much still to do/fix in UNA. I never said it was 'perfect' hahah 😄 

                    Baloo makes some very good points. He is doing the testing that should have already been done, to be honest. I mentioned in the 'What If' topic about extensive QA testing in 'User Mode' and not as a developer, that could help discover these issues faster. I definitely agree that getting to a stable version is what's needed. I would rather have stability as the primary focus versus trying to constantly develop new features/apps every couple months. 

                    To my point, I do not have any Dolphin sites. When I started over, I went with a clean install of RC9 UNA. With that said, I would never need something like 'Dolphin Connect' or the 'Dolphin Migration Tool'. So for someone like me, I would never know if there was an issue with it or not with them. These are very important features that have to be fixed! Especially when you are looking for customers to transition from Dolphin into UNA eventually. 

                    For what I am using UNA for, this works for me. I do not have many features/apps installed at my site and honestly, do not need to in order to accomplish how I need the site to function. As for other people, they may want to install every App/Feature UNA has to offer. So yes, it is very important to make sure the platform and all the apps are stable. What works for me is not what works for someone else. 

                      

                    • Yes Chris, I'm not mistaken, do not worry. It is not a simple situation for anyone, you say yes yes, but you can do all the tests you want, and besides all the tests we do, the ultimate test is the site of production with a lot of people who use all the functions.
                      And there, expect to have work, it is not a criticism, it is not possible to avoid. Look here on Una.io with more than 2000 people, it is not really a test either, yes, for some of the code, how much, 50%, for the part we use a lot us. But no one here uses the person search form and many other things. So even with 2,000 people, some of whom are very active, we do not see problems that are obvious.
                      I take my example, all the tests I did, I did with 10 people, I played with it months and months without ever seeing that the search was limited to 10 results and that the ranking was bad . Then Alexey injected my 18,000 members on my test site and the two problems I did not see for months I saw him in 5 minutes, they jumped in my sight.
                      The real test has not started yet. It will start soon in my opinion, maybe after rc10 or rc11, when cautious people like me and others will think ok it seems to work, let's go.
                      Only then will everyone sweat tubs. I hope I am wrong and that everything will roll for everyone. It is difficult to avoid this step. The earliest would be best. So, the demand is always the same, consolidate, polish, that the festivities can finally begin.

                      • Good points! Yes, the bulk of issues show up in unobvoius use cases which can only be seen at scale in production. Good news is that we already see that fixing issues in UNA is taking relatively minor effort and we can cover a lot of ground quickly. Just need to commit to feature-free update or two to ensure it’s stable. 

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