OpenRealty Announces 2.5.5 Release

Posted on November 19, 2008
Filed Under Products in Review |

OpenRealty announced the release of version 2.5.5 of its popular listings manager script earlier today. OpenRealty which has actively maintained the development of its script in keeping with industry demand has been doing an exceptional job. There have been questions uttered around the web concerning the future of OpenRealty and a few in ivory league positions of the open source community have pondered the motives of the frequent version jumping the project has taken with its release history.

The version tracking reveals some other interesting details as well that may indicate a turning point for the project. OpenRealty skipped a version (yet again) in this release jumping from 2.5.3 to 2.5.5 and made casual reference to changes in the license which we were unable to verify after careful examination of the source code or the openrealty.org website shortly after release. Is there a license change? What does this mean? Well maybe nothing however;

I had made mention of this some time ago in the forums that OpenRealty would likely change its license in light of the forked version known as EZPro Realty for no other reason than to just do it. OpenRealty has long been a supporter and contributor in the world of open source scripts but time has shown a pattern of hidden or alternative motives that may eventually surface. Some have speculated that OpenRealty could be preparing to take the road like InVision Power Board which started out as a free product, eventually becoming a commercial open source application.

Would a commercial OpenRealty be bad?

Although open source and free are often synonymous its not always to be interpreted as such. vBulletin a mega popular and likely the worlds number one forum solution is both open source and commercial. Several applications including the new contact form manager addon for OpenRealty and the new integrated MFM (mail form manager) in EZPro Realty are both open source yet retain a commercial license. This could be the future of OpenRealty although indications at first suggest nothing but speculation at this point.

OpenRealty’s newest release fixes some issues that posed production level issues in url structure and other minor fixes none of which were security related as best we can tell. Should OpenRealty be harboring the interest of a commercial variant, it would really come as no surprise having been staged so very well.

Is OpenRealty on the downward spiral?

It was a casual and enlightening discovery to find that long time supporter and administrator in the OpenRealty forums, PBFLASH, has called no joy on further participation. Paul, AKA PBFLASH titled his post “I’m Done” (I’m done means you are quitting, right? damn dictionary) where he cites frustrations with competing developers rendering his efforts moot and the apparent lack of valuable contribution from members. Well DUH! I mean honestly, what part of this did PBFLASH miss? Although I could go on for quite some time regarding this interesting escape strategy taken by Paul, I’ll simply point out that many long time supporters who backed OpenRealty met with nothing but abuse and frustration by him and the other administrators. Where exactly is the incentive to contribute anything? Case in point is the furtherance of an attack on long time supporters JNTComputes and Al Smith in essence calling them thieves. (post now moderated)

In earlier posts now either edited or simply removed, PBFlash started showing signs of his reality breakdown a few weeks back. His decision was barely preceded by Micks statements of diminishing involvement just days prior which lends us little information to draw conclusion from, but suggests more than a casual pattern of frustration is in the ranks at OpenRealty. Many developers I’ve discussed this with today can see that such events outlined in Pauls frustrating “no fair I quit” rhetoric fall part in parcel to a culmination of other key members vanishing from the project. Edited comments about sandking.

OpenRealty has but one qualified and level headed person left and that is Mick. I hold Mick in high regard knowing the frustration of his “day job” occupation and the substantial efforts he has made to be a positive force in the forums. I know how frustrating it is to work 16 hours a day only to go and administer a forum “without pay” where people seem not to respect what you do. Time can only wear a person down to where they eventually interpret the rhetoric as a devaluation of his contribution. I wish nothing but success for Mick, forum moderation is a nasty task that is frustrating to say the least. Its important to note however that it can’t go un-noticed that the OpenRealty forums have been the most policed “censored” forums of its type. Maybe PBFLASH suffers from the same angst and has a legitimate gripe.

I don’t believe that OpenRealtys announcement was the last death throes of a dying project; The jump in version numbering, the odd level of support and other things considered, I think OpenRealty is still a great product. If the forums continue to be ran like a dictatorship full of censoring and useless attacks by moderators like pBflash on members there is no possible incentive to contribute anything beyond a free addon and an financial support which I highly suggest.

It should be known that OpenRealty developers seem to be either drunk or delusional in believing that the fork EZPro Realty is anything but a reality. We call it living in denial, they call it vaporware. I am NOT the enemy of Open Realty just the behavior that accompanies it.

EZPro Realty is in its first full production release just like our WP Realty plugin, our EZPro Realty plugin (like cmsrealty but for Joomla version 1.5 native), the Menu Creator, the Featured Listings Anywhere, the template kit and I can go on and on. These items are published in 4 places, WordPress, Joomla, TBE, and EZProRealty.com even though I write haphazardly about them here in my blog.

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11 Comments so far
  1. Stew Boy November 19, 2008 9:36 pm

    Well, the drama is never ending… this post was made http://support.open-realty.org/showthread.php?t=19648, naming members by name, as determining factors to PBFlash taking a leave from the boards. This is done publicly and with absolutely nothing to back it up, since to my knowledge both addons are encrypted, the accused members could not steal PB’s code and PB could not compare code of the other members to his, it is a blatant and untruthful bash.

    And the members are not allowed to respond publicly, being moderated with the response that a PM is the best place for such a discussion. Well, maybe PB should not make false allegations and maybe they should take into account that this is the exact bullshit that pushes people away from contributing, either timewise or monetarily. I know I would be hard pressed to devote my time if I were accused of stealing code, with no proof, rhyme or reason, other than needing someone to blame for personal issues.

    I have heard numerous complaints about the moderators attitudes, their condisending tones and mightier-than-thou positions towards members, both users and developers. All I can say is that maybe they will get some people in there that can handle life and do moderation without pissing and moaning so much!

  2. Johnathan November 20, 2008 2:36 pm

    Jared did you know that Ryan Bonham is basically calling you a liar on everything you said above. Its funny for the most part because I know he is full of crap about the treatment and banning of people in the forums. But you should read the post because he is careful not to link back to you.

    http://www.transparent-realestate.com/blog/uncategorized/jared_ritchey_check_your_facts/64

    You guys need to show him what you got so they shut up.

  3. Jared Ritchey November 20, 2008 3:05 pm

    ######### Stew Boy
    Yeah I really don’t visit the OR forums, i had been sent a screen shot of the pointless beatings of members recently when I caught wind of PBFLASH migrating back to more manageable territory. I see now that these posts have all been edited.

    Ryan Bonham doesn’t sound like the guy in control of the forums over there. No one can intelligently say that “To me, a supporter is someone who is contributing directly to the Open-Realty project in some fashion.” and yet watch as blog posts regarding any integration help or reference to vieleRETS or say any third party project is deleted, edited or outright condemned by those who moderate. I was told by one of the template contributors that any of his code he posts that even suggests casual modification of the core structure will be deleted and that ANY code or suggested integration that doesn’t meet what the moderators consider to be discussed gets edited or deleted. I don’t need to prove this, google it and see for yourself what I mean.

    ######### Johnathan
    Thanks for pointing that out. I had not seen that. Ryan is right on two points but I’m not going to edit my post I’ll just make a correction here.

    He is right that the license change is a rumor people have picked up on including myself and it may be nothing at all.

    He is right that I did take the notion of The_Sandking being a fake member incorrectly. Its actually something that myself, and three former members had theorized long long ago. It was just very unusual that this “mystery person” would make such pointless and uneducated posts led us to believe it was an alter ego of the grand daddy himself.

  4. Barker November 20, 2008 6:58 pm

    Mr. Ritchey Check Your Facts

    Hey I stumbled upon a post at open realtor today and it looks like the green giant is saying that you made false claims against his product in a blog. I read your two latest posts and I can’t see what he is saying.

    do you have another blog where this might be. i’m only curious because i’ve been following the happenings at open realty and PBFs stuff with him quitting.

    also where is the ezpro fork.
    RCB

  5. Jared Ritchey November 20, 2008 7:06 pm

    Hey thanks for the heads up. I don’t really visit the OR forums that much but it comes as no surprise someone would make a post. It depresses me to see so very little going on at OpenRealty quite honestly. I use to want to contribute extensively but credit is retained by one person and one person alone and I’m still banned over there.

    The only person over there that seems to not be losing it is Mick which is cool.

    Ryan must have taken offense for some reason even though I spoke positive of his product here. I simply point out a few things that would NEVER be allowed to be discussed in his forum.

    The forum is a dictatorship and I can’t recant that statement in good conscience.
    Best regards and thanks for your visit

  6. Ryan Bonham November 20, 2008 7:10 pm

    Correction for a few things said in the comments, why Paul did name names, that post was edited as were the other post from the people he named. The forums are not the place for that. Opps… I see there was one post left that was not moderated from Paul. I removed it, again I have no idea if code was stolen etc, however that is between Paul and the accused.

    I also suggest that you all read what I wrote in my blog, as I said everyone moderators included needed to relax a bit. I did not post back here, as I do not feel linking to Jared’s misguided claims does any good.

    There are appropriate places to post code changes, naimley the bug tracker and feature request tracker. We are more then happy to accept changes posted there. The forum is not the place to post code as it just causes more support work as users who are not familiar with php start making random changes posted on the forums, and then complaining how Open-Realty does not work.

    Jared you are using Open-Realty yet openly claiming at every turn how the project is failing. You make false accusations about license changes, and pseudo users which you now admit to, but you leave the false statements up. Do you really think your actions are helpful? What have you contributed to Open-Realty, where are the feature request or bug reports with code attached?

    Really please contribute, I am waiting for the flood of contributions that you and the others here feel have been ignored…

  7. Jared Ritchey November 20, 2008 7:26 pm

    Ryan, I did in fact say that “unable to verify after careful examination” of the license change and openly admitted that its speculation.

    Also I’d love to contribute to Open Realty but at last I checked I was still banned and could not assist nor participate in anything including suggesting addons much less free templates. Any links to my blog are summarily deleted when people seek addons that make your product work with WordPress.

    One other thing, you state, “Jared you are using Open-Realty yet openly claiming at every turn how the project is failing.” No, not at all at every turn. I made this singular post after encounters all week about Open Realty and the conduct taken by moderation. Sometimes a person needs a little controversy to get some attention.

    I’m going to edit my post above to keep things on a friendly playing field. BTW I’m glad to see you are keeping busy. I hope for great success with your endeavors.

    Best Regards

  8. Ryan Bonham November 20, 2008 7:46 pm

    Jared,

    >The fact is EZPro Realty is in its first full production release..

    Where is the download link? I see links to all your addons but not a working one for EZPro Realty?

    Also the forum ban that you received does not lock you out of the bug tracker or feature requests.

    http://www.open-realty.org/bugs/
    http://www.open-realty.org/featurerequest/

    If someone wants to post information on your Wordpress Module in the Open-Realty Free Addon Forum, they are welcome to do so…

  9. Patrick November 30, 2008 7:26 pm

    In my opinion, OR pissed away a great resource in Jared, and now instead of having a partner, they have a competitor. Why would anyone who was treated poorly want to post bug notices or ask for features? Would they would be welcomed or used? I’m betting not. The bad press OR forums has been receiving is wholly justified. I’m a victim myself. You say in your blog that Jared was un-banned in 2005 - but state here that he is only not locked out of the bug tracker or feature request portions of the forum. Which is it? The power users on your forum seem to have to poke their nose into every thread, mostly to point out things they feel are incorrect, or perceive differently, as their train of thought is the only one that counts. No wonder they are getting burned out. You have to be really really nice to them so as not to make them mad - it reminds me of the episode of the Twilight Zone where a young Billy Mummy plays a punk little kid with powers to turn adults into things like a big jack-in-the-box, and all the adults need to constantly suck up and tell him how great he is, lest he turns his power on them. Most likely you are to young to remember it… One only needs to look at other open source forums such as Drupal.org to realize just how outclassed OR really is in the area of user community. Your posts here clearly show your butt - good job….

  10. Jared Ritchey December 1, 2008 10:02 am

    BTW as a courtesy to the first poster in this string I do have a screen shot of that now “fully edited” post.

  11. Paul Bouchard Claims Code Stolen | Jared Ritchey Design December 1, 2008 12:27 pm

    [...] a retaliatory attack on products I’m affiliated with in part to a previous post I had made. In that previous post, I stressed the concerns of end users and third party developers of OpenRealty for his apparent [...]


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