Comments on: OpenRealty Paid Support

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:50:44 +0000

In terms of paid support, I think you should benchmark the bigger CMS open source projects like DotNetNuke and Drupal. DNN offers multiple versions of their CMS – one free, and two levels called Professional and Enterprise where you pay a subscription fee for support. The support for the free version is via the forum on their web site. Support is provided by typical users and developers who monitor the forums. They have core modules that come with the download and a online storefront where developers offer paid for modules that are guarenteed to work with a particular version. With Drupal, I’m unaware of a paid version or if they have some kind of services for fees, but they have a huge user community with a variety of skills. Some of these people develop modules and themes which are free for download on the Drupal web site, and the developers are expected to support their contributions. Many of these people have links to their own websites where you can hire them for custom solutions – something not allowed on open realty forums. The bottom line is that you have to have a stable product that gets updates, “For Dummies” type documentation, and a user community that can help with forum support posts. Without a large and energized user base, you will fail on the support side as we have seen with the folks at open realty. Their user base has actually shrunk because of the attitute of the originators who are desperatly trying to keep their arms wrapped around it to make a buck. If your support staff is burned out, immature, and not focused, talented people using your product for the first time with valid questions get abused, short, incomplete, off topic answers, so they leave. These types are the building blocks for your support structure. This is what happened to me with open reality. On the other hand, users of an open source CMS cannot expect to have their hand held throughout the entire process and need to be able to do some research on their own. But if the resources are not available – documnetation, or support forum, you are stuck micro managing them as you can’t tell them “That’s covered in the documentation” or “read this post in our forum”. I’m hoping you have a Drupal version for your version as I have an unused real estate domain name – just stopping by to check.

By: Jared Ritchey

Jared Ritchey — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 19:23:24 +0000

There are two forks available. One is Revenge Ware and the other is a legitimate fork. I’d stick with OSRealty if you do wish to follow a fork.

By: Calin

Calin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:19:24 +0000

hi jarrid i was wondering if you have open realty as a fork still since they now chager for open realty and spit in all the member faces for developing code. i like open realty but now its not possible to have it like we want as a code project we can edit.

By: Jared Ritchey

Jared Ritchey — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:27:35 +0000

I’m not sure what encrypted does for them. I guess they claim they are having their license taken out by end users. Its an unusual way to try and enforce a license.

By: Jared Ritchey

Jared Ritchey — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:26:26 +0000

LOL well this is the last thing I need right now. People coming here as a result of more OR drama. Well to let everyone know before you go any further. I’m NOT in the business right now. I have changed my focus to social media and managing an open source project I’d rather not mention here in my blog at this time. Good luck to the people at OR. Ohhhh and SkyBoss, yes, “I told you so”.

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:24:29 +0000

Damn I see someone beat me to the punch. You were the very first person I thought of when I read about this in the OR forums this morning.

Dude what kind of effort is this? They just killed their third party developers and contributors didn’t they? It seems like it anyway.

By: SkyBoss

SkyBoss — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:09:08 +0000

OR 3.0 Released!
Jared I guess you are quite the little genius. I just came from Open Realty and they announced that they are going with commercial support just as you suggested. I almost bet you are happy as pie to say I told you so.

Well here is one you didn’t predict. They are encrypting the code. Charging for annual licenses and they have new features.

By: Jared Ritchey

Jared Ritchey — Sun, 09 May 2010 15:54:35 +0000

I’m not sure Randi, I’m no longer in this business and following their forum hasn’t been important to me so its hard for me to say. I don’t know who casaraisa is. As for alsmith, lol, good luck. I think Paul (pbflash) can be very helpful because he is smart and knowledgeable but my guess he is also very very busy.

By: Randi Wellsworth

Randi Wellsworth — Sun, 09 May 2010 13:14:22 +0000

I’m thinking you would be correct Jared that they should offer paid support. Who would do it though? pbflash and sandking are more than rude. I think alsmith and casaraisa are friendly enough what are your thoughts. I’m actually thinking of hiring Al Smith for a project of mine.

By: Jared Ritchey

Jared Ritchey — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:40:27 +0000

Mark I had to edit your comment to remove their trademark name. Even though its perfectly legit to use it in writing, we prefer to use open realty lower case letters.

As for the support model, yes, like WPRealty. Support at WPRealty bends over backwards to help people and its taken major public hits because of its lack of documentation. I defend the efforts put forth and If I were in a better position I’d spend way more time helping out in that area. WPRealty suffers from lack of documentation.