Boonex

I have tryed Dolphin for a Month. Befor i Buyed a licens the Support was ok. But after the Paiment was done,, the Support changes to a sellsman. You want to make changes? Then the Support will try tu sell you a Module. Be care of Buying a monthly license. I didnt want a second but after i told the Agents that i dont want to buy a new, thei booked a second one. The Cancelation over the Boonex Webseit was not Posible. For me thats nearly criminal.

After searching for the software to run our new low cost social network I decided to give Boonex (Dolphin 7. X) a try.

I've had the site up an running for a couple of days now. Got my graphics all constructed; set my boilerplate "about us", "privacy" etc. and got the basic navigation all set up... and now I find out why this is such a cheap program.

The $99 fee to have the logo removed didn't turn me off, per se. Nor did the fact that you have to pay for support. (However, the $1000 all inclusive support package does piss me off.)

It wasn't until after I spent three days getting to know the program and doing all my setups that I realize - I have a really nice looking DATABASE. And that is really all it is. A nice looking screen to show off the members profiles.

Of course, no-one would actually join if they knew that once registered - you can't do anything other than look at other peoples profiles. Basicly, as a stand alone - it's worthless.

UNLESS, you start adding "modules" and "themes". Then the site can start to come together. First - find a theme for about $60. You will probably want a module for Groups, Classifieds, Video, etc. - you name it and you can probably find it.

The only problem is that these modules cost from anywhere from $25 - $75 each; they are made by third parties; and most are single-site licenses only. (Yes, there are a few freebies out there. But overall, expect to be spending a bunch of money.)

By the time you add up the cost of all the stuff (that's needed or worthwhile), you will easily hit $500 or more.

If everything worked great, and this was a stellar program it might be worth the money. But let's face it, at best it's a mediocre program.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. I will certainly give SocialEngine a try first. Are they any better? I don't know yet. But considering that the cost of Boonex will surpass them anyway - it's worth a try.

That's my 2 cents.

I must admit, from first glance, and for those who are used to geocities, and angelfire, Dolphin would present several problems. I have personally been using dolphin for several years now, not only a user of dolphin http://terabyte-hosting.com and http://dolphin-techs.com but i am also a hosting service provider who hosts this application.

The problem most have is that they think they are going to drop an app onto a $2.00/month hosting environment and compete with facebook and myspace. Well that simply is not going to happen.

It is clear that those who would complain about an open source app, rather than utilize it for what its worth, have absolutely no clue what they are talking about. The deal here is this, yes they charge to remove the branding, big deal, many open source developers do the same thing. If you had something even remotely similar in functionality custom built, you are talking about spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $300k. So you spend a few bux for branding removal, you spend a few bux on some custom mods, that by the way, you were incapable of producing yourself, which lead you to the point of needing to purchase the mods.

Lets look at this on the grand scheme of things. Do you go around bashing ford or gm, because their vehicles are $30k+, and you have to keep paying and after you finished paying the car off, because you failed to maintain the vehicle.

I think not.

Boonex is a good company, not the greatest, and all who provide a service to the community at large, are going to always have one or two complaints. Based on the number of downloads, compared to the number of complaints, i would say that boonex is doing really good. You can find slander across the board about any and every open source application that has ever been released.

Put on your big girl panties and quit your sniveling.

Regards,
DosDawg
Terabyte Hosting Solutions