For the past decade and more, the users of osCommerce have wanted more say in what happens next, where it goes, how it is. That say was never granted, not once, ever. I fought to get the community a say, and I succeeded. I started a new vision of what osCommerce could be and asked time and time again for the community to pitch in and help to make osCommerce once again punch at it’s weight…
What help did I get?
From shopowners
– a few shopowners started helping out until they got enough “shop” to use on their live site, then they disappeared.
– a few shopowners tested bits and pieces, then they disappeared
– one or two great guys, who really got into it, and gave some excellent help.
But mainly, what I got from shopowners was a feeling that I should not be trying to move osCommerce forward, that osCommerce belongs to them and that I, as a mere developer, should ask “how high” when they say “jump”. That feeling manifested itself by way of email, private message and even out in the open forum. Well guys – you’ve lost the chance to have any further say.
From developers
– 1 developer got into the idea and started the admin changes
– a few other developers came up with singular bits and pieces
– lately other developers started to come up with ideas and code
But mainly what I got from developers was even more abuse than shopowners gave. All of the developers who contacted me rely on copy and paste, or adding addons to shopowners sites. Of course with the new osCommerce all that is gone. There is no more amend 50 files to do something incredibly simple, now it’s drop in a new mofdule, enter admin and turn it on. The developers are scared that they would lose business. They could not see that these new modules need careful code, and great attention to detail. They could not see that professional people running shops have no problem paying for perfect code. All they could see was that they had to learn new tricks and they did not want to…
As it turns out, the majority of the community is just not interested in a new osCommerce. In return I have no further interest in the community.
My involvement at the forum is over, save for my general duty as a spambuster…I won’t be reading any more posts, I won’t be replying to posts, I won’t be making status updates, I won’t be liking content, I won’t be starting any more discussion threads.
I won’t be spending 1 more minute helping to code the community version of osCommerce.
For me it’s over – thanks to a very vocal bunch of shopowners and developers who failed to see to what was right in front of them, a new osCommerce, built by them, for them, with shopowners input from start to finish. As of right now, it’s back to how it was; you get what you get when you get it.
Thanks to that handful of great guys for your support over the last 12 months, I do mean that for those who “got it”, the discussion threads, the modules, the hooks and all the rest of the cool stuff.
To those “hot air” developers and shopowners who talked much and did nothing – EPIC FAIL – polite golf clap.
What this means is that I can give more attention to my clients needs, so don’t be afraid to contact me, as I have more time to give you these days 🙂