Fabrik Forum support needs improvement.

[pkjoshi]

While I must admit that Fabrik is a wonderful application for those looking to develop a small application quickly. Bugs are being addressed really fast.

At the same time I certainly feel that the response time in forum support is not very encouraging. I am not saying that it is disappointing, but definitely as a paid support forum one expects a faster response to the queries.

I understand that fabrik 3x is in a testing phase and it is natural that bugs will come up and may take time to address the same. No issue with that.

I don't know how many will agree with me, but I feel that there should be faster response like if there is a issue, a response like yes this problem is there and will be addressed soon is enough, but questions remaining UN-answered for days and weeks and many friendly bumps really saddens me.

Just for an example and not comparison, I am using ISPCONFIG, a open source hosting control panel application, I am also using their support forum, which is a free support forum, but I don't remember of not getting a response beyond 24hours.

Please note that I am not complaining, but I am just expressing my feelings as a user and expect a better response mechanism.

 

[felixkat]

Just for an example and not comparison, I am using ISPCONFIG, a open source hosting control panel application, I am also using their support forum, which is a free support forum, but I don't remember of not getting a response beyond 24hours.

Erm, they have 90+ developers, we have two!


Let me explain how I see things at the moment.

Rob is focusing almost 100% on getting Fabrik 3.0 released. This means fixing any code ported over from 2.x, fixing bugs, making compatible with Joomla 2.5, putting requests in to Joomla dev team where Joomla bugs are discovered......

Hugh is focusing mainly on 2.x which is still getting mods and features which then have to be automatically ported over to 3.x.

The Silver and Bronze are paid membership but I don't think the revenue that comes in from this pays for all the time Rob and Hugh do, the servers, the hosting, the software used for development, the paid software for items such as the forums.... etc .... etc

Therefore there are times when Rob and Hugh and doing paid work outside of Fabrik, as they obviously have to earn a living as we all do.

There are some regulars on the forums who help but of course there are times when everybody just happens to be doing other things.

The Fabrik 2.x forums are structure in priority, Silver then Bronze and then community if there is time.

The Fabrik 3.x forums are not currently structured as it is in Beta phase. That means we have testers who are highlighting bugs, people using Github to fix bugs, people asking 'how do I', and all the ohers questions that sometimes people don't even bother searching for!


There are a lot of things that go on in the background that some people don't see. I spent two days, free of charge by the way I don't get paid, testing the upgrade script so people can upgrade from 2.x. Using jupgrade was challenging and there is still some work to do. Rob made a load more changes yesterday and was using a copy of fabrik.com to test the upgrade, this left little time to do any forum work.

I think there are always going to be times until Fabrik 2.x stops being supported when forums cannot be attended to at all times. If anybody wants higher priority they should consider a bronze or silver membership and gently bump their posts or catch the guys on Skype, (politely).


That's just the way it is from my point of view. No offense intended.

 

[pkjoshi]

I just expressed my feelings as a user. It is up to you the Fabrik Team, how you balance your priorities.
As regarding moving to bronze support or silver support, let me inform you that I am already on bronze support, but I can't perceive a difference in response time for bronze & silver support. I am even ready for a Gold Membership if there is one, if it assures me of a swift Response.
I have not submitted this post to complain, but expecting improvement as the feeling I have, I am not sure there may be many others who carrying the same feeling.

Your clarification bonds a stronger relationship between Fabrik and Fabrik users and will understand the compulsion of the Fabrik Team.

Thanks.

 

[rob]

Felixcat pretty much sumarizes it.

On average Hugh and I take home around 2/3rds of a legal minimum wage from working on Fabrik, and believe me we probably put in around on average 40-50 hours a week on the project each. Heck In france I would earn more being unemployed hehe

This isn't subscribers fault, its a systemic issue we have with the way we have set up our pricing and support structure. Basically we don't charge enough for support, where often people aren't needing support but more of a consultancy service. Seeing that in europe I would guess no consultant worth his salt would charge under 60 euros an hour, you can see that for 45 euros a year there is something pretty wrong with the income we take in compared to time we invest and the knowlege we bring to helping people complete their projects.
This is something I am addressing, but guess what, that takes time away from me doing support.

Fabrik 3 is still in beta and as such we are NOT offering subscriber support on it. When it reaches release candidate we will be doing so.

Also regarding bronze/silver there is a difference in support times, we hope to make that more apparent and offer additional services to top level support in the near future.

Thanks for your feedback, your points are truely valid, especially over the last week or so as I have been overrun with client work and internal fabrik systems issues, and support has not met the normal high standard we like to set

 

[pkjoshi]

Thanks for your clarifications and understand your compulsions.

I will also upgrade to silver subscription once I deliver my first project to the client, which is almost complete.
I sincerely wish and am confident that Fabrik will be one of the most popular application in the time to come.

 

[hubby]

A suggestion?

I Don't know if it can help, but i think that if there was a notice with every realeased pluging or a faq for exemple, it would helps a lot those who ask many question who are already resolved. And it may help every one the "askerings" and the "answerings" win times.
Anyway as pkjoshi said the "fabrik" is the best application ever. And thanks a lot to all of you for your incredibly job.
YOU ARE THE BEST.