Just wondering how things are progressing with the interim release as well as the upcoming DNN 6/AS core release. Specifically interested in:

1. Resolving issues with group forum subscription emails not including the body of the post
2. One way friend requests
3. Multiple group admins
4. The use of roles again for security (DNN 6)
5. Expansion of the journal API
6. Journal application support (writing our own journal apps)
7. Including notifications for custom journal items
8. Allow more specific icons for custom journal apps.



 

Just so there isn't any confusion, there isn't anything in the upcoming DotNetNuke 6.0 release that is related to Active Forums or Active Social. As we originally stated, Active Social integration is scheduled for DotNetNuke 6.1 later this year. As far as the other items on your list, I won't be able to address those until next week.

Didn't mean to create confusion...I left of the dot 1 release but intended it more as a "how are things going with the core integration". I'll look forward to updates next week on these specific items an anything else you can share at this time.

I can't express how keen I am to see it, when it happens.

There is so much potential to radically change DNN to being a "go-to" CMS.

Plus it doesn't hurt that it'll save our little community site some effort to raise funds for software maintenance ... !

Will, any chance to give us an update this week?

Yep. The week isn't over yet

Ha!!! Fair enough. :D

We spent all week coming up with the technical details for the Active Social integration and new Forum module. If you have been following dotnetnuke.com you know that we are making great progress on DotNetNuke 6.0. If you have looked any of the CTP releases you really should. That will give you a pretty good idea of what's coming, but there will still be a few surprises for the final release. The second half of this year is going to be really exciting for the DotNetNuke World.

After non-stop meetings from 8:30 Monday until 3:30 today, we realized we have a lot on our plate to get finished before the end of year. Chris Paterra (core forums) and I are committed to getting a new forum module created as soon as possible. I'm not going to say much more than that for forums other than you should see some activity on codeplex fairly soon.

We have spent so much time focusing on the integration we haven't really had an opportunity to scope out any features for Active Social 2.0 just yet. I do intend to wrap up Active Social 1.9.3 next week. This will be a very minor release to only address a few bug fixes. Right now, the features I do have in mind for Active Social 2.0 would be around Groups or the Journal. We don't have enough time to address a large list of enhancements, but I do think we can tackle a couple that have been requested by customers.


Thanks,
Will

Everything in me says to resist the urge to respond to this. Against my own better judgment, I will be the first to jump in and I have to say that this is a pretty lackluster response. I guess I have to appreciate the honesty that you all are working hard but don't have anything significant planned for Active Social in the near future. At least that is what I interpreted from this response.

In other words, the people who have paid for the product are not getting much other than bug fixes. Weren't we supposed to have been paying for a product that was going to be actively developed? It sounds like the Active Social product development is on hold so you can focus on DNN issues.

Will as I said before in my several emails I sent you, I have decided to switch platforms for my site and no longer want to use DNN or Active Social. All I want is to be refunded for my unused site license, and my unused support agreement.

Please refund me, I have not used your software on any site, nor have I used any of your support services. I see no reason for you to not refund me.

Thanks

When you buy a software product, you buy it for the features it has at the time of purchase. When you buy one year of support and updates you have basically purchased insurance so that you don't have to pay for support or any future updates for a year. Our products have never been anything more than that. Our product pages don't advertise anything other than the current feature set.

@SilverSurfer, I'm sorry, but you purchased a license on 4/23/2009. That is well over a year and way beyond our standard refund policy. Also, you have over nearly 150 posts so you can't say you haven't benefited from being a license holder during that time. A person without a license would never have had that much interaction with us.


@Cliff, You and I have always had pretty good discussions. Please don't take offense, but I think you are being overly pessimistic and let me explain why.
1) You points about about 6.0 do have some merit, but from what I've seen so far with 6.0 I strongly believe this release will be different. And like you said, 6.0 really doesn't have anything to do with Active Social. On the other hand, if for some reason 6.0 cause problems with Active Social, we will obviously release a patch just like we have always done in the past.

2) As some of you saw on twitter (including Cliff), we had a week long planning session here in Charleston last week. As I've said from the very first time we announced this acquisition, Active Social core integration is key to the long term goals for DotNetNuke. Integration isn't something we are taking lightly. Integration is something that must be done correctly, which also includes upgrade paths for existing Active Social customers.

3) As far as release numbers and order of release, Active Social will be in the last release of this year. That could be 6.1, 6.2 or 6.3. Also keep in mind that there will be maintenance releases along the way as well. The idea of major problems arising with 6.0 and not being addressed until 6.1 is not reasonable at all.

As our plans start to become reality I will gladly share more details, but right now it is just too soon to share everything that is planned.

Excuse me??? I participated here because I was invested in your product. I wanted it to succeed and I wanted to aid in it's development. I posted here to help contribute to its development so that I could use it when it was ready. Many of us, myself included, have put off launching sites because Active Social needed some work. I was patient and trusting because I believed in what you were doing.

Now, because of how things have panned out, I'm going with a different solution because I have no intention of paying DNN corp $2,500 a year so I can get all the features of Active Social.

That means the past 2 years of contributing here has benefited you, but done nothing for me. In fact it has cost me 2 years of my time and lost opportunities. Don't forget that I got involved with DNN precisely because it was pitched as an Open Source product. However it's become apparent to me, after the acquisition of Active Social, that if you want to build a decent site with the latest feature set, at some point you are going to have to pay DNN Corp $2,500 a year. That sounds like bait and switch to me.

Please explain how I have benefited by giving my time and money to a product that I now do not want to use for my site because I do not want to pay $2,500 a year for the full feature set.

And this is absolute nonsense. When you buy a product you buy it not only for what it does, but what is being promised in the future. If what you said was true then every person who bought Active Social from the first release would have used it as is, and if they were not satisfied there and then, would have returned it within 30 days to get for their money back.

As you said I've been here for 2 years and I know for a fact many people were/did wait on things you promised were coming in future releases. Why would any company have a roadmap if people only bought software for what it was able to do on the day they purchased it??

I am not going to keep answering the same questions over and over again simply because a few people don't like the answer.

1) The Active Social feature set is going to be part of the Community Edition. It will not require you to purchase a Pro license or cost $2,500.00.
2) Active Social was never sold as a "promise of features" or as an investment to be part of Active Modules. When you bought Active Social you bought a license to use the software based upon the features at the time of purchase.
3) Once again, a thread with good intentions has been derailed to focus on pure speculation without merit and is now locked.