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ultimatebdmin · September 4th, 2004, 09:57 AM

I understand your wanting to defend your products as the forum admin, but quite frankly, vbulletin 3 was installed by me, in a fairly similar fashion to what your instructions indicate, before the instructions leave your customers hanging. And yes, you purchase the software, download it as a zip, then unzip, and UPLOAD the files to your server, then begin installation just like PhotoPost. Even with a install.php call. From there, however, it's night and day.

Here is how you can provide better support. Please take these suggestions into consideration, as I noticed that in the other threads, there were some of the EXACT same problems, and that means that there are many more who have the same issues which could be easily resolved with some simple scripting and technical writting to be INCLUDED in the installation scripts:

1) Include the php safe mode instructions and warning in your installation page: http://www.photopost.com/installphp.html

2) Include the warning in the installation screens of PhotoPost (when installing from install.php)

- overkill with regard to error messages is the proper route when "text is so cheap". It's bad software design to have a product which provides inadequate technical support during the installation process, from within the product, when the solution (answer to the problem) could be easily provided from within the software.

3) vBulletin 3 has a very nice feature where on virtually every page of the admin and install screen, there is a "?" icon. If you click on this, it has very nice explanations of almost every term, and variable on the screen at that time. PhotoPost's config screen at installation, and the admin screens are "helpless". This is extrememly time consuming and annoying to have to come to the forums all the time for basic tech support on the product, and terminology. Simple solution: create a "?" graphic and place it on every screen and take the time to write up term definitions, and examples of how to select those variables values in PhotoPost.

The above will make your life as an admin easier, as well as make the product pleasant to work with, which currently, in my opinion, it is not.

In addition, you should never complain about posting to the forums and emailing for tech support! That is extremely poor customer service, and you should spend your time solving the problems, instead of complaining. The user's of this forum are more than the tech support staff of this product are they not!?

In general, forums include both members of the developement team, as well as NON-associated individuals who often are just as helpful. I am a businessman, who does not have all day long to wait around to get software to work. I want the FASTEST solution, and that means posting to the forum where there are both paid and non-paid PhotoPost gurus, and emailing TECH SUPPORT, which should be only PAID PhotoPost developers who are focused on supporting their product and not on complaining.

I wouldn't be surprised if you deleted this thread because it shows how little you seem to care about your customers.

You can however change that very easily. PS - a well run business would publicaly apologize for complaining that their customer posted on the support forum and "emailed" for tech support.

Anyway, I have had my hosting provider enable safe mode, and the remaining errors will be posted in this forum. I already suspect what the problem is but I'm not sure, but I can assure you it would have been avoided with explicit documentation.

September 4th, 2004, 09:57 AM	#9 (permalink)
ultimatebdmin Junior Member Verified Customer Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 27	I understand your wanting to defend your products as the forum admin, but quite frankly, vbulletin 3 was installed by me, in a fairly similar fashion to what your instructions indicate, before the instructions leave your customers hanging. And yes, you purchase the software, download it as a zip, then unzip, and UPLOAD the files to your server, then begin installation just like PhotoPost. Even with a install.php call. From there, however, it's night and day. Here is how you can provide better support. Please take these suggestions into consideration, as I noticed that in the other threads, there were some of the EXACT same problems, and that means that there are many more who have the same issues which could be easily resolved with some simple scripting and technical writting to be INCLUDED in the installation scripts: 1) Include the php safe mode instructions and warning in your installation page: http://www.photopost.com/installphp.html 2) Include the warning in the installation screens of PhotoPost (when installing from install.php) - overkill with regard to error messages is the proper route when "text is so cheap". It's bad software design to have a product which provides inadequate technical support during the installation process, from within the product, when the solution (answer to the problem) could be easily provided from within the software. 3) vBulletin 3 has a very nice feature where on virtually every page of the admin and install screen, there is a "?" icon. If you click on this, it has very nice explanations of almost every term, and variable on the screen at that time. PhotoPost's config screen at installation, and the admin screens are "helpless". This is extrememly time consuming and annoying to have to come to the forums all the time for basic tech support on the product, and terminology. Simple solution: create a "?" graphic and place it on every screen and take the time to write up term definitions, and examples of how to select those variables values in PhotoPost. The above will make your life as an admin easier, as well as make the product pleasant to work with, which currently, in my opinion, it is not. In addition, you should never complain about posting to the forums and emailing for tech support! That is extremely poor customer service, and you should spend your time solving the problems, instead of complaining. The user's of this forum are more than the tech support staff of this product are they not!? In general, forums include both members of the developement team, as well as NON-associated individuals who often are just as helpful. I am a businessman, who does not have all day long to wait around to get software to work. I want the FASTEST solution, and that means posting to the forum where there are both paid and non-paid PhotoPost gurus, and emailing TECH SUPPORT, which should be only PAID PhotoPost developers who are focused on supporting their product and not on complaining. I wouldn't be surprised if you deleted this thread because it shows how little you seem to care about your customers. You can however change that very easily. PS - a well run business would publicaly apologize for complaining that their customer posted on the support forum and "emailed" for tech support. Anyway, I have had my hosting provider enable safe mode, and the remaining errors will be posted in this forum. I already suspect what the problem is but I'm not sure, but I can assure you it would have been avoided with explicit documentation. Last edited by ultimatebdmin; September 4th, 2004 at 09:59 AM.