Revive Facebook Help Group

[Sperber]

Hi there,

 

we all can imagine, that the Revive-Team has a hell of work to do and can´t be around the support forums that often. For people running into problems - may it be with upgrading, first timers, experienced ones with more sophisticated problems or even developers which need a helping hand or a hint - this sometimes can be a frustrating experience, to be forced to wait a few days or sometimes weeks, until they receive a reaction to their post. Revive is for free and open source - so you really can´t expect, that there is a professional support around 24/7. The Revive guys have a life, too - or at least they had one before Revive became so popular

 

While waiting for response to a problem I run into, I thought "Hey, why not making a Revive selfhelping group in facebook? Faster replies, far more reach, quicker communication - and may be someone already knows a solution to a problem users may run into."  So, in short, I did it and now I´m inviting everyone to the group. 

I´m just a Revive user so I guess, I am not really someone who could help with bigger problems. But I guess over time there could and will be  a nice crowd, some more experienced ones, may be one or the other developer or even someone from the Revive-Team itself (which will be recognizable per the assigned Administrator-Status in the group).

 

You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/142121312790362/ . I hope Revive don´t mind, that I am using the Revive logo for the group - but what would fit better than this.

 

Hop in - you´re welcome

Regards,

Chris

 

[MrWigly]

Sadly this place is full of more people asking for help than able or willing to give. That's about the only time people come here apart from the odd regulars.

 

And as for the old "it's a free product so you can't expect support" and "the devlopers are busy and have lives" stuff - I've seen those responses churned out over and over across the years of dealing with free softwares.

What you've got to remember is many products these days are going down the free base program route and then offering paid extras. By that logic, they'd only ever be supporting the paid purchases while the base program gets neglected. Free is nothing more than a sales pitch in todays world. Get people interested by dangling a free carrott and then sell to them once they're in.

 

I see it this way.
You've not made this product and put all this time into development just for the love of it. Somewhere along the line the devlopers benefit as much as the customer using the product.

 

Not engaging with your customers frequently enough leads to major losses of custom and stops the conversion of a non-paying customer into a paying one dead in it's tracks.
For instance, if there were premium options for adserver, I doubt I'd upgrade when the very base free version has such low level support.

Lots of people like free because it means they can try something, set it up and get familiar and if they like it, they'll start paying for extras, premium accounts, more features etc.

Not so much when the support network is a ghost town.

 

Sorry but if it were me, I'd make sure I'd got a few people that knew my product regularly manning the support / forums one way or another.

 

Then again, I'm in marketing mode so I see everyone with a potential $$$ over their heads and anything you can do to keep them interested and tempted into spending, DO IT!

[Sperber]

Mr. Wigly,

 

what you describe is wether inside the scope of my initial posting nor do I jump your train. May be (?) I´ve got you wrong - but in my world we have bills to pay and creating a free software doesn´t necsessary mean, there will be support. Or this forum. Or a github-project site. Or anything else.

 

Users like me take all benefits from what the coders initially created with OpenX and nowadays with the successor Revive. May be it just sounds to me that way, that you´re takin that for granted - and sure it isn´t. If you ever coded something by yourself, you should be well aware that all participating coders must have put thousands of hours, their knowledge and expertise into this software. Since years and years you can get it and use it - still ! - for free, work with it and we all make money with and through it. And do I understand you correct, that you are now complaining that they´ve build a business upon with additional services? I guess you get paid by your customers like I do, else we both wouldn´t do a thing for them, or? It´s nothing to argue about, when the coders are making some business and money out of what they have created. Support needs time, to be able to spend that time needs another source of income to have the money you meanwhile can live from. Somehow I feel like someone has spent you a gold dime - and you´re now complaining that it´s not polished..

 

There is an old saying that says it all: Love it, change it or leave it. 

 

For me, in terms of support, I´ve decided to try it with "change it".

[Richard Foley]

The FB. group is a closed group, which it's not possible to "join", so quite how anybody can "hop in", is anyone's guess.

 

Hi there,

 

we all can imagine, that the Revive-Team has a hell of work to do and can´t be around the support forums that often. For people running into problems - may it be with upgrading, first timers, experienced ones with more sophisticated problems or even developers which need a helping hand or a hint - this sometimes can be a frustrating experience, to be forced to wait a few days or sometimes weeks, until they receive a reaction to their post. Revive is for free and open source - so you really can´t expect, that there is a professional support around 24/7. The Revive guys have a life, too - or at least they had one before Revive became so popular

 

While waiting for response to a problem I run into, I thought "Hey, why not making a Revive selfhelping group in facebook? Faster replies, far more reach, quicker communication - and may be someone already knows a solution to a problem users may run into."  So, in short, I did it and now I´m inviting everyone to the group. 

I´m just a Revive user so I guess, I am not really someone who could help with bigger problems. But I guess over time there could and will be  a nice crowd, some more experienced ones, may be one or the other developer or even someone from the Revive-Team itself (which will be recognizable per the assigned Administrator-Status in the group).

 

You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/142121312790362/ . I hope Revive don´t mind, that I am using the Revive logo for the group - but what would fit better than this.

 

Hop in - you´re welcome

Regards,

Chris

[Sperber]

The group itself is closed, right, but you should see the Join-Button on top. Is this different in the us version of facebook as in our europeans?

[andrewatfornax]

we all can imagine, that the Revive-Team has a hell of work to do and can´t be around the support forums that often. For people running into problems - may it be with upgrading, first timers, experienced ones with more sophisticated problems or even developers which need a helping hand or a hint - this sometimes can be a frustrating experience, to be forced to wait a few days or sometimes weeks, until they receive a reaction to their post. Revive is for free and open source - so you really can´t expect, that there is a professional support around 24/7. The Revive guys have a life, too - or at least they had one before Revive became so popular

 

While waiting for response to a problem I run into, I thought "Hey, why not making a Revive selfhelping group in facebook? Faster replies, far more reach, quicker communication - and may be someone already knows a solution to a problem users may run into."  So, in short, I did it and now I´m inviting everyone to the group. 

Hi Chris,

Thanks for wanting to take part in the Revive Adserver community, and to try to make things better!

I really appreciate what you're trying to do, and I also appreciate that you recognise how Revive Adserver is currently "run" - that is, it's an open source project, and the time that any of the "core" team members puts in is entirely voluntary, and done purely because we enjoy the time we do put in.

However, my suggestion would be that if you do want to help make the Revive Adserver community a stronger, better place, then fragmenting the number of places where people can go to get help is not the way forward. My personal view is that, if you (or anyone else) has the time and the inclination to help the rest of the community out, then please do so here on these forums. Creating a new Facebook site, and having multiple places where people can ask questions (and search for old questions and answers) is not, in my view, going to help make it easier for people to get help.

Of course, Revive Adserver is open source - and accordingly, I will always do my best to be open to new ideas or ways of doing things. So, if you think it really is better, then go for it - and if the community loves it as well, then great! 

I just wanted to put my thoughts in, and encourage people to keep the discussions about Revive Adserver here on the forums.

Thanks! 

And as for the old "it's a free product so you can't expect support" and "the devlopers are busy and have lives" stuff - I've seen those responses churned out over and over across the years of dealing with free softwares.

What you've got to remember is many products these days are going down the free base program route and then offering paid extras. By that logic, they'd only ever be supporting the paid purchases while the base program gets neglected. Free is nothing more than a sales pitch in todays world. Get people interested by dangling a free carrott and then sell to them once they're in.

I see it this way.
You've not made this product and put all this time into development just for the love of it. Somewhere along the line the devlopers benefit as much as the customer using the product.

Not engaging with your customers frequently enough leads to major losses of custom and stops the conversion of a non-paying customer into a paying one dead in it's tracks.
For instance, if there were premium options for adserver, I doubt I'd upgrade when the very base free version has such low level support.

Lots of people like free because it means they can try something, set it up and get familiar and if they like it, they'll start paying for extras, premium accounts, more features etc.

Not so much when the support network is a ghost town.

Sorry but if it were me, I'd make sure I'd got a few people that knew my product regularly manning the support / forums one way or another.

Hi MrWigly,

I hear you. 

In all honesty, there's rarely a day that goes by when I don't think to myself that I wish I was spending more time working on the Revive Adserver project - in terms of spending more time coding, more time writing documentation for the product, and spending more time on the forums helping people get the most from the software.

You say that "You've not made this product and put all this time into development just for the love of it. Somewhere along the line the devlopers benefit as much as the customer using the product.". Well, that partially true.

I spent 5 years working at OpenX, being paid to lead the team that helped make the product that's now Revive Adserver. So, there's was definitely something financially in it for me back then. However, now, I *am* doing it just for the love of it. I had an opportunity to take over the management of the product from OpenX, and with the other "core" members of the team, at least mean that *something* could happen with the product. And I'm proud of what we've managed to achieve (compared with the nothing that was happening before). You can read more about this at: http://www.revive-adserver.com/blog/revive-adserver-one-year-on/

Having said all that - I do wish that I did more. It's hard though - I have a full time job (development manager for multiple development teams in a trans-atlantic firm), two young children, etc. Finding time to work on Revive Adserver is not always easy...

Perhaps the idea of "premium accounts" is something that we should consider, though. As I said in my previous post on this topic, this is an open source project, and I am willing to think and talk about new ideas that might make the product and the community better.

I wonder, what would people think about the idea of subscribing to Revive Adserver somehow, or funding a kickstarter project, or something, that could provide a revenue stream? Is there perhaps enough interest out there in this product that, with enough people contributing relatively modest amounts, there would be a way that myself and/or other members of the community could give up some of our other responsibilities (i.e. jobs) to work on the project part time, or maybe even full time?

Perhaps that's worth considering - especially if there are enough community members who find that Revive Adserver is helping them to make their living, but they would like to see the software become better, and would be willing to help fund that process?

A thought for your day :-)

Andrew 

[Richard Foley]

 hi Andrew, et al,

I think you're right in that "fragmenting the number of places" is not helpful. However, having more places where people can go to FIND THIS FORUM, is a good idea! So, I'd suggest pinning a top-post on the FB group which always points directly here.

R.

Hi Chris,

Thanks for wanting to take part in the Revive Adserver community, and to try to make things better!

I really appreciate what you're trying to do, and I also appreciate that you recognise how Revive Adserver is currently "run" - that is, it's an open source project, and the time that any of the "core" team members puts in is entirely voluntary, and done purely because we enjoy the time we do put in.

However, my suggestion would be that if you do want to help make the Revive Adserver community a stronger, better place, then fragmenting the number of places where people can go to get help is not the way forward. My personal view is that, if you (or anyone else) has the time and the inclination to help the rest of the community out, then please do so here on these forums. Creating a new Facebook site, and having multiple places where people can ask questions (and search for old questions and answers) is not, in my view, going to help make it easier for people to get help.

 

[andrewatfornax]

So, I'd suggest pinning a top-post on the FB group which always points directly here.

Great idea, Richard! I'll see if I can do just that.

Andrew

Ah, looks like you can only pin a post on FB for 7 days?

[Richard Foley]

It's possible that for an ordinary-member-post,  the pin is only valid for 7 days, (I'm not sure about that), but I'm certain that an admin-post can be made permanent. That's what we want to see, I would suggest, as THE pinned post at the top of the FB group, (but the administrator of the group might have to do that).

Great idea, Richard! I'll see if I can do just that.

Andrew

Ah, looks like you can only pin a post on FB for 7 days?

[tkat]

Believe me, we truly appreciate the Revive Adserver because it offers a very elegant and efficient option without getting caught up in a very restrictive and costly ecosystem controlled by Google, Microsoft and a few other giants.  We have been using OpenX and Revive now for over a decade.

I also understand the constraints under which the Revive team works, and I have tried to support it by buying plugins created by team members.

But several times a year we face situations when it would be nice to have more seasoned experts willing to provide prompt solutions or at least point us in the right direction so we don't have to devote so much time to trying to find solutions on our own.  I am currently facing one of those situations.  I was not able to get any help on this forum, so am now turning to others for help.

I like the Admin's suggestion of some kind of paid subscription-based premium service that would assure prompt, reliable support from a knowledeable team.  I for one would support it, as long as the cost is reasonable.

[andrewatfornax]

Hi all,

Thanks so much for the feedback - I'm currently working on some ideas for how we may be able to do something along the lines of raising some funding to help with getting more development work done on Revive, and/or being able to offer more support. Stay tuned!

[andrewatfornax]

It took a while - but Revive Adserver now has a Patreon page, where you can help us out financially, and we can spend more time providing support, writing documentation, and improving the product!

Learn more at: https://www.patreon.com/revive_adserver