Just out of curiosity…Has anyone taken Alicia for a test run?
The ‘big release’ doesn’t seem to be generating any real kind of buzz.
I weigh commercial and free script success by actual real-life websites.
I have yet to see any busy - midrange alexa ranking websites. Even if it is not immensely popular, if it can score around 20-30 on Alexa i would be interested.
I have not seen such a website from either phpizabi nor datemill. It therefore keeps me away from investing in their scripts.
Does anyone have any links they can share that show actual moderately popular websites ? Not the selfmade fake sites that datemill and phpizabi place as weblinks.
Oh and i have yet to come across any sites using these scripts on google searches.
thanks.
Hey Kat,
I have given the new Alicia a run. It’s hasn’t really been “released” yet, just available to what they call Insiders … basically a beta program.
It looks good but still has quite a few bugs and unimplemented features.
The show stopper for me has nothing to do with the software itself but with the new license agreement. While it claims to be open source and they said they were going to be making money from donations and paid mods, the license agreement states you must give them %15 of profits if you ever sell the site.
Clients or partners on any of my projects would never agree to such terms.
below is the quote from the agreement;
"6. Selling or Transferring Ownership Rights of a Website Powered by PHPizabi.
You must submit a “Transfer of License” request to Reality Medias 10 business days prior to transferring ownership of a PHPizabi powered website, and/or database compiled of member/user data obtained through a website powered by PHPizabi. The “Transfer of License” form can be obtained at {link}.
A “Transfer of License” request is subject to a 15% royalty fee of the total sale and/or transfer price. Royalty fee is due 30 calendar days upon completion of stated sale and/or transfer in US ($) Dollars, payable by certified bank check or bank electronic transfer. The License agreement shall be void if the terms of the “Transfer of License” are not met within 30 calendar days of completion of the sale and/or transfer.
When selling a website running and/or using PHPizabi, the purchaser must be made aware under any and all conditions that PHPizabi is available for use free of charge, and the core PHPizabi package cannot be included in the sale price.
You shall add the following disclaimer to any notice of sale or transfer of ownership, for the full duration of notice, displayed in 12 pt. Arial Bold, in such a way to be noticeably visible.
The following website offered for sale and/or transfer as described herein is Powered by PHPizabi. PHPizabi is a trademark of Reality Medias. For more information, please visit: www.phpizabi.net"
Best,
R
robocop128 thats crazy so you if you sell a PHPizabi powered site for $100,000 you have to give PHPizabi $15,000???
i wouldn’t be at all surprised if that type of thing is in their agreement.
I have said from the start that I was very unclear regarding their motives.
I don’t have any issue at all with people making money - but i like to know upfront if a thing is truly open source or not.
Re zooki - i see you’re not too enthused with alicia or datemill. I don’t know about datemill, but i do wonder about alicia. I usually see tiny online member numbers on their sites when i am there…despite thousands of registered members (in one case over 50,000). That doesn’t make any sense.
In a general context, i see loads of new dating/community sites popping up now each week. I saw another one yesterday. And being a week or two old, it has a fair few registrants, and about 20 to 30 online at any time i look in…which is very good for such a young site. Their script looks pretty homemade…tho functional.
Yep, that’s the way I read it (I’m not a lawyer though:)
It wasn’t in the agreement for the last version.
I tried to ask about the reason for the change in their forums, but (big surprize) the post was deleted almost imediately by the admin.
It seems crazy to me … I can’t belive anyone would use their software with those restrictions … I mean, who knows what will happen down the line and %15 …
Not for me, thanks.
Me either. That’s INSANE.
that being the case, for me, there’s no point in even trying their script (when it is released)
Ditto.
It looks like the izabi folks got hacked:
http://ww2.phpizabi.net/?
(click on the image to see the hack report)
Did this affect anyone using the izabi platform? Isn’t this the second time this has happened to them?
yes Kat, I saw that a week or so ago, and wondered like you, if it had impacted those using the platform.
Unsure if they have been hacked previously.
Heh. I guess someone doesn’t like how they define open source.
I imagine there are a lot of people capable of exploiting a website who are not real happy with phpizabi right now. I wouldn’t let that anywhere near my server. People will be cracking it for sport.
I see there’s lots of interest for social networking software on this forum, so I was just wondering… I’ve created software for a social network targeting the town I live in, and seeing that you guys mostly dislike the software available out there, I was thinking about maybe releasing my script.
Now, I wouldn’t give it away freely since I’m in it for the money just like everyone else. I would however consider releasing it unencrypted. If I were to sell it, I would probably charge $50-$100 one time fee, depending on how big the market is.
If you want to see the site I’ve created with the software, feel free to visit iKalmar.se (No I’m not advertising, the site is in Swedish so I doubt anyone of you will understand it anyway).
Keep in mind that I haven’t tried to make a ripoff of Myspace, and so the software probably doesn’t have as many features as the scripts you’ve been talking about. I see that as a positive thing, since too many features will clutter the site and spread the social interaction too thin. Of course, that’s just my opinion, and if I decide to release it I may also create plugins for other features.
Anyway, enough talking, opinions please? 
Bra gjort! och Snygg design.
My guess would be that many would be interested in this script. As long a you have an easy installation process and the application does not draw a lot of server resources. You will also have to think about how you would support the software which seems to be the number one complaint about any script that goes public. Open source would alleviate this and then you could charge for modification, installation and upgrades.
Don’t just dive in and start accepting payment for software without having a clear business plan. You’ll get a bad reputation if you cannot keep up with your customers.
Man tackar
You raise some very good questions about this. If the script goes public, we will of course try to make it as easy to use as possible. Like you say, there will always be a need for customer support though.
As I see it, there are a few ways to go, but I’m not sure which one that suits best:
-
100% Open source, free software, charge for support/customization/upgrades
-
Sell licenses but use open source. Free support/upgrades but charge for customization.
-
Give away a barebones version, and sell plugins (gallery system, blog system etc) and customization.
I’m sure there are other ways too. Does anyone have examples of free software that is still profitable? After all, we’re a company and we can’t just give stuff away without it being profitable for us.
Sell the script and give away plugins would be my opinion. This way you’ll definately make money from your hard work and the Customer sees the plugins as a bonus - much like vBulletin has with vb.org
Nice looking site by the way
I started reading this thread and found it most informative, got sidetracked by the link to the $10000 a day person and then came back. After reading a few more pages and having signed up on izabi, I decided to finally skip to the last pages only to read their hidden agenda
what a mockery
I will however watch what they do because it is plain ludicrous to believe that they could get away with such a policy
great read this thread
Zoints released “Zoints Local” last night. A social networking/blogging/enhanced profiles script for vBulletin forums that can easily be ported to other software platforms. And its free 
Check it out.
Ok, now THIS looks interesting… I never quite ‘got’ Zoints, but this ‘local’ version has my attention…
I agree, All4Data, it’s an excellent thread. And with so many of us, it means we have more brains/expertise to call upon (as opposed to working and making decisions on our own)
Yes, i am now avoiding Alicia. I had little faith in them from the very start. All didn’t seem just seem right.
I’m waiting for datemill, and also keeping an eye on drupal/vbulletin/zoom local. But I prefer a standalone script. I have been down that road before with using add-ons on top of a CMS/major script in the past (ie using mambo/joomla and buying an additional component to work on top of them). It is a pain in th ebum staying on top of all the latest fixes for each. Plus if one part of the chain goes down, you’re sunk. Or even if one part announce a major new version, you could be sunk.
I prefer standalone if at all possible.