Finishing the Theme and Freeing Leo

Hey guys –

Semmick – that is on my near-to-do list.

Matt – also being addressed soon. (Thanks for the concern ! :D)

Its not just about me – there are a few bigger contributors who have to start seeing more for their effort. I’ve benefited enough to justify work on this — I’m referring to the others who run sites for Symbio.

Symbiostock might have to coast for a while while it gets bigger, and when there’s a level of “mass” necessary and I believe every major contributor to the code/community/analytics should have a way of monetizing their work. I’ve stated before that the money does not necessarily even have to come directly from the contributors.

Also regarding size – we’ve achieved a level of stability, and this network has gotten bigger than I can personally keep up with. Also a certain “big” player thinks Symbiostock should be really “eeeasy”, when in fact its silly to think having your own personal istockphoto should be completely free of complexities like turning on the microwave.

At this time I’m splitting my time between Symbio, illustration work, and learning C++ as its necessary for an invention I’m working on. (PHP has brought me 80% of the way there thankfully).

What I envisioned for Symbiostock was a community that runs itself. To a large degree thats been realized, but I’m finding that when inexperienced people attempt a Symbio-startup, its quite punishing for them. And yet it can’t be simplified more without taking away certain advantages like extendibility and flexibility.

Also being in front of the computer 14 hours a day tends to be very unhealthy. I went on a hike the other day after a month’s grind on Symbio, and my legs hurt the next day, which shows I’ve been going backwards again. I spent the day in bed yesterday incapacitated due to other issues that come up when I’m not getting exercise. Its a tough balance to say the least.

I have to catch up on quite a few emails today, but just letting everyone know things are good – aside from a few minor adjustments I think we are there.

@cascoly wrote:

I’ve posted the latest consolidated bug & feature list http://cascoly.com/symbio/progress.asp

there are a few more items not mentioned, like the batch editor problems in delting entire categories or keywords, and some of the bugs listed may already have been fixed

Now THAT is awesome! Thank you very much for that list. I’ve bookmarked it and it will be my go-to as I finish mopping up. Great job.

“Finish making either the base theme or the paid plugin FULLY responsive and mobile friendly “
This can be either deleted or reworded. It is fully responsive, and the footer menu is no longer implemented. The only responsive issues now is simply space-oriented things.

Leo, I’m not much of a code person so I won’t offer to help that way but, if there is something I can do to help (that I can do), let me know.

I also think it is sad that only a handful of people are helping out on the board. The rest either lurk or just don’t come on at all unless they have a problem. If everyone using SymbioStock answered one or two questions we wouldn’t be spending so much time on the board. I know a lot of people are going to jump down my throat for saying it but I’ve never been afraid to say the truth.

We all benefit from SymbioStock and it’s not like we have paid much towards it so it’s really not too much to ask. I feel that people should help out where they can.

There are also people who are having problems with all sorts of things that I can’t help them with. PayPal seems to have a few issues. Is it possible there is a problem with the Theme itself or just badly configured sites? I’m talking to a few people via email about PayPal. Unfortunately beyond the basics I can’t help them.

Anyway, as I said, if I can help let me know.

Jo

Or make them pale grey so they are still there but not so visible, indicating they have been dealt with ?

#cbc9c9

Current sign up process is perfect 😀 No need to touch that ever again..

I believe “issue one” that I mentioned in this thread is very important and quite easy to implement:
http://www.symbiostock.org/topic/235/optimizing-customer-experience/

Paypal return URL should be changed to something else, so the customer never encounters issues after purchase.. (see the link above for detailed explanation)