Boonex Dolphin review?

I'm surprised there has never been a decent review of this on Digitalpoint - can someone please make a list of pros and cons? Just from looking at the demo, it looks incredible, but I keep hearing negative things about it. I'm willing to part with the $100 logo removal if it's as good as it looks.

Thanks

 

I tried the old version which had a lot of bugs but the version 6 looks much better. But if you go to there forum users are still reporting bugs

 

Basically, I wouldn't touch it with a 10ft bargepole. There are a lot of bugs (or there was, not sure if they have been fixed) and a bit idiosyncratic. Templates were a pain to edit too.

Such things include:

- Text was embedded within the database, not within a language.php file like something like Zen Cart, this meant that instead of cross referencing files within something like dreamweaver, you had to find a variable name in dreamweaver, then search PHPMyAdmin for the corresponding variable, then edit it.
- If the database corrupted (which it frequently did, often by editing the language table in the database), then it left the variable names in the design (usually a rather ugly _TextForMembershipHeader).
- Templates were a pain to edit too, as variables usually were called _variablename, __variablename or ___variablename.

 

I'm with liquidkiddie on this one. Here's my long and fruitless experience with them.

I first used the old AEdating script (same people), site worked like a dream, untill they moved onto dolphin, and wouldn't wupport it, in the end, the site got hacked as they wouldn't release security patches as they were working on thier dolphin script.

So I dutifully upgraded to thier dolphin script. For 1 whole year, I wasted time on that and it was useless. The whole script was so riddled with bugs, most developers wouldn't even class it as a beta release. Instead of fixing all the issues, theu just keep adding more features with even more bugs. I've yet to see anyone who has a proper active working dolphin site with a great load of members.

There was rumour going around that the bugs are there deliberatly so people pay them money for "contributer" status - which apparently gets you extra support.

In conclusion I think it's 1 big money making scam where no one has a good working site at then end of it.

 

version 6 still has some bugs. I've yet to try and test all features, but most of what I tested so far looked ok.

Here's a sample 4mingles.com , you may register and test. I've disabled the email validation. RMS still doesn't work yet since I'm still deciding on using a vps host for it.

Don't spend $100 for it!! You can use the contributor status ($20) to make it all ad-free.

And yeah, the support is SLOW. At least 1/4 of my support requests are ignored and most are answered within 2 days.

 

wow, thanks for this information! It really is too bad, the software itself really looks great and there's nothing else out there like it (that doesn't cost a fortune)

 

Just recieved this message:-

-----------------------------

For those of you running Dolphin 6.0.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.1CLEAN, or 6.0.2, a very nasty read message bug has been discovered where users can read any message on the system.

We have posted a easy fix here in this thread:

http://www.modmysite.com/showthread.php?p=28557#post28557

To protect your users privacy, and your site reputation with your users, you should seriously consider applying this fix.

If you need any help applying this fix, or need help with any other aspect of your Dolphin or aeDating site, please do not hesitate to contact us.

-----------------------------

 

Tried this one but it was too overloaded with bugs. OSDate (free) is better, but has bugs too.
I use VLDPersonals (not free) at the moment, very clean, and great support. Really recommend.

 

i was about to try dolphin. looks very clean from the look of it. I installed it and testing now

 

I have been testing dolphin for about 2 months. It has major issues from the business model up. Instead of fixing it, they keep adding stuff that doesn't work either.

I would start listing specifics, but it would be a 10 page post. I don't plan on using it. It did help me in terms of telling my programmer what to do with our cms so it will do what I need in terms of a social networking site.

So, don't plan on deploying it on a production site or you will be completely screwed. You have been warned lol.

I may install the latest patch which is ...x03 for amusement purposes but it still doesn't work out of the box. It is riddled with logic errors... Imagine 5000 people screaming about stuff and having 3 people to address the issues. That's what you are in store for.

hope that helps someone.
Nigel

 

Do you think most of these issues are related to the core program itself, or just an install of the program that is using many plugins or modules?

 

I'm using the default install without any added plugins and modules, still buggy I'm still waiting for it to go stable.. 6.1 at least before I go live.

 

thanks - I'll follow your lead. I've found an amazing niche that Dolphin would be perfect for, I really hate having to wait - but running a site that has constant problems isn't an option.

 

use of ajax is very good in dolphin. but it has cc-gpl etc which hints that some bugs have been left out deliberately. not suitable for production website but it a open source with many good feature,which needs to be added in open source social networking, in long term it will become stable but not like joomla etc because of half harted attemt to make it GPL.
it is installed on my server
infotechsystem.sytes.net/dolphinv6/ you can check.
as such it runs ok. but not advisted for production. not yet.

 

About Dolphin..I have a bunch of errors talking about undefined variable and stuff. Also I had a problem with the admin panel but I got that fixed. The script has potential but it has some bugs that shouldn't be there in the first place. I doubt it's scalable in the future but I'll give it a shot for now.
Their support is horrible!

 

Any One Have Any Idea for Orca Forum Integration In Dolphion Version 5.6!!
it is integrated In V6 But It don't Work ,..
Any one?

 

Got an email that there is a new release for Dolphin with numerous bug fixes etc incorporated.

Would be interested in anyone who either gets this version or upgrades to it, to give their thoughts/review on it.

 

I'll keep you posted for this week, I'll be installing that asap.

 

please do, I'm very interested to hear this. Getting my site out before the holidays would be ideal.

 

Feel free to test, this is just freshly installed but with orca renamed: http://4mingles.com/

It seems to work well, the strange 'A' characters are gone but yet I still keep reading about them as bugs in their blog. I haven't tested all features yet, gotta get some sleep