Let’s Make Software!

Since we started that conversation about releasing ISB as an open source software, lots of things have been happening in the background. And we are very close to launching the new website!

The main site structure is in place. I only need to make a couple of small adjustments at the point, but you will be pleased to know that my to do list has shrunk from 100+ tasks to only 4 more which I find essential. It’s been a fun learning experience as this was the first time I set up a proper CMS site using Joomla.

At this point the main wait is for Cody to finish the license agreements. It is 95% sure we’ll be offering ISB under similar license conditions as MySQL does: a dual licensing system where governmental organisations and companies and individual with commercial intentions for their applications are required to purchase a commercial license before they can sell their applications. Otherwise the use of ISB will be 100% free.

Everyone who purchased the commercial ISB as it is still sold at this point, will have rights to sell their applications according to the conditions they purchased it with. Basically you have the equivalent of a commercial license for ISB 2.2 or less. I honestly don’t have any clue about what happens when ISB 2.3 is released. My focus has been on providing a decent structure for the community first…

If you are a member of our forum, you may have already noticed: the forum as you knew it is locked…

We migrated the forum and all the users to a new location:
http://instantsoftwarebuilder.org/forum

And we also made a couple of changes…

• The login procedure for the forum is now completely integrated with the website. You login once to the main site and this will give you a range of options which go beyond forum posting. After login you will not find yourself redirected to the forum, but you will have to click the forum link in the horizontal navigation bar at the top of the site.

• We reorganized the categories and added a couple of new ones to allow members to find the information they need more quickly. We also went through all the existing posts and moved some to other categories as they were really posted in the wrong section. (If you cannot find your post, keep looking as we didn’t delete any!)

• We removed the MYOS category. For starters this doesn’t belong on a purely ISB oriented website. But as Inventor pointed out to me recently, the last post in this category dated from the fall of 2005. So we don’t think anyone is actually going to miss it…

• The sections ‘Success Stories’ and ‘Look what I’ve made!’ are now locked. You can still read them but you can no longer post in here. There are new locations for these sections which are more suitable to the site.

  Success Stories will now be posted as articles on the site. And you will be able to write them yourself just as you could on the forum because all members will have author rights.

  Look what I’ve Made has been replaced by a free ISB downloads section where all members can post their software applications with a full description and other members will be able to rate and review these applications.

• It’s no longer possible to post your affiliate programs and member-to-member offers on the forum. You can still post them on the new website however. We have created a special section called ‘Member’s Portfolio’ where you can advertise your commercial products, services and affiliate programs. The portfolio makes it possible to display your stuff in a very professional manner.

  For the time being this is a free service. But we do intend to make this a paid service in the future as it will allow us to generate some revenue from the site to cover hosting and maintenance costs…

Again: all existing forum users have been migrated along with the forum itself. If you were a member of the forum, you will be able to login to the website using the same username and password you always used for the previous forum.

So there’s no need to sign up. You are already a member of the new website!!

The same holds true if you are a member of my own site www.programmersecretsrevealed.com (where I sell the Big Books on ISB). You are already a member of the new site.

The login procedure is slightly different from what you are used to however, because you sign up with your email address at my site and you now need a username for the new site. If you were also a member of the forum, you can use this. If not, you will receive an email from me shortly with more precise instructions…

That’s it for today. If you want to be the first to get notified about the official launch and receive a very special offer from Cody and me, put your name on our VIP list at:

http://instantsoftwarebuilder.org/index.html

Thanks!
Patricia

This entry was posted by Patricia Ritsema van Eck on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 11:52 am and is filed under ISB related posts. You can print it out or email it to friends . You can also leave a response, or trackback from your own site.