Poeple i Opened a forum to support Viart comunity
 
Please come in register and lets make Customizations, features and help make viart more customized ALL FREE to join
 
http://viart.suddenhit.com
 

SuddenHit,
 
I have already created this but it's down until ViArt fixes it. it's called CommunityExpansion.com
 
many of us have registered there already.

well i don't want to be dependent on viart. And therefore i want to have something as well. Moreover, viart is quite often doesn't want to show and give something for free on this one it is a Comunity based and I as a coder want to get help from people and provide help to as many as i can

Dan has been around Viart as a user and regular contributor for a long time - we already trust him.
 
I would recommend going to http://www.CommunityExpansion.com
 
Chris

Why?
Just because he has been around a long time?
Have you looked at the forum there?
It is a bunch of one line post that match the subject line of the post. Very little, if any information, and a heavy promotion of his wares. Nothing like the community that was part of several discussions here for a long time. Just like the Holleyland Project that was started before Dan's effort.
 
The concept was great, the discussions were progressing and the beginning was on the right foot. But, like so many other forums that are related to a commercial product, that are not hosted and maintained by the manufacturer, it has morphed into something that is not very useful to the average user or a place for spammers to play.
 
I mean no disrespect to Dan and the people who started these efforts, None! Each and everyone of them have been here and helped many people with their knowledge and help. Myself included.
 
As has been discussed here, on many occasions over the 3 years I have been around Viart, the BEST place to keep all this information is HERE.
 
Viart as a company has done a lousy job of keeping the documentation up to date, clearly posting the changes and updates to the software in a fashion that is easy to find, or participating in the forums regularly. Even when they have promised to do so.
 
There have even been many offers from the community to assist in those efforts here. Viart has not seen fit to take advantage of those offers and continues to operate as if everything is okay.
 
These efforts at building some "other" place that will provide the answers, tips, tricks, and techniques are not going to work. None are supported by the manufacturer and each of us have business to run and money to make. Our primary focus is not providing support for Viart or maintaining a forum for them.
 
I read that Viart has a staff of 30 people working on the software. I find it unbelievable that there can not be a person or two that are able to keep the documentation up to date and/ or participate in providing answers to tech support questions in THEIR forums.
 
What really needs to happen is:
1) Viart needs to up the effort in getting the manual current.
 
2) Clearly post the changes and patches to the software in a clearly marked area of the site so it is easy to find, in reverse chronological order by version and build number, and maintain that going forward.
 
3) Participate more in the forums here so that all users can benefit from their answers and would not need to submit support tickets for every little question because the answers are only in the support staffs heads.
 
4) Charge a annual support fee for their product that is not optional, but reasonable, and close the forums to all but registered users.
 
The reason they won't do those things are:
1) the amount of money they are getting for customizations, support assistance, and such is more than they are getting for their products purchase.
 
2) The "enhancements" we want, and are willing to pay for, are most times, much more cost than the product purchase itself. Even if they are things that are standard in most every other cart on the market, open source or not. And we are willing to fund them to be done without a definitive delivery date.
 
 
 
Thank you for listening to my $0.02.
It is my opinion and nothing more.

For all my 2c is worth. I just clicked on http://www.communityexpansion.com/
I didn't stay very long as I couldn't see anything that jumped out about Viart. Personally I think Suddenhit has a great idea.I am going to register and would urge others to do the same. What Bestfit has to say above I agree with entirely. I have felt for a long time now that Viart tell us newbies instructions that only a programmer can understand, Hence we are forced to pay for extras (Like upgrades)
This Forum is pretty much useless, I for example posted a simple request on how can I remove old saved carts. Take a look, noone has answered to date. If I can get assistance from others more experienced Then thats where you can find me...

Except, Wayne, if existing experienced users do not answer you here, what makes you thing they will elsewhere?
 
They would be the same users?
 
I guess I am also coming to the view that all we do is split the sharing - if I choose to stay here I don't get what Suddenhit offers and vice versa.
I think I will stay put and hope that many of the people I have enjoyed sharing with over the years will still be around.

Christopher,
Words of Wisdom, all.
 
We would all be better served to channel our efforts into getting Viart support staff to participate more here, then fragmenting the knowledge across more forums.
 
There are large number of unanswered questions here. I would like to believe that they remain unanswered because the participants here are mostly users, not support staff, and we are all fumbling around trying to figure out a program that has very outdated documentation for what is in the app.
 
With no documentation of what is in it and very limited information on what is new. it becomes a "oh, gee whiz, I didn't know it could do that" or a "oh, that is how that works" sharing process.
 
Our experience as a company that develops some software, sells other people software and service even more software has shown that efforts to split off the knowledge into other forums or websites; quickly degrades those sites into non-existence or relevance.
 
Few examples of success have been had with that, and only those that have a HUGE user base. (think Microsoft, Oracle, etc...)
 
I believe everyone here has experience frustration with Vi arts' lack of answers to questions at some time or another. But, the best course of action is to hang in here and continue to apply pressure on Viart to make the changes needed to keep their user base happy.
 
For Viart to not do that, will be to their own peril if they want to continue to enjoy our revenue stream.
 
I say that because, I for one, have several things I would like to have in the software and am willing to fund, BUT, not until better documentation is provided, existing features are fully functional, and better support is provided. I would encourage others to adopt a similar stance and Viart will get the message much faster.
 
In the meantime, here I am, here I stay.

There is another issue, BestFit, and that is the integrity of upgrades.
 
My concern is that an independent forum might offer some exciting mods but the less skilled user, like me, will suddenly hit a brick wall when Viart offers a must-have upgrade.
 
To Viart's credit I have found support excellent - I just wish they would give us a comprehensible and workable manual and also get into this forum more often.
 
I am very glad you are here to stay.
 
Chris

I have the utmost respect for all of you; Dan, Chris, BestFit, Ned, SuddenHit and others.
 
For my 2cents worth, I must agree with BestFit, we need to keep this forum healthy and informative. If we all start having our own little ViArt forums we have nothing. As it is we have limited users (for now), and a lot of them don't seem to share their thoughts. You will notice when you post a new topic there will be many who view it, but only a couple who actually respond with any answers. Either they do not know or are unwilling to share. We have to get all users to participate.
 
Besides taking an active role in the forum, perhaps ViArt can organize the forum to allow users to better access archived information and issues that have been resolved. For instance why can we not have a 8 or 10 step guide on performing an upgrade. There are bits of info here and there. There should be a simple step by step process.
 
 
What we require is some sort of an organized forum, and we should all try and address our issues in the appropriate forums. A moderator would be really handy.
 
In one of the other forums it was suggested we all show off our websites, this will allow others to view different techniques that have been applied and perhaps realize that we can improve our own sites. This was a good suggestion.
 
This is a good software that could become one of the best, with a few more enhancements.
 
I am new here and not very technical, but I do know what I need.
 
Lets support each other (and ViArt) and move forward in a positive and progressive fashion such that we all have a successful online store.

I agree with foxrotdomains, this forum is good enough, why go elsewhere?

Okay, okay. I'm sorry I've been out of touch on this forum.
 
To get rid of saved carts, the customer can do that.
They would go to their account home, click on saved carts, and at the very right hand side of each saved cart, there is a delete button.
 
As far as CommunityExpansion.com, viart is aware of some issues with the new upgrade and the multisite feature. Once this has been fixed, all the user videos will be added.
 
I have created 113 basic videos that show how to do certain small items.
 
ALSO... I have created a new .css stylesheet for those that are members.
 
CommunityExpansion wasn't created to deter people away from here. ViArt is something that I feel should be utilized as much as possible on their own site. What I am doing with CommunityExpansion is trying to help those out with individual questions, and then placing a how to video on the site for future questions.
 
If any of your are not interested in those options, then community expansion isn't for you. I'm going to be trying to help out with general how to questions such as changing styles, adding styles, doing things in the admin, exchanging customizations that aren't included in the releases, etc.
 
Hope that helps to clarify.
 
BestFit, SuddenHit, and others:
I'm not trying to take away from anyone's intentions, but I feel we need to limit certain things, and those of us who have been with ViArt for a very long time (one being myself at over 2 years), are a little bit more trusted as we place our questions and answers here in the forum. We have provide help and solutions and worked together on getting a lot of things implimented as well. I truly hope we can all work together and get things accomplished.
 
ALSO: Starting in June 2009, I'm going to be hiring an IT person whose job will be strictly making updates to my system that work solely as add-ons and will not overwrite pages. That way we can easily integrate with the new updates from ViArt. With that being said, if anyone has any ideas for customizations and I would find them useful to myself as well (especially those being marketing ideas (chris, you're awesome at this!!!)), please shoot an email on community expansion's website and we'll work on it to get it implemented and share it for no cost. I'm a serious ViArt user, and I would truly like to help out in any way that I possibly can!!!
 
Dan

Hi everyone
 
I am totally new to ViArt, haven't even bought the cart but am seriously interested in joining the club.
 
What strikes me - reading this (short) forum - is the positive vibe I get. Although it appears ViArt' support is a bit ... where? ... in here, my idea on the forum is rather setting an example instead putting pressure on ViArt. If we users stick to the forum, exchange ideas, address problems, etc, etc, it will all come back to us positive as ViArt surely will pick up on it.
 
Although I am not a programmer, (I am more on the SEO SEM side), I will get the cart and - expect me to get quite a bit active in here ...
 
One head can think a lot, many heads achieve lots, quickly!
 
Cheers