Future of Thirty Bees

[Ten Ting]

Hi

We have been using Prestashop since version 1.4 (2012) and currently all our sites (7) are on 1.6.24 since we found the move to 7, a step too far.

We are currently evaluating whether to move to a new open source platform, hosted solution or thirty bees.

The benefit of moving to thirty bees is that all the modifications we have made over time would not be wasted and would be easier to port over our websites so that is our preferred solution, but what we need to know is, going forward, how committed the supporters of thirty bees are to continuing bug fixes, new features etc., so that we can be confident that we would get at least another 10 years on this platform.

Thanks

David

Edited June 2, 2022 by Ten Ting

[wakabayashi]

3 hours ago, Ten Ting said:

so that we can be confident that we would get at least another 10 years on this platform.

10 years is a long time... I am happy if the next 10 months are safe for me 😅

In general tb developement seems to be more alive than 1 year ago. At least thats my impression on github. I am here since day zero and I don't plan to switch anywhere. If @Smile does the same and holds @datakick here, the thing goes on. We will see how long old PS theme and modules stay compatible with PHP 8 and so. But to be honest: you have this problem anyway. If you stay on PS 1.6 or switch here.

[30knees]

Currently, it looks like @Smileand @datakickwill maintain the software. But you're on your own for any further requirements that aren't in the core. If you develop yourself and are happy to develop/maintain modules, you're probably good with tb. If you need external help with modules and what the core offers isn't sufficient, you may be better of looking elsewhere.

[Mediacom87]

10 hours ago, 30knees said:

Currently, it looks like @Smileand @datakickwill maintain the software. But you're on your own for any further requirements that aren't in the core. If you develop yourself and are happy to develop/maintain modules, you're probably good with tb. If you need external help with modules and what the core offers isn't sufficient, you may be better of looking elsewhere.

Hi,

There are developers, like me, who support thirtybees since the beginning and will continue if the market grows.

All my developments remain PrestaShop 1.6 compatible and are, in fact, thirtybees compatible.

What seems to me the most problematic about thirtybees is the development of its community.

On PrestaShop, the bulk of the community was developed by French speakers, except that this community did not switch to thirtybees because of a disgust towards PrestaShop and their attitude.

The PrestaShop community is dying, as a proof the slow abandonment of the forum.

Personally, I am still not convinced of the relevance of version 1.7 and even less of the evolution towards 8.0 and the separation between the commercial project of PrestaShop SA and the open-source project.

Thirtybees remains, in my opinion, a very good alternative for those who already master the 1.6 version of PrestaShop but do not want to switch to their latest versions.

Nevertheless, you have to be aware of the commercial policy of PrestaShop towards its partners, almost forcing them to abandon developments on 1.6 to "force" users to switch to 1.7.

So, to answer you more directly, if you currently find everything to run your sites on PrestaShop 1.6, then thirtybees is perfect.

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Bonjour,

Il existe des développeurs, comme moi, qui soutiennent thirtybees depuis le début et continueront si le marché se développe.

Tous mes développements restant compatibles PrestaShop 1.6 ils sont, de fait, compatibles thirtybees.

Ce qui me semble le plus problématique sur thirtybees c'est le développement de sa communauté.

Sur PrestaShop, le gros de la communauté fut développé par les francophones, sauf que cette communauté n'a pas basculé sur thirtybees du fait d'un dégoût vis-à-vis de PrestaShop et de leur attitude.

La communauté PrestaShop est agonisante, pour preuve le lent abandon du forum.

Perso, je ne suis toujours pas convaincue de la pertinence de la version 1.7 et encore moins de l'évolution vers la 8.0 et de la séparation entre le projet commercial de PrestaShop SA et du projet open-source.

Thirtybees reste, à mon avis, une très bonne alternative pour ceux qui maitrisent déjà la version 1.6 de PrestaShop mais qui ne veulent pas basculer vers leurs dernières versions.

Néanmoins, il faut prendre conscience de la politique commerciale de PrestaShop vis-à-vis de ses partenaires, les obligeants presque à abandonner des développements sur 1.6 pour "forcer" les utilisateurs à basculer sur la 1.7.

Donc, pour vous répondre plus directement, si vous trouvez actuellement tout pour faire fonctionner vos sites sur PrestaShop 1.6, alors thirtybees est parfait.

[Ten Ting]

Thanks to all for your comments. Appreciate your views on this.

If there are only two main developers maintaining the core, it's not certain it will remain this way and that's a pity. Certainly we could migrate to 30 bees for the next 2-3 years but may have to change after depending on the development/bug fixes that is carried out and how many developers working on the core. I appreciate it's a time consuming job maintaining the core and answering lots of requests to fix this and add that, probably with little or no payment and I suppose that is the crux of the matter with open source is that it requires a lot of goodwill and peoples' time and the community feedback.

We know of at least one module creator that we use for payments is no longer doing any work on prestashop modules so we are stuck if we needed support on that.

Will have to have a think on this as we have so many sites with a lot of mods.

Cheers

David

[Mediacom87]

It seems to me, reading you, that the open source model does not correspond to your expectations.

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Il me semble, à vous lire, que le modèle open source ne correspond pas à vos attentes.

[led24ee]

Two developers for core can be not much, but other side, they know exactly what is done already and what must be do. If there are too many people for one thing then usually the result isn't stable because there are too many ways to do things and there is much more possibility for discord.

[Ten Ting]

@Mediacom87 I think open source is fantastic and that we should have more of it. I also think that it takes a lot of effort to maintain and enhance and if it's not a full time paid position then people will work if/when they can which may lead to the software not being updated as often as it maybe should. I don't know the setup for 30 Bees and if developers are paid or not.

I'm a developer and work for a company who need me to assess what platform we should be using going forward as I will not be with this company in the future and we need to make sure that we have a long term path for our ecommerce sites and people coming after me can pick up where I left off. It's more for the long term plan.

Led24ee - I know what you mean, but I think 30 Bees needs more than 2 or 3 developers that they can call on, as some may stop doing any work at all, and that I suppose is where a community has to come in and help out. In theory, the bigger the community, the better it should be and the more users it should attract.

Appreciate all of your time in answering my questions.

Cheers

David

[nickz]

From a certain stage you have to go broader and employ people.

The Idea of any E-Commerce is growing and have a larger audience so you can pay your developer.

Edited June 10, 2022 by nickz

[seapanda]

Hiya all! I'm new to the community, but super interested in this project. I run a web hosting company and would like to help support this project financially and eventually with dev time. Who is currently recieving donations and what are thry being put towards? There seems to be a disconnect between here/github and the main site.

[haylau]

9 hours ago, seapanda said:

Hiya all! I'm new to the community, but super interested in this project. I run a web hosting company and would like to help support this project financially and eventually with dev time. Who is currently recieving donations and what are thry being put towards? There seems to be a disconnect between here/github and the main site.

Talk to @Smile

 and @datakick

[veganline]

@Ten Ting I think open source is fantastic ... I also think that it takes a lot of effort to maintain and enhance and if it's not a full time paid position then people will work if/when they can which may lead to the software not being updated as often as it maybe should. I don't know the setup for 30 Bees and if developers are paid or not.

I shopped-around in the late teens, so I might be out of date.

At the time, I found software un-supported by developers (Ubercart, some of the Wordpress plugins) or funded by investors who paid for contract staff and office space (Drupal Commerce, Prestashop). When the investors' money ran-out, rent and wages still had to be paid so development nearly stopped, and hype, upselling, and paid-for essentials became the priority. Also, the staff teams aimed at other staff teams: people who had a boss to pay for new modules and updated versions and more server space. Magento is aimed this way too.

Thirtybees was the first software I found with a more down-to earth approach. The developer reported bug fixes until there were none left, and then more came-along, so more were fixed.
Just today there's been a more flexible kit product option introduced and another post on this forum asks for feedback.
Sometimes people help in the forum.
The developer is paid by a user, not an investor.
Vital modules are free for a lot of applications; you're not forced to pay for Stripe checkout or for a postage module. Compared to Prestashop 1.7, there are loads of free modules.

Softaculous and either Fantastico or Installatron list the software, so new people will try it out and keep it going I hope.

Thirtybees works for free, and for one or two customers at a time it works on very cheap servers, so your business can shrink and dwindle to a hobby and even be in administration and the web site will still be affordable. The same goes for start-ups and growing businesses that want to reduce borrowing and risk during their meteoric growth, in case it is not so meteoric.

For voluntary help:
https://thirtybees.com/contribute/ways-to-help-thirty-bees

If you have more customers....

Paid support:
https://store.thirtybees.com/support

Subscription with priority support at the higher rates:
https://forum.thirtybees.com/support-thirty-bees/

Modules and themes discovered, usually paid-for
https://blog.haylau-4-thirtybees.co.uk/

There are also paid options for transferring from other software like Prestashop 1.6 to Thirtybeees, which are in the modules section of the site.
https://store.thirtybees.com/shop-modules
https://store.thirtybees.com/shop-modules/administration/migrationpro-migrate-from-prestashop-to-thirty-bees-migration-tool

Maybe other open source shop software has caught-up by now, but if you are with Prestashop 1.6 already this must be worth try.
John

Edited June 16, 2022 by veganline

[coconutswan]

Hello everyone! I'm new to the group, but I'm very enthusiastic about this endeavor. I own a web hosting firm and would want to contribute monetarily and ultimately with development time to this project. Who is presently receiving contributions, and what are they used for? There seems to be a schism between this site and github.

 

 

five nights at freddy's

[Acer]

On 10/5/2022 at 12:22 PM, coconutswan said:

Hello everyone! I'm new to the group, but I'm very enthusiastic about this endeavor. I own a web hosting firm and would want to contribute monetarily and ultimately with development time to this project. Who is presently receiving contributions, and what are they used for? There seems to be a schism between this site and github.

 

 

five nights at freddy's

Hi and welcome to ThirtyBees! 

You can reach out to @Smile

[musicmaster]

On 10/5/2022 at 12:22 PM, coconutswan said:

Hello everyone! I'm new to the group, but I'm very enthusiastic about this endeavor. I own a web hosting firm and would want to contribute monetarily and ultimately with development time to this project. Who is presently receiving contributions, and what are they used for? There seems to be a schism between this site and github.five nights at freddy's

After the project had been floating around for some time last year it was taken over (bought) by @Smile who employed @datakick - who already was the biggest contributor - as programmer/developer. 

I don't see the schism between the forum and Github. The forum is for general discussion and problems. Github is about bug reports and development. Usually a problem first appears on the forum. You are supposed to only make a bug report when you are rather sure that it is caused by the Thirty Bees software and not something that is specific to your shop - like a buggy module or a database inconsistency. Of course wishes for new features can be found at both locations.