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Great software and support!
updated February 14, 2004
There are just way too many bugs in v5.x. So far about 40 or 50, and probably more and no good way to track them or update the script to include the fix in your copy of the software.
Someone even reported a major security flaw which still has not been fixed.
There has to be a better way!!!!
updated 9 January 2006:
According to some posts over the past two and one-half years, many folks have not been getting their communications returned by dody.
The frustration of folks results from the promises made and not kept by dody. The announcement and release of v4 is just an example. v4 was certainly in the works by mid-July 2003 (see Indexu 4 progress...). That post gives a “progress report”. I joined in late April 2003 and shortly afterwards v4 was announced with a planned release date of October 2003.
At that time we had a very active group of INDEXU users here on the forum. And we were growing in number. But with the announcement of v4, dody began to disappear and his support of INDEXU became less and less until today he no longer offers regular support of INDEXU.
A lot of good folks have abandoned INDEXU in the past two and one-half years because of the lack of support from dody. From time to time dody would even make a post that he was " not a good businessman" but hang in there as things would get better. That finally fell on deaf ears and the frustration of folks turned to bitterness and eventually they dropped INDEXU for other Links Programs. Dody even managed to lose the INDEXU domain name.
For such an active community in the summer of 2003 we have died on the vine waiting for v4. Well, v4 never came. Neither did v3.3 beta make it to final release. Now we have v5.0. I would rather have v3.2 and support from dody than v5.
And here is the kicker on v5. If you have customized the feature set of an earlier version of INDEXU, it may be that you will have to choose between abandoning those customizations in favor of the new features of v5 or keeping you customizations but not getting the new features of v5. As per dody v5 and earlier versions of INDEXU will not be compatible.
As for the price of INDEXU, it is about average - some links programs are higher and some are lower. The same with the feature set of INDEXU. Some have more and some have less. As for the ratio of features to the cost, INDEXU does compare favorably with others. I would put INDEXU in the top ten on the basis of features to cost. But features don't in and of themselves make for a successful website.
Getting back to v5, it may have a rich feature set but I doubt that will make the sites built with it any more successful than the sites built with earlier versions of INDEXU. Any additional features will probably generate more sales for dody but I don't think they will cause the owner to have a "hit" website.
After 6 years of creating and using link sites, I have come to a simple conclusion. Give me something that builds web traffic, not some feature that is just eye candy. Just give me a way to display my categories and links with good meta-tags and Search-engine friendly URLs and most of the other features are irrelevant for making money from the site. Hell, I don’t even need an add/modify page!
I realize not all folks who use INDEXU use it to make money. And there are some that make money because of some of the features of the software. But without web traffic nothing will happen.
Instead of developing v5 and ultimately creating a huge negative reputation, dody would have been much better off continuing to developing v3.1/3.2. I think that INDEXU has been saddled with a negative publicity, one that may never be overcome no matter how good v5 is.
So when you have success at contacting dody and while you see a great piece of software at an attractive price, maybe the above will provide you with a little more understanding for the few of us who have hung around long after the well went dry.
Bring your bottle of water and join with us in the wait for support.
apenas mis dos centavos, amigo
