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Tech support needs drastic changes

Rodolfo

⭐ Chevereto Godlike
Chevereto Staff
Administrator
Hey there,

I'm getting very struggled in development and I can hardly move forward due to the countless spawn of Tech support issues not even related to the script itself. Every single day the same stuff goes on, every day I encounter badly configured servers, missing libraries, blocked ports, etc. I'm just tired of it.

To be honest, the problem is not that much that people ask for that kind stuff because some are very mature and conscious of the different layers in a system like this and they totally understand that simple fact. Based on my feedback (and in the comments provided by other users), some users are able to get things fixed and move forward. Which is the ideal perfect scenario for everybody, I keep strong development and you get the hint that you need to fix your servers.

The problem is that most people don't understand these facts and just rant all over or even conditionate the purchase (even asking for a refund) because something not related with the script goes wrong. This is extremely unfair, I'm a small developer who doesn't even ask for yearly fees and some people thinks like is mandatory to configure your servers, your DNS settings, your whatever. Have you ever tried to ask Microsoft about your faulty CPU, your broken HDD or something like that? This is the same stuff, they will ignore you but I have to answer, provide a solution, if possible, install Apache all over... Is not fair, it doesn't work for me.

Plain and simple, I can't keep Chevereto going if I don't do drastic changes in how Tech support is provided and my idea is to completely remove Tech support service because is dragging me too much.

I know that no one will like this idea so please let me know what you suggest.

Cheers,
Rodolfo.
 
I support your decision. People need to contact their host providers for non script issues. If they run their own servers, they should know what they're doing.

To be honest... I think you personally answer too many questions that aren't relevant to the script. You should let other users who understand the architecture of servers try to help.

I know nothing and you've helped me greatly with my issues/bugs. I'm learning how to to modify and solve script issues, but I won't pretend for a minute to understand servers... I rely on TMDHosting for that.

Keep up the great work!
 
I try to reply in a way that it allows to detect the issue or provide pointers in what should be checked, but as you said, people just don't care and think that this includes that kind of support. They don't understand that giving a pointer means "hey, check that thing".

It seems that I will have to stop any non-script related support because most of the time those pointers just get a respawn of messages like "and how do I do that", "where is that file?", etc.
 
Hey there,

I'm getting very struggled in development and I can hardly move forward due to the countless spawn of Tech support issues not even related to the script itself. Every single day the same stuff goes on, every day I encounter badly configured servers, missing libraries, blocked ports, etc. I'm just tired of it.

To be honest, the problem is not that much that people ask for that kind stuff because some are very mature and conscious of the different layers in a system like this and they totally understand that simple fact. Based on my feedback (and in the comments provided by other users), some users are able to get things fixed and move forward. Which is the ideal perfect scenario for everybody, I keep strong development and you get the hint that you need to fix your servers.

The problem is that most people don't understand these facts and just rant all over or even conditionate the purchase (even asking for a refund) because something not related with the script goes wrong. This is extremely unfair, I'm a small developer who doesn't even ask for yearly fees and some people thinks like is mandatory to configure your servers, your DNS settings, your whatever. Have you ever tried to ask Microsoft about your faulty CPU, your broken HDD or something like that? This is the same stuff, they will ignore you but I have to answer, provide a solution, if possible, install Apache all over... Is not fair, it doesn't work for me.

Plain and simple, I can't keep Chevereto going if I don't do drastic changes in how Tech support is provided and my idea is to completely remove Tech support service because is dragging me too much.

I know that no one will like this idea so please let me know what you suggest.

Cheers,
Rodolfo.


Please DM me, I have some thoughts on this.
 
I'm reading here are a lot, not posting that much. I'm always looking for the same problems before asking questions (that results to that I almost found a solution without asking support) but a lot of people don't. And it's not a problem for me to look a bit further in logfiles or errors. I'm learning always as things are broken and I like it to find a fix on my own. But I see lot's of same (or related) questions in the Tech support section so much people don't do that or are not smart enough for that.

If someone think he/she can hosting a site like this on an own server or hosted, that's fine. But in my opinion they have to deal with their own problems. Especially if it has nothing to do with Chevereto. In such a case I think you must deny the support question.

I always see that you have a quick response and you are trying to help everyone. That's a good thing but not if you are too busy with that. I think you have to make a decision what kind of support you want to give. If you can see that a problem is not script related, just answer that and let them sort out their own problems (maybe with a hint if you know the problem). I hope not that you will deny all the support questions but do what you do with the ideas and suggestions: make a decision to help or not.

The script is not that easy (for me at least). And I think for a lot of people. But that's why I bought your script, I can't write this myself. And if I can't modify the script because I don't know how and can't find an example on the forum which I can try, sadly for me. That's not your problem and it's not worth a support question.

But maybe there are people in this community who can help you with support because they like to do that and know what they are doing? For me I'm happy to help with translations (in Dutch) for a couple of years because that's easy for me. Maybe other people can help with some tech support.

So I think that your overwhelming support (and that's a compliment) must be lowered to protect yourself and the future of this great script.

With Focker, keep up the good work. And always think about yourself first. :)
 
I think a community help board would go along way towards relieving some pressure on you. You will of course will still get requests but if they are deemed not related to the script move them to the community support bard and let the community step in and help. I'm more than willing to help out if I can.

A perfect example would be integrating the PUP plugin in a non standard way. You should not be spending your valuable time vetting those types of questions but I'm sure there are members that wouldn't mind helping out.
 
I couldn't agree more and I'm glad that I'm not the only one thinking that server support should be dished away.

Last months I've been working in V4 error handling and what-not with the sole objective of making support less needed (therefore less costly) but there is stuff that I can't detect like a wrong virtual host directive and things like that.

While I feel the responsibility of helping everybody using Chevereto, I just can't when the issue is a badly configured server where you install the script. It takes lots of time to detect those issues and it doesn't add anything to the community because the issues are due to just poor knowledge in servers, is not that other users will encounter the same problem. I've been too kind, I know.

So, as an immediate measure, any server related support issue won't be handled in Tech support. In fact, I've already made a clear statement in the support form:

upload_2017-10-11_19-17-8.png

The way I see it, servers are each one responsibility and those who can't tune a server will have to rely on managed hosting/panels or investigate like everybody else.
 
For what it's worth, my view as a very new Chevereto user: let others with more time available to them take the strain with some sort of a community support noticeboard, and only respond if a paying user has encountered a serious functionality fault of your making, Rodolfo.

Your time is too valuable to be used up in supporting small tech problems. Focus on developing the script, which is more valuable to a wider range of people.

Thank you for the time you have spent so far. In decades of buying and using computer software, I've never encountered such a dedicated developer, who demonstrates as much passion for his product, as you.
 
I have not been around much myself, but see a lot of old timers still around and also a lot of new active license owners.
Maybe pick a few who has the time to help and simply remove yourself from direct support, making them sort of a first line support. Filtering out the support issues on the forum and those that actually turns out to be script issues, gets escalated to you and then you can take a look at it either helping the user, or letting the "support" know why its not a script issue. :)
 
I have not been around much myself, but see a lot of old timers still around and also a lot of new active license owners.
Maybe pick a few who has the time to help and simply remove yourself from direct support, making them sort of a first line support. Filtering out the support issues on the forum and those that actually turns out to be script issues, gets escalated to you and then you can take a look at it either helping the user, or letting the "support" know why its not a script issue. :)

I'm actually allowing more time before reply some stuff and some users are helping in this which is really awesome.

By the way, I'm doing a new web installer that will also detect any conflict and works for both paid/free. This new web installer will be the entry point for everybody wanting to use Chevereto and it will warn you before the actual purchase (that's the idea).

Hope that such thing helps to leverage the panic caused after purchase and not being able to install the software.
 
How about separating it? Official support for Chevereto & Server support for server issues. If something is going wild, and it's not server related you'd notice an influx. And you don't guarantee responses to the other node.

One thing I do dislike on a lot of discussions -- they're locked so we cannot respond if something worked flawlessly or if we had another issue & create a new topic. Often when I google for a Chevereto related item I find a Tech Support thread, with an answer but no response ever saying it was right :(

Edit: I would also pay a yearly fee for support. Maybe introduce Premium Support?
 
Some clients never return to update their tech support topics, that's why I changed the label from "solved" to "answered". Support tickets gets closed because I don't want that the OP get a spawn of notifications just because someone got the same server issue two years later. Doesn't make sense.

On server support, I don't have issues if the community wants to run that thing. To be honest, I don't want to include server support in any kind of premium support because the problem here is that it takes lots of time to handle that. Pay for that kind of support will only compensate (for me) the time spent on support, but it won't add anything in return to clients and it won't make the product any better.
 
I support that. Server layer is server layer, script layer is script layer. Hand all the server layer problems over to the forum, I'm sure there will be plenty of help. I'm a "server guy" and know my way around a linux box, so I'm willing to help with that, where I can.
 
On server support, I don't have issues if the community wants to run that thing. To be honest, I don't want to include server support in any kind of premium support because the problem here is that it takes lots of time to handle that. Pay for that kind of support will only compensate (for me) the time spent on support, but it won't add anything in return to clients and it won't make the product any better.

I see an opportunity here for those "experienced" and "tech guys" to offer commercial support for those who need them for a small fee. Till now you were giving free support to almost anyone. Now there is a void filled with all those guys who doesn't know how to fix there server issues.

Many newbies coming to chevereto platform thinking its easy to run a image hosting site by just buying a license. They don't have any idea how a server works of how to configure. When they are denied support they will be forced to leave rather than spending time trying to fix it on their own. While the free community driven support may help to some extend, I don't think anyone will spend time to jumping on their server to fix issues. Like the case with Microsoft they don't give free tech support and but there are 1000's of small companies across the globe providing tech support for those less tech savvy users.

If you allow those experienced users to offer commercial server and basic script support this would be an added revenue for them and help for those newbies to run Chevereto without much server knowledge.
 
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