Kunena 6.2.5 & module Kunena Latest 6.0.7 released

The Kunena team has announce the arrival of Kunena 6.2.5 [K 6.2.5] which is now available for download as a native Joomla extension for J! 4.3.x/4.4.x/5.0.x. This version addresses most of the issues that were discovered in K 6.1 / K 6.2 and issues discovered during the last development stages of K 6.2

Topics contains old discussions (generally more than one year ago or based on circumstances that subsequently changed) or topics resolved in other ways. Topics moved into this category are closed from further discussion.

Merged Why Kunena is free?

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11 years 11 months ago - 11 years 9 months ago #1 by arslan
Why Kunena is free? was created by arslan
Hi, thank you for the nice free extension.

I'm wondering why someone will develop a complicated extension like Kunena, keep it up to date and spend all this labour for free? It feels like you are making it on purpose sometimes.

Why don't you make it paid, but in the same time easier to manage and without all this coming after installing Kunena problems, why don't you spend even more time perfecting it? Everything is done half way and till somewhere, and when someone (me for example) wants a solution to his questions cannot find it. I hate to ask and wait I'd like ready solutions.

I prefer to pay, but to get something worthy, not bang my head for weeks without getting anywhere but uninstalling or reinstalling Kunena.

I don't know what to do as Kunena seems to be the leader forum solution for joomla. I have not tried the others, but if the most popular is like this I think I have to move away from joomla itself.

Why don't you make it paid and simple?

Regards
Last edit: 11 years 9 months ago by sozzled. Reason: Change topic icon

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11 years 11 months ago #2 by sozzled
Replied by sozzled on topic Re: Why Kunena is free?
G'day, arslan, and welcome to Kunena.

Thank you for a very interesting question. Why is Kunena free? As you may know, there is no company behind Kunena; everyone who contributes to Kunena is a hobbyist, enthusiast or professional web developer who gives their time freely to this project - volunteers every one of us. Our hope is to make Kunena the most reliable, scalable, durable and robust forum component for Joomla that we can make it and to give people the best solution to meeting their forum needs. The forum is a self-help community-driven resource for users to help one another. Our job, in moderating the forum, is not necessarily to answer every question but, rather, to point people in the right direction where they can find the answers.

Having said that, the people who are behind Kunena enjoy doing what we've been doing for over three years now, with over 2 million downloads and deployment on over half-a-million websites. We enjoy doing this because we believe in the principle of open-source collaborative software (OSS) development. OSS is not the only model for building new software - and it's certainly not very profitable - but it has meant that, without the constraints of having to contend with "corporatising" the product the project has made considerable progress in a very short space of time and to keep our options flexible.

It has always been the official position of the project that the forum component will remain free under the terms of the GPL. This has been the cornerstone of the project ever since day one and it continues to remain the "business philosophy" of the Kunena leadership team. But, whereas the base component will continue to remain freely-distributed under the GPL as an OSS-derivative, it's not necessarily true to say that "special case" scenarios would not be similarly restricted in the same way. By special case scenarios, one should consider the possibility of Kunena being used in a corporate, intranet-based environment where the needs of a client may be different from the needs of the general internet site owner. Or you might also conceive of the possibilities for special templates, or special add-ons that extend the base component that exceed the scope of what can be delivered within a generic, "one-size-fits-all" offering. For example, tailored, custom-made implementations of Kunena could, conceivably, be assisted by the project team on a fee-for-service basis.

So, while the forum product continues to be offered under the terms of the GPL for free, the same cannot be necessarily be accepted as a general statement that applies to everything else that might be done in future to extend Kunena beyond the ways that people see it today.
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11 years 11 months ago #3 by Voice4Vision
My answer, although possibly not right, it probably holds more truth and value than any answer you are going to get.

Kunena needs to much from 3rd Parties. Templates and Plugins are seriously lacking. kunena is also slim on features compared to other forum systems, however Kunena is not nearly as old as the major players. Kunena is still an infant in that comparison.

With that said, some of the best and most popular forum solutions are in fact free with much better support. However they are also a MUCH larger community. Support with any system is much like its community, in regards that the more users - the larger the support team. Another thing to consider, even though Kunena is the best forum solution for Joomla most joomla users do not use a forum system.

Now as far as support? Here? Saddly, most of the responses I have received to my topics was an offer to provide me the answers for a fee(hourly rate). However those were deleted, but I did get the emails...I guess a certain Moderator didn't think I would get them. ;)

Regardless, Joomla has become more commercialized than you might imagine. It is a great CMS solution with no signs of dying out like so many other CMS's. Yet, with the constant updating and no real means for manual updates, it does become more frustrating to stay on top of security, while running a customized site.

So basically it becomes 'a stick with what you have' and never update, or 'stick with what they give you' and figure it out on your own... :unsure: I know that sounds like a rude answer, however I was merely explaining the viewpoint that so many Joomla support sites tend to portray.

As for the Kunena Team? I would like to suggest maybe a Subscription fee for those wishing to pay for custom support. However the terms and limitations need to be laid out thoroughly so that there is no confusion while at the same time not ignoring those that are unable to pay.

Just my two cents,
Voice4Vision

P.S. arslan, stick with Joomla and Kunena, in the long run you will get a hang of it...but on that same token, you will not find something nearly as complete and qualified as what you have now.

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11 years 11 months ago #4 by sozzled
Replied by sozzled on topic Re: Why Kunena is free?
Thanks, Voice4Vision, for your comments.

The point about what is "seriously lacking" from Kunena is, of course, something that everyone will have a different opinion on. In terms of the features of Kunena, I invite you to look at Kunena Features just to see how things have developed since K 1.0 first emerged on the scene. I agree that Kunena would derive added benefit if the third-party developer sector was more engaged in working with the project. By the same token, though, the third-party developer sector also needs to be more engaged in keeping pace with the developments of Joomla as well. From my reading of what has been discussed on the Joomla forum, this is not always evident.

The Kunena project team is, however, committed to keeping pace with the developments occurring in Joomla and, I think, the 2012 roadmap that I posted a short while ago clearly underpins my reasons for saying that.

As far as specific problems that you may have, in relation to the degree of support that you have requested on the forum, I'm happy to discuss those with you at your convenience. We can only guess which "certain moderator" you may be referring to but, for my own part, I have always tried my best to help all members of this wonderful community. We do not delete messages from this forum except where they were posted contrary to the fair-use policy , code of conduct or terms of use that apply to this site. We do, however, reserve the right to merge topics with other ones or split topics as cases arise. I have not received any emails from you, sorry, until only 30 seconds ago.

Thank you for your support. :)

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11 years 11 months ago #5 by Matias
Replied by Matias on topic Re: Why Kunena is free?
Kunena is free because of we want it to be free. That doesn't mean that there will not be paid PRO version -- Kunena has become too large project to be maintained only by volunteers. By paying key team members from their time spent on Kunena would make both development faster and more reliable.

But paid support isn't going to be fixing all the issues right away and some of the issues will be there for long time. There may also be some issues that will only affect only few users, and which will never be fixed even in the paid model.

Kunena 2.0 should fix a few issues that have been common in the past, but it is still not going to be compatible with everyones environment. The basic reason is that there's no way to test it in every use case, using every possible combination.

What Kunena 2.0 will be doing is to affect most 3 party support issues by making it much easier to write a support for Kunena. It will also give much improved templating possibilities (although they are not ready for the first beta).

I think that the worst issue with Kunena support lately is that I've not had time to visit the forums. All my time goes either to work that pays me some money or Kunena 2.0. If I chose to visit forums and reply on the questions, I would have no time finalizing the new version. It's touch...

That said, we are already building paid support model. It just depends on getting Kunena 2.0 out.
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11 years 9 months ago - 11 years 9 months ago #6 by MarioMari
Replied by MarioMari on topic Kunena and money
Submits the application.

I am glad that I can use for free Kunena. I also understand that in order to develop Kunena must have money.
For this reason, we will gladly have accepted the condition to display ads on my forum. Gets money from advertising Kunena team.

If you would like to remove your ads or receive the same profit from ads on my forum just buy ads Kunena plugin.

Regards!

Joomla 2.5.8, and 3.0 K.2.0.3, default Chrome
Last edit: 11 years 9 months ago by MarioMari.

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11 years 9 months ago #7 by MarioMari
Replied by MarioMari on topic I am for payment.
I'm the same opinion as "Arslan".
Kunena is a combination of good ideas, and together with Joomla creates a whole new level.
Ensuring development is to provide remuneration for creators and coordinators. This global project so charges can be very symbolic for example, access to the forum for support.

Joomla 2.5.8, and 3.0 K.2.0.3, default Chrome

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11 years 9 months ago - 11 years 9 months ago #8 by MarioMari
Replied by MarioMari on topic New Icon
I suggest not to talk, just add in the control panel Kunena new DOANTE great icon and text:

"" Use Thanks to the generosity, passion, and often night work of the many, many good people. You too can create!
Support the creator and the ensure further and development. Click and donate now. Even $ 10 makes the author smile. "

Joomla 2.5.8, and 3.0 K.2.0.3, default Chrome
Last edit: 11 years 9 months ago by MarioMari.

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