Resource Checkout Description, License Manager Dashboard, More

[Jayson]

[SUGGESTION]Resource Checkout Description:
Currently, after checkout is completed in resources a "Payment: <resource name>" is added as a description which I can personally view in my PayPal logs, however it currently doesn't provide the name. Now names are not the most useful, so let's go with the member ID in case the person changes their name or somthin'. Now the description looks like "(42999) Payment: <resource name>" . This helps locate a person if they were to chargeback more easily. We should also be able to view transaction dates in our seller dashboard.

[BUG]Resource License Manager Dashboard:
Currently when trying to edit or revoke a license in resources, you'll come up with this screen:
Thus, you cannot revoke a license at the minute even if their leaking your resource left right and center. This can also be used in more creative ways such as instead of paying $10, you can pay $3 and get the resource and 3 months of updates or get this resource ans it's updates free for a month as a vouch copy.

[SUGGESTION]Resource Sales and Discount Codes:
What if we were able to put a resource on sale and it would show up in a section? This would increase sales as people want to know which product they can get for cheap quickly. Discount codes could also be helpful such as a people in chat only discount code "chat" and get 50% off, or sign up on MC-Market.Org and get 10% off all BeBosny's resources.

[SUGGESTION]Resource Prefixes:
This is a simple feature to add, resource prefixes plus it's already built into Xenforo. Prefixes such as "Sale" "Unmaintained" and more could be added and this is more easily noticed over tags while also taking up little to no additional lines/space.

[SUGGESTION]File Extension Additions:
Minecraft plugins use a few file extensions not able to be uploaded on MCM and forces us creators to use other extensions, some of these include .properties , .json , and more. Additionally, Adobe has a vast amount of photo editing software and it uses quite a few file extensions which could be used.

[SUGGESTION]Resource Payment Gateway Addition:
Not all of us use PayPal, what if we could use PaymentWall as well? Possibly Bitcoin? I am sure PaymentWall is easy to inplament and can allow PaysafeCard, mobile payments, and more. This should be a toggleable feature for sellers.

[SUGGESTION]Resource File Uploads:
Currently, file sizes are restricted and along with that takes a bit of time. If we could upload to a trusted external uploading site instead, this could increase speeds, allow greater file sizes, and free up MCM's file storage system.

 

[Jayson]

(My edits ran out)
[SUGGESTION]Resource Staff Verifacation Mark:
Vital for 1 star resources and new members, a staff verification mark can simply be a yellow star next to a update confirming a staff member looked at it and agrees that it works as stated without malware.

[SUGGESTION]Resource Contributors and Supported Versions Section:
This is rather easy to add and simply it's a area where it states the contributors to the resource and supported versions. This could also include a dependencies area with a hyperlink useful in the plugins section, configurations, builds, and skripts.

[SUGGESTION]Resource Permissions:
how about multiple users could update a resource with the author being able to toggle if it's automatically updated or accept required? This would act as a business account type system but easier to manage.

[SUGGESTION]Third Party Checkout:
Many people are now using Sellfy, a few giving the option to buy directly from MCM or click a link to buy it from Sellfy. How about an optional third party checkout option open for supreme to use? This could potentially support multiple gateways with a link check system.

[SUGGESTION]Resource Optional Payment and Options:
How about an option to pay what you want over a set amount? Bassically donate? What if you could get three resources from one, multiple buttons to press where you can download the demo, elite version for $1, pro for $2.50, and professional for $5? While can additionally remove those nasty donate buttons from resources.

 

[Justis]

Resource Checkout Description:
Great idea, I hadn't even thought of that.
It would completely remove the need for buyers to send proof of payment to the author if issues occur.

Resource License Manager Dashboard:
Already knew of this, and it's been reported.

Resource Sales and Discount Codes:
If you want to put a resource on sale, you can edit the resource payment details and change the price.
Allowing people to host "sales" or discounts will ultimately result in everyone having their "normal" price super high, and then adding a "sale" to make it normal price.
Especially if you added the temptation of getting added to a special "section".
It's more trouble than it's worth just to provide people with cheap advertising methods. As it is now, at least it's fair for everyone who treats their customers fairly.

Resource Prefixes:
Prefixes on the forum help organize the service that's being done.
Are you selling or requesting? Is it a product or service/shop? Is it free or paid?
The service that's being done in resources is always the same. You're selling a product non exclusively. Always. We don't accept anything else.
And free/vs paid is viewable right on the resource listings page.
If a resource being unmaintained means the product isn't working anymore, then you should delete it.
Otherwise, you can always list it as a side detail in your resource description.
The sale prefix, I'm against for the same reasons stated in my argument against the previous suggestion. It'll be abused.

File Extension Additions:
Agreed, and already suggested.

Resource Payment Gateway Addition:
If it's possible, let's do it.
However, I know it'll require some substantial development, as our current addon only supports PayPal.

Resource File Uploads:
I know of no such "trusted" site, and judging from your lack of suggestion of one, neither do you.
The file at the other end of an external link can always be swapped/modified/deleted.
This essentially bypasses the entire approval process.
It's not safe, there are no trusted sites other than our own for our resources.

Resource Staff Verification Mark:
All resources go through approval.
The fact that you can see a resource means that a resource mod has looked through it, and verified to the best of their ability that it works as the resource description said at the time, and does not contain malware.
This would serve no purpose, as every resource would have that star.

Resource Contributors and Supported Versions Section:
This sort of information you can add in your description, if you want it, there's no reason to add a section for it.
This would ruin the uniformity of all the resource pages, as only some types of resources would be able to have a "compatible versions" section, and we don't want to force members to list contributors, especially if it's just themselves.

Resource Permissions:
Sounds like a neat idea, and I'd be interested in seeing that implemented or at least discussed further, however, I can't think of any way to resolve the issue of accountability.
If a resource update is posted that contains malware, who get's punished?
Let's say you have that system in place where the original author can say it needs to be approved by them first. If he approves it, does he get banned as well?
Or is it just the person who uploaded the file?
Obviously we'd need a way to track who uploaded each version either way.
And a way to record if the version was approved by the author or not, if we were going to ban based off of whether or not they approved it.
But who's to say the author didn't give the go-ahead? Or if they were working on it together, how do WE determine who wrote in/added the malicious bit, and the one guy didn't just happen to be the guy who uploaded it?
Either way, the resource would be deleted.
To simplify the whole shabang and save unnecessary custom development which would only complicate things, I'm thinking resource permissions and therefore accountability should remain with one author, alone.

Third Party Checkout:
I'm already disagreeing with this for the same reason I disagreed with the "Resource file uploads" suggestion, because it completely bypasses the verification system we have in place.
But I just want to say I hate the idea of resources being used just as an advertising gateway to another service's resources, or advertising anything.
Resources are there as a helpful platform for safely buying/distributing product, not a posterboard.
If you want to advertise your selfy link, do it on the forums.

Resource Optional Payment and Options:
I like the idea of a "Pay over <this> amount" to unlock a resource... It would eliminate the need for a donation link in premium resources, and you're more likely to get donations that way.
However, I think it should be strictly for donations, not for unlocking different ranks of the same resource.
Not only would that require significantly more development time than you're already requesting for this addition, but it would require a resource containing multiple versions branches for different ranks or whatever, overcomplicating the entire system.
At that point, you're basically just hosting multiple resources on one resource page, and you might as well just create another resource for it. Especially if it's actually different enough to warrant a different price, and then as a result, a different resource description.

Thank you​

Even though I disagreed with many of them, I love that you took the time to write out all of these suggestions.
You confirmed interest a few of the ideas I have already suggested, and provided a few of your own that are pretty cool, and would benefit our resources and site as a whole.
PM me if you come up with any more so we can discuss them together.
I've got a google doc full of my own suggestions/bugs, and though I try to stay away from things that require unreasonable amount of custom development, I'd love to share the passion to improve the section with someone.

 

[Zeiyon]

You should number each of these, so it would be easier for people to reply and you would know which exact suggestion they are talking about.

Anyhow Here is what I think:
1. Amazing idea, I completely agree with you! You dont know how many Chargebacks I have gotten, and I have had to search for the member for so long that I just gave up, and lost the chargeback. ($50+) Hopefully this will help many people in the future.

2. I dont know why that happens either. I am pretty sure it is a recent bug, because I have deleted users Lisenses in the past.

3. Although being a seller this would greatly impact me, however, I have to agree with Justis. Like he said, this can be abused in many ways.

4. This is a good idea but, you have to give more examples. Although the 'Unmaintained' prefix is the only real use I see, it still is pretty good.

On the rest I agree with
Justis

 

[Jayson]

[BUG] Seller Dashboard "Your Top Sales":
OMG I've made over a $1,000 according to the seller dashboard!

[BUG] Incorrect Date:
Wow I didn't know I was 50 years old if I posted my resource in like 1969!

It was a vouch copy / manual payment. It should be changed so it shows the day the license was added not 1969. The thingy bugged out and placed a date stamp of 1 or null.

[BUG] License Expire Date:
I remember putting a expire date on some of my vouch copies, but it says "Unlimited"

 

[MarkElf]

Resource License Manager Dashboard:
Already knew of this, and it's been reported.

Any ETA on this Justis? It's been weeks since I brought it up originally.

Clearly there are lots of flaws with resources and I'm personally hoping for a positive overhaul of how resources are managed by the site, I.e cleaning up the large number of issues listed above and removal of extremely low quality resources when upgrading to xenforo 2.0. Unfortunately, considering how resources are neglected majority of the time till an issue is brought up excessively, it can easily be considered a lost cause and that's truly a shame for for larger resources owners such as myself who hope to utilize the site to its full extent.

 

[Ivain]

Unfortunately, the resource plugin is not really something we have a lot of control over. It's a third-party plugin, so we have to either mess with it ourselves (or let Lyphiard do so) and risk screwing things up permanently, or we have to suggest it to the developer and hope they go with it.

 

[Mick]

I'll move this to pending, there are a few quite important things here.

In the future please create them as seperate threads, it'll be easier to categorise and get more accurate feedback on things.

 

[Mick]

Since you're now our developer (yay!), many of these things that you have suggested have now been implemented.

I'll move this to accepted, thanks for the suggestions Mr Jayson.