Forum Participation

[alsheron]

I'm writing here because I've recently updated my Prestashop website with a new theme and upgraded the software also. I've had a few technical glitches along the way, and as you'd expect I've turned to the forums to see if anyone could help me figure out possible solutions.

 

The thing is - I'm finding that increasingly (along with many others i'm noticing) my questions are being viewed by many (indication of others wanting to find the same answers?) but I'm hardly getting any replies from anyone. This isn't just happening to me or only sometimes - it's happening on a broad scale. I've seen *many* questions posted by people who give sufficient detail and see that they simply don't get answered AT ALL. Nothing. Even the Prestashop staff don't reply with any suggestions - and this is happening on a broad scale. Some posts don't get replies for weeks! What's going on!??

 

Here's what I think: I think Prestashop is (or has slowly become) set up on the wrong foundations. The formula seems to be - "Deliver the Prestashop software and monetise it through people buying additional modules and development". The problem with this formula is that it only works when the base Prestashop software is put out to a high standard AND the community is active enough so that problems can be fixed relatively easily if they are bugs or minor tweaks.

 

What I, and many others on the forums am finding is that people almost seem to hold back on giving help and instead point you in the direction of a *paid* module to fix a problem that was presented as being part of Prestashop in the first place. This lack of community support combined with the Prestashop team seemingly having forgotten how crucial to their success a strong and friendly community is will mean that Prestashop is severely lacking compared to other shop solutions.

 

All Open Source projects depend and thrive on the back of a lively and collaborative community in forums and mesageboards etc and things around the Prestashop forums seem to have become greedy and cynically focused on the monetising part of the operation (as important as I acknowledge it is) to the severe detriment of other crucial factors in gaining the success of Prestashop.

 

I've invested time AND money in Prestashop and feel that the problem on the forums with either no answers *at all* for many questions, the LONG time it takes to answer some and the constant pointing in the direction of paid modules to fix inherent problems is constantly undermining the investment I've made. I'm now at the stage where I'm considering other options simply because of the lack of community support of these forums. I *know* that community support elsewhere, while obviously not perfect is massively better than here.

 

It's all such a shame because I chose Prestashop because I loved the look/feel/design/setup/features it offered over other shop solutions and I just think that the Prestashop team need to protect *their* investment from a long, slow and painful death. The madness is that I'm sure they would be confused if this happened when the core problem of a stagnant community is staring them right in the face. Don't get me wrong, I've seen MANY very helpful and in-depth replies to many posts by the members of the forum and Prestashop staff (i think) and all of it is, i'm sure, appreciated by those they've helped.

 

Maybe some of us should look into doing a fork and setting up a new, friendly, helpful community, and focus on communication with our users?

[indus]

I think the problem with a solution like prestashop is the users themselves. Most of them are small store owners and probably lack the technical knowledge required to give back to the community ( iam one of them). This is the reason threads get many views and not surprisingly zero to a few replies. They use prestashop since it is so easy to build a store, but if something goes wrong are left struggling for answers. And the remaining ones just dont care enough to give back to the community.

 

For other complex problems i usually refer to the bug tracker where a developer directly answers you. They dont visit here much.

[alsheron]

I think the problem with a solution like prestashop is the users themselves. Most of them are small store owners and probably lack the technical knowledge required to give back to the community ( iam one of them). This is the reason threads get many views and not surprisingly zero to a few replies. They use prestashop since it is so easy to build a store, but if something goes wrong are left struggling for answers. And the remaining ones just dont care enough to give back to the community.

 

For other complex problems i usually refer to the bug tracker where a developer directly answers you. They dont visit here much.

 

Very good point - and this is even more reason that the Prestashop team need to be more active in helping these users far more than they are currently. Maybe that's not possible because of the number of questions/posts etc? I don't know - but I do know that it's these very users like you and me who would feel part of a community and learn and then feel like giving back if they we're supported with relatively basic issues/tweaks.

 

I'm a beginner when it comes to PHP and am learning right now (I've been a we-designer for many years) and I figured out a couple of things and posted back with specifics on the forum for others who might benefit recently. It's the very least I could do. If I had in-depth knowledge of PHP, Javascript and databases and also how Prestashop was structured and was involved in the forums, I'd feel *good* about helping out as many people as I could reasonably spend time on. If a few core contributors did that on the forum (maybe they do and we just need more?!) then things would improve a lot. In the meantime - we're stuck with either a) learning how to program/code waiting for *someone* to answer c) moving to a different shop solution with a more active community. Each of these options is stressful and would be a pain.

 

Come on Prestashop team! What can be done about this problem?

[Mike Kranzler]

Hi alsheron,

First of all, we actually do have a good core of users who provide this sort of assistance throughout the forum, but with nearly 300,000 registered users worldwide and an average of about 300 new registrations per day, that's A LOT of posts to cover. In fact, there have been over 700,000 total posts here on the forum.

 

Having worked very closely with many of our most active developers and posters, here are a couple tips for getting answers on the forum:

 

1. Try searching for your issue first. The search function for the software we use on this forum still leaves a bit to be desired until we can finish programming our own, so what I personally do is run a Google search for site:prestashop.com [your query]. That is my personal method of looking for previous posts on an issue. You can also search the Forge for fixed issues, along with the updated files for the fix.

 

2. Only post your question once. Many of our most active developers tend to not be the most patient people in the world, and they often will ignore a request if its posted multiple times. If you haven't received an answer yet, either bump the post or maybe add more information on your issue. This way, you move it back up to the top of the list without reposting. Also, maybe try posting at a different time of day, because certain times of day are more active than others on the forum.

 

3. Provide as much information as possible. That means Version Number, Theme, URL, Server Configuration, Screenshots and anything else that may make it easier to resolve an issue. A lot of times, someone will post an issue only to take another 2-3 responses just to provide the necessary information for us to help you. Personally, it's my job to do this, so I have the patience to wait for the information, but I'm only one person among 300,000 and many external developers may not be as generous.

 

PrestaShop is an open-source solution, which means that you can do ANYTHING with the software. While this is great from a development perspective, from a technical support standpoint it can create issues if something strange is altered.

 

If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to let me know (you can email me at the address on my profile), but I hope that this will help improve your experience here on the forums.

 

Regards,

Mike

[El Patron]

If you ‘think’ you have found a bug with a base ps systems/module/template, you should open a bug report. This is how new releases are improved for everyone.

 

To be brutally honest and I’ve seen this with other open source platforms, because the base release is free the expectation can be that everything should be free. Until living our lives is free then we all must be paid for our work. This might be you selling your products or a developer who has developed that ‘must have’ solution.

 

I do find that prices seem high for PS addon functions but I attribute this more to the fact PS was developed in Europe. Where a coca cola can be 3 Euros, but thankfully the wine is cheap.

 

And it’s not uncommon that business get’s charged more than someone who needs a module for their blog.

 

So in closing, my suggestion is if you have a bug, open a bug report. If you have development questions and don’t get the answer you would like then keep learning so you can do it on your own. If there is a module you want but don’t want to invest in now, grow you business with what you have and use the profits to enhance your shop.

 

Best of luck!

[alsheron]

Hi alsheron,

First of all, we actually do have a good core of users who provide this sort of assistance throughout the forum, but with nearly 300,000 registered users worldwide and an average of about 300 new registrations per day, that's A LOT of posts to cover. In fact, there have been over 700,000 total posts here on the forum.

 

Having worked very closely with many of our most active developers and posters, here are a couple tips for getting answers on the forum:

 

1. Try searching for your issue first. The search function for the software we use on this forum still leaves a bit to be desired until we can finish programming our own, so what I personally do is run a Google search for site:prestashop.com [your query]. That is my personal method of looking for previous posts on an issue. You can also search the Forge for fixed issues, along with the updated files for the fix.

 

2. Only post your question once. Many of our most active developers tend to not be the most patient people in the world, and they often will ignore a request if its posted multiple times. If you haven't received an answer yet, either bump the post or maybe add more information on your issue. This way, you move it back up to the top of the list without reposting. Also, maybe try posting at a different time of day, because certain times of day are more active than others on the forum.

 

3. Provide as much information as possible. That means Version Number, Theme, URL, Server Configuration, Screenshots and anything else that may make it easier to resolve an issue. A lot of times, someone will post an issue only to take another 2-3 responses just to provide the necessary information for us to help you. Personally, it's my job to do this, so I have the patience to wait for the information, but I'm only one person among 300,000 and many external developers may not be as generous.

 

PrestaShop is an open-source solution, which means that you can do ANYTHING with the software. While this is great from a development perspective, from a technical support standpoint it can create issues if something strange is altered.

 

If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to let me know (you can email me at the address on my profile), but I hope that this will help improve your experience here on the forums.

 

Regards,

Mike

 

Thanks for the detailed reply and some of the suggestions make perfect sense - I'll be putting them into practice when I might next need to post!

 

I understand that the sheer scale of things on the forum isn't helping questions getting answered. I have just noticed a pattern on these forums I've seen elsewhere but not to the extent I have here - i.e. Posts not being participated in at all and for extended periods of time.

 

I've got a specific outstanding issue here that is proving troublesome and that I have submitted as a bug but i've not heard back yet and it's as simple as being frustrated when core features of the Prestashop platform don't work as expected. I'll simply have to wait to see if it does get answered and if not then I'll have to look at other options. I fully appreciate that I'm relying on the generosity of others with help with issues on the forum or bugtracker so I'm certainly grateful for that.

 

 

If you ‘think’ you have found a bug with a base ps systems/module/template, you should open a bug report. This is how new releases are improved for everyone.

 

To be brutally honest and I’ve seen this with other open source platforms, because the base release is free the expectation can be that everything should be free. Until living our lives is free then we all must be paid for our work. This might be you selling your products or a developer who has developed that ‘must have’ solution.

 

I do find that prices seem high for PS addon functions but I attribute this more to the fact PS was developed in Europe. Where a coca cola can be 3 Euros, but thankfully the wine is cheap.

 

And it’s not uncommon that business get’s charged more than someone who needs a module for their blog.

 

So in closing, my suggestion is if you have a bug, open a bug report. If you have development questions and don’t get the answer you would like then keep learning so you can do it on your own. If there is a module you want but don’t want to invest in now, grow you business with what you have and use the profits to enhance your shop.

 

Best of luck!

 

The point here is that my issue relates to core functionality not working as expected. There is definitely an issue with perception where "free" software is concerned, but I personally have a lot of respect and vale the work that's gone into Prestashop and all open source projects. Like I said - I've paid developers repeatedly to work on Prestashop for me and value their work. It would just warm the heart a bit and generate extremely valuable goodwill for all if the forums here were a bit more vibrant.

 

I'm definitely learning! It's very enjoyable and I'll hopefully be contributing myself in a more technical capacity when I am able to, but in the meantime I just would love to see a little less abandonment of threads requesting help - even if it's a reply to make the suggestions Mike posted.

 

Thanks!

[ember1205]

I know this thread is old at this point, but I want to add some additional perspective here as well.

 

While I agree that many of the users may be of smaller size, and their technical skills may not be significant, I don't feel that is their biggest hurdle with PrestaShop software. I find that there is an COMPLETE LACK of documentation for this product when it comes to understanding how the core modules actually work. Even the PHP files themselves have no information as to which scripts call which other scripts and what the different functions are supposed to be doing. There is absolutely no information that explains how the browser interacts with the server, what PHP scripts are executed at what point, or even what the variable names mean (variable names inside of PHP scripts seem to *sometimes* match variable names from rendered pages and also match database table names - but you never have any idea at all as to whether or not the variables you are looking at are being set by the user, the session, the database, or the previous web page).

 

If this software were documented properly, the "small" shop owners would be able to dissect more of the code to understand, everyone would have a much better idea of the overall architecture of the product, and PrestaShop would benefit from a MUCH more devoted following of coders that would be contributing to the code.

 

I have posted a couple of times in areas that I believed were appropriate for my questions. I have gotten numerous views, and ZERO replies. All of the posts around mine get responded to. Mine are skimmed over. This demonstrates to me that my questions are simply unanwerable by the community as a whole, and the developers responding would be an admission of "guilt" toward everything I have listed in this post.

 

I've already abandoned Magento because it is WAY too complex a beast for a small shop. PrestaShop is about to get kicked out the door too because, while the code is open source, the knowledge to run it apparently is not.