is boonex alive and a question

Hi is boonex alive , there were regular bug fixes and improvements , now 7.1.5 is stuck on 11 bugs fixes , plus not much news . when will all boonex sites stop looking the same it seems most templates work around dolphin not dolphin working around the template.  some mods are very heavy and it scares off members, plus the join page and login block could be made to look better, its a great software but every boonex site i see they all look the same. can boonex have a template system like spruz , many thanks

 That will be the major change in 7.1.5 to me, the new BoonEx Module "Site Customizer"

Site Customizer version 1.1.4 by BoonEx

Allowing endless configurations without purchasing a template.

I love it and have installed it on all my sites that use the ALT, UNI templates. If you have a 3rd party template it will not effect that.

http://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/Site-Customizer-a-new-BoonEx-module.htm

 You can make the join page look way different, ugly too, check it out. I made the page obnoxious for example as this site does not need members.

http://www.webcamhowto.com/join.php

You might also want to take a look at the mouse block designer for layout; it can help change the look of a site as well.  I am still playing with it.  It includes a main.css file in the module that you must edit or disable (rename it main.css.bck) or it will change your site design; I am not sure of its purpose since the mouse block designer is about block size and positions.

Otherwise, Dolphin is pretty much a web developer platform; you really need to know its inner workings to do what you really want to do with it.

I used to use spruz and its template mod is amazing , it would be nice if blocks could drag n drop and be resized with a click of a mouse, the truth is dolphin needs to be more user friendly, every template i purchase the site always looks the same, members complain the groups mod is very heavy and cluttered ,boonex is great but for the average member they get lost in the site and leave.

   the navigation menu is hard work also, many things are nice but for people like myself im finding it hard to work.

ps i did think 7.1.5 would of been out for christmas lol

The mouse block designer (in the market) does allow you to drag and size the blocks.  It works best if you have a single column page because columns are no longer needed.  You can change the size a block to be full width and then under it have two blocks side by side with another full width block under it.

I agree navigation is an issue.  I hide the main menu on my site and let members navigate to the main section in their account page.  I added a few content buttons to take one directly to adding a photo, video, blog post, etc but I need to do more.

Plus, Boonex did away with the 7.0.9 mail block; I need to get that back in because it is nice and neat and easy right there in the account page.

its hard for people like me , making it look good is hard , most good templates on here have small headers so its hard to fit a good sized logo, dolphin is like a concrete house , all you can do is paint it different colours , i should not need to buy a mod to make my site look good. i should have the tools in the admin page to do so.

plus when i buy a template they only get updated for so long then they get deleted.

True. But if your expecting a major change like that in the next release then you will be disappointed.

The last major change in dolphins template system occurred when 7.1 was released. It caused a major problem that resulted in the loss of all templates in the market because the new system was not compatible with the old system

They will not be doing that again anytime soon. You will be waiting years for what your looking for.

You keep using the words. "for people like myself" Well to be honest, perhaps dolphin was the wrong choice for you. It was not designed to be used by people that know very little about html, css, php, ect.

Dolphin is a very powerful system. Adding ease of use comes with a price. It takes away power and flexibility. The more automation and ease you add to something, the less flexible it becomes because it forces people into the confines of what the system can do.

Even dolphins template system is far more powerful that most people realize. Even most template developers. The template system can change most everything. The main menu, the member menu, the comments system, the way the forms look and function, the functions within the index page and profile page and many other areas can be controlled via a template using the templates scripts.

You can have a professional template developer make you a template to your needs. The current templates are designed the way they are to maintain some level of compatibility and /or to keep prices in the range where people can afford them. More advanced templates could be developed, but they would have to be priced in the $100 to $200 range depending on level of complexity and they simply would not sell enough for the developer to make back the time spent on developing it. So most developers leave complex templates for custom requested jobs.

You have some good points , but i think it could be a little bit more user friendly , drag and drop and mouse drag feature that geek_girl mentioned would be a start ,  boonex already has these features in the market place , why not just buy the mods outright from the developer and add them and improve them as standard.