Viewing: Buddy Zone :: Social Networking Software

I have been helping a friend who purchased the buddy zone scripts. They are very poorly structured. Some pages have tables upto 10 deep. Some point to a script that doesn't exist. The passwords are not stored in an encrypted format. Some major scripts don't verify that the person logged in is allowed to perform funtions, only that they are logged in. They also use the GD image funtion to resize all pictures as they are loaded which caused our server to use 80% of the CPU just resizing pictures. They fixed problems with some scripts, but left the same problem in others. I would not pay more than $50 for these scripts. If you are experianced with PHP it will take you less time to write everything from scratch. If you are not experianced, you will end up hiring someone and paying them more than $500 just to debug.

I found this script to work extremely well for the purpose I needed. Not only does it do exactly what it states that it does, but the staff is extremely helpful. I paid extra to have the entire thing customized for me and the programmer I was working with not only built new modules for me to add to the exsisting script, but made adjustments for me - even when I was picky and changed my mind, which was pretty often. The script allows my users to write mail to each other, post forums, post profiles, allows html, and almost works identical to another very popular social networking site. I was beyond impressed after testing and paying for (unfortunatley) many other scripts. When I found buddy zone it did EXACTLY what I wanted and the staff was able to build EXACTLY what I wanted to add. If there was a problem, it was fixed immediately. I didn't find any problems with the script at all. The admin is very functional also and it allows me to change things as I go. I'd give the script and the company a 10 if the ratings allowed me too!

I would like to begin this review by saying I am NOT a competitor, but a client. I purchased this script on 7/21/06 from Ankur Jain the owner of Vastal, Inc. As to the post by Mike29er, his assessment of the script is 100% accurate. After carefully testing the Buddy Zone script I do not believe he is a competitor. I also ran into the same problems with this script.

Let’s start with the lack luster support system.

If you try to post anything that is negative about the script to the support forum and then back that up with proof and then offer suggestions to fix the inferior script the post will be removed. I learned this first hand. Also Mr. Ankur Jain does offer 6 months tech support but you will need at least 1 year by the time issues are resolved. As for the script I would say it is in Alpha not even Beta, as some sites have already found out, because many of these sites say “we are in beta testing” right next to there logo. This should have been a hint to me but hey I figured they were just adding on to the script not that it was BUGGY.

Example #1 Security:
The script I was emailed didn’t have any password security.
Passwords for the members and the admin were not encrypted.

Example #2 html tags:
I found several tags that were not closed within tables. And there are a lot of tables.

Example #3 Uploaded Video:
If a member deletes a video they uploaded the reference is deleted but the files are still on the server. Talk about eating up drive space.

These are just a few problems. If you go to his demo site you will find others.

Now we come to the purchasing of the inferior Buddy Zone script. You are not presented with any information regarding a refund policy and or license agreement until you make the purchase of the script. At which time Mr. Ankur Jain has your money. Only after agreeing to Mr. Ankur Jain’s license do you finally get the script sent to you via email. And then the horror sits in of how you just spent $399.99 for a script you will spend the next 4 weeks reporting bugs, and waiting for tech support. And from my dealings with Mr. Ankur Jain it would seem he is the only coder, and not a team of coders that would be needed to support this Alpha script.

And as insult to injure he tries to stop you from reselling the script. So if you spend many hours fixing the inferior script and your site becomes successful you may not be able to transfer the ownership during a sale of your site.

If you would like further reading of how Mr. Ankur Jain will treat you follow this link.

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=147935&page=2&highlight=Buddy+Zone

CodeMonster

Now let me start: This person first of all purchased all social networking scripts in market and then threatened them, after that purchased buddy zone and asked me to do custom work for free, which I declined but when it became too much I refunded this person and let him go, so I thought it has ended. After 2 months to my surprise I saw an order from same person again. Can you believe, so to the best of my knowledge this person ordered from me again even after knowing that I will not attend to his illegitimate requests. I contacted him saying I will not do any custom work for free and he said ok. Now as for me banning him it is totally incorrect, his account is active on forum and same on my site even today. He wrote the following to me not once many many times in different words.

"What the fuk is with you? you have some type of mental disorder or something? One day your mr chatty on msn telling me I'll get 2.0 soon, and acting all buddy buddy with me, then for the next month your not replying to me on msn or the forums or my fuking emails..

What gives!?!?!?"

I had started sending 2.0 to all eligible customers staring this week, I was going to send the same to him as well, but I started getting threats and foul language from this person. Anyone can understand the state of mind this person is in. I will leave it up to the reader to decide who is right and who is wrong.
Thanks.