s2Member's future

#1

Hello all s2M users!

As we all know, s2M is not updated long time ago. Last two weeks I try hard to contact the company and developers, but no luck. As lot of yours too… Latest “signs of life” from Raam Dev I find is from late July and start of August. I really hope he has no health problems. But looks like the plugin is “technically dead” like a friend of mine say. Flies “on autopilot”…

And I am a pilot in that plane :slight_smile: I can support and develop s2M, can fork it and use the old code. Otherwise over 30000 sites will need to move to other membership plugin, or will crash in some weeks or some months (the site and the forum itself will stop to work at January 2019 by sure, maybe sooner). And that is lot of work (and money…), even for one site, I know… So, to prevent that, I can support the plugin, I did lot of integrations and customizations for it and build several heavy sites, lot of people here are clients of mine. I know that lot of businesses of yours depend of the plugin, because it is really great membership plugin, so I would like to help you, like I do daily here at forum.

My plan is to support both WordPress and ClassicPress, but first aim is to save existing sites. That is a big task, so I need your help. Here is what I can’t do myself:

  • Knowledge base, forum and educational videos: since this forum and the entire site will die, and nobody here have access to the hosting, we need to save info. Please do a copy of all possible info you get. I know this is enormous amount of info in KB, and very quality one, but no way to copy myself… So please let we choose volunteers who can download what is possible, later will upload it at the new site that I will build.

  • Domains: help me to buy domains, to be possible to do “the jump” to the “new” plugin smooth and easy.

  • Financial support: this job will need lot of my time, I can not do without your support. Donations are welcome too. My clone will have another price packages, but before to be possible for me to sell it, will need to do lot of work…

  • We both need to decide what are the most important upgrades, please vote for the most important updates and new features.

  • Connect me to WebSharks. All the process will be most easer if I can work with the company. I know lot of you try, and hard too… Well, let’s hope, will be great for all of us.

Believe me, this is my hardest project. I really need your support, or we all will crash… I would like to hear your voice about my plan. All questions welcome.

Krum

Update at 31.10.2018 (who celebrates Halloween, if there is a plugin to save? :slight_smile: ): I start ThriveCart integration, hope the very first release will have it. Happy Halloween to who is affected/involved! :slight_smile:

Update at 16.11.2018: My fork of the plugin have a name: s4Members! :slight_smile: Thanks for your suggestions!

Also I build a site, very simple at this time, with just a forum. Please everyone move to the new site and forum, as this one will die in 2 months. Bad news is that all the old threads with questions, problems, hacks and answers will be lost. Sorry, I find no way to get control over this (existing) site… So, the only solution I can see is to move to the new site and build them again. Also who can, please “harvest” all valuable info from this site and add to the new site. Meantime I work on the code of the new plugin.

I think with our efforts together we can save most of the info, and the plugin itself.

Update at 10 Dec 2018 Just to feed rumours: Don’t panic. The plugin will be alive and will be developed. We work on this, but needs some time to run the support again.

6 Likes
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#2

I suppose we will have to wait for WP 5. If S2Member is not updated to be compatible with Gutenberg, we can consider it dead.

#3

According to this roadmap the Gutenberg can be launched at end of January 2019 (but there is nothing that can stop future postpone…), and the s2M will be “really dead” at this time, with no option to reanimate… but you decide.

#4

Or you can switch to ClassicPress and s2Member will still work perfectly fine. See https://www.classicpress.net/

#5

I would not keep on using a not anymore supported plugin when it is so essential to a site like s2member. A good alternative is to move to Optimizepress - it’s a fork of s2member in 2013 - and moving over is as easy as it will go for another membership plugin - I wrote about that process here: Move from s2member to Optimizemember

Another alternative - which is not too hard is to change to Memberpress - probably right now the most used membership plugin outside of WooCommerce options - moving over should also be possible - however my business model cannot be moved over as I cannot use Memberpress with my pricing scheme - that’s why I returned it: Keep s2member for Content Protection - but sell/manage Memberships via Memberpress

Some plugins promise import tools for s2member users - but usually this does not cover subscriptions - so be very aware there.

#6

That’s got to be your strangest post yet, Felix. You are happy to use a plugin forked from s2Member years ago that is far from fully compatible, but you won’t touch a fork made in 2018.

Truly bizarre!

#7

It’s fully compatible as far as I can see (changing s2member in database to optimizemember being the objection). It’s not fully compatible to 3rd party plugins written for s2member. But it has got quite a capable dev team behind it plus quite a few users - and that’s for me the thing that counts most. I will definitely never move to Classicpress (but maybe keep using classic editor for wordpress for some more time) - and I don’t either see myself moving to krum’s plugin anytime soon.

The most important thing for me is to get rid of the horrible s2 proforms - plus having a plugin that does not wrongly drop IPN calls like s2. If krumch is gonna fork s2 - I do not know what he will do about Stripe, nor about pro-forms - both which are not part of the free s2 version. Optimizepress made a license deal there - so well - let’s see how krum will do here. I don’t think it will work without changing all instances in code from s2member name to something else either.

#9

There is a big difference when I try to solve a problem as independent developer (“outside” by hooks) and when (in my fork) I can change the core files of the plugin.

#10

If S2Member is not updated to be compatible with Gutenberg, we can consider it dead.

Why are you saying that? What specific problems have you had with Gutenberg?

Perhaps we should start a thread for that topic.

#11

@krumch - Thanks for kicking off this topic. I was about to do the same.

While I think forking may be a possible solution to people’s concerns, I do not yet have all the facts I need to decide whether or not to support that effort.

When last @raamdev chimed in, he insisted that he (or they?) were working on maintaining and updating s2member. I would love to hear from him or anyone else involved in Websharks/s2member what the real facts are.

@krumch - You said “Last two weeks I try hard to contact the company and developers, but no luck”. Can you share specifics so we can all help?

#12

I did not make any test but as Gutenberg manages blocks I don’t see any solution for protecting them using S2Member. So I suppose content protection in edit page will be lost without any update.

I won’t use any fork of WP as their future is as (un)certain as any plugin.

#13

I would say “like it works now”… And if not supported, the plugin will loose features one by one, like now, and at some moment will crash. That’s because I suggest “support the plugin” instead “migrate to ClassicPress”. Well, best do both…

#14

I sent several (2 or 3) emails to Raam to different accounts, and maybe dozen messages at Twitter, Google+ and other social networks. I didn’t try phones, as several people here say that they won’t connect (and I have to rely on your info). I also find old employees (I didn’t contact them, seems no reason) and even abandoned accounts of Raam himself or his employee (didn’t contact, as no updated years ago)… I am a “devil of information” :slight_smile: But got silence from everywhere. Maybe someone have “direct access” to WebSharks or Raam?

#15

Here is the poll about most important updates and new features. Please vote. And add need updates/features as well.

#16

do you expect the github account to also disappear? I don’t know about github procedures if someone is not active anymore (do you need to pay a yearly bill for it?).

#17

There is free accounts (like mine). But WP plugins are not in GitHub, was moved to another repository when Microsoft buys GitHub. I have the code anyway. But Raam’s account is there. But no way to directly connect an account there…

#19

Where were they moved?

#20

At WP’s own SVN repository.

#21

Hi Krum,

Such a project to save s2Member might be necessary indeed, I’m ok to participate if the official abandonment is confirmed!

Thanks.

#22

Hi @krumch and others !

Thanks a lot for kicking off this topic :slight_smile:
I am sorry, my english is not perfect, but I am trying to do my best :wink:

Maybe, to be more efficient, we could start to understand how we use S2member and its features.

So I will start !

I only use S2member for content protection because in my point of view, S2member is the best to do this job.
I sell membership and digital products with:

  • Woocommerce (and Stripe)
  • YITH WooCommerce Subscription Premium (because I sell digital product and subscriptions)
  • YITH Automatic Role Changer for WooCommerce Premium (works very well and permits to allow S2member role by woocommerce product)
  • YITH WooCommerce Multi-step Checkout Premium and YITH WooCommerce Checkout Manager to have an efficient and professional checkout process.

It means that I don’t need or use S2member’s pro forms, checkout process … !

And you, how do you use S2member?
If it’s is like me, just for content protection, It will be easier to support the plugin in the future… :wink:

Thanks for reading me

Lambert

3 Likes