I am curious to know how you discover new addons to help you solve problems or implement a particular design? I can’t do a poll here so let me give you a few possible answers but if you have a different one, feel free to post it.
You search/post on the forums (this one or others) for recommendations
You do directly to a particular developer’s site and search for a solution.
Or maybe you do a combination of all of the above. I look forward to chatting about this so that I can make sure that I (and other devs) are serving you the best way that I can.
I try Google first. Sometimes it helps, but most of the time at least it helps me finding some Developers. Then I check rapidweavercommunity.com.
But to be honest: Usually I check only three or four developers directly who I know are in business for some time (hoping that their stacks are maintained / kept maintained)
I don’t often use the Community site. Many new stacks are announced on the forums and I subscribe to a few devs who announce stuff via email (and also sometimes provide an early bird discount).
It’s not always easy. I usually start with the developers’ websites that I know are actively maintaining their stacks. This forum is a great resource, too.
I have subscriptions to newsletters from developers I have purchased from previously. Otherwise I just go to their sites or check the community catalogue. In the case of stacks, if I find something that is not overkill for what I need then I’ll purchase it. Otherwise I just write my own
I read every email announcement from the developers that I receive. I rarely buy at that time, unless there is a discount and I know I’ll end up buying it in the future (usually, this means it’s an update to something already in my toolbox).
To your point, though; if I’m looking for a solution, I head to a (different) forum and outline what my needs are and then wait for the suggestions. I find that getting advice from developers and users of stacks is far better than buying something and hoping it works. Some developers have demos, which is nice (and I take advantage of that), but still- if someone has had great success with with an item and highly recommends it, I’m all in (or vice-versa- then I’m not going there). I also find many developers websites overly confusing - but that’s probably just me.
Does anyone remember the old RW5 era add ons site? It was phenomenal. I bought so much stuff through that portal, back in the day, it wasn’t even funny. I miss that.
I never use the RW Community site. Apart from the constant changes that aren’t needed, there are stacks and themes on there by developers who departed RW years ago.
How they can list stuff on there for sale that’s no longer supported is beyond me.
IMHO, there are only a handful of reliable developers still around, Joe being one of them. So I only go direct to the source when looking for new addons.
I have been looking around for addons so my method was to look for the addons on the RW website, and then go to the developer site, then ask questions here on the forum. I would like the addon page a bit better organised. When you search for a keyword, a menu opens and you have to select an addon or video. I would prefer to have all addons listed like on the app store so you can have a quick glance. Pricing information would also be useful at that stage.
Hi @joeworkman, I search the this forum first, check out all the links that people have put up, go to the developer site, read all the tutorials, then I google to see if there are solutions that are not in what I deem to the "core " RW community I can see. Usually, 95% of the time, I am buying inside this community.
I have a folder in safari bookmarked RWDevs and save every dev i run across into it no matter what the quality. You never know if something will come in handy. Usually search google first for hints and drill down from there.
My routine:
Subscriptions to dev’s newsletters. or:
Visiting some bookmarked dev sites when I need to. or:
Following forum opinions about reliable add-ons.
Regarding that purpose, I seldom use the RW Community site.
@joeworkman I usually search either this forum, the RW4all forum, and Weaver’s Space community. I also go to developers sites, and I’m also subscribed to every newsletter of every RW developer that I’m aware of. I also go to specific developers pages to look at various stacks, usually beginning with @willwood, @1LittleDesigner, @Doobox, @Elixir, and of course, @joeworkman.
I also rely heavily on the thoughts and opinions of people far more knowledgeable than me, such as @teefers and @dave and @1611mac. There are others too, but these three in particular come to mind. @robbeattie I also put into the same category.
I usually read through the various forums every day or two, but only those I can read on my phone.
3-I might search google.
4-RapidWeaverCommunity pages have zero value because they’re always outdated and inaccurate.
My advice… before you look, have an actual need for a product. Staying on top of the latest and greatest can lead to buying stuff you will never use.
Use need as the reason you are shopping. If you just want to stay on top of what is new there are many good web dev sites.
75% of the stuff I purchased I never used on any site. That was back in the day when addons were much cheaper. The cheap prices lead to many devs jumping ship. The good news is good devs left their products in other active devs hands.
Make sure you know the dev you are buying from. As others have said there are some sleazy devs selling stuff they quit supporting years ago.
This forum is very useful if you are looking for a particular stack. Somebody will be able to point you in the right direction. There are many helpful, knowledgeable, and clever people on this forum.
I go to this forum and to particular developers’ sites. I keep an eye out for new stuff coming from developers who are still active and have great support, taking note of Dev newsletters I’m subscribed to when they have new potentially useful products and head on to their site.
I check this forum for developer announcements and also visit developer’s websites like Stacks4stacks, Elixir, Weaver’s Space & rwProDev.
I used to search the Community (Addons) website first but there are too many unsupported Stacks listed and for some reason they’ve cut all the user reviews.
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