Subdreamer Light to be replaced with Subdreamer Basic.

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”June Announcement 7-4-06

http://www.subdreamer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7534

Subdreamer Basic Coming Soon

We were hoping to be able to release Subdreamer Basic today, but the response to the Summer Sale has been so overwhelming, we have had to delay its release. We have broken all records with traffic to our site and forum. Thank you fans, we love you!!! SD Basic will be released by the end of the week.”

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June News Announcement 6-26-06
http://www.subdreamer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7486

Subdreamer Light to be replaced by Subdreamer Basic
Subdreamer CMS light has been overwhelmingly popular since first launched, with thousands of websites running on SDCMS light. We appreciate the feedback that we have received from users of SDCMS light, and have recently undertaken a review and study of many of these customers' requests, advice, and criticisms. The main concerns were security, bug fixes, and updates. Some were in favor of doing away with advertising. We discussed and planned for weeks, and together came up with a solution that will be a winner for everyone. The solution is Subdreamer Basic. A version of Subdreamer with no advertising, that will offer bug fixes, updates, and security, at a minimal cost. More information about Subdreamer Basic will be released on July 4th. Many thanks to all those who offered their time and cooperation with the Subdreamer team to come up with Subdreamer Basic.

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What was Subdreamer Light?

(Reminder, Subdreamer Light has not been available for some time now, last available early 2006 and pulled due to development changes)

Subdreamer Light 2.2 Specs:

“If you enjoyed the original Subdreamer Light, well then you're pretty much going to drop dead when you upgrade to Subdreamer Light 2.2 (that's correct, you can upgrade Light 1 to Light 2 with the click of a button!).

This new version of Subdreamer Light is complete with Forum Integration with vBulletin 2, vBulletin 3, phpBB2, Invision Power Board 2, and Simple Machines Forum 1. Enter the path to your forum and hit 'Integrate' and you've connected Subdreamer straight to your message board. The integration is simply unbelievable, here are a few examples of what you can do with integration turned on:

1. Skin your message board to match your website.

2. Login to your forum from your website.

3. Display forum information such as, Latest Posts, Top Posters, Forum Stats, Users Online, and much more.

4. Integrate plugins to work with user account, meaning only logged in users from your forum can view the image gallery, download files, use the contact plugin, etc.

5. Full usergroup integration, by far the coolest feature. You can create Subdreamer usergroups and then point them to your forum usergroups. For example, create a Moderators usergroups in Subdreamer and give access to Moderators to edit/delete comments, upload information, and then point that group to your forum's Moderators group so that they now have access to edit and delete comments.

A new WYSIWYG has also been added to the Light version, entering content into the news plugins couldn't be any easier. Infact almost every plugin has been significantly upgraded to give users many more options and overall a much easier experience when entering new content into your website.

Did I mention you can now install Skins and Plugins?

Subdreamer Light users can now install skins and plugins! Every skin and plugin released by the Subdreamer Team can now be purchased for very low prices at two new websites.”

Subdreamer Light was free, BUT..

Lacked Friendly URLS
No Plugin Cloning
No Image Manager
No WYSIWYG Image Browser
No One Click Language Translations
No Support
No Smilies

etc

Subdreamer Light is no more, BUT..

Subdreamer will still be hugely successful.

The free version lacked the same development attention anyway. This left minor patches or new features to only the Pro version. However, this was fully understandable as the free version, Subdreamer Light, after all was free! It did a great job allowing people to get a taste of what the Subdreamer product had to offer and those who desired to invest in the Pro license for suitable projects knew what they were getting.

What is Subdreamer Basic?

There has been no official announcement as of July 14, 06 but it seems that Subdreamer Basic will essentially be the same as Subdreamer Pro except with only 1 year of downloads / updates and support, no forum integration and a lesser price of $49.95

Many users have become a little upset about the free version no longer being developed but I'd have to say it is the best direction for Subdreamer,,, and here my other thoughts:

1. I love the Pro version.

2. Basic will work,,, $30 or $40 with a feature or two less would have been preferred and the main kicker is updates only for 1 month,,, but it will work. I have not seen an official announcement yet either so who knows what changes may still come before the official notice.

3. Free version: I'm glad it's gone. A 100% commercial product is fine by me ,,, there are many improvements we can expect in development and the community atmosphere once the free version is gone. (Note: There is a lot of promotional value in a free version but I trust that Subdreamer will compensate this loss with other perks/benefits/features/advertising/etc, it is only common sense that emphasis on value and advertising will be the next step to push this COMMERCIAL product to the next level. I can't wait!)

4. Trial/testing/try before you buy: Yes, people should have a way to try Subdreamer before purchasing it. I think a more controlled method for demos will work. 1. Limited Online demo which we already have 2. ioncubed / encoded trial version. Done.

I understand how people can be upset with no free version being available but anyone that creates sites running from a free version of a commercial product from a business and expects that courtesy forever is fooling themselves. Anyone who creates a site for a client with a free version and 1. does not set expectations that things could change 2. does not know how to communicate pricing adjustments 3. does not have the resources or willingness to migrate to a different free script should have chosen an open source script to start with.

It's all about intelligent business/choices. I don't want the free version, however I will admit the price of the full licenses drive me crazy, none the less, I plan around it because I love the product.

I will wait for the Subdreamer Basic announcement to confirm the details and then I will get back to work! J