JED Approval Process VS. Others

[digitalmediaguy]

Hello Joomla People,

I am hoping that this post will find someone that has the power to make changes that are desperately needed to the extension approval process. We're a startup and have a product called PayWhirl. It's a recurring payments widget that lets people process membership payments securely online. It also provides a login for customers to come back and manage plans, etc.

We released & submitted three versions of our app on August 8th 2014 to the various CMS systems:
1) Joomla Module
2) Wordpress Plugin
3) Shopify App

-Wordpress published and reviewed within 24 hours
-Shopify took about 5 days
-Joomla hasen't even replied 20 days later.

When I submitted the extension there were 113 ahead of me... Today there are 9... It has a disclaimer that it might take up to 21 days to process if there are no errors. It seems to me, it's more like they wait 21 days to even look at your submission.

If Joomla wants to stay competitve with WordPress and Shopify and the other big players somethings going to have to change. I bet there is a team assigned to approve the JED submissions that is under paid, staffed, whatever... Has to be!

Something to think about for the future because the JED's approval process (and even insights into what's happening) is TERRIBLE!

:-/

[brian]

No one at joomla is paid at all - unlike at many other systems

[shakur1911]

@degitalmediaguy, Yesterday I have posted several questions on how the JED team works: http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=262&t=857299

So far nobody has bothered to answer a single one. As I said, the easy answer you will always get is: "We are volunteers".

@brian If you start getting paid is going to solve all the issues why don't you consider my suggestion on that thread?

[digitalmediaguy]

I find it funny that someone on the team found the time to update the approval page to no longer display the number of extensions ahead of you awaiting review. Now users will be completely in the dark about how it will take to get approved... Such an ass backwards way of thinking.

The new message now has no mention of people ahead of you in the queue and says, "Your extension is currently in queue awaiting review and approval by JED editors."

If the person that changed that reads this... You really should leave the counter there for people despite that it takes FOREVER to get approved.

[digitalmediaguy]

Just bumping this again because it's just silly at this point......

Turns out that i did finally get some error codes last week. However, they were irrelevant because I noticed the same problems the day I originally submitted our module and fixed them... Then resubmitted to JED by re-uploading the fixed module day and marked the listing with an X as instructed.

The JED reviewer didn't look at the updated version of the module I submitted (a month prior) that addressed the problems in the error codes from the JEDchecker component. Instead they kicked back the module listing with a bunch of error codes that were irrelevant because they had already been fixed.

So... I opened a support ticket and explained that the reviewer must have looked at the old module and not the updated version I submitted... No response from JED... However the error code(s) changed the next day to a single error, GL1 which means "General Listing Error" and is apparently not common.

So I reached out again inquiring... Nothing... Days go by.... Still nothing.

So I finally deciphered (on my own) from their only note on the GL1 error code that said, "the version being distributed did not match the version submitted" which meant that the download link on our website needed to be updated with the latest version.

So I reached out explaining that I figured out the problem (despite not having actually received a reply to any of my support tickets over a week or so)... CRICKETS....

IT'S JUST SO TERRIBLE... THE JED APPROVAL PROCESS IS BY FAR THE WOST APP APPROVAL PROCESS I'VE NAVIGATED

We've built apps & gone through approvals on:
Apple
facebook
shopify
wordpress
cnet
zapier
yovigo
+ others

There must be something that can be done?!?!?

[Tessa Mero]

DigitalMediaGuy, refer to the thread about the JED contract.

The entire system will be automated, rather than waiting on my time and Matt's time for listings.

I will be putting quite some time into listings next week and I'm assuming everyone's relying on me.

I can't stand this entire backend JED process as much as you. I'm very excited for the new JED system to be out. What's better than an automated process? Right? Hoping that will make every developer here happy. :-) (And I can get some of my evenings every week back!) So it's just as important to me as it is to you. Well kind of ;-)



Warm Regards,


Tessa Mero
JED Listing Editor

[digitalmediaguy]

Tessa!

Thank you... Thank you... Thank you!

I have been approved and am all set. While the process was a bit frustrating at times, I totally understand that the team is run by volunteers that have backlogs of their own to worry about. I look forward to the new JED updates to the approval process as well.

Who knows... I might even have to jump in and get involved myself now that I am familiar (if you'll have me still)... LOL

Anyway... Thanks again... And as for the rest of you... Just know that the team is there... They are just really swamped, which should be changing soon with the new JED system!

[Tessa Mero]

Tessa!

Thank you... Thank you... Thank you!

I have been approved and am all set. While the process was a bit frustrating at times, I totally understand that the team is run by volunteers that have backlogs of their own to worry about. I look forward to the new JED updates to the approval process as well.

Who knows... I might even have to jump in and get involved myself now that I am familiar (if you'll have me still)... LOL

Anyway... Thanks again... And as for the rest of you... Just know that the team is there... They are just really swamped, which should be changing soon with the new JED system!

You are very welcome!

Just a hint: Follow the JED Editors blog for the next updates on this. ;-) An update should be published soon. :-D

[digitalmediaguy]

Thanks Tessa... Will keep my eye out... Also for the JED team stuff we discussed.

One last question... Our new extension just got a 1 star review... However the user that left the review clearly mentions talking with our competitors (Recurly) in the review... Meaning they thought our extension was some other extension in the system. Our extension has nothing to do with recurly or their review.

I am curious what the backlog is for the reviews like this? Kind of a big bummer to get a 1 star review right out the gate for the wrong extension. :-/

Thanks again for all your hard work.

[Vimes]

In my experience, your best bet is to report the review, I've always found JED editors to be very understanding when a review's wildly incorrect as would appear to be the case here. Use the Report Review button next to the review on that page for your component.

[Tessa Mero]

Thanks Tessa... Will keep my eye out... Also for the JED team stuff we discussed.

One last question... Our new extension just got a 1 star review... However the user that left the review clearly mentions talking with our competitors (Recurly) in the review... Meaning they thought our extension was some other extension in the system. Our extension has nothing to do with recurly or their review.

I am curious what the backlog is for the reviews like this? Kind of a big bummer to get a 1 star review right out the gate for the wrong extension. :-/

Thanks again for all your hard work.

I strictly work with the approval process for listings only and with any team members who work on it as well.

Vimes answered your question though, so thank you Vimes. :-)