SUGGESTION: Give Notice of Module Updates

[mguser]

PROBLEM: Currently, there is no notice given to current MG customers with active licenses that a given module has an update available.

*an update notice from within WHMCS admin and an automated update button from within the module itself would be of greater utility but if no plans for this functionality are currently being considered:

DESIRED EMBODIMENT: It would be helpful to receive an email from MG informing customers with active licenses for a given module that there is an update to the module available to download. The said email should also include the changelog. In addition to sending an email, it would be helpful to post the notice email+changelog somewhere on MG's website (blog, forum, etc). The use of social media channels to give notice would be of additional utility but should not be the primary and sole outlet for posting update announcements.

[Piotr]

Hi,

Thank you for posting here your suggestion.
Every single feedback helps us to become a better company.

I will divide my reply on the two parts:

• 1) Which methods of notification we currently have and use
• 2) What we still need to improve and what we WILL improve

1) Currently we announce each new module release and each version update of currently existing modules through:

• Sending newsletter to all customers who agree to receive a newsletter / Sending newsletter only to customers who previously ordered a certain module (to not "spam" not interested customers)
• Sharing information about each update (even the smallest one) on our Forums - News & Announcement section, Facebook, Twitter and Google+
• Advertising on external resources (not owned by ModulesGarden)

In each information, regardless of fact whether announce has been posted on Facebook or shared via newsletter, we always attach longer or shorter description of module and its full changelog. An exception is Twitter due its 140 characters limit but we always link from it directly to the changelog page.

To summarize. Each customer who accepts our newsletter will be noticed about the most important and major releases and updates - about once or twice a week, no more frequently.
In addition to newsletter, we update our social networks (Forums, Facebook, Twitter, Google+) on a daily basis. We advise and recommend to not rely on our newsletter only but also check one or two of our social networks to know totally everything what is going on with our modules. You don't need to have an account on any of the above social networks to view the information that we posted. It's a quick and conveniant method to be always up to date. What is more, you can make use of our RSS Feed on the Forums too.
It's worth to mention the fact that quite frequenty we share promo codes on our social networks only.

So basically we have everything that you requested. However, we are aware of fact that there is still much space for improvements and we already have that in our TO-DO list.

2) We already scheduled improvements of our system and attitude in order to faciliate informing our clients about module updates. This is what we are going to introduce in the nearest future:

• Improved, flexible dedicated newsletters
• Improved changelog system allowing to track and inform customers about even multple updates of module per day
• The most important one: We will release a free addon module that will inform you whether there is an updated version of the module ready to download

I hope that my answer solved your doubts. Let me know if you have other ideas.
We are always ready to change and improve in order to meet with expectations of our customers.

[peva3]

I think that just doing a mass email (mini newsletter) with a notice on what modules have been updated and then a short changelist of what got changed. Then also maybe have a small bit at the bottom of the roadmap for the next week or so (new releases/updates etc).

Honestly I really like what you guys are doing, so I wouldnt be upset if I started getting more emails/FB/Twitter posts from you.

More Communication = More likely I will buy more modules. (ESPECIALLY on future modules, even if you just say "We are throwing around the idea of XYZ Module". You could even make that into a forum post to drive some traffic to the forums).

[Piotr]

Thank you for the feedback!

I am happy to hear that you like our newsletters and social networks posts. We will do our best to post as frequently as possible. In other hand we don't want to spam you guys without a reason so do not worry about receiving too many emails etc.

You are right about sharing more information about future module releases and sharing it more frequently. We will improve this too. We will try to share more detailed information about next 2-3 releases and also post our ideas and plans for upcoming modules (and we have plenty of such ideas).

I will also make sure that you will have an opportunity to decide which module should we release and when to release it.