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So far it has been a nightmare because the upgrade process for eSyndicat Pro 2.1 has not gone smoothly and in fact has screwed up all the administration screens. I am seeking out as much help as possible from the eSynidcat forums. I wished had more time to work on the upgrade, but my hours are not as flexible as it used to be with a full time position.

The upgrades should be idiot proof but it really isn’t because there are other users of the eSyndicat script who have similar problems when ever there is an upgrade with the scripts. Going forward, this entry will track how responsive the eSyndicat support team is to their existing user base. This domain even managed to sell 6 copies of the eSyndicat software through the affiliate link.

02/14/2007: The eSyndicat support forum is not as highly reliable as it used to be when the script was first introduced to the public. If you need something done, you must submit a ticket through the Kayako system for real help. Second day in this jam, let’s hope it gets resolved within the week.

02/15/2007: Last night an email came in from their support team, and I provided them with all the FTP and mySQL login information. Now we wait and see if anything will be done on their end to follow-up with the script issues.

02/16/2007: I made the assumption that a simple reply to the Kayako emails would get it to their staff, but when I logged into the support system only to see that it has no trail of such an email. I am second guessing the response was never received, and understand that it may take a few more days to fix the eSyndicat problem.

02/17/2007: Still no progress report from the eSyndicat technical support team. Upon visiting their forums, some users are experiencing the same difficulties with the upgrade process to version Pro 2.1

02/18/2007: Another day passes as the eSyndicat upgrade is stuck in limbo. Sometimes, no news is good news. However, this is highly unlikely because I am not the only person experiencing the troubled upgrade.

02/19/2007: The eSyndicat team comes through with fixing the directory upgrade! Thank you for one mean upgrade making the directory run a lot faster than the older version. Will be spending time to fix templates later in the evening.

I had to take back the gloating remarks, the unprofessional upgrade without testing the script completely trashed the directory. I had to re-open the same issue, and hopefully they re-evaluate their own upgrade work on the Pro 2.10 eSyndicat script. It is locking me out from making even a test submission, and the directory comes to a complete halt. This may turn into a bad eSyndicat review as a result, even though it is a great script when everything works.

02/20/2007: The directory is back to normal. Well, not exactly. Still a lot of bugs with the eSyndicat script. Probably will take a least a month to figure out or put in all the fixes and patches. If you plan on upgrading to 2.1, then my suggestion is DO NOT DO IT. The more I am using this UPGRADED script, the more it seems to have been rushed to market without adequate quality assurance testing. It is very much a POS release, and I am getting extremely frustrated with all the buggy code. Dealing with more bugs than I have bargained for truly sucks.

02/21/2007: Found out the new version has terrible usability issues. As on example is that ban on a site submission automatically bans the IP associated with the submission. This is a ridiculous feature that makes the upgrade almost unusable for people who make multiple submissions for clients with a lot of different sites which may be good sites mixed in with bad sites. The eSyndicat team need to step it up in order to win favorable reviews from existing directory owners or continue losing potential buyers.

03/03/2007: The new version of eSyndicat script sucks. Not worth the upgrade, and it is going to push this directory into using phplinkdirectory which offer more stable releases. There is currently a heavy backlash at the eSynidicat forums over the extremely unprofessional release of the upgrade, and the lack of responses from their team over these outcries only confirms the inadequacies of version 2.1 eSyndicat script. They really need to throw in a lot of money to fix the existing issues otherwise the goodwill for the script will die out.

03/17/2007: Let’s hope this is the final poor review of eSyndicat script. I had an outstanding trouble ticket issue submitted on 02/21/2007 and it remains un-addressed by their technical team. I am certain it probably slipped their mind when their users do not complain loud enough. By default the new upgraded script bans an IP when a submitted entry is banned. This is a bad usability issue considering some people help clients make multiple submissions using the same IP. I have started to looking into scripts being used by industry leaders such as AvivaDirectory and AliveDirectory. They both use PHPLinkDirectory. If you are looking to build a directory from the ground up, I can no longer recommend eSyndicat. Please start with PHPLinkDirectory and save yourself a lot of headaches.

A lot of people who are currently using the free version of the eSyndicat script do not have access to the Pro Customer section of the forums. If you are even thinking about purchasing the script, you should request for preview access to those private subsections and you will see a whole lot of bugs with the purchase scripts. If you pay for something, it should not be worst than the free version.

04/23/2007: The script has stabilized a lot more, and the developers are once more very helpful in getting quick answers to the eSyndicat community within the forums. The backend admin panel is very much a delight to use. There are still a few minor kinks for me to work out. The script loads a lot faster than the previous version.