Conrats to Rick and the team!

[wmgilligan]

Let me be the first to say congrats!

I'm seeing a bright bright future for MIVA Merchant and MIVA Small Business!

Bill

[aGorilla]

To the acquisition, I raise a glass!

Congrats!

[leslienord]

LOL - you missed my Happy Dance (http://extranet.miva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10773) - I beat you by one minute :D

This is the best news I have heard in a long time!

[dotCOM_host]

Well, the cat's out of the bag so I guess we are no longer under NDA :-)

Congrats Rick and the rest of the team!

We were -> <- THIS close to buying MIVA ourselves, but I think Rick with his past experience within the MIVA community is going to be a better fit to run the company and take it where it needs to be. Onward and upward!

Cheers, all!

[wcw]

There is a GOD!

Congratulations.

[dotCOM-steven]

Thank goodness...now we can get back to MIVA Merchant business and get everything back on track. We all look forward to working with Rick's new team and getting to know them even better since they are only a few miles away.

[Brandon MUS]

More info please. Who's Rick and what company acquired Miva?

[dotCOM_host]

See http://extranet.miva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10770 for the official announcement.

Rick used to work at MIVA in the past, so he has plenty of experience with the company. "It's a Good Thing", as Martha would say.

[Keith Hunniford]

Brandon,

To give a different answer, Rick represents what was good about Miva in what some of us call "the good old days." He was VP of Sales and Marketing before the FindWhat purchase in January 2004, and IMHO was a big part of making Miva something that FindWhat found worth buying.

I had the pleasure of working with him before he left Miva in 2005 and his departure was the start of my slide towards the exit.

On the professional side, he's a very strong sales and business development person. On a personal level, he's loyal, trustworthy and fair. It says ALOT about his character, determination and commitment to the MIVA community that he is back here in the thick of it.

Keith

[Brandon MUS]

I see that there are plans to bring support back in house and a conference early '08. Are there any other plans announced?

[Rick Wilson]

Everyone,

Thanks for all the well wishing and very kind words about our new (old) adventure. None of this would be possible (or worth trying) without either the existing employees who stuck with Miva Small Business over the last six months without knowing what the future entailed or the new management team we've assembled.

Over the next few weeks we'll be profiling and introducing you to the new management team (and some of the employees who you may not know already) here on the forums.

For now, here's a brief synopsis of the new management team and how we all got here:

Russell Carroll was my first business mentor before I came to Miva. We began working together back in 1997 and I was his head of sales and marketing at a company in which he led a very successful turnaround. Russ retired back in 2002 and we've been looking for the right business opportunity ever since.

Mark Johnson has worked with Russ for 18 years and Russ (who has a very deep background in technology) says unabashedly that "Mark is the best programmer I've ever known". Mark has been the developer behind a large Miva Merchant store (www.runnersgear.com) for a number of years and is very familiar with our product line and our community.

David Roquemore worked with both Russ and I at the previous company I mentioned above and has a strong history in managing large IT organizations. David lead the SAP integration for Sempra Energy when Southern California Gas merged with San Diego Gas and Electric.

As we update the website over the next few weeks we'll post detailed bio's of everyone and introducing all of them to you via the forums.

I'm not exaggerating when I say this is my Miva Small Business management "dream team".

[any-major-dude]

Loved hearing that you are moving support in-house. Thank you so much.

Congratulations.

[netblazon]

Rick, Russ, Mark, and David,

This is SUCH great news. Now that it's public, I'm so excited to see things starting to move forward. I love the idea of support coming in-house, MivaCentral being supported, and the potential for not only greater things with the base Merchant product, but potentially with other products as well (Synchro, CBS modules, etc). Whatever your priorities are, I know this is a big step in the right direction. So welcome back!

--Susan

[Viking Coders]

Con Rats!? If anything, it seems this acquisition will be a giant step away from cons and rats. :D

Beyond all the multifarious details, requests and demands that hosts, developers and end users are going to let fly, I'm primarily hoping that Rick & Co can just get real and feel comfortable being a small software company (with a fairly large user base); a small business dealing with other small businesses, openly and honestly, standing by their core product without getting ensnared in corporate BS, monetizations, vertical/horizontal/diagonal markets...or building the company just to flip it.

Obviously they have their work cut out for them--a drop in sale price from $8 million in January 2004 to $200k + liabilities now is evidence enough of that--but it's a good product and a great community. Here's hoping they can make it work.

[DesignExtend-MSI]

Congrats, guys! As someone who's relied on MIVA Merchant for the entire business (yes, I've been here since version 1, the ups and downs), I'm truly excited about this change. To be able to backtrack into working with real people in a private corporate environment just tickles me.

I expect I'll see many new users, better host support and much happier partners and developers.

<MvLiftsGlass>...

[Rick Wilson]

In response to an earlier post in this thread about other changes you might see:

1. Front page of our website has been updated to focus on our core product and premier partners

2. Design services have been pulled from the website and the admin of MM5

I think that covers all of the immediate changes.

[aGorilla]

I, for one, welcome our new Miva Overlords!

It had to be said. Really.

[wmgilligan]

Rick - THANK YOU!

Man - I HATED that web design garbage!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Bill

[Pete McNamara]

Looking forward to the future.

Pete

[Biffy]

I stated in an earlier thread that a spinoff would be the absolutely most perfect solution to Miva Merchant's problems. I can't believe it actually happened.

Congratulations on a very well done deal.

Oh man, I'm getting chill bumps thinking about it!

[roy]

As a fairly long time user I would also like to add my congratulations.

One question, with support moving back in-house, how do we now chase up outstanding support issues? I have been raising the German VAT module bug for over three years (miscalculates tax on additional charges or discounts). I was finally advised 16 June 2007 by Ben (Bhavesh Chaudhary) that:

“We have fixed this bug and now it will not reoccur, however, we have not launched the fix yet. The fix is under the quality testing and we will make it available as soon as possible.”

Since then there has been no news or replies to progress requests. I know many in Europe need this fix.

Cheers,

Roy

[CybrHost]

Hi Rick,

Are there any plans to allow for 3rd party UI modules in Merchant 5?

--
Thank you,
Gary Hodder
Support
--
CybrHost Corp. - http://www.cybrhost.com/ - info@cybrhost.com
+1-866-300-MIVA - Professional Miva & E-Commerce web hosting services.

[wcw]

One question, with support moving back in-house, how do we now chase up outstanding support issues? I have been raising the German VAT module bug for over three years (miscalculates tax on additional charges or discounts). I was finally advised 16 June 2007 by Ben (Bhavesh Chaudhary) that:


The same bug exists in the Canadian VAT module and a fix has been promised for many years.

[Rick Wilson]

There are a number of bugs that were fixed and never released by Miva Corp.

We're having a meeting on Monday to get a complete list of fixed items,
prioritize them and begin releasing them.

[Eric]

Rick,

Welcome back and its great to have you back! This was a bold move and a clear example of a bigger company taking something good and breaking it that required such a move. With that said, the Miva community has been so strong to allow for the product to survive this darker period. We look forward to the future of Miva and improving on a product that is not only great but has the potential to be supreme.

Please extend my best wishes and thanks to the San Diego staff that had to endure so much during this period. The job they did with the environment they had to work with is remarkable. Your staff deserves the thanks of the entire community and I know I am in good company when I say the community is most appreciated of their sacrifices.

Thanks Again!
Eric

[roy]

Thanks Rick. The VAT bug is a real show stopper for us so hope gets high priority! Great to see the focus of Miva getting back on track.

[chucklasker]

Bring back Linda Eskin for documentation and usability!

That's my vote, anyway, for making a major difference in our user experience.

[roy]

There are a number of bugs that were fixed and never released by Miva Corp.

We're having a meeting on Monday to get a complete list of fixed items,
prioritize them and begin releasing them.

Hi Rick, is there any update on this, in particular the 'German VAT' fix?

Cheers,

Roy

[Rick Wilson]

The German VAT fix is at the top of our list, my best guess is release in the next couple weeks.

[roy]

Great, thanks for reply on German VAT fix. Certain can wait two more weeks...

[RayYates]

This is very good news. Congrats.

As one of the lesser known developers, I have three requests:
Documentation, documentation and more documentation...

Oh, and perhaps documentation section on the forum.

[Rick Wilson]

Our goal is to have updated API and Developer documentation out in October.

[Brandon MUS]

There are a number of bugs that were fixed and never released by Miva Corp.

We're having a meeting on Monday to get a complete list of fixed items,
prioritize them and begin releasing them.
Any updates on the status of these bugs (it's been 2 weeks since you meeting)? I believe I saw and updated two bugs that affected our store, but there are many more that I have my fingers crossed for.

Also, can you update and perhaps in the future provide more information on, the Patches and Downloads page (http://smallbusiness.miva.com/support/downloads/)? (I'm fairly confident patches have been issued since 8/06)

[Rick Wilson]

Bugs, bugs, bugs...

Here is what's planned. We have a bug release stream going out either tonight (August 29th) or tomorrow that will fix:

- A bug in the PayPal module that caused customers placing an order without a PayPal account to get 'Transaction Failed' errors.

- Product Flat File Import bug where if inventory is turned on, the importing process wipes out the stock levels

- Category Tree component source (this is more of a feature than a bug fix)

Next Tuesday September 5th we'll be releasing a stream for MM5 that updates:

- The look and feel to our new logo (which will also be released via the web next Tuesday)

- All of the URL's and Email addresses within the software to go to mivamerchant.com instead of miva.com

The following Monday the 12th we're planning on streaming:

- The fix for the "multiple upsell bug"

- The European VAT bug

- Customer Template Based Email (again more of a feature than a bug)

In addition to the above mentioned bugs, we're working on:

- Linkpoint rounding error sales tax bug

- Single page checkout with account (identical to the checkout process in Miva Merchant Express)

- Ship To/Bill To incorrectly defaults to US bug

- BuySafe 2.0 module

- We're working on a brand new UPS online tools solution

[Brandon MUS]

Thank you for the response and the timelines. I'm happy to see that you guys aren't wasting any time in addressing the bugs! The one that I think is going to make a lot of people happy is the Ship To/Bill To Country bug. I'll be waiting patiently for that one :D

[leslienord]

Wow! Sounds like ya'll will need a full-time person just to keep the coffee flowing!

[aGorilla]

Somebody is telling us what is going on? Absolutely stunning!

That post made me even happier than the initial announcement post, because it proves that things are changing.

It should probably be cross posted to the announcements and/or bug thread (which I still wish was a board, but I'll wait until things quiet down).

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah we almost tripled the staff of Miva Small Business in our first month. It's certainly fun around here these days.

[ids]

Yeah we almost tripled the staff of Miva Small Business in our first month. It's certainly fun around here these days.

LOL, I hope you don't mean you went from 2 to 5? That's almost triple! ;)

I know -- shutup and get back to work! :D

Scott

[roy]

Excellent! Can you confirm (as advised by previous support team) that no plans for fixing European VAT bug in Miva 4? Not a complaint (very happy to have Miva 5 fix date and other good fixes), but just checking before I start porting my old Miva 4 stores...

[Pete McNamara]

Re the The European VAT bug fix for V5, is it too late to ask if you can give store owners the ability to rename the tax to whatever we want? e.g. to be able to call it GST rather than VAT. This feature is available in the Generic VAT module and it would be useful in the German VAT module.

[Rick Wilson]

I will pass that on and see what we can do, thanks Pete.

[RayYates]

Any chance the UI API will make it back into Merchant5? Even if OpenUI were never ported to MM5 (which I would love to see) it would open the door for major enhancements by the Merchant community.

[Rick Wilson]

Right now our internal perspective is that with StoreMorph it's not necessary and from the developers I've been talking to that's what I've been hearing.

With that said however, if we're missing the point, I would love to know. So is there something we're missing on this point?

[chucklasker]

Personally, I miss some of the admin features:

Who is logged into admin.
Adding Select One to the drop down lists.
Token shortcut dropdowns above fields for quick coding.
The ability from product admin to assign a product to categories.
The Child Categories link in category admin.
The Meta Tags fields for each product and category

EmporiumPlus Tool Kit has filled in some of the coding holes - the conditionals and tokens available for calculations. But not all of them, and not as cleanly. I wouldn't even try a MM5 site without Tool Kit, but I wish I could take a block of OUI code and simply replace tokens with new tokens, instead of learning a whole new philosophy of coding.

For a new store from scratch, OUI is less needed now, I agree, but for a conversion from a MM4 store with OpenUI that has tokens, it's a big deal that Darren's upgrade path would have helped with. If anything, that's what I most wish existed. I think a lot more MM4 stores would have upgraded by now if it had.

I know some developers were upset when an OpenUI feature would come out that killed one of their modules (which I still have only heard of one module this happened with, the rest being generalizations), but from the bug fix/new feature list Rick has listed, it looks like Miva is doing that now, as several of the new features will kill some modules I buy for every MM5 store I do.

[RayYates]

Of course if one is developing a new store from scratch with MM5, much of the functionality provided by OpenUI already exists.

If you have a complex MM4 store developed using OpenUI, that is that is working and generating your lively hood, upgrading to MM5 is such a painful process that that very many people just say no!

You might ask your developers how much revenue they would stand to generate if every client currently using MM4 were to upgrade to MM5 and buy new MM5 modules.

It's not about features; it is about providing an upgrade path for the thousands of us left holding the bag.

In simplistic terms, these are the problems I see:

1. OpenUI 4.x ended up competing with and replacing functionality other developers added to their modules. Result: unhappy developers, fearful of an OpenUI5.

2. OpenUI attracted a large body of users to its site and forums because Miva would not add a forum and the support was expensive. Result: unhappy Miva

3. Miva removed the API from MM5. Result: unhappy OpenUI.

4. OpenUI development stops. Customers heavily dependant on OpenUI are left with no upgrade path. Result: unhappy customers.

I respectfully ask, are you starting to see the point? Your job would be to figure out how to make everybody happy, especially your MM4 customers.

My understanding is that OpenUI5 was largely written when Miva pulled the API. Perhaps the new Miva Merchant and company could find some middle ground and negotiate a solution where everyone gets something even of no one gets everything they want.

I know you've got a lot on your plate right now. I am hopeful that the new company will become the customer / developer/ community centric company that we would all love to see. I only ask that you consider your MM4 customers. It’s a potentially very large cash cow, crying to be milked.

Time has passed, heads have cooled. Maybe it’s time to take another look.

[Rick Wilson]

Ray,

I have a current dialogue with Darren and would say that hard feelings at Miva Small Business about OpenUI (and hopefully vice versa) are all very far in the past.

We did learn some lessons from OUI about maintaining control of a product and our ability to support (or not support) our own product when certain types of control are lost.

Based on your and Chuck's reply there's 2 issues at hand:

1. Some features that we should look at adding (as per Chuck's post)

2. An upgrade path for OUI users from 4.x

Those are officially registered and will be discussed at next Tuesday's Dev meeting.

[RayYates]

That's good. Very good. I really appreciate being able to have this discussion Rick.

I understand your position on controling your product and I'm glad that discussions about an upgrade path for the rest of us are at least on the table.

Thank You,

[CybrHost]

OpenUI already has an UI export, so all Merchant 5 needs is a way to import various parts of the "OpenUI™ UI-Settings Backup".

--
Thank you,
Gary Hodder
Support
--
CybrHost Corp. - http://www.cybrhost.com/ - info@cybrhost.com
+1-866-300-MIVA - Professional Miva & E-Commerce web hosting services.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Personally I vote for MIVA focusing on moving MM5 forward. If anyone should be doing an "import" of OpenUI functionality to MM5, that would best be done (and served) by Darren or someone else in the Developer communinity. The cost/time frame for something even remotely useful would just be too big of a hit for MIVA to take, whereas a third-party could charge for this functionality.

[Brandon MUS]

Personally I vote for MIVA focusing on moving MM5 forward. If anyone should be doing an "import" of OpenUI functionality to MM5, that would best be done (and served) by Darren or someone else in the Developer communinity. The cost/time frame for something even remotely useful would just be too big of a hit for MIVA to take, whereas a third-party could charge for this functionality.
I agree. I would much rather Miva work on making MM5 bug free and feature rich. While it's great that they are offering to help create an upgrade path, it's a third party system that should be handled by a third party.

[chucklasker]

I agree with Bruce. And just adding what I like about OpenUI to your feature list kind of smells bad to me...

[CybrHost]

I don't think anyone is taking about importing OpenUI functionally, I was referring to copying various pieces of content from the "OpenUI™ UI-Settings Backup" file to the appropriate places in Merchant 5.

But if I had to choose between the above and working on "moving MM5 forward", I would choose the later.

--
Thank you,
Gary Hodder
Support
--
CybrHost Corp. - http://www.cybrhost.com/ - info@cybrhost.com
+1-866-300-MIVA - Professional Miva & E-Commerce web hosting services.

[CybrHost]

I don't think anyone is talking about importing OpenUI functionally, I was referring to copying various pieces of content from the "OpenUI™ UI-Settings Backup" file to the appropriate places in Merchant 5.

But if I had to choose between the above and working on "moving MM5 forward", I would choose the later.

--
Thank you,
Gary Hodder
Support
--
CybrHost Corp. - http://www.cybrhost.com/ - info@cybrhost.com
+1-866-300-MIVA - Professional Miva & E-Commerce web hosting services

[agenius]

I don't know if I missed it or not, but is MivaMerchant getting it's own homepage. The link at the very bottom of the page is a bit tiny.

[leslienord]

Yup http://www.mivamerchant.com/