MSAS Customer Review

[TMYDesign]

This is not meant to belittle or put down the program in any way, but more to allow those running this forum to understand and read my experience with MSAS so far from a consumers perspective.

I purchased MSAS towards the end of April (23rd I believe). I spent the better part of a week setting up and implementing the program into my website (adding graphics, layouts, etc). It was about a week before I could gain access to the MSAS support section (2 months came with the purchase). I will assume that my 2 month support starts the day I was given access and not the date I purchased the program. If that is not the case, then you will understand my issue with the support system thus far.

A week later, my program stopped working on my site. I attempted to fix the problem myself, but to no avail. So I turned to the support center. Now the original ticket I put in was answered right away (within 24 hours), which is to be expected. The problem was while the issue stopped with that particular problem, it only added a new problem to the mix, which means my site is still not functioning properly. So I was forced to reopen a new ticket. Again, the first 2 responses were quick, but then they just stopped. I am told now that the support person is ill, which is the reason that I havent received a response, but I am sitting at now 3 weeks of the 4 weeks I have had MSAS that it has not worked. Worse, the 2 months I am given support is dwindling down by the day, and I have noticed that the support person has come in and posted messages within those 2 uncommunicative weeks.

I spent $100 on a program based off the user reviews of this forum. Many of the people that use the program successfully are happy with it, and I am positive once the program is functioning for me, I will be as well. If newer MSAS owners are beginning to experience problems with functionality and support as I am having, that leads to less than good reviews and frustrated users who spent money on something that isnt functioning. That is bad publicity for simply a lack of communication to your consumers.

Simply communicating can go a very long way. Even if its a message that says "we are working on finding a solution". It, at the very least, says we are not ignoring you and haven't forgot about your situation.

If you are short handed on support staff, you might want to try finding someone else who can help pick up the slack. Your consumers want to know that you support them and their business with you. I also understand that my experience so far may simply be a fluke and not the normal methods and standards withheld here, but its still my experience thus far. I hope this can help in any way.

[Smurfwicked]

Most of the issues I've encountered with the script have been fairly minor and easily resolved. When I upgraded to complete to get support my license key changed which reqiured a support ticket. And the other support ticket I am still waiting on the fix for the myspace app. The biggest thing I don't like is the encoding because I'm sure the encryption gets in the way of fairly php savy users from resolving their own issues not to mention modding.

A lot of people have messaged me asking me for help with this & that related to the script. I think a good bit of the problems are actually due to a modification that causes an error that the person isn't aware of what they changed or how to fix it back. I half-*** know what I'm doing and I always make of a copy/back-up of whatever file I'm working with when customizing or modding anything coded.

Also I think some people are attempting to run the script on hosting servers that are just flat out too slow to execute everything before "timing out" causing failed to execute errors.

Overall I still give the script a thumbs up. (Y)

[dartin]

Purchasing the MSAS script was my first venture in the world of MySpace resource sites. Probably a crazy thing to do considering the abundance of these sites and the move of many to Facebook. But I enjoy tinkering with things like this and challenging myself to learn something new.

I am sort of sitting on the fence with how I feel about MSAS. My app is approved at MySpace and I have been able to figure out how to make changes and do bits and pieces myself. But not being able to use all the features that were in the package is disappointing - plus not having someone around to answer support questions for long periods of time is never a good thing.

Have to agree with TMYDesign that communication is vital to keep good customer relations. If a promised date for tutorials, upgrades or whatever can't be met - keeping us informed is always appreciated.

[PalmOS]

I submitted a ticket and never got an answer, so I hope I don't run into major problems because I'll be fixing it myself. I'm not overly impressed myself either.

[KrazySlick]

Well i think this makes up my mind as to weather i am going to buy a copy of MSAS. I was thinking of grabbing a copy to run on a site just to have a chance to play around with it. But this puts a whole new outlook on my idea. Also support issues was the reason i sold my MSRS license to begin with.

[2charmed]

Being a newbie,this has definitely been a learning experience for me. My first problems were with hosting, it didn't work right from the get go on the host I initially installed it on. Support was good trying to get it resolved, but just wasn't cooperating and suggested I move to a new host, which I did.Then doing some modding caused some problems. Thank goodness for my fellow MSAS users to help me figure out what was wrong and how to fix. Thank you guys! Being a newbie at this, support is a must! Hopefully there will be more support staff soon.

With support missing I am leery of modding or even trying the tutorials, but I will make backups before trying as suggested.

Once everything is fully functioning I think it is going to be an awesome script.

[Greg-J]

Indeed, support has been slow the past two weeks. I've explained it before, but further explanation is in order.


Our entire url rewriting schema for the myspace app relies on taking specific variables in the url and using those to determine what MSAS should be doing when. Myspace introduced a new variable into their requests a mere week after release that just happened to share the same name as the variable we use to determine whether or not we're dealing with a content page. Unfortunately this caused havok on our the script and what I thought woudl take a mere day or two to fix, ended up taking what is no around 100 hours of rewriting, testing, rewriting, testing, etc. To compound the issue, myspace made changes to the profiles as well which killed several peoples live profiles, so we had to deal with that issue as well.

Needless to say, it hasn't gone smoothly. We took precautions so that if myspace decides to introduce more variables in the future, or make profile changes, it will not effect MSAS. A quick fix patch could have been released sooner, but I couldn't not take care of this now for two reasons: 1) In about a month a new support team will be taking over and I didn't want to leave them with a mess, and 2) I didn't want spend a week fixing something that could just as easily break again tomorrow.

Part of the problem with such a script and its reliance on myspace is just that, we're completely at the mercy of myspace. If it were just me fixing an app to run on my server it'd be no big deal, but we have to make sure each fix will work with everyone's site on all kinds of servers. It compounds the issues quite a bit.

Supporting any of these issues during this time is a moot point because all fixes would have broken the moment people updated, preventing people from updating properly and causing a whole host of problems in the future.

I'm doing the last round of testing today and will release this functional update tomorrow. Assuming that goes well, the feature update will follow and all will return to normal in the land of MSAS.

[dartin]

Greg - thanks for the update which is greatly welcomed

[2charmed]

Thanks for the update, encouraging news of a support team. :-)

[TMYDesign]

Thank you for the update, I certainly understand being at the mercy of MySpace and its incessant desire to constantly update and change itself. I can only imagine the frustration. There are many times from a simple design aspect that MySpace changes something causing me to go through and update over 40 client profiles (myspace music player was the most recent).

From a programming aspect, which I am virtually retarded on, I can imagine how much more fun it must be.

Again, thanks for the update...I will wait it out.

[mycutespace]

I personally am not happy with MSAS. I've been waiting for a while now, and I still can't even get it installed on my server. I can't upload anything, so it's pretty much no use to me. I've been posting in the support threads and whatnot, but I've had no replies at all. I can understand that Greg has other things that he has to do, but still. I've come to find out that it aparently doesn't work with my hosting, and I'm not going to change just for a script. I wish there would have been a warning about it before I bought it. Maybe there is one out there somewhere, but I didn't see it. I'm kind of disappointed in it :\.

[TMYDesign]

Any news or word on the functional update that was supposed to be released a week ago?

[Greg-J]

Yes, for numerous reasons it looks like Monday is the new target date.

[dartin]

Greg - did you perhaps check the other forum to see that a number of us have suddenly received a 'license disabled' message and no site or access to admin area, etc.

[minnseoelite]

Yes, for numerous reasons it looks like Monday is the new target date.

Could whatever changes you guys have made have anything to do with why a lot of us now have our license disabled?

[dartin]

Could whatever changes you guys have made have anything to do with why a lot of us now have our license disabled?

Good question - because it certainly isn't anything we have done.

[Greg-J]

No changes I have made no. I have made the server admins aware of it though and they're looking into it now.

[nsmchris]

well if it helps solve the problem, by MSAS license is no longer showing on Build Revenues.

[Greg-J]

BR has nothing to do with MSAS. It's an issue with authenticate.myspacepros.com and the server itself. I was assured this server would not have any issues and the admins know how important it is, so I'm uncertain as to why or how this issue has occurred. I'm aware it doesn't bode well for any of us though, and am anxious to get it fixed immediately.

[Greg-J]

This issue has been resolved.

[nsmchris]

Well like Rob said, can't the script be set so that authentication only affects the admin functionality? Or if the authentication server is down, that the default is for the script to work?

[2charmed]

Yes, for numerous reasons it looks like Monday is the new target date.

Which Monday? This Monday is almost gone.

[TMYDesign]

I finally got my MSAS working. Turns out that miracles can happen. Ever since I switched from Godaddy, so many good things have been taking place. So much happier. My MSAS is working, my site is faster.

Its gonna be a good day.

[ohhdean]

Wow! After reading this entire thread, I really am scared of MSAS. The only problem is that I already bought it. I'm hoping some of you will have some updates on how well your site has been running since you last posted.

TMYDesign's, what is your current hosting company? I highly doubt that my host will support this script.

[TMYDesign]

I am using Hostgator now. I was using Godaddy which is when I ran into so many different problems with servers, downtimes and MSAS just not working. Right now its just the actual MySpace application that isnt working properly, which seems is something that others are experiencing as well. I guess I am just waiting a bug fix for it.

[ohhdean]

I am using Hostgator now. I was using Godaddy which is when I ran into so many different problems with servers, downtimes and MSAS just not working. Right now its just the actual MySpace application that isnt working properly, which seems is something that others are experiencing as well. I guess I am just waiting a bug fix for it.

Thank you. I am hoping that it will all work out okay for me. I'm nervous. Does everything else work for the most part?

[TMYDesign]

Once I switched to HostGator, my MSAS started working great, which leads me to believe that Godaddy sucks my...toes...Ioncube was a breeze to install and get working...MSAS worked right away, and basically I am just waiting on the MySpace application. Perhaps now I can relish the glory that is the MySpace resource site...

[ohhdean]

Once I switched to HostGator, my MSAS started working great, which leads me to believe that Godaddy sucks my...toes...Ioncube was a breeze to install and get working...MSAS worked right away, and basically I am just waiting on the MySpace application. Perhaps now I can relish the glory that is the MySpace resource site...

Uh-oh.....what is Ioncube?

[TMYDesign]

LOL...its something you need to run MSAS

You can download it for free.
http://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php

Download it and follow the instructions. Its extremely easy. You basically just upload it to your root folder and activate the php urls to load them. Simple. There are instructions that tell you everything. Once its loaded, your MSAS will work properly.

[ohhdean]

LOL...its something you need to run MSAS

You can download it for free.
http://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php

Download it and follow the instructions. Its extremely easy. You basically just upload it to your root folder and activate the php urls to load them. Simple. There are instructions that tell you everything. Once its loaded, your MSAS will work properly.

Thanks. :)

[2charmed]

There are two other you can have too, Zend or Source Guardian or something like that. Ioncube is one of the options. So if your server supports any of the three you can download which ever one you want.

[ohhdean]

Does anyone run this script on shared hosting? I need to know your hosting packages before I go and buy something

[2charmed]

I know it doesn't work on hostmonster, nor will they support if you try.

[Smurfwicked]

Does anyone run this script on shared hosting? I need to know your hosting packages before I go and buy something

I have a hostgator reseller plan.

[ohhdean]

You can edit the way MSAS look right? The default is extremely ugly

[KrazySlick]

Are people loosing traffic & revenue due to this issue?

[mycutespace]

You can edit the way MSAS look right? The default is extremely ugly

Yes, you can edit it to whatever extent that you want. http://www.mysunwillshine.com/MSAS she has done an excellent job at that.

However - from my experiance, it's been extremely hard to do so, because there are so many files (css/php) that have strange names, and you have to sit there and look through to see what is what, etc. It also doesn't help that I can't upload anything and I keep getting errors, since it doesn't work with my host. So in the end, I wasted over a week ripping my hair out trying to template it, just to find out that even when I managed to somewhat get a template, I couldn't test it to see how it looked.

[Kelisha]

Yes, you can edit it to whatever extent that you want. http://www.mysunwillshine.com/MSAS she has done an excellent job at that.
xlove made my template =]

[2charmed]

Wow Kelisha, that is awesome, looks like you did some serious editing of the layout. Great job xlove did on the template!

[minnseoelite]

Does anyone run this script on shared hosting? I need to know your hosting packages before I go and buy something

I run on mediatemple shared hosting with no problems. And yes you can change the way it looks :)

[got2go]

Just an FYI - it works on Hostmonster for me with the Zend loaders.

[Jen]

I don't run it, but perhaps a thread made just for hosts that works and doesn't work would be nice for prospective users?

[pvtpyro]

When I purchased it I had hoped I could just install it, skin it and be good to go. It's a pretty nice script I'll give it that. So I am using something else until everything functions the way it should and the way I want it to.

The skinning is actually pretty easy.

The support is overpriced IMO. It seems like a one man show so i think the help forum needs to be open to every so we can help each other.

I think it's worth the price. and if you're willing to go live with the few set-backs it has you can still make a profit.

[TMYDesign]

Yes, for numerous reasons it looks like Monday is the new target date.


I guess to be fair, you never actually SAID which specific Monday. Kick me in the nuts for assuming...