Perch has a new home!

    This is great news for the community as I was dreading the prospect of having to go with a lesser alternative than my cms of choice.


    Many thanks to Drew and Rachel for releasing that rare beast that is both a genuinely useful product that is also fun and intuitive to use. Wishing you guys all the best in your future endeavours, and to the new team and the keenly awaited V4! *dusts off several paused Perch projects*

    Yes it is very exciting, and one can only hope that the fee is reasonable because the CMS is just great!


    Having a future for me means, no wasted years and preparation of new front end code for the version 4 release.


    That's what I love about Perch, I can focus on new technologies as they emerge, and not get bogged down in someone elses' code (hint wordpress).

    I installed my first instance of Perch a few days ago and, being a fan of fast web delivery, was delighted with the results on testing a page I was developing using Perch. I hope to be able to provide some new sites I have lined up over the next few months with this cms. Given how Google's rollout of new algorithms that include page load speed as a ranking factor, planned in may 2021 might affect demand for cms that don't slow sites down, I can foresee products like Perch coming to the fore. Best wishes!

    Quote from nascent

    and one can only hope that the fee is reasonable because the CMS is just great!

    Yes completely agree, the price is sadly very important!


    The current price makes it a genuine workable alternative to the major players, although i'm prepared to pay a little more. I'd also be happy to pay an annual subscription if it was reasonable.


    Ideally it would also get a bit of a facelift! Although I appreciate I can do some of this myself.

    Hi there!


    I'm so pleased there appears to be a huge appetite for V4; I've read so many positive comments and feedback and received some lovely emails.


    Please be assured this is our priority and beyond all doubt the project that drew our attention to the Perch community. So please bear with us while we finalise the roadmap and we will give further updates as they become available.


    George

    I really appreciate all the feedback and suggestions, we have appointed and briefed our Project Manager on the main objectives of Perch and she will be assigning tasks across her Development team. We will endeavour to give you further updates in due course, and when the times right, introduce you to our Project Manager.

    Hai George,

    Hope everything with the project is well on your end.


    On this end things aren’t so well. We (the customers) have been waiting a long long time for any new versions or updates or even news about Perch.


    I hoped the new crew would start communicating to us swiftly to reveal future plans, release schedules, new licensing structures or maybe ask for thoughts or just tell us the things you are struggling with. Just _some_ engagement with your customer base.

    But now it seems you have taken the same approach as the previous guardians of Perch have done in the last long period:
    Nothing - Just silence.


    Sorry for the negative comment, normally I’m more positive.
    Just it’s that I think it’s easy to write down some notes about how things are going. And let us know what you are up to or what you are thinking.

    From my point of view it looks unprofessional not to let the customers know what is going on and also in a way arrogant to just let them wait.


    A lot of your customers are resellers of Perch, people who build websites for their clients. I am. So we’re in the same boat. We also have a lot invested in Perch. We have build for Perch and we are your sales team.

    And right now you are neglecting your sales team.

    It is of course possible you see this differently, maybe you don’t need a sales team. I’m not your only client and surely not your biggest. But this is how I see it.

    Hopefully you will have some news to share in the near future, it would mean a lot to me. I love Perch, and would love to hear what you are busy with and maybe hear where Perch’s future will lead us.

    Thanks!

    René

    Quote from George G

    Project Manager .....Development team...... when the times right, introduce you to our Project Manager.


    edit. I wonder what version 4 features were in dev before it was sold? one wish item: search for things in the control panel and filter by type of item. I would like to filter out assets from searches as it makes finding collection items a pain when dozens of assets with similar names are polluting the results. Like code, can edit to make more efficient!

    The pattern of 'nothing... nothing... nothing... HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT... but then nothing' style of communication has been a fairly long term problem with Perch, particularly after version 4 was announced and never came. You, the new owners, have unfortunately inherited that. Lots of great members of this little community have gone because of that. And the remaining ones are exasperated. So that's something you need to fix.


    It's understandable that deadlines aren't always met and plans go a bit wrong but the silence is corrosive. It's essential that you talk to us a bit more.


    It wouldn't take much. And it doesn't all need to be directly about Perch's path forward, though that's something we do need to know.


    It seems like your putting a team together. It would be nice if members of the team said hi and talked to us more regularly so we can get a better sense of who you are. And there are some good ideas lurking here, so you should reach out for those.


    You should do that now. There are some long term community members who are very close to quitting. They'll be your most dedicated supporters and cheerleader if you talk to them. But the community will be difficult for you to rebuild if you leave it to crumble. And it's crumbling.


    Honestly, the previous owners seemed actively hostile. It's been undermining the community for years. Many long term users stopped posting to the forums because they didn't get much respect. We hope you're good people and that the future of Perch is secure, but there's a lot of doubt about that. You can assuage that if you talk to us a little more. Please!