Wish A Call to Strengthen the B4X Community: Together We Will Make a Difference!

[carlos7000]

Dear B4X Developer Community,

I want to share with you my observations on the current state of B4X and B4A related searches on Google Trends, and what I have discovered has left me very concerned. I appreciate any correction if my interpretations are wrong.

The time has come to unite our efforts and collaborate to revitalize and strengthen our cherished B4X community. Undoubtedly, B4A and B4X have provided an exceptionally effective and user-friendly app development experience. The smooth learning curve and the satisfaction derived from working with these tools are unparalleled.

However, year after year, I notice less and less activity on the forums. In recent years, interest and activity around B4A and B4X have decreased, which is unfortunately confirmed by Google Trends searches. Despite this situation, I remain convinced that B4A and B4X have great potential worth noting.

Why is it imperative to act now?

Our dedication and participation are crucial elements for the future of B4A and B4X. Without taking concrete measures to promote and increase the visibility of these tools, there is a risk that their development may be compromised. The steward of B4X, Erel, has been incredibly generous in providing these tools to us for free or with minimal investment. However, it's important to remember that maintenance and support require ongoing resources and assistance.

It's time for action!

I extend a warm invitation to each member of our community to join in a collective effort to promote B4A and B4X. The encouraging part is that massive investments are not required; each one of us can make a valuable contribution.

1. Active Participation: Share your knowledge, questions, and solutions on the B4X forums. Let's keep the dialogue and collaboration active.

2. Advertising Campaigns: Let's leverage social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and other channels to spread the benefits of developing with B4A and B4X. A high budget is not necessary; small periodic campaigns can make a difference.

3. Collaboration: Let's consider making financial contributions to the B4X project. Every small donation adds up and contributes to the sustainable development and support of these tools.

4. Share Your Successes: If you've created noteworthy applications with B4A and B4X, share your achievements online. Inspiration is contagious. I suggest including a link to your app store in your signature, if you have one, so that we can all admire your creations and spread our passion for app development.

Together, we can invest in the future of B4A and B4X, ensuring they remain viable and exciting options for app development. Let's remember that as a community, we hold significant power to influence the direction of these tools.

Let's Talk to Erel!

Lastly, it would be enriching if Erel could provide us with an update on the current status of B4X, the number of active users, and the overall outlook. This would help us better understand the situation and plan our actions more effectively.

Conclusion:

Our community has the ability to transform this situation. Together, we can reignite interest in B4A and B4X, ensuring that these tools continue to empower app developers. Let's unite our energies and create a meaningful change.

My contribution: I would like to suggest that anyone who wants and can consider running occasional ad campaigns. Even a small investment can help a campaign reach thousands of users looking for a cost-effective and easy-to-use alternative to some of the existing options on the market.

 

[aeric]

What you have mentioned, I am continuous doing them everyday.
It is Erel's decision for his company roadmap regarding the marketing part.
However, as a "big fan" of this tool, I do whatever I think I should.
I wish I can create more YouTube tutorials and product demo to show the world.

 

[aeric]

A small contribution example is try to produce short videos, tutorials and blog.
@Mashiane is doing a great job in this area.

B4X in 3 minutes

I hope this video (B4X in 100 seconds) is available.

www.b4x.com

 

[Alessandro71]

Stack overflow and GitHub are influential on development trends.
more topics on B4X on those platforms may have an increased interest effect on people outside of this community

 

[Sandman]

I notice less and less activity on the forums

Really? I haven't noticed that at all. Granted, I haven't been a member as long as you have, but still. This is something that should be very simple for Erel to comment on, considering he's got the database and surely some statistics.

it would be enriching if Erel could provide us with an update on the current status of B4X, the number of active users, and the overall outlook

That would be great. I would also like to hear about Anywhere Software's current marketing efforts, the long-term vision for the company and the B4X products. I know Erel likes to hold the cards very close to his vest, but I sure would appreciate even a rough roadmap.

I would like to suggest that anyone who wants and can consider running occasional ad campaigns

I have to disagree hard with this. If you want to do it you should go ahead, but as far as I'm concerned it's the responsibility of Anywhere Software to do their own advertising. I'm fully satisfied with being a forum member, and trying to help out the best I can and be a positive influence here.


A final thought... Fairly often I see posts, the top one being one of them, that speak from a perspective that Anywhere Software is struggling and we really need to help them. I have never understood this. As far as I can tell Anywhere Software surely must be a healthy business making yearly profits from its products. It used to be B4A and B4i, but now it's only B4i (and the hosted server) as far as I understand it. The reason B4A was made available for free was because Anywhere Software raised venture capital from Leonid Radvinsky, a very successful investor with an interest in open source and other things. All in all, I don't get why so many treat Anywhere Software as if they need help because they are barely making it. If Erel couldn't make the financials work for Anywhere Software, he would raise prices. He hasn't, so everything is fine.

 

[aeric]

Someone may has the knowledge or skill on manipulating Google algorithm, I hope he can figure out the puzzle.

Many sites are not intelligent enough (even with AI nowadays) can't accurately differentiate between B4X and other similar BASIC variant languages. I am not sure it is done by purpose or what.

Check our GitHub repo for example. My B4X projects are detected by the engine as PureBasic, FreeBasic, VB.NET or VBA.

With Tiobe index where Visual Basic is ranking in front by fact I think is contributed by B4X.

The industry is measuring the statistics very wrong!
The crappy javascript that doesn't make sense created a lot of problems for students and make them posting more questions on forums and SO. This make it popular.

 

[epiCode]

Google trends is all about people making searches in google.
It is no way an indicator of how a product is doing.
At best, it can indicate "search" interest over a period of time on "google" for "specific" terms only.

 

[Magma]

Well... I must say that not thinking... with "statistics" and "numbers"... probably I must... but...

General, I think the biggest problem against human development is AI... and i think that the problem is for all programming languages...

 

[carlos7000]

What you have mentioned, I am continuous doing them everyday.
It is Erel's decision for his company roadmap regarding the marketing part.
However, as a "big fan" of this tool, I do whatever I think I should.
I wish I can create more YouTube tutorials and product demo to show the world.

I don't know much about B4a or B4X but I would also like to make some video tutorials, unfortunately, I don't have time or health. I'm still a big fan though.

 

[carlos7000]

A small contribution example is try to produce short videos, tutorials and blog.
@Mashiane is doing a great job in this area.

B4X in 3 minutes

I hope this video (B4X in 100 seconds) is available.

www.b4x.com

The video is sensational. I didn't know all that about B4a or B4x. I didn't even know that web applications could be developed, or so I understood.

 

[carlos7000]

Stack overflow and GitHub are influential on development trends.
more topics on B4X on those platforms may have an increased interest effect on people outside of this community

it's a very good idea

 

[carlos7000]

Really? I haven't noticed that at all. Granted, I haven't been a member as long as you have, but still. This is something that should be very simple for Erel to comment on, considering he's got the database and surely some statistics.


That would be great. I would also like to hear about Anywhere Software's current marketing efforts, the long-term vision for the company and the B4X products. I know Erel likes to hold the cards very close to his vest, but I sure would appreciate even a rough roadmap.


I have to disagree hard with this. If you want to do it you should go ahead, but as far as I'm concerned it's the responsibility of Anywhere Software to do their own advertising. I'm fully satisfied with being a forum member, and trying to help out the best I can and be a positive influence here.


A final thought... Fairly often I see posts, the top one being one of them, that speak from a perspective that Anywhere Software is struggling and we really need to help them. I have never understood this. As far as I can tell Anywhere Software surely must be a healthy business making yearly profits from its products. It used to be B4A and B4i, but now it's only B4i (and the hosted server) as far as I understand it. The reason B4A was made available for free was because Anywhere Software raised venture capital from Leonid Radvinsky, a very successful investor with an interest in open source and other things. All in all, I don't get why so many treat Anywhere Software as if they need help because they are barely making it. If Erel couldn't make the financials work for Anywhere Software, he would raise prices. He hasn't, so everything is fine.

I guess the activity increases or decreases seasonally. Due to the feeling of less activity on the forums, I turned to google trends. That's why I worry. that feeling is something very subjective

Regarding your final reflection, here is a saying that says. "When the river sounds, stones it brings". Which makes me think that there may be some truth in those comments. In fact, as I said, I have noticed over time a very slight decrease little by little in the activity of the forums. But like I said it's my perception.

 

[carlos7000]

Well... I must say that not thinking... with "statistics" and "numbers"... probably I must... but...

General, I think the biggest problem against human development is AI... and i think that the problem is for all programming languages...

with all due respect I believe the AI topic is for another thread. I think AI is like any other tool. Neither "good" nor "bad" (note the quotes). Whether it is good or bad depends on who uses it, how they use it and what they use it for. ChatGpt has helped me a lot. These days I need to use Mod and I didn't find any thread that worked for me. Chat gpt explained clearly and concisely how it is used and gave me a good example of its use.

Public Sub UsoDeMod(Numero As Int, Modulo As Int) As Boolean
    Dim Residuo As Int
 
    Residuo = (Numero Mod Modulo)
 
    If Residuo = 0 Then    'Si Valor es multiplo (Modulo)
        Return True        'Retorna True
    Else                   'de lo contrario
        Return False       'Retorna False
    End If   
End Sub

 

[carlos7000]

Well. I think my suggestions regarding the topic of this thread are superfluous. Thank you very much for all your comments.

 

[makis_best]

Maybe happening cuz some people here are unpolite to others.
I had experience like that and I try to avoid Forum as much possible.

 

[aeric]

with all due respect I believe the AI topic is for another thread. I think AI is like any other tool. Neither "good" nor "bad" (note the quotes). Whether it is good or bad depends on who uses it, how they use it and what they use it for. ChatGpt has helped me a lot. These days I need to use Mod and I didn't find any thread that worked for me. Chat gpt explained clearly and concisely how it is used and gave me a good example of its use.

Public Sub UsoDeMod(Numero As Int, Modulo As Int) As Boolean
    Dim Residuo As Int
 
    Residuo = (Numero Mod Modulo)
 
    If Residuo = 0 Then    'Si Valor es multiplo (Modulo)
        Return True        'Retorna True
    Else                   'de lo contrario
        Return False       'Retorna False
    End If  
End Sub

Please post your code and question in a new thread. You may get better answers.

 

[Magma]

Maybe happening cuz some people here are unpolite to others.
I hade experience like that and I try to avoid Forum as much possible.

I understand this, you are saying... but also have in mind a forum can also have polite users too.. is a small sample of our big human-society...

* For sure we need to have some knowledge of english to communicate... some users here require from others to have at least C2 cert - to answer them...
* I am sure that the only thing we need in a forum - is to follow the rules and have patience...

 

[Jmu5667]

This thread sounds like a lot of scareware. As a commercial developer, I make all my income from using B4X. Yet again we hear unfounded concerns. @carlos7000 what do you use B4X for. Erel is not stupid and flogging a dead horse.

 

[carlos7000]

Maybe happening cuz some people here are unpolite to others.
I hade experience like that and I try to avoid Forum as much possible.

You are absolutely right. Some people answer dismissively.

 

[Magma]

...Sorry... are we continue the thread... and trying to figure what's wrong with forum ? ...sorry but i am out of this....

I don't see anything wrong... after all was summer.... and the only one knows the real stats is the Creator of this Forum and of product... we are not here to discuss those things but our "problems"... to be solved... and as a member from 2013.... I always had solutions if i was moving too (like ancient greek saying)...

After all I am a happy user-client (you can tell it as you want) of Anywhere Software... I hope others too..

As for polite conversations and threads.... it's an other subject-Thread to create (if someone believes that can't find no-one here polite)