Open Realty Fork Discovered
Well after someone read my answer to the post in Open Realty vs EZ Realty I was advised that a fork exists of Open Realty called "Easy Pro Realty" and is already in beta 3.
I asked if they fear features being copied by Open Realty and they flat out told me they don't care. They took a list of all the commercial solutions offered in the Open Realty forums and had their programmers duplicate the general idea and then create them as standard features in the fork in hopes of offsetting the desire to copy their features making the fork moot. Clever move really and the addition of some brand new ways to handle templates will be a sure win for the fork.
Built apparently from version 2.4, they honor the Open Realty license in keeping the code open and providing the OR license tag, but they add additional features and modifications in accordance to the original license that make the product appear quite different. I'm not sure what that means but it sounded good when I was told about it.
They wont reveal much about the application fork but did say that CSV loader, google maps and customizable contact forms are standard features in addition to better design and layout features.
I told these developers they are more than welcome to the commercial plugins I've had like the Trulia and MoveChannel XML generators for Open Realty.
Apparently these guys examined Open Realty and dozens of other applications and found what many discover. Open Realty is a real good product absent the support forums and bad advise users end up with.
I hope to have a list of features sure to be copied by Open Realty this week when I get the email I was promised along with the outline.
Its interesting to see that others share the same belief about what a good real estate site should feature.
And yes, they claim to have fixed a pair of potential security issues currently present in Open Realty 2.4 but I've not yet been able to confirm this.
More when I discover more!
~ Jared
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