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9 months ago I was asked by the CEO of Interspire to review their shopping cart software. I was provided with a copy of the software for free and set about doing my customary review process. Now, for those who do not know, I do not merely play with a demo to do a review, I actually build a site, so it takes awhile. Still, it doesn't normally take 9 months. The reason it has taken so long in this case is because I have been waiting for a feature, which thus far has been vaporware. More on that later.
Lets start out with what is perhaps the biggest complaint with Interspire, the pricing. This software is not cheap. For the purposes of this review I was given their ultimate edition, which clocks in at $1800, plus more if you want to be able to download upgrades. For a small time person wanting to merely get their feet wet with ecommerce, this would seem daunting. Still, in the grand scheme of things, $1800 is not a whole lot. You'd pay more typically to have a custom cart or site developed, and you'll likely make back your expenditure in no time. I like to tell people how I started my first ecommerce site (not my first profitable site, I took profits from my content sites to start it) with an initial outlay of $1200. That covered all my initial inventory, merchant account, SSL certificate, I used my existing servers for hosting, did my own design, and used free OScommerce. This site made $500,000 in gross revenue over the next 6 months. In retrospect I could have spent far more to launch the site and still been wildly profitable.
It isn't so much their upfront pricing that bothers me but rather their upgrade pricing, and in fact I've seen quite a few complaints about it from other users. Because I've been sitting on this review for 9 months I've actually experienced having to upgrade a couple times, and while it was free for me as part of the review, I do know that otherwise it would have been an egregious cost.
When first ordering your license you can sign up for maintenance that allows you access to upgrades for the period you request. This will add on an additional 20% to the product cost if you want a year of upgrades. But, it appears to me this covers only minor upgrades, not major upgrades. So if the software is updated from 4.0.5 to 4.0.6 it is covered, but you don't get the 5.0 upgrade, because that is a major one (read their upgrade policy). Most other places will give you the upgrade for free within a year, that is fairly standard in the software Industry, Interspire has only a 60 day window, after that you have to pay for it (but they give you a 50% discount on the retail price, still, it is a lot of money).
On October 13th 2008 Interspire officially released version 4.0, it reached 4.0.6 by the end of March 2009, when 5.0 was released, forcing people to reup. My charge would have been around $1200 had I not gotten it for free. Furthermore, I couldn't see what justified this being 5.0 instead of 4.1. When vBulletin (and I know I mention Jelsoft a lot, but they really are the pinnacle of website software in terms of customer service and whatnot) does a major upgrade, you know it, the new version is entirely different, it is an event. Interspire 5.0 has a lot of new features, but it is not a major upgrade in my opinion.
It seems to me like Interspire knows what their upgrade policy is and that they define product release milestones not by any accepted programming standards, but rather by what their budgetary needs are. I do not like this. I do not like this one bit. $1800 is a lot of money, but if it is a one time fee it is easy to justify, if Interspire is expecting you pay that every 6 months, then you've got a very high cost of ownership. Its one thing if they want to jump from 4.0.6 to 5.0 quickly if 5.0 is a major overhaul that changes systems to their core, it is a completely other thing where in any other software package the changes like with what you get with 5.0 would be considered a 4.1.
Now, as I said above, there are different pricing levels with different features, there are differences between the packages, the main one being product quantities. The cheapest package is $295 and includes capability for 100 products. The next one is $1000 and includes capabilities for 5000 products, and then the ultimate one I got that allows for unlimited products. There are other small differences and I urge you to compare them before making a purchase (if any).
Installing, Upgrading and Importing
Interspire has a very easy to use install & upgrade process, as I've mentioned I had to do it a couple times, very easy both times. My only issue is with the templates as I will mention below. Quick fast easy, no complaints here at all.
They also have importers for OScommerce, X-Cart, and CubeCart. I've not actually tried any of these. I'd be willing to try them if I had more licenses to play with and/or if Interspire started supporting dimensional shipping with UPS, but they are available.
Customer Experience
My main concerns are how easy is it to find a product on the site, add that product to the cart, and then buy the product. It is amazing how many carts mess this up. Interspire does a pretty good job with all of the above.
There are certain additions I've made in all carts I use to make it even better, I wouldn't expect the software to do these, because for all I know I'm the only one that wants them, but I do find them incredibly useful.
1. Really, really, explain to people what the CVV is when checking out with a credit card. I mean, show a picture (wikipedia has some as I recall), it is on the front on AMEX, and on the back on Visa, Mastercard, and Discover. It is amazing how many people get confused on this, and then don't check out. Interspire could do more here.
2. Make the final checkout button very prominent and flashy, flashing even. It is amazing how many people get that far and then don't click it, this is more a problem with OScommerce and their final confirmation screen that looks like a receipt but isn't, but still, it can't hurt any cart. A small template change I could do, or Interspire could do. If they do it it is permanent, if I do it I gotta redo it after every upgrade.
3. Stress to the people to put in the correct billing address when checking out with a credit card. Interspire does this really good actually. They put a second place for billing address right next to your credit card number on the form, and if you put in the wrong thing, the error tells you why it was wrong (address mismatch) and again, presents that form on the same page for you to fix. OScommerce requires you to manually go back a few steps in the checkout to fix it, annoying for the user, and then they don't buy from me.
Order Summary
Why is it so hard for some carts to provide a printable receipt after checkout? Honestly, Cubecart doesn't, OScommerce doesn't, what is the deal?
Interspire does not do it either when you select payment of check or money order (mail order form) they provide this sentence: "Mail a check or money order in US funds, along with a printed order summary, to:" But don't actually provide the order summary. I guess you have to wait for the email and print it out? What if you don't get it? Why not just put the order summary on that page?
When you pay with a credit card through authorize.net Interspire provides a link for the order summary, but again, why not put the order summary on that page? There is a ton of whitespace on it, fill that space up!
The email summaries they send are nice, put that content on the page seen after checkout.
I've got no complaints about the SEO for interspire's cart. They support friendly URLS, give you control over your meta tags (not so necessary but nice) and page titles (very necessary). There are no duplicate content issues with non-canonical URLs like you'll find in Cubecart with their reviews, or in OScommerce with a new URL for each way to view a product (from a category, from each category, from any category, or from the bestseller list or search results, blech!). There is nice keyword rich breadcrumb navigation, a nice text menu. From an SEO perspective it is an almost perfect platform. The one thing I might want is more product menu control.
For instance, it just lists all top level categories in alphabetical order. Great, but maybe I want to go two levels deep on my menu. Maybe I'd like to list a few of my most popular products indented under the category they belong too. Giving such products prominent menu links increases their intra-site link popularity, and is something I might want to do.
Category Management & Menus
Category management is good, other than the things mentioned above. I can drag categories to reorder them (though with a lot of categories, a numbering system might be easier). Categories can have their own custom template specified for display, which is a really cool feature, they can have images and you have full control over their title and meta tags. All told, Interspire has a fine category system.
On the menus, as I mentioned above, I'd like a little more control. I'd especially like the ability to put in headings (since I can't do multi-level category listings). For instance say I ran a site for "Birds and Blooms" (a real-life gardening & birding magazine) I might want a heading for "Birds" with all the applicable product categories below it, and one for "Blooms". This can be achieved with allowing selective multi-level display of categories (showing the top level category, and the next level down where indicated by the admin). Or with a sectioning system, either way, it'd be a good feature.
Customizing Templates
Interspire is by far, hands down, the easiest cart I've ever had to skin, it is miles ahead of anything else. First of all, it has a wordpress like one-click install of a new template you can download from their free template library. Chances are you'll find one with a color scheme you like, then you can easily do the few customizations you need to do, such as specifying your logo image.
Secondly, they have an awesome inline-editing tool whereby if you're logged in as an admin and you're viewing the site you have the option to edit the page you're currently viewing. It is an extremely intuitive tool, I could figure it out without looking at any reference documentation. You can do some point-click-drag editing dragging boxes around the page, or open up the files (again direct from this interface) and move the content that way. You can also use this tool to discover which files are responsible for markup you're selling, it tells you. No more having to play "guess the template" when figuring out which file you need to open to make a small change to your template.
Thirdly, their markup is extremely clean, well commented, and intuitively named. A CSS class name lets you know what it is for, it isn't just some programmer's shorthand like .crc (center right column? I'd rather not guess thank you). So if you do need to do some hard editing (and I didn't) you're good to go.
You can also of course edit the textual content of various pages from the backend, and in fact the cart even includes a quasi CMS for articles/pages of content or store news. As well as the content of any store emails.
The one problem with this whole system is upgrades can break your templates, even the ones you've gotten from Interspire, and to fix it you need to get the new version that they provide, which overwrites all your changes. It would be nice if, perhaps, it only overwrote the templates you had not changed from the default, and for templates you HAD changed it gave you a side by side comparison to help you port over the changes to the new files… like vBulletin does it for instance.
So, the few minor changes I've made have to be redone at times, and that does get annoying.
Adding Products
Interspire has some of the best product adding features I've seen, with a few caveats. You can easily add all the product information, all the standard stuff, they have a very nice WYSIWYG editor, and it is easily to select one or more categories. They also allow you to select shipping weight AND dimensions (though they do not use those dimensions with UPS). You can also add a fixed shipping cost, on the product (most other carts allow that merely for your whole store) and you can offer free shipping, again, just on that one product. I appreciate that flexibility.
You can also turn on inventory tracking on a product by product basis, there are options for fill-in-the-blank fields for customers to fill in during checkout, and product level discounts, all really accessible. One really cool feature I've not seen elsewhere is the option to specify the template file for displaying the product page. This means that you can use different templates for different products really easily, how cool is that?
There are also tags, page titles, meta information, all for you to fill out as well, and some accounting software settings I don't use, but if you want to integrate your cart with accounting software, I'm sure you'd like them.
The images leave something to be desired. I've seen carts that allow one image, and I've seen carts that allow more than one. Never have I seen a cart that allows 5 images, but not more. It would seem to me once you code the many::one image to product relationship, your software should be able to support any number of images, or certainly more than 5. This arbitrarily limit should be lifted. You should be able to upload any number of images that are automatically resized into thumbnails for a public gallery page as necessary.
Finally, there are product variations….
Product Variations
The main problem with Interspire's shopping cart is their horrible product variation system. By "product variation system" I mean that system found in shopping carts whereby you can create options for a product, such as colors, or sizes, thus allowing someone to buy a shirt in x-large and green.
The way Interspire has their system is extremely powerful, more powerful in fact than most other carts I've tried, it is also extremely excruciating to work with.
The power, and the problem, is that Interspire allows you to set option details for every possible configuration. Blue in small, blue in medium, blue in large, blue in x-large, green in small, green in medium, green in large, green in x-large. And so on. And when I say they "allow" you to do this, I really mean require, because there is no other way to use their system. So, thinking ahead, what you end up having to do is fill out a row of form fields (including possible image upload) for the product of the number of product options multiplied together.
If your product has only a few scant options, this is not a big deal, but if your product has more options, boy howdy. Suppose you were selling engagement rings, you have a ring and first you must choose a ring size, 5-15, in whole and half sizes. 20 options right there. Then you have to choose a finish (silver, 10k, 18k, 24k white or yellow golds, platinum, tungsten, titanium, carbon, stainless steel). 12 more possibilities. Then you need to choose diamond size, setting, and cut. Say 6 different options for each. Giftbox, yes or no? 2 choices. So, just in this example, you have 20*12*6*6*6*2 = 103,680 rows of form fields to fill out. This is not a joke, this is not an error, this is the sad truth. I've had browsers crash using their shopping cart because I did not have enough RAM to display the page that was generated. Another user posted a complaint on their forum and for good measure he copied and pasted the entire thing into the forum, it took him over 25 posts to get it all (with the per post character limit).
Technical issues aside, how do they expect someone to sit and fill out all that information? The cheapest data entry person in the world is still going to break your budget for having to do that much work for a single product, yes, a single product. You'll have to do this for each product on your site that has options.
Every other cart I have ever seen does this better. For instance, a 1 carat diamond may add $1000 to the base price, you don't have to type that in a thousand times, you type it in once and the software knows to apply it to every size, setting, and cut option. Doing these kind of repetitive iterations are why computers were invented in the first place, why does Interspire not take advantage of that ability?
Now, they way they do it is powerful. For instance suppose one particular build is more expensive than others, say, a size 15 ring costs more because it uses more metal, but how much more it costs depends on the metal used. Using their system I could go in and specifically define this, I can't do that with other carts. But with other carts I can otherwise get the product entered in minutes, not weeks.
I don't know why they have not fixed this yet. As I said before I was asked by their CEO 9 months ago to review their software, and I noticed this issue right away, and I told them about it, and they said they'd fix it. Maybe there was a misunderstanding, but it hasn't been fixed, and me waiting for it to be fixed is why this review is so late.
They don't have to scrap their variation system entirely, they merely need to make two front ends for it. One, allowing the computer to take user-inputted rules and fill in all the blanks, and the other to allow the user to go in and manually edit any one of the rows as needed. They can even do it with a little javascript scriptlet. In fact, if they don't do this, I may hire someone to do it myself, it'd be an extremely small job, and probably take a day of work at the most. It would be the equivalent of using excel or another spreadsheet, highlighting a column, and doing "fill down" with some value.
The second problem with product variations is the frontend. The way they are displayed in the template is completely obtuse and hinders purchase decision making by the consumer. Many shopping carts will display the options, and next to them they will display the price for that option. Interspire does not, instead they force you to select the option and then the price on the page changes, and if you're good at mental math maybe you can do a quick calculation in your head to figure out how much that option cost you. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want to force my users to have to do mental math to spend money with me. I want to make it as easy as possible for them to spend money with me.
Users who use price in their purchase decision (which is most users) will want to know how much options cost them up front without having to play "tour the dropdown list." Like in a restaurant you can get a steak, smothered with mushrooms is a dollar, cheese is another dollar, add salad bar for $3.99. Users then make a decision based on how much they want to eat and how much they want to spend. Contrast that with just a vague mention on the menu of "Mushrooms and cheese are extra, as is salad bar, when you order your server will tell you how much extra." Who would like that?
I prefer using radio buttons for option selections (like OSCommerce does I believe) with the price increase (or decrease) displayed next to each option. Users can then easily see what options cost them and make their decision appropriately.
I'm not saying Interspire has to do it only my way, but doing it only the way they currently do it is a bad idea, they should at the very least provide an option to store admins for a variety of ways to display product options.
Authorize.net Integration
I don't try out every payment gateway when I review a shopping cart, I try out the ones I use, and I use authorize.net.
Interspire's integration leaves something to be desired, specifically they leave many fields blank, and improperly use others. This limits the usefulness of Authorize.net. I've had a custom cart developed, and paid less than $1000 for it, and that included an entire site, I paid less for it than what Interspire charges for their best cart, and it included a more fleshed out Authorize.net connection function.
To be specific, in the below transaction receipt EVERY FIELD under "Billing Information" should be filled out and EVERY FIELD under "Shipping Information" should be filled out. Additionally, under "Order Information" the "Description" field should not just redundantly list the order number. It should, instead, list the actual description of your order, ie, the contents of it. "1 diamond ring, pack of cheetos" like most other carts do, and like what Authorize.net says the field is supposed to be used for.
Merchant : StoreName.com (5555555)
Date/Time : 11-May-2009 02:42:07 PM
Invoice : 1
Description : Your Order From StoreName (#1)
Amount : 49.95 (USD)
Payment Method : Visa
Type : Authorization and Capture
Response : This transaction has been approved.
Authorization Code : 05555B
Transaction ID : 555555555555
Address Verification : Street Address: Match — First 5 Digits of Zip:
Customer ID :
First Name : joe
Last Name : smith
Company :
Address : 123 Main Street
City : Springfield
State/Province : MS
Zip/Postal Code : 55555
Country :
Phone :
Fax :
E-Mail :
First Name :
Last Name :
Company :
Address :
City :
State/Province :
Zip/Postal Code :
Country :
Tax :
Duty :
Freight :
Tax Exempt :
PO Number :
Like most carts there is a bevy of shipping options, the one thing I care about though is missing. Support for UPS shipping based on package dimensions. I don't know if most shopping cart developers get that two boxes can weigh the exact same amount and yet one can cost hundreds of more dollars to ship because of product dimensions, this is true on air and International shipping. UPS supports this in their API, Interspire allows you to specify dimensions on the product screens, why not connect the dots? This feels like a perpetual complaint of mine, most carts fall short here. OScommerce has this as a contribution you can install, CREloaded contains this out of the box. And X-cart supposedly does too. Interspire though falls short. Supposedly this is high on their list of priorities to add in the future though.
One thing they do that is really nice, that some other carts do not do, is have shipping zones. So you can offer say, UPS for domestic shipping and USPS for international, or free domestic and paid international. This is one thing I miss with my OScommerce stores.
Interspire has amazing profession reporting features, blowing any other cart I've used out of the water. Easy Google analytics and Adwords integration, real-time graph generation, all out awesome stuff.
But perhaps the most important report they left off.
This is something where I think sometimes the developers could benefit from shadowing an actual merchant, or perhaps a US merchant, maybe it is different in Australia. Here, in the US, most merchant have to collect sales tax, and like every other cart Interspire has a zone system for sales tax collection settings. But, in addition to collecting tax, we then have to forward that tax money to our state governments, usually once a month, sometimes more or less often. Most shopping carts include a "sales tax report" that lists the taxes collected by month. This is awesome, this is great, this is absolutely necessary. Without such a report you need to go through, viewing each order, and manually add up by hand the tax collected. Actually, last time I had to do this manually, I used an custom SQL query I ran against the database directly, but still, it took more work than what I can do now with other carts, which is click a link in the admin and get a list of monthly revenue with tax & shipping broken out.
Minor Bugs
Interspire doesn't list the version number of your current install in the backend, nor is it easily found in the header of source files. At one point I forgot which version I was running and had to go look at the original zip file from the original download. This is just weird. They do send upgrade notices telling you of a new version, but they don't let you know what version you currently have. I've never seen any software, shopping cart or otherwise, that doesn't remind you which version you're running in the backend.
There is no way to set an SSL domain. You can turn SSL on or off, but not set your SSL domain. I've never seen another cart leave that out, you shouldn't always assume that if your URL is www.example.com your SSL domain will be exactly the same, at the very least "www" usually isn't included, but sometimes (especially people on shared hosts who use shared SSL) it is something wholly different.
Order Management
Their Order Management is awkward, and perhaps better than Cubecart, but I like OScommerce over Interspire here. First of all, they make it somewhat difficult to email customers a message about their order. For one, you can't even do it unless you buy the most expensive cart (emailing customers about their order is now a premium option say what?), then it is just awkward. You can't do it on main order screen, or while updating an order to mark it as shipped with a tracking number. You must click a message link to open a new page to view or send any messages, then there is no way back, you can only go to your mass order list and find the order you were working on again, not that easy to use. Time is money and the extra time it takes to email customers, something that will need to be done often, hurts. I much prefer OScommerce. You have a checkbox to indicate if the customer will be emailed when you update the status, yes or no, on every status update. This is really nice. And then of course a text box for putting in comments that can be included with any such update. Quick, easy, powerful. This is the type of feature you take for granted in software like OSC, but when it is gone you realize how important it was.
To make this even worse, the message you enter with Interspire doesn't even get emailed to them. They mere get emailed that a message was sent, but to read it the customer has to visit your site and login. What a hassle. Why not just email them the message, add a link to reply if you want to track replies, but let the customer read the notice from their email software.
Final Thoughts
I don't know how to feel about Interspire. On one hand, they have a nice outreach system at ideas.interspire.com and at first blush they seem to really care to make the product their customer's want. On the other hand there was this snafu over the product variation upgrade I was told would be included in a release, and I've also heard reports of them censoring ideas posted when they involve pricing complaints. Then yes, the pricing. Interspire is one of the best carts I've used. The issues I have with them are issues I feel strongly about, but I also think they could be easily rectified making Interspire a cart that fits my needs perfectly. On the other hand they're expensive, and they seem like a greedy company that will manipulate their upgrade policy to get the most possible dollars from their customers in a sly way. If they really wanted more money they could just charge more up front, but they don't, so people feel tricked.
In the end I would call Interspire a Ferrari with no wheels stuck up on cinder blocks. It is high end, with a lot of features, and a high cost of ownership what with repair costs and insurance. But because of the hobbling of the product variation system it really doesn't have the wheels to make it go.
Can I recommend them? The only thing that gives me pause is their pricing. I've found tons and tons and tons of complaints on the Internet about their pricing and upgrade policies. Do I want to recommend them and get you locked into having to pay thousands of dollars a year for minor upgrades? Could you find other carts that do better or the same, for less money? I think their cart is worth the initial price tag, I'm just not sure they as a company care about the customer so much as the customer's wallet and how best to milk it. I also, obviously, cannot recommend them for any site that needs to ship large packages, or sells any product that needs variations or options, if you try to use it with either of those you'll just be swimming up stream.
If Interspire fixed their product variations and released an equivalent of OScommerce's UPS XML Dimensional Support contribution, and I got a better vibe from them in regards to upgrade pricing, such as a change in their policy, and their importers work. I would probably import at least one, possible more, of my existing stores onto their software. But there are a lot of "if's" there. So until all that happens, I think I'll have to keep looking for my vBulletin of the shopping cart world.
The next cart I plan to review is X-Cart, and as always if you're a shopping cart company I'd be glad to review your software.
Hello chris, I am really happy to have found this page with a real accurate review written by you. While i was searching the net i was tired of finding reviews that only praised Interspire Shopping Cart. While i was having difficulty in getting so many things customized. I was wondering how any body can write only +ve reviews. You have really bought the correct issues in front the same things what i feel you have written in this review. It is really like swimming upstream when we have a lot of variations and dynamic options coming up. My company has asked me to review the Interspire shopping cart and told me to get through with this i was wondering what to report to the company as this product is like a wild horse which is difficult to train and make it perform the jingles desired by us it is only good at what it is built for running and running fast but in my case i don't want a running horse i want t tamed horse that is a highly customizable shopping cat in terms of options and variations and ease of coding which i find very difficult to achieve with this shopping cat. Can you help me in how to report to the company that this is difficult to customize as the programming used by this cart is difficult to understand and put in our customized options is even more difficult.
Thank You
Thank you for your review. I am in the marketing department at Interspire and would like to clarify a few things.
Interspire makes it policy that any upgrade released is actually a major upgrade. These occur once a year on average and are designed to more than justify their cost to the user. There is no forced upgrade. Smaller releases are indeed free.
You can create product codes for variations by selecting the product, going to "Inventory Tracking" and then selecting "Track inventory by product variations".
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at email@example.com.
In response to Michelle Greer's comment:
She left out the fact that if you choose not to upgrade more once, you will have to pay FULL PRICE for the upgraded version of Interspire. This is on top of the continual yearly maintenance fee. They really need to change this policy so that the upgrades can be purchased at half price ANY TIME for their valued customers regardless if it's one or ten upgrades away from the version they have. I will have to strongly agree with Chris that this policy is very much a matter of greed.
This is such a great review that I hope every prospective Interspire customer reads it and this will make Interspire change it's policy on this issue. I am considering changing carts purely because they implemented this new policy that locks you in to continual payments to them. Otherwise, it is a solid cart (with a few complaints mentioned in Chris's blog)
Features that are not there:
1. No insurance;
2. Manual CC transactions – unable to read CCV code on the back end;
3. Huge coupon issue: instead of taking $x off order, it takes $x off every item in the cart.
ISC recently allowed to use shared ssls, as well as ssls on other subdomains.
Alex. Storing the CCV code anywhere is against CC regulations. If you're caught doing it you can have your merchant account shut down and yourself black listed. They are very very clear about that. The only place the CCV code is allowed to be printed or stored is the back of the card (or front for AMEX). Merchants are not allowed to store it, anywhere, at all.
Chris: Thank you for saying what I've felt for a very long time.
Your review will be required reading now for anyone who asks me about Interspires Shopping Cart, why I use it and why I don't recommend it at present.
For anyone reading Michelle's response, please note that it does absolutely nothing to deal with the massive number of issues noted.
As for the Upgrade policy, this was retroactively employed after version 4.0.2 (or there-abouts). Many of the features promised in 4.x were shifted to 4.5 which was relabelled into a "major" upgrade of 5.x as a cynical attempt to raise more cash. Commercial necessity or greed? Personally I put it down to a diabolical lack of business, development and/or communication plan.
Ultimately there is no "average" by which to judge the number of "major" upgrades per year as this was the first one in quite some time. So unfortunately Michelle is making it up as she goes along.
Finally, all those who purchased 4.x before 5.x was announced were promised that they could continue to use 4.x and continue to purchase maintenance as the two versions would be maintained in tandem, presumably for 6 to 12 months. Since approximately a month ago it's been impossible to do so, and 4.x has only been out for 4 months. It's blackmail, pure and simple.
Anyway… The sooner Interspire deal with their rectally encephalitic attitude to customer opinion and listen to feedback the better, otherwise reviews like this will only intensify in number.
so when will you post the x-cart review?
cuz i am also doing evaluation of x-cart vs interspire …
"For a small time person wanting to merely get their feet wet with ecommerce, this [$1800,] would seem daunting."
Haven't read all of the review but it gets off to a bad start. What is a "small time person?" Assuming you made a profit of $250,000 (your gross being $500,000 you say), is that your idea of small? If that is your profit line, spending $10,000 on a cart is peanuts and ISC doesn't cost anywhere near as much — and we all know these costs are tax write offs, so the cost of buying a cart is even less than it appears at first sight. If you are a "small time person," you can use the starter edition or the pro edition, which cost a lot less.
Template upgrades is made easier with 5.0. You need to copy file from the _master dir to your template dir, which then takes precedence over the version in the _master dir, and edit the copy. When templates are updated, you won't lose your changes.
As for upgrade policies, sure everyone wants everything for free but unless your profits are microscopic, it is affordable. If your profits are microscopic, you should really be using eCommerce, or even X-Cart, etc.
Someone comments, "They really need to change this policy so that the upgrades can be purchased at half price ANY TIME for their valued customers regardless if it's one or ten upgrades away from the version they have."
Which universe do these people live in? Not one of commerce, that's for sure. I suspect people who have such views are "box shifters" and not creators or developers or have ever invested a penny in R&D. There are NO free lunches. To make such a policy work, someone will have to pay more. I would rather it was the person who skips versions.
There are good customers who come back because THEY value your software and support and bad customers who sit on their arses and moan and groan — while they make a profit enabled by your sweat and tears and massive overheads and loans.
Here's a bit of news: no one forces you to buy ISC! If you try it and you are not happy, they give you your money back within 60 days of making a purchase.
"Interspire doesn't list the version number of your current install in the backend, nor is it easily found in the header of source files."
Try Tools > System Info. Hell, I haven't a clue about building sites or eCommerce but I could work that one out. Why can't you as a reviewer before writing damning reviews? Much of which is just "I wish" and not very informative, BTW.
If I were asked to review this review, I would give it 6 out of 10. No, on second thought, 4 out of 10.
I'm also a log term Interspire customer and have to say the newly (with the release of ISC) introduced update/upgrade policies are robbery it's like holding your customers ransom.
I only can comment the reviewer for writing a true review and not a PR Marketing pitch for interspire and can only agree to his review.
I also do not recommend Interspire any-more and would not purchase further products.
It's a shame to see a great company going down because of greed and watching out for short term gain. Whoever developed the new business strategies for Interspire did certainly not do Interspire a favour in the long run.
Well Walrus, I am not small time, but I am not so arrogant as to assume everyone is as wealthy and successful as I am. I write my reviews for people like myself, but also for Joe Smith who just got laid off and needs to find a way to feed his family and has an idea to start an Internet business.
I also cannot review software in a vacuum. I have to consider the other options out there, what features they offer, and their pricing model. What is more I even for this review considered the pricing model of all software I could think of, from other carts, to other web scripts, to desktop applications, to Microsoft Windows. And Interspire's pricing model doesn't match any of those, it is so far from the standard in the software industry.
Oh and I'm not sure if you know what a tax writeoff is.
You can't actually write business expenses off against your tax bill, only against your income, to lower your overall taxable income. So if you have a writeoff of $1000, and your tax rate is 30%, by making the expenditure you're saving $300 in taxes, but you're still spending $700.
If you're a business owner that $700 comes out of your pocket directly.
This is of course true of all expenses a business accrues. Business owners who nonchalantly spend too much because they can "write it all off" are the ones who end up broke and out of business. The ability to deduct expenses does not create wealth nor does it make those expenses free.
sorry for budging in
was finding a review for shopping carts
im thinking why would someone not use a ISC cart when it's laying around in the net for free??
A couple of things that might have changed since you wrote the review (They're changed in my installation at least):
1) The version number of the software is listed on the home page of the Admin Control Panel and in the System Information menu (Tools -> System Information), so no, you don't need to pull up the original installation zip file to figure out the version number.
2) The review mentions Ultimate Edition, which is indeed $1800. It's also the premium product. I use Starter Edition ($300) and I'm ridiculously happy. If you have a larger store, Professional will almost certainly fit all of your needs. Here's a list of features:
3) The SSL domain can be set as of 4.0.8 and 5.0.4.
I personally love the software, and don't feel any pressing need to update or upgrade my store. If I did, I'm sure I'd be happy to pay any fee. One other thing that's not mentioned in this review is that in 5.0, Interspire gave away their Yahoo Shopping and Google Base addons for free whereas in 4.0, they're sold for $299 each. That makes the upgrade fee make much more sense to me
Chris, a very fair and accurate review but your review doesn't cover ongoing support, which is most definately should in the case of Interspire. They do not offer ANY support in UK working day timezone plus their support (based in Australia) doesn't work over the weekend! UK/Eurozone users beware – one problem requiring support and your shop could be offline for three days while you wait for support to clock-in!
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the review (both the kind words and the not so kind), and thanks to everyone for leaving comments.
We of course take all feedback seriously – both from customers and those reviewing our software, and your feedback has been noted and will be implemented in future releases.
I just wanted to clarify a few things about our upgrade policies:
1. Minor updates (bug fixes) are free if you have a valid support contract. All purchases include at least 3 months free
2. We only release one paid upgrade per year, and that release is chock full of new features. For example our 5.0 release had discount rules, custom form fields, agree to terms during checkout, tabs on product pages, re-ordering, export to any accounting system, add multiple products to your cart at once, products with delivery/event dates (flowers or concert tickets), a new dashboard, more payment providers and Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing addons now included free – you can see the "What's New" page here: http://www.interspire.com/shoppingcart/whatsnew.php
It's completely optional to upgrade, and if you don't we still support the version you're on until your support period expires (which you can renew for a small fee)
3. We have a team of support engineers in Australia but also have a team of dedicated engineers in our Austin, Texas office, which overlaps with UK timezones by 3 hours a day. Over the last few months we've been laying the foundation to start offering phone support to our customers and will be lauching it very soon.
In terms of price, our Ultimate edition is $1,795 and it is targeted to those who are either a) already running a store and looking for more functionality and ease-of-use or b) those with an existing retail presence looking to move online with minimal effort and maximum profit. We've had customers spend just $1,795 who are now turning over tens of millions of dollars from their online store, so it really depends on what you sell and how you sell as to the value you extract from the product.
The product is priced to include technical support – and not canned response support. Each of our engineers has at least 5 years commercial experience building and supporting web-based software and that costs money. We could outsource our support, but that would sacrafice quality which is something we'll never do.
In regards to frequent releases, because our software runs on tens of thousands of server config combinations, unfortunately we can't test every single combination before release. When we do find a bug related to server compatibility, it's fixed as a matter of urgency and included in our minor updates – which are generally released every 3-4 weeks. This may sound like we put out a lot of releases, but we do develop using agile methodologies and so have a "ready to ship" release every few weeks. Compare this practice to a SaaS or hosted ecommerce software provider who pushes up fixes daily, and even hourly, and you'll see what I mean.
We're also in the beta phase of launching a completely hosted version of Interspire Shopping Cart at http://www.bigcommerce.com – there's even a 100% free plan which lets you sell up to 20 products. The plan is free for life and you don't even need to enter a credit card, so that's how we're catering to all segments of the market. The hosted version of course includes free automatic upgrades and support for life.
As everyone knows, there's ecommerce software for the lower end of the market (OsCommerce, X-Cart, BigCommerce) as well as the upper/enterprise end (Interspire Shopping Cart, NetSuite) and price point is just one of many factors business owners use to evaluate their options.
Since launching Interspire Shopping Cart in late 2007 we've had close to 10,000 store owners use the software to sell online, including Wayne Gretsky, Logitech, Layne Beachley, John Maxwell and thousands of SMEs and enterprise companies, who have collectively sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products online, and of course we have room to improve, but of course we can't please everyone.
As Chris mentioned, we do have our ideas lab at http://ideas.interspire.com where we take feedback for new ideas in a "digg like" voting system. We also reach out to customers there, conduct regular surveys (both over the phone and using Survey Monkey) and have meetings with our partners and resellers to work out how we can better meet their needs.
Customers are also encouraged to reach out to me via email – mitch [at] interspire {dot} com with any questions, ideas or concerns. We don't have hierarchy here at Interspire and that lets us stay as close to our customers as we can.
Once again Chris, thanks for the review and your honest feedback. Also thanks to everyone for commenting – I read every review written about our products, both the good and the bad.
Mitchell Harper
Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer
I'm a customer of Interspire of almost a year, and although I don't mind the price tag (it is truly well designed in the back-end, and light years ahead of other shopping carts as far as ease/speed of use goes), I do have some concerns.
My main gripe at the moment is that returns can only be made as a dollar amount, and not by line item. If a customer purchases 10 items and returns one (say, for $50) — when we refund her that $50 (again, for one item), the entire order is marked as "returned" and ALL 10 items from the order are then added BACK into inventory. Then, we get to take each and every thing that wasn't returned back OUT of inventory. Insane, right?
Also, Interspire does not hook up with any larger order management companies, and the statistics in the back end are not entirely accurate (with sales, since refunds are calculated all wrong, as well as traffic/visitors). Since the returns functionality is useless, so would any reporting that could be generated as far as return percentages, items most returned, etc.
Support can also be slow at times.
The AJAX one page checkout rules.
Everything else rules.
But…my business is suffering because of these very, very basic flaws. The returns issue is absolutely a flaw, and should not be considered a "feature", which I have been told via customer support it is.
My two cents.
Hello, I have read your review and this it is a very good review that brings up a few questions?
To me the price point to buy the Interspire software is ok if that's all you had to buy? It is the maintenance and upgrade policy that is a problem. Is that correct? What do you folks think a good maintenance and upgrade pricing package should be?
I'm looking at a few Ecommerce packages and have it down to a few including Magento but that may be over kill for me at this point.
Any other suggestions on other Ecommerce software that have most of these same features?
@Dave, if you are interested in **hosted** solutions check out 3dcart. I am currently evaluating Interspire's hosted service Bigcommerce against 3dcart. Both are hosted, similar pricing, use html/css templates, similar level of features including SEO friendly options. 3dcart has more features but I really like Bigcommerce's slick backend and fresh looking templates (this one can be fixed at 3dcart if you have the time to customize the templates.) Ideally I would like to see Bigcommerce close the gap on functionality with 3dcart and assuming decent tech support it would be a no brainer for Bigcommerce.
From a tech savy newbie with a few simple html sites and one tortured customization of oscommerce under his belt.
Good Luck!
Can I just say, thank you for reviewing Interspire fairly.
I decided to go with Interspire after months of whittling down the various shopping carts. I spoke at the time to their sales person who was very helpful and promised the sun moon and stars. Perhaps I should have twigged but unfortunately, decided that as he seemed to know what he was talking about it should be ok.
Sadly not.
I am now almost a year down the line and I kid you not, they still haven't completed my site. I paid a price we agreed verbally for skinning my existing site onto the ISC, under the agreement that a few tweaks to the functionality would also be made.
I've given up on the majority of the tweaks but there are still a couple that are crucial and, though I keep being told they're working on it, I've yet to see results.
It's such a shame that a seemingly good software is ruined by a complete and total disregard for customer service.
I do still think that the software is good, not perfect but not bad for the money (if you're willing to take it as it is without thinking you'll have any the upgrades later, which can cost a fortune). But unfortunately, I've yet to see it in action – and I have lost literally thousands in lost sales in the process.
Have you tried ecommerce solutions in other frameworks e.g. http://satchmoproject.com (Django based) or http://spreecommerce.com/ (Ruby based) as almost all free/low-cost (less than $1500~2000) solutions I have seen are PHP based and very lacking in many ways, especially in terms of general speed (e.g. Magento looks good but is very slow) or reliability/managability (Interspire looked good but reading the MANY reviews like yours puts me off)?
Have you considered creating a Top10 list of your favourites? I'd be interested to read it as from what I can gather, you actually do a full-lifecyle test (and not just play with the demo).
The only other store that catches my eye is http://www.prestashop.com, but frankly think that using Satchmo may be the best solution as it is getting a lot of positive press in the Django/Python/Ruby world especially from people who do ecommerce.
Hi Chris and everyone else,
After really listening to your feedback and talking to hundreds of customers, we've now officially changed our upgrades and maintenance policy.
Here's an overview:
- All new purchases include 12 months of maintenance free
- All upgrades are provided to customers free instead of being paid
- If your maintenance period expires, you can optionally renew it, however it's completely optional
- All customers have been given an extra 9 months of maintenance free, giving them more technical support and the latest release of the Interspire Shopping Cart free
The new upgrade and maintenance policies have been really well received by customers and we really do thank everyone for your feedback, both good and bad.
You can have your say and learn about our new policy (which was implemented last Monday) here:
Mitchell Harper
Interspire Co-Founder
mitch [AT] interspire [DOT] com
Mitchell, this is a good news.
I'm doing eCommerce for +15 years now, and I've tested everything. I'm actually evaluating the idea of buying the Vendor version of your software.
I think that there are 3 business models that are working:
- having a low price tag for the main product + paid upgrades ($459 + $100 per upgrade, upgrades every 6 months)
- having a high price tag upfront and free upgrades ($4000 and full ownership and upgrade for life)
- monthly fee to use an hosted solution (hard to do with downloadable as it needs space and takes bandwidth)
Having a solution that is expensive upfront, and require constant expensive updates is not working.
I understand that you have some big clients that have the money to pay for these upgrades. For them make a specific version of your software named 'Fortune 5000′ where they get everything, support, upgrade, hassle free install, phone support etc, for $1999 monthly fee. That's for the ones who are selling +100k/month gross.
But for the indies, like most of people talking on the forums and setting up the reputation of a company, just do an indie version that has limited support, work just fine for setting up a business and is cheap, but you must upgrade if you do + 100k / month, which everybody will gladly do if they make this kind of money with your software.
The price and updates for Interspire are not expensive for a big company who save bucks on having full time geeks coding a proprietary solution.
But indies need to have an offer that is adapted to their needs or they will type "interspire rapidshare" and use the nulled version which is the worse case scenario, instead of upgrading their system, because their cannot afford the upgrades or afford to move to another cart and loose their small business.
An Indies / Pro solution is something you should dig into, check for example http://www.unity3d.com business model. It works for everyone.
Thank you so much for your review.
As the user of interspire, I can say you totally speak for me.
Their customer service is pretty bad actually. On their website, it says if you open any new ticket, they'll be replying to you within 24-72 hours. However, that doesn't really happen very often, especially after you become their customer for a while. It just seems to me that they care more about developing new products but not maintaining their old customers.
and their tax setting sucks. They can only allow you to set up your tax rate by area. However, I'm in Canada where we have GST and PST according to the area and also some products are PST exempt. This software doesn't allow you to set up multi-tax rate for each product. It causes a lot of problem for the merchant in Canada.
I'm seriously thinking of switching shopping cart software soon.
Is this review still current and has there been any further review given things have moved on since this review.
Can you confirm if the Interspire(Bigcommerce) product I will buy today is not what you have reviewed and commented upon and therefore this is not current any long as to what you have said here.
They have changed their upgrade/license policies.
They said they intend to change the product variation system, but it hasn't been done yet. You can, however, buy a script I coded to sorta work around it (search this blog for interspire).
How much is the code and where can I get it?
ok, cool.
So this can be used on their licenced version.
I have used Interspire's email marketer for one year and found it so flawless that I assumed that their other products would also please me. This assumption has made me recently buy three more products from Interspire: The shopping cart, the website publisher and the knowledge manager. So far, my assumptions haven't mislead me – I truly like their products, their clean and user-friendly interfaces and, as far as the shopping cart is concerned, a modern no-frills look like that of amazon for example. Whether perfection is ever achievable – who knows, but I definitely like that sense of elegance and simplicity that customers and business owners must feel when they 'get things done' with Interspire's products. I am delighted.
Thanks for the review Chris as I'm sure it went some way to changing the uprade policy at Interspire. I ran the demo on the Interspire website and was very impressed. I then read your review and other comments about the pricing and was very dissapointed and ready to look elsewhere.
I then read all of the responses to this review and credit where credit is due Mitch and the guys at Interspire really did listen and came to the party with the policy change he details above.
Based on Mitch's response and the change in policy I will now be recommending Interspire Shopping Cart to my customers.
Psst Mitch. Just one thing, surely the customer emails should be in the base version of the sofware….
Often we forget the little guy, the SMB, in our discussions of the comings and goings of the Internet marketing industry. Sure there are times like this when a report surfaces talking about their issues and concerns but, for the most part, we like to talk about big brands and how they do the Internet marketing thing well or not so well.
if you are interested in the italian language pack, I've translated Interspire SC ver. 5.5.2 and I'm selling it at 50 euro.
Best regards.
DO NOT BUY this software. You will regret it, not only is it just average shopping cart software. The support is the worst I have ever seen from a software company. If you ever want to change your domain name costs $500. If you ever want to ask a question costs $500 dollars. And you have to pay another $500 if you want to ask another question in 12 months. Buying this software was a horrible decision for my business and our clients. ~ Web Design Firm


text:
Just wondering about the Linux version? I don't mean to keep asking but I can't install this version, itch won't let me.
Boingkid™ [WIP]
A downloadable Game for Windows
Meet a new original hero :
Boingkid™, the innocent little toy, is a newcomer to The Realm of
Toys with an innovative design made in early 1930s. He has a spring for legs and a tiny suction cup for feet, so he
can perform super jumps in any direction as well as stick to flat
surfaces during his journey through Chambers of Destiny.
Boingkid™ left the harbor to find his purpose of creation in the Realm of Toys. Now, the key to his questions lies in the Chambers of Destiny.
Help him to follow light, stay strong and find the cues that will help him to identify himself, wrap up his purpose of creation and reach the destiny that awaits him in Realm of Toys and the worlds beyond.
Boing in!
This version will give you an "Early Access" to the first 30 levels of the game.
This Game got over 1.3K key owners. Get your own today!
Game Control Keys:
[A] - Left / [D] - Right [Space bar] - Jump [Left Mouse Button] - Aiming for Super Jump [Right Mouse Button] - Punch / Action [Q] - Return to Chambers Corridor
Subscribe to our mailing list to be the 1st one to receive the News and Special Offers:
Like! Boingkid™ on facebook
© Copyright 2019. Niv Entertainments Studio. All rights reserved.
© PlayOnLoop Royalty-Free Music. 2019
|23 days ago
|In development
|Niv Studio
|Made with
|GameMaker: Studio
|2D, Action-Adventure, boingkid, GameMaker, jumping, Pixel Art, Puzzle-Platformer, Retro, Side Scroller
|Average session
|About a half-hour
|Keyboard, Mouse, Touchscreen
|Homepage, Kickstarter, Twitter, Community
In order to download this Game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- 30 Levels to explore!Dec 06, 2017
- Activation time extended!Nov 06, 2017
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I have already took it under consideration to make a Linux version as soon as possible. So don't worry, it just takes some time. I hope you find it worthy. ;)
Hi Can you make a test port so I can atleast install and see if it works?
This version is for PCs running Windows OS, but I will definitely work on an export for Linux machines too, God willing.
Thank you !!! If you need a tester I don't mind reporting bugs back.
Of course. Thank you very much for your interest!
Hi, can you give us an update on the linux port?
Hi dear, Not yet, but I will definitely put it in my feature list for the next big update. God willing.
I'm not able to play the game due to no controller support rip me ;-;
but i would want to play it it's just i'm on a fucking laptop and there is no controller support
I am sure you have a keyboard and at least a touch pad with your laptop. Just use the keys defined in the description section above in the game page and enjoy the experience. ;)
Great game and it's currently free!
Such a fantastic platformer game.
I waited for full version of Boingkid :)
Thank you very much. I am glad you liked it.
Make sure to subscribe to Boingkid newsletter @

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Companies that develop, manufacture, test, distribute and provide repair services for electronic components are classified as electronic manufacturing service companies. These companies also provide services in the field of design that are useful in the development of products from the conceptual stage. They also help in mechanical design, software and electrical products. EMS companies require automation at various levels, depending on the type of project and the clients for whom they work.
Part or all of the manufacturing process is assigned to EMS companies that hire highly qualified and specialized services. With the use of technologically advanced electronic manufacturing services equipment; Companies provide complete services efficiently as a manufacturer of electronic contracts. The electronic manufacturing service companies offer a complete range of products that will surely satisfy all the industrial needs of their customers. In addition, these companies are versatile suppliers of EMS equipment regardless of the industry and do a good job in terms of product customization according to customer requirements.
Some of the popular electronics manufacturing service teams include liquid dispensers, tabletop robots and systems and UV curing systems. In addition to these equipment, EMS companies also offer adhesives of various types. These adhesives are generally made to meet the needs of all industries. There is a wide range of products available in the category of syringes and related accessories. This range of products is especially suitable for various industries around the world.
The renowned companies offering electronic manufacturing services continue to invest in large and accurate equipment to keep their customers satisfied consistently. Most electronic product manufacturing equipment is manufactured in such a way that it requires minimal manual intervention. These computers have custom software that allows the user to edit, save and implement the dispensing conditions using their computer. The technical specifications of EMS equipment can be seen online by customers, which makes customer orders faster according to their needs. In addition, these equipments are manufactured with total precision and experience to guarantee a safe and effortless use.
Buying all electronic manufacturing service equipment is easier with companies that offer a wide range of related products and services in one place. These companies are generally present throughout the world and are known for their best quality products and technically qualified personnel. Customers can also submit their online applications to these EMS companies that reverse with the required details within a reasonable time. With a friendly staff with the client, it is not surprising that these companies have a very impressive clientele.


text:
(No.6, Vol.7,Dec 2017-Jan 2018 Vietnam Heritage Magazine)The People's Committee of Quang Binh Province has agreed to allow Oxalis Adventure Tours to organize tours (at most 3 per week) to the 'Cave of Fairies'. No tour is allowed from mid September to the end of November, which is the rainy season when the cave may be flooded. Guests must be 16 or older, have good health and basic trekking skills. One-day tours take 2-12 persons, cost VND2,000,000 ($100)/person and consist of 8km trekking in forest trails and caves. Two-day, one-night tours take 2-10 persons, cost VND6,500,000 ($295)/person and consist of 13.5km trekking in forest trails and caves.If you are planning on a trip to Quang Binh Province, a land of splendid caves, do not miss the 'Cave of Fairies', Cao Quang Commune, Tuyen Hoa District.The cave, about 70km northwest of PhongNha Cave, was discovered by members of the British Royal Caving Association in 1994. But it became a tourist destination only in 2016 as soon as Mr Howard Limbert from the British Royal Caving Association told the press the 'Cave of Fairies' is the most beautiful among the 57 caves of Quang Binh Province discovered in a weeks-long expedition in Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park and the surrounding areas.Locals have given it the rather ornate name of the 'Cave of Fairies', due to a legend which says that since the beginning of time, fairies have come here to contemplate the beauty of the stalactites and forget the way home. Today, it is considered a place to conduct spiritual rituals to pray for rain and peaceful life.The 'Cave of Fairies' has two branches including 'Cave of Fairies 1' and 'Cave of Fairies 2'. The area between of them is a pristine forest with age-old trees. The two caves are the last two of Tu Lan cave system. Both of them are dry during the dry season and have creeks inside during the rainy season. Plants grow lush at the well-lit main entrance area. Wild trees growing among mythical-looking stalagmites and stone scales make it an absolutely surreal world.The 3km long, nearly 50m wide magnificent cave with 70 - 100m high vault looks like a royal palace. Its walls and ceiling are majestically decorated with black and white limestone stalactites.Mysterious stalagmites crowd the cave floor, looking like the fairies that came here a long time ago and have forgotten the way home back to heaven.Mr Chau A, the owner and General Director of Oxalis Adventure Tours, said: 'The entrance to 'Cave of Fairies 2' is quite small (3 meters high, 1.5 meters wide), so there is often strong and rather cold wind blowing through. Though the outside temperature may be 380C, people can barely stand for 10 minutes at the entrance due to the strong and cold gusts of wind. When visiting Tu Lan Caves travelers must swim through water. At the 'Cave of Fairies', however, they can walk through streams. If they choose to, swimming in the lake is possible.'
Viet Xanh Advertising JSC4th Floor, 1/1 Hoang Viet St, Ward 4, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City Tell: (84-28) 38 11 88 46 - Fax: (84-28) 38 11 87 75Email: email@example.com Tax code: 0310481222


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SHERIDAN — No county in the state of Wyoming has seen more recent success on the gridiron than Sheridan County.
Sheridan High School lays claim to the last three state championships at the 4A level and Big Horn High School has sprinkled in a couple more in 2A over the last half decade.
That makes Sheridan County the football capital of the Equality State. But how did the high school football landscape look a decade ago? Which, if any team, dominated back then? What schools thrive in other fall sports across all classes?
The sport of cross-country has encompassed quite a few dynasties, none more noteworthy than the boys team in Ethete. Wyoming Indian has raised nine championship banners in 2A cross-country over the last 10 years, and Leo "Chico" Her Many Horses is responsible for building the foundation for that success.
"Chico was just a really, really good recruiter," Sheridan cross-country head coach Art Baures said. "He could get kids to buy-in and they did."
Sticking in the 2A ranks, Burns-Pine Bluffs have combined to make a pretty potent girls team that has won eight state titles in a row. In that same region of the state, Laramie has had a similar stranglehold on the boys 4A trophy, winning the last seven.
"I think in Laramie [head coach Greg Schabron] is the key link there," Baures said. "But they also have a culture in Laramie, with the university, where there's a lot of running going in that community, and I think he has capitalized on it."
Laramie also sits at over 7,200 feet, giving the Plainsmen a decided advantage when they descend into Sheridan to compete at the state meet.
"That elevation they train at every day has been a very big help to them," Baures said. "And the fact that they come [to Sheridan] to race every state meet the last six years hasn't hurt them at all."
Star Valley's boys cross-country team has also won six straight state titles in 3A.
Shifting over to the pool, the Campbell County girls team boasts eight state championships in the last 10 years. Sheridan swimming and diving head coach Brent Moore finally solved the Lady Camels' riddle at the state meet last year; however, so did Laramie as the Lady Plainsmen claimed the crown in 2017.
"[Gillette] is a young community with lots of kids, and they are willing to put money into those recreational things," Moore said. "They've had a very strong club team with great coaching over the years, and they've got a great learn-to-swim program in their schools. [Their success] has been a combination of a whole bunch of little things that have built up into that."
The Camels have won six of the last 10 state titles in boys tennis while Cheyenne Central claims three crowns on the girls side.
Sheridan owns the most football state championships in Wyoming with 26, but Cokeville isn't far behind with 22. The Panthers have four state titles in the last decade and in a sport that has gone through some recent transformation, the recipe for Cokeville remains the same.
"We live in the era where everybody is trying to find the latest and greatest, and the new-offs and something revolutionary — [Cokeville] doesn't do that," Tongue River football head coach Steve Hanson said. "I can tell you right now how they will lineup every single play. I can tell you exactly where those linebackers are going drop to. I can tell what play they'll run. Now, that doesn't mean I can stop it. I can tell you what to do and where to be. They do it every single year."
Cokeville has also created a winning culture of which everyone wants a slice. The Panthers, in relation to their enrollment numbers, classify as a six-man football team most years and elect to play 1A. A lion's share of the boys that attend Cokeville High School choose to play football, leaving them with a junior varsity squad — something not all 1A teams have.
Golf's upper hand within Wyoming has shifted quite a bit for both boys and girls. Cody and Riverton have won four championships apiece in the last 10 years in 3A, while the Broncs have the most in 4A with three.
Volleyball has experienced similar parity with Kelly Walsh and Wright having four state titles in 4A and 2A, respectively.
The state of Wyoming has plenty of recent dynasties, some that are still going like the Broncs football run. All of them have their own method and path to success from the course to the pool to the gridiron.


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There's a funny story behind how Kent was added to the staff. Kent Bloms moved to North Carolina from North Dakota in 2004 leaving behind a DJ and nightclub business. When he got married a year later and needed a DJ, guess who he called? That's right, Joe Bunn. One thing lead to another and a few months after their wedding, Kent realized the "DJ bug" had bitten again and he wanted to get back into the business. The rest, as they say, is history. Wow, that is cliche.
Kent has been DJ'ing for clubs, parties, and weddings since 1998. Along with DJ'ing he runs Classic Carolina Photobooths, Inc., is a high school business teacher, and also coaches JV basketball. In his 10 minutes per day of free time he enjoys spending time with his 2 boys and playing basketball and baseball.
In My Headphones: Notorious B.I.G., Bruno Mars, Fetty Wap, Drake, Bebe Rexa, Scotty McCreery, Dave Matthews
My Favorite Floor Fillers: "24K Magic" – Bruno Mars, "This Is How We Do It"- Montell Jordan, "Party In The U.S.A." – Miley Cyrus, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" – The Proclaimers, "Like A Prayer" – Madonna
Kent was prompt, professional and pleasant. He relates well to kids and was quick to respond when a request was made, i.e., increase the volume & song requests.
It was a wonderful event, thanks again Kent!
We worked with DJ Joe Bunn and he is the BEST! He was friendly, responsive, and easy to work with. At the reception, Joe was absolutely amazing! We gave him minimal requests and the music was great and the dance floor was packed the entire time!
Would highly recommend Joe Bunn to any bride who wants to have a great time at their reception!
Our DJ Kent did a great job at our wedding! Kent was professional, nice, and relaxed up there throughout the night! He made sure to ask us what we preferred if he had a question vs just assuming we wanted something one way or another. He also was open to song requests which I and our guests appreciated! In early discussions with him he mentioned how he would play more oldies in the beginning of the night (for the older folks who may check out earlier in the evening) and more of today's music as the night went on. Shortly after the music picked up and people were on the dance floor and loving it!! Highly recommend bunn DJ services to anyone in Raleigh!! They were awesome to work with!!!
Kent did an outstanding job at our wedding. He was polite, punctual, played great music, and worked with all the details that we had given him. We had tons of compliments about all the great music and dancing at the wedding!
Kent, thank you so much for everything on our wedding day. Despite the crazy weather we had such an incredible time because we had great music to dance to! Thank you again for everything.
We had Kent Bloms as our DJ and he was amazing!! I had forgotten to pick out intro music for the bridal party and when we got there he came down with a few suggestions and we picked one immediately! He also reminded me that I might want a prayer before dinner (since my ceremony was in a church) and that wasn't something I had thought of either. Kent went with everything we threw at him from crazy song requests to special added dances. He kept the party going and we danced the whole time!! I was so glad to have such an amazing DJ for my wedding!
Kent did a great job with our entire wedding! He was able to take special requests for our ceremony and helped with smooth transitions for our receptions. He helped to maintain a party atmosphere and had people dancing all night!
You rocked the house!! I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am that we choose you to celebrate with us on Saturday. Not only were you an amazing DJ but you went above and beyond to make the night special. It was not lost on me how much energy you put into making sure we had lighting in all the right places. I don't know if you have ever worked during a power outage before but if you haven't you would have never known. I am so impressed and look forward to completing the survey.
Kent DJed my wedding ceremony and reception, and everything went perfectly! He even picked the music for my ceremony because I didn't have anything specific in mind, and it was great. He was super organized and kept everything moving throughout the night. The guests had a blast on the dance floor. Would absolutely recommend Bunn DJ Company and Kent Bloms, specifically, for any event.


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Some aikido training drills with a little bit of conditioning mixed in for this young aikidoka. Aikidoka is a person that practices aikido, like a jujutsuka is a person that practices jujutsu. A judoka is a person that practices judo, and so on.
Tag: Health and Fitness
How is a bokken used to train a samurai by lessening the injuries that would be induced by a real sword?
Good bokkens are about the same length and weight of a real sword, and can be very expensive. These good ones are even crafted in the tradition of the sword system studied.
For instance this one at $85.00 from Tozando, in the style of the sword used by Yakumaru Jigen Ryu.
Ok, so $85.00 isn't really all that expensive. Take this one for an example of an expensive bokken, also from Tozando.
It is a Deluxe Loquat Bokken, and the price is $1,045.59. Prices for bokken can fall anywhere from $10 to much, much higher as you can see.
As far as lessening injuries go, about the only thing a wooden bokken will not do is cut or slice human flesh.
Other than that, the bokken is an extremely dangerous weapon. With enough force, a bokken can still stab through soft targets, like the solar plexus, throat and eyes.
And with even less force can break and shatter bones of the fingers and hand. With a little more force these weapons can break arms, ribs and skulls.
So in a sense, yes, a person training with wooden weapons will not have to pick up their sliced off body parts off the ground, or get stitches, but a few weeks in a cast could definately be a possibility.
As could death. I can tell you, even a light and accidental hit with one of these really hurts.
Wearing armour, as samurai did on the battlefield, during training will lessen the damage taken, but in the hands of a skilled swordsman that samurai undergoing training will definately feel it when a mistake is made. Even then, the hands, fingers, and especially the thumb is a desired and usually exposed target.
These are real weapons, and the beauty is they don't have to be used like a sword. Afterall, it is a piece of wood, and it can also be used like a short staff, but yes they hurt. Yes they can cause damage, and yes they can even cause death.
- William Stynetski
Use of Pain Compliance in Martial Arts and Self Defense
I wouldn't say it is total horse manuer. However, one should be aware of a few factors ahead of time before relying solely on pain compliance when defending yourself.
The first is the adrenaline pumping through the body. If flight has not taken place, and fight has, adrenaline can be a great pain killer.
Adrenaline can also be a driving force in a fight. This can also take one way past pain in a fight.
Another factor that comes to mind is the will to survive. People can, and have fought with broken noses, arms, legs, skulls, ribs and well just about anything else that can break, split, or rupture.
Something else to consider is that everybody is different. Pain receptors and nerves are different in people. What could be deemed effective on one individual may completely backfire when tried on another individual due to the sheer fact that people have different body structures in addition to different tolerance levels for pain.
Finally you have to consider drugs and alchohol. If the attacker or person you are defending yourself against is drunk or on drugs, their body may not process pain at all.
The human body and its instinct and will to survive is an amazing thing. Inflicting pain on another person and "waiting" to see if they comply or not should not be your only option.
William Stynetski
Parkour: What is it like to be a traceur?
Because my parkour training is so much fun, I kept training, and kept reaggrivating it. There was never any pain, but a lot of swelling. Then it would go down, I'd keep training (I love precisions) and it would swell up again. So finally I forced myself to not do so much impact on the feet/legs for a while, and I think it's about ready to jump back in.
It is also about being afraid, encountering that fear, feeling it, knowing it and dealing with it. It is about training to overcome that mental block that is preventing you from making that big jump today, so that one day you will make that jump. It feels great when you finally do, but then there will be something else that will present itself and challenge you. The more experience you get, the more opportunities for pushing yourself past your current limits will begin to appear, and the cycle continues.
Really, though, for me it feels like being a kid all over again, and I don't mean with the newly found freedom of movement and expression and all that, although that is very much part of it.
What I mean is that I surround myself with traceurs that are far, far better than I am. They have been training and practicing longer, and have developed their skills and abilities to coincide with the number of years of training.
So for me, not quite as experienced yet, I feel like a little kid, surounded by big brothers (and sisters!) that are just better at everything than me.
Almost like still riding a tricycle, while my older brother has had his training wheels off for some time now, and is already jumping across the creek on his dirt bike.
I don't mind it, though. It is a very humbling experience, and I learn so much by just training with them, and being around them.
Parkour – Jumping Into Life, by William Stynetski
Hi, as many of you know I have been training and coaching parkour for about 3 years now. Still very much in my infancy of learning parkour. It all started when…
Well, you can find out in the video below. This is a mini documentary in which I interview some older generation tracuers in downtown Dallas.
If you don't know, a tracuer is a person that trains in and practices parkour. It is a french word, and tracuers means bullet.
Enjoy the video!
Henry Kono Aikido
I didn't get to train with Henry (he did not like to be called sensei) as long as some of his other students. Like his other students, though, his insight and teaching of aikido left a lasting and profound impact on those he taught, myself included.
It forever changed the way I approach both my aikido and martial arts training.
Somewhere I have some video of Henry. Not doing aikido on the mats, but a rare capture of some time on a short break off the mats. When I find it. i will share it here. For now, enjoy this wonderful article:
William Stynetski
Tanto Waza at Aikido Plano Dojo (bladed weapon application)
Aikido comes from a long history of many different styles of jujutsu. Although not always in line with the accepted underlying philosophies of aikido, it is important to understand where aikido comes from. As such, every now and then my own exposure to traditional jujutsu does get mixed in with my aikido classes.
This is some tanto waza, or knife technique. Not defending against a knife, but defending against a potentially life ending kick from the attacker.
Here we are not concerned with justifying the use of deadly force or how much force is acceptable under current law. In this case, these techniques were designed to dispose of an enemy on the battlefield as quickly as possible, and we practice them through completion of the kata.
William Stynetski


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If you have sent yourself a password reset and it doesn't work this may be due to a number of reasons:
Reset tokens last for 6 hours. If this time has expired a new one will need to be requested in order for it to work
You may have inadvertently sent two reset tokens to yourself (this can be done by double-clicking on a slow page). The second request will over-ride the first but they may not be received in this order so the token may not be valid. To resolve, please send another password reset to yourself and ensure only one click is made.


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A princess-in-hiding and a pretender to the throne discover that nothing is as it appears in this exciting tale of mystery and deception set in the same world as Just Ella, from New York Times bestselling author Margaret Peterson Haddix.Cecilia knows that she is not just another peasant girl; she is actually the true princess of Suala, in hiding until the evil forces that killed her parents are vanquished. A commoner named Desmia is on the throne as a decoy. As she gets older, Cecilia finds it harder to study statesmanship and palace protocol secretly at night and then pretend that she has nothing on her mind other than scrubbing the gruel stains out of her best apron by day. Cecilia knows that it is time to take charge. Along with her best friend, Harper, she flees to the capital city of Suala, determined to reclaim her throne. But when Harper and Cecilia reach the famed Palace of Mirrors, they discover they are in more danger than they could have ever imagined.
Margaret Peterson Haddix is the author of many critically and popularly acclaimed YA and middle grade novels, including the Children of Exile series, The Missing series, the Under Their Skin series, and the Shadow Children series. A graduate of Miami University (of Ohio), she worked for several years as a reporter for The Indianapolis News. She also taught at the Danville (Illinois) Area Community College. She lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio. Visit her at HaddixBooks.com.
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"Palace of Mirrors sits nicely alongside Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted and Shannon Hale's Princess Academy...The suspense builds to a well-paced climax and conclusion with few pauses in an action-packed story."
– School Library Journal
"Aficionados of Gail Carson Levine and Shanno Hale will find much to like in this welcome addition to the ver-growing canon of smart-princess stories."
– Booklist
"Haddix's skill with vivid descriptions and believable characters make this tale a standout in the retold fairy tale genre....a story that feels both familiar and fresh. It is a sure hit for those who want to cultivate their rough-and-tumble inner princess."
"Plenty of fun here from a superior author."
– Kirkus Reviews
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Home Floors Remodeling Services Provide Stunning Interior & Exterior Design Solutions
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Heretic Knives Manticore X OTF AUTO 3.7" S35VN Black Double Edge Dagger Blade, Blue Aluminum Handles - H032-6A-BL
HRKH0326ABL: Manticore X OTF Auto, Blue
Heretic Knives
The Manticore X is Heretic Knives' largest OTF offering of the Manticore Series. This knife is 100% USA-made and assembled, backed by a lifetime warranty so you can rest assured that this OTF will last. It features silky smooth one-handed deployment and retraction action which is standard in the Manticore line. The X variation is outfitted with a beautiful dagger blade, an integrated lanyard hole, hardened steel glass breaker, and deep carry clip. Its slender profile allows it to be easily carried close at hand and ready at a moments notice. The action is addictive, the ergonomics are spot on, and the build quality is top-notch. You won't be disappointed.
- Blade Length: 3.70"
- Cutting Edge: 3.625"
- Closed Length: 5.50"
- Overall Length: 9.20"
- Blade Material: CPM-S35VN Stainless Steel
- Blade Thickness: 0.125"
- Blade Style: Double Edge Dagger
- Blade Grind: Flat
- Blade Finish: Black
- Handle Material: Blue Aluminum
- Handle Thickness: 0.47"
- Locking Mechanism: Slide
- Pocket Clip: Deep Carry Stainless Steel (Tip-Down, Right Carry)
- Weight: 4.7 oz.
- Designer: Tony Marfione Jr.
- Made in the USA
Semi-Custom or Mid-Tech knives are knives produced by a process in which the designer has more direct--but not complete--involvement; parts of these knives may still have been made by others.
Includes a pocket clip for easy accessibility and a more secure carry.
A tougher steel than S30V, it retains the excellent corrosive properties and ability to take an edge, but improves on the ability to hold that edge.
A solid, lightweight material that can be molded, textured or anodized to provide better grip under extreme conditions.
This product is USA born and raised.
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Facing Rowdy Crowds, Republican Leaders Opting to Stay Home (Even in Red States)
Republicans are being accused of going into hiding.
Republicans who benefited from rowdy town halls six years ago and harnessed a wave of discontent with Democrats to win seats in Congress are learning a hard lesson this week as they return home: The left is happy to return the favor.
Across the U.S., Democrats and their allies are spending this short congressional recess protesting elected Republican politicians who are avoiding the events that often turn into shouting matches.
Just like the tea party sympathizers who vented against Democrats and President Barack Obama, the new left and left-leaning protesters are taking out their ire on Republicans and their links to President Donald Trump.
In Denver this week, the activists targeted Republican Sen. Cory Gardner - denouncing him as inaccessible and beaming a picture of him fashioned into a "Missing" poster to a wall of the Denver Art Museum while protesting Trump's plans to boost energy production on public lands.
The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2017
Gardner "is supposed to represent us, but where is he?" said Emma Spett, a 22-year-old environmental activist from Denver who says she's "terrified" of environmental policy changes backed by Trump.
Gardner defeated a Democrat in 2010, and used impromptu town hall meetings heavily attended by tea party members in his campaign to rail against Obama's Affordable Care Act and incumbent congressional representatives he labeled as out of touch with voters.
Now an incumbent who doesn't face re-election until 2020, Gardner has no town halls scheduled and was met Wednesday at an agricultural forum in Denver by protesters yelling "We want a town hall!"
He dodged questions from reporters about why he did not plan any, saying that he supports "people who are expressing differing points of views" and that his staff meets with protesters.
Experts say that avoiding town halls is a tactic used by incumbents to dodge being berated in widely publicized local events.
Tom Cotton shouted down with chants of "TAX RETURNS!" pic.twitter.com/iEcQDqHnCx— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 23, 2017
"If you're there at a town hall meeting and there's hundreds of people there yelling at you, it's going to be a media event," said Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver "They're calculating that the bad press they're going to get from not having a town hall is not going to be as bad as that."
In Montana, Republican Sen. Steve Daines got waylaid with boos and jeers from hundreds of protesters just for rescheduling an appearance before state lawmakers Helena from Tuesday to Wednesday.
"What a coward!" said Katherine Haque-Hausrath, a protest organizer who demanded he meet with constituents. "If he doesn't listen to us now, he can listen to us in 2020 in the election."
Daines was met inside the Capitol Wednesday by dozens of protesters who yelled "Do your job!" Asked why he rescheduled, Daines said he decided to hold multiple events Wednesday and nothing on Tuesday.
He also reminded reporters about the result of last November's election: "While every voice must be heard in Montana, the reality is the people of Montana rejected Hillary Clinton and voted for Donald Trump."
About 200 protesters clamored Wednesday outside a Carson City, Nevada, casino where Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Mark Amodei, both Republicans, spoke behind closed doors in a session for business leaders - and ended getting booed and heckled inside the private luncheon.
Amodei defended himself, saying he was there doing his job and meeting with constituents. And Heller said he would hold a town hall meeting if rules were put in place similar to those for debates in Congress.
"No applauding, no booing and we will have a one-on-one dialogue," he proposed.
In Nebraska, Republican Rep. Don Bacon said in an interview that he plans no town meetings for now because he sees no point in them turning into forums for people who want to disrupt the events.
"What about the average person, whether or not they agree with me, that's in the audience? They want to have a dialogue," he said. "What I'm seeing, and I'm seeing it all over the country, is people grab the microphone, and don't give it back."
And Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert announced he opted for telephone town halls because groups from what he called "violent strains of the leftist ideology...are preying on public town halls to wreak havoc and threaten public safety."
Republicans accused of going into hiding are getting some sympathy - from Democrats they defeated, including former Colorado Rep. Betsy Markey.
Back in 2010, she held town hall meetings focusing on health care only to be greeted by a deluge of conservative protesters who showed up waving yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags.
"They were pretty rowdy," Markey recalled with a chuckle.
Republicans who managed their campaigns to take advantage of the tea party movement's populist appeal must learn to take what was dished out before to the Democrats, she said.
"That's why you were elected, to represent the people. You come back on weekends, you come back on breaks, and you talk to people - even if they don't like what you're doing," Markey said.
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