Hello, everyone!
I am pleased and honored to introduce myself as Cartalyst's Community Liaison, effective today. I am grateful that my eagerness and enthusiasm towards Cartalyst's products attracted the company's attention and lead it to reach-out to me in this capacity.
As a brief introduction, I've been using Cartalyst's products in a professional capacity for about 18 months. A little more than halfway through that period, I felt as though my familiarity with the products was sufficient to offer my candid opinion in a similar thread. As a then-newish-user, my hope is that this post will hearten and encourage others who may be interested but still "on the fence":
https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/laravel/does-the-subscribtion-to-cartalyst-worth-it?page=1#reply-86738
Since writing that post, my appreciation for Cartalyst's work has only grown stronger. The more familiar I become with the code-base, the more I appreciate the effort and expertise that belies the Cartalyst Arsenal. Similarly, the more I interact with the amazing user community and the talented developers who reach for the Cartalyst toolbox every day, the more I enjoy being a part of the group. It's a true pleasure to learn from these individuals -- both the Cartalyst developers and the ever-growing group of subscribers -- and give-back wherever I'm able.
I recognize several usernames in the above-mentioned thread as individuals who later subscribed to the Cartalyst Arsenal, which I mention only as testament to the fact that Cartalyst's products speak for themselves. Perhaps some of those individuals would be willing to provide an update as to their respective experiences.
As noted above, one of the challenges that Cartalyst has faced, historically, is keeping the user-community up-to-date and apprised of all the goings-on behind the scenes. As so many growing businesses are, Cartalyst is torn between staying afloat with work that earns immediate returns and work that strives to satisfy future needs. Rest assured that development is as active as ever and that, in my humble opinion, Cartalyst sits atop a veritable gold-mine of awesome, yet-to-be-seen products that promise to reshape the ways in which many of us build applications on the Web.
To offer a bit about myself, I've been working in PHP professionally since 2003. In the spirit of Einsteinian wisdom, the more I learn, the more I realize just how little I know. And Cartalyst's developers' code has been rather influential in cementing that bit of age-old wisdom for me. :) Truly, I am humbled. The code is super-clean, well-organized, and impressive in every respect. As someone who has written a framework himself, of perhaps nearly equal scope, I can say that these developers are well-qualified.
I look forward to providing everyone with regular updates in the future and assisting Cartalyst in all of the areas noted in this thread.
Please don't hesitate to reach-out to me directly or to visit me on Cartalyst's Gitter channel, where I spend most of my life! :)
Your replies and questions are welcome, and I, like @drsii, will do my best to respond quickly and candidly.
Thanks so much!