Thanks for the detailed, honest feedback!
Addressing your concerns:
– Actually, you can have them appear at the top, bottom middle, wherever you want and in multiple places for the same post. This is accomplished using the custom do_quickshare_output() function in your theme’s template files. This will always be the most flexible solution, but end-of-content filtering is available as the default option so that users who need a simple solution can get it.
Now, I could very easily add the ability to display the bar at the top and/or bottom of the_content(), but I’m not sure that putting it at the top is good for UX. Shouldn’t visitors read the content before sharing it? I only ask because I want to know if you see a good reason to put them there other than the fact that a lot of sites do it. And I want to avoid giving plugin users options that would result in bad UX for site visitors. If there’re good reasons I can easily add that feature.
– That’s a good idea. I don’t want to clutter the post UI with a metabox or anything, so I’m thinking perhaps making a certain custom field that would override the default setting could work. Or alternately, I could add fields in the QuickShare settings where you could enter a list of exceptions for showing/hiding (by post id). That is technically possible now with css if your theme puts an id on the post/page, but that’s not as elegant as actually preventing the output. Which solution do you think would be more usable (exceptions in QuickShare settings, or custom field on posts/pages)?
– I actually have another plugin that does a site-wide floating social media thing (floating social media links), so adding a floating-share option for QuickShare would be confusing. However, this is also easily accomplished with a combination of custom css and using the custom plugin output function (and probably some custom js for this one). A lot of the intent behind QuickShare is to be flexible to allow custom implementations both visually and functionally. Euclid’s Muse is an example of that, with its sharing of web-apps (which aren’t even WP post objects).
Thank you for listening to my comments.
About the UX : you are right, there is a debate of where to put sharing buttons. So I think it would be better to set an option to let the designer choose.
Thank you for the tip anyway.
About overriding : why would’nt you like to add a post UI option ? otherwise custom field could be fine but less easy to use.
Happy to discuss with you.
I think I’m going to have to fall back to WordPress core’s “decisions, not options” principle. I want to make the experience as streamlined as possible for basic users to set up, then include flexibility for more advanced users to customize.
I will definitely make some enhanced documentation around customization; both in terms of design and in terms of placement & function. Once I finish making a new section on my site for plugins, I’ll put a bunch of those resources there in a centralized place. I could also potentially create an auxiliary plugin that adds QuickShare at the top of posts (it can be done universally with about 5 lines of code).
I’m not sure what you mean by post UI option, are you thinking in a custom metabox? I want to keep it as simple and de-cluttered as possible, but I agree that this is important functionality.
I’ve just released version 1.4, which includes several new options for doing what you want to do (listed as “cons” in the original review.
There is now a [quickshare] shortcode, which allows you to place QuickShare anywhere you want within your content and can be used in conjunction with or separately from the automatic filtering at the end of posts. This essentially does two things: it lets you put the sharing links exactly where you want them on the page (top, bottom, or both), and it lets you put QuickShare on exactly the pages you want, including support for different placements on different pages.
There is also a field in the QuickShare config page now, that lets you hide QuickShare from specific posts/pages where it would otherwise be displayed automatically.
