Have been forced to abandon nextgen

  • stuhlmann

    (@stuhlmann)


    10 years, 6 months ago

    This plugin is a no-go folks. For me, it simply does not work as advertised.

    I expect within a year or so, unless they completely rework & rebrand–this plug-in is gone. You can only last on historical goodwill for so long. As it stands, too many users have/had to revert to 1.9 to get a site operational again. No comprehensive fix in sight–and frankly, at this point I don’t expect one.

    Open letters are well-and-good–but when you’re building sites for other people & having to explain that a developer sold his plugin only to have the new owners completely render it unusable–well–they don’t care. Nor should they.

    I will not be using this–or anything else Photocrati may decide to break in the future.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Plugin Contributor photocrati

    (@photocrati)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    @stuhlmann: Thanks for the feedback, even if it’s tough to read. Sounds like you’ve had a particularly hard time with the new version, and you have my apologies.

    I tried to check your history on the support forums to see if there was any specific issues we missed for you, but I’m not seeing any and it appears you’ve just created the account.

    I’d like, at least, to confirm that you are using/reviewing the latest version? If you are still having an issue with the latest version, please feel free to submit details here: http://www.nextgen-gallery.com/report-bug/

    Finally, I just want to note that the latest version (2.0.33 at time of writing) is dramatically more stable than when we first pushed out our long-overdue overhaul of the plugin in August. Voting and support volume is already approaching levels typical of the legacy version of NextGEN. I think many people see the traffic or commentary from August and don’t realize how dramatically the situation has changed since then.

    I’d add that we maintained the legacy version for over a year before the overhaul, and our last legacy version was also dramatically more stable than the last version of the plugin under the previous developer.

    In any case, I don’t want to minimize your issues. Please do feel free to submit a bug report.

    Andreas

    (@perryzelda)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    …last legacy version was also dramatically more stable than the last version of the plugin under the previous developer.

    @photocrati
    Let me say just this: this is complete nonsense. I used to work with NexGen when ALex developed it an then until 1.9.3. There have NEVER been stability problems before Photocrati took over.

    Smaller issues very solved very soon, after they ouccured, opptosite to hat is happening since version 2.0. And that is the real difference between then and now.

    Thread Starter stuhlmann

    (@stuhlmann)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Dear Photocrati

    Thank you for your reply. The issue isn’t whether I’ve found a bug or not–the issue is the amount of time spent sorting things out. I do wait to see whether updates are generally stable–frontiering is not my thing.

    Nor–and this is a personal choice and therefore not relevant to the over all complaint–do I often make use of a support mechanism–I fix things myself through trial-and-error or research.

    I feel that what’s unique to your case is the amount of code change to the original, and how quickly it was done. Moreover, my personal experience matches perryzelda’s above–no issues at all until we hit 2.0.

    I can’t offer advice–because it’s perfectly acceptable to purchase the rights to a plugin because you can see it at some point down the road, floating atop an entirely new architecture. You own the code, and can of course then do whatever you like with it.

    The problem comes when that clashes with user expectation–which in this case was a perfectly serviceable plugin that did a job, did it reliably–is frustrated by a release that suggests upgrade when it’s really a re-work. Big difference there.

    Then when that goes kaboom–people get cranky.

    Seriously–you’re aware of the number of folks having trouble, there’s even a nextgen alike plugin (nextcellent) that promises 1.9.x stability and functionality with ‘reasonable’ upgrades designed not to break anything. What does that tell you?

    The good news is that you do appear to be genuinely working to address the situation and repair the brand. I do hope you sort things out–competition is brisk and dropping off a cliff for 6 months can ding your bottom line–people will find alternate solutions.

    I’ve found WordPress Photo Album Plus–works for me.

    Why was I originally irate? One of my sites is a commercial fine art gallery. You can see where having to switch that over (over 40 artists @ anywhere from 12-25 images each, not to mention event images, etc) to something else without putting the site under construction might be a slight headache.

    Best of luck with this.

    Plugin Contributor photocrati

    (@photocrati)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    @stuhlmann: Thanks for the reply and totally understand.

    Plugin Contributor photocrati

    (@photocrati)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    @perryzelda: Thanks for your feedback. A couple quick thoughts.

    First, just a note that we were the ones actively maintaining and supporting NextGEN from 1.9.3 to 1.9.13, so we have a pretty good sense for the issues with each legacy version. One reason Alex, whom I really respect by the way, wanted to let the plugin go is that he was overwhelmed with the volume of issues and complaints. So there were issues in legacy, even if you or stuhlmann didn’t individually experience them.

    You also singled out this comment: “…our last legacy version was also dramatically more stable than the last version of the plugin under the previous developer.” I’m not sure if you thought I was comparing legacy to 2.x maybe? But in terms of comparing our last legacy version (1.9.13) to Alex’s last legacy version (1.9.3), it would be hard to disagree on this. Here’s a quick run down on numbers:

    % People Voting NextGEN “Works” (vs Broken) on WordPress.org:
    1.9.3: 70% Works (Alex’s last legacy version)
    *That means about 30% of users voted 1.9.3 “broken”
    1.9.13: 91% Works (our last legacy version, notable improvement)
    2.0.0: 10% Works (<- This is why people were/are unhappy with us)
    2.0.33: 60% Works (our latest 2.0 version, notable improvement)

    So the trend has been: we notably improved stability of legacy between 1.9.3 and 1.9.13; we then introduced a spike in problems with the roll out of 2.0.0; and we are now quickly stabilizing the new version. The voting for 2.0.33 is already approaching 1.9.3 and I would guess we’ll pass it within two releases (about a month from now).

    Two more general points about the voting:
    *2.0.33 has been downloaded 90,000 times since its release last week, out of which we’ve had a total of 27 broken votes, including double votes for WordPress 3.6.1 to 3.7.
    *Relevant to all versions: NextGEN is extremely feature rich with something like 500 options. If minor options (like linking in singlepic shortcodes) don’t work correctly, people still vote “Broken”. So not all “broken” votes indicate major problems.

    –

    My intent in replying isn’t to be dismissive of issues. I’ve been very open and transparent about what we think happened with the initial 2.0 roll out (http://www.nextgen-gallery.com/open-letter-to-the-nextgen-community-from-erick-danzer/). So I’m prepared to take our lumps when we earn them. And we still have progress to make to get NextGEN 2.0 where we and our users want it – as stable as our last legacy version.

    But I also just want to be sure, especially in the reviews, that the overall representation of both the plugin and our company is accurate, that issues with the current version aren’t overstated, and that the progress since August isn’t overlooked.

    In any case, I do always appreciate the feedback, and I wish you well. Thanks, Erick.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • The topic ‘Have been forced to abandon nextgen’ is closed to new replies.