how to proceed?

  • lunchingmarie

    (@lunchingmarie)


    9 years, 8 months ago

    Hi,

    I’m new to wordpress and have never created a website before. I hired some people via elance to create a site in wordpress for me.

    However, after them having gone way over time and not having fully understood the original brief, I now have a website with issues. From a spelling mistake, a lack of an infinite scroll and fixed categories that need to be flexible as well as some less than desirable visual issues.

    I’m stuck and not sure how to proceed. Are these feasibly things I can change on my own? The original company (who subcontracted it) have given me an absurd quote for making the changes, so I don’t want to go back to them. Do I go directly to the subcontractor? Find someone new? Other?

    Please help, advice needed,
    Thanks!

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Senff – a11n

    (@senff)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    Is the quote really “absurd”? Sometimes it may look like that, but things aren’t just a few bucks anymore. So sure, you could shop around and see if someone else is giving you a better quote.

    It’s a little vague what needs to be done though. I’m sure that you can fix spelling mistakes on your own, and it’s also fairly easy to manage categories (although I don’t know what you mean by them having to be flexible).

    Infinite scroll is not something I would do yourself, if you’ve never created a website before. You could try a plugin and configure it yourself, but it might be helpful to have an “expert” assist you.

    Hope this helps!

    Thread Starter lunchingmarie

    (@lunchingmarie)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    Thanks.

    Absurd as in the quoted me US$700 to update to the latest version of WordPress, then my server did it itself for free a few days later. It’s made me lose any trust in them.

    By flexible categories I mean I’ll want to add some and possibly take some away.

    Sounds like a definitely need a pro, is it wise to try and contact the subcontractor directly? Some of the problems did arise from a language barrier, but I’m not sure I can afford Western prices.

    Senff – a11n

    (@senff)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    Absurd as in the quoted me US$700 to update to the latest version of WordPress, then my server did it itself for free a few days later.

    That is indeed a little much. But maybe that included a full site test and fixes and….. OK it’s still a little much 😉

    Out of the box, WordPress will let you add/change categories, as long as your user account has the rights to do so. If the site builders handed the site over to you, they should have given you an Administrator account (which can add/change/remove categories). Note that if they are not going to work on the site anymore, revoke their access by changing the password for the administrator account.

    Thread Starter lunchingmarie

    (@lunchingmarie)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    I have the /wp-admin account, is that the administrator account? They’ve indicated to me that it’s done in (a language I don’t remember the name of) and that I need some sort of special interface to access it.

    Senff – a11n

    (@senff)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    When you login to your site at /wp-admin, go to USERS and then ALL USERS. It will list the users in the system.

    Make sure that your account has a role “Administrator”. Change the password for this account so that only you can access it.

    If there are any other accounts (for example, the people who developed your site), make sure they do not have the “Administrator” role cause that would mean they have full access. Right now, you are the only one who should have full access.

    All this stuff isn’t done in a “special language”. It’s just part of WordPress.

    Thread Starter lunchingmarie

    (@lunchingmarie)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    This is what he told me (in a little ‘manual’ he provided.)

    “Anything that you can manage on your own is listed with the steps. If it says ‘hard coded – Not Native’ means that it requires developer coding because its not native to WordPress.”

    What’s that about?

    Senff – a11n

    (@senff)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    A little hard to tell without having proper context, to be honest.

    But it’s possible that they did some custom coding that you can’t really change on your own without runnnig the risk of breaking it (I know that sounds vague but not knowing what they did exactly, that’s all I can say about it right now).

    Thread Starter lunchingmarie

    (@lunchingmarie)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    Assuming there is some custom coding, does that mean I have to go back to them to alter it or is it the kind of thing any good developer could deal with?

    Senff – a11n

    (@senff)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    Any good WordPress developer should be able to help you out. The beauty of WordPress is that one developer can work on it, and then another can quite easily take over.

    But how much work is needed depends on how complex the original developer’s code is.

    Thread Starter lunchingmarie

    (@lunchingmarie)

    9 years, 8 months ago

    Good news. So the obvious next question is how do I find a developer?

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    9 years, 8 months ago

    Look on http://jobs.wordpress.net/ or http://directory.codepoet.com/

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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