Be Prepared – This Plugin Pushes Self-Promoting Banner Ads To Your Dashboard

  • hugh-mungus

    (@hugh-mungus)


    11 years, 4 months ago

    This plugin is okay, but the call to home for the purpose of pushing ads earns it a 1 star rating. Not only do ads get pushed to the plugin itself, but to the Dashboard also. Sorry, in my opinion, self-promotion in this manner amounts to spam.

    Dude, if you’re going to bother developing a free version of your plugin, don’t use it to spam. If I really want a “Cyber Monday” deal on your plugin, I’ll come to you. Don’t come to me.

    Refer to paragraph 3 of section 7 of the Detailed Developer’s Guidelines – In general, things like banner or text link advertising should not be anywhere in a plugin, including on its settings screen.

    I would think this ESPECIALLY applies to the Dashboard.

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

    (@mariafernandez)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Hugh, Thanks for saving me an hour of my time. I didn’t even bother looking further from your review.

    Plugin Author cartpauj

    (@cartpauj)

    11 years ago

    Hugh, sorry you feel that way – but developers have to eat too, otherwise plugins like this don’t exist.

    Maria, you’re missing out on a great plugin.

    Thread Starter hugh-mungus

    (@hugh-mungus)

    11 years ago

    cartpauj, I AM a developer, and I disagree. A plugin which spams it’s users with unsolicited banner ads is not “great”.

    Maria, you’re missing out on some annoying unsolicited advertising on your dashboard, A.K.A., SPAM. Good for you.

    Plugin Author cartpauj

    (@cartpauj)

    11 years ago

    First off, I’m not the developer of Pretty Link, though I do contribute on occasion because I do believe it is a great plugin.

    I suppose you don’t watch tv or listen to the radio, or use gmail, facebook, hotmail, yahoo, etc…because they all SPAM you too. I guess we’ll just have to agree to dis-agree on this one Hugh. Instead we’ll let the 640,000 downloads and all other 5 star reviews speak for themselves.

    Oh dear! I just realized wordpress.org is SPAMMING us now too, how dare they make money on affiliate commissions. Boycot WordPress!!! http://cl.ly/O6Ug What is the world coming to?

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    11 years ago

    @cartpauj, Perhaps you can write a sentence on your plugin’s page notifying users of adverts on certain dashboard pages? It seems the original poster is not satisfied because he/she was not made aware that adverts would appear.

    Thread Starter hugh-mungus

    (@hugh-mungus)

    11 years ago

    A little sensitive are we?

    A “great” plugin doesn’t push unsolicited advertising to the Dashboard. Actually, that’s exactly how you turn a plugin into a lousy one.

    Thread Starter hugh-mungus

    (@hugh-mungus)

    11 years ago

    I’ve seen other plugins pulled from the repository for less. This plugin calls home for the purpose of spamming. It should be pulled.

    Plugin Author cartpauj

    (@cartpauj)

    11 years ago

    Hugh, sensitive? No. Annoyed by your opinion? Absolutely. But I would die fighting for you to keep your right to share that opinion freely. Like I said, we’ll have to agree to dis-agree. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. Better yet, take advantage of the GPL and modify the code on your site so you don’t see the ads. If you’re a developer it should take you all of 5 seconds.

    @andrew, even though it says I’m the author, I’m merely a contributor to the plugin. Although, not a bad idea and I’ll certainly run it by Blair (the real author of Pretty Link) since I’m good friends with him. Thanks!

    WebEndev

    (@munman)

    10 years, 11 months ago

    Love the plugin!

    Thank you for your efforts!

    Miravacas

    (@miravacas)

    10 years, 11 months ago

    If I were Blair, I’d ask cartpauj not to talk to my customers.

    Nothing wrong with ads as long as the customer is informed. Not informing is at best unethical.

    Most of us use TONS of free plug-ins. This will be the first one that pushes ads to my dashboard. I agree with Hugh: why make a free version if you are going to spam us?

    Plugin Author cartpauj

    (@cartpauj)

    10 years, 11 months ago

    Sally, you’re right. I guess I owe Hugh an apology for going a bit overboard with my response 😀
    Pretty Link is a great plugin and I shouldn’t ruin it with my ramblings and opinions, hopefully others won’t either, but rather give it a fair shot and a fair review (aside from the ads).

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