Great plugin but plugin author needs work

  • Midlife Riding

    (@midlife-riding)


    11 years, 7 months ago

    +5 stars for the plugin
    -1 star for not having a soul

    I have checked out almost every glossary plugin available and this one is by far the most advanced and useful plugin available for my purposes. I can’t recommend this plugin more just based on pure functionality, capabilities, and ease of use. +5 stars for the plugin

    Upon installation, I had an issue with 404-not found errors on the /glossary/term/ pages. After reading existing (closed) support topics for the same issue with no resolution found/shared and no help from the plugin author (for the free version, I can’t blame them for that) I decided to create a new topic asking for general guidance on what to check besides the obvious “disable all plugins and themes” which I had already done and still had the same 404 error.

    Instead of offering even the slightest of hints of what to check, the plugin author closed and removed my support topic! I only found that out because I fixed the 404 error and went back to post my fix for the problem to help others STILL experiencing the same 404 error issue. Shame on you plugin author! -1 star for not having a soul

    So with all of that said, I have to use this review as a way to share my fix since the plugin author has no soul and won’t allow me to do it any other way.

    If you are experiencing 404 errors and have SSL enabled for your site, then the issue is related to conanical links. You have some options for how to fix it, but for me it was as easy as changing one setting in the “permalinks” settings within WordPress SEO by Yoast. Change the “Force Transport” to “Force HTTPS” and save and the 404 error goes away.

    If you are not using that particular SEO plugin, then you may have a similar option in your SEO plugin of choice or you can write a short code snippet in your functions.php file to force HTTPS as the delivery mechanism for conanical links.

    I was 100% certain that this was the plugin for me and my needs. I wanted to resolve all issues prior to spending money on the paid version and seeing how the plugin author handles support has basically changed my mind. Out of principal, I only pay for stuff if 1.) the product/service is worth the asking price (which I believe this plugin is worth it) and 2.) I want to empower and support that company/product/service by giving them my hard-earned money (which I DO NOT believe this company/author is deserving of after my recent experiences). Bottom line, is that I am still undecided about whether we will be purchasing this plugin for our organization at this point in time. It went from 100% certain that this is the plugin for us and a guaranteed sale, down to a 50/50 shot as to whether I can justify putting money in the pocket of someone I lost respect for, regardless of whether the product is worth it or not.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    11 years, 7 months ago

    Instead of offering even the slightest of hints of what to check, the plugin author closed and removed my support topic! . . . Shame on you plugin author! -1 star for not having a soul

    So, yeah, that soul comment, that’s not cool here. Please refrain from that.

    Here are your two support threads posted one hour ago for this *free* plugin:

    https://wordpress.org/support/topic/glossaryterm-404-not-found

    https://wordpress.org/support/topic/on-the-fence-about-buying

    They have not been removed nor are they closed.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    11 years, 7 months ago

    Upon further investigation, it looks like one (or both) of threads above was caught as spam for a short period of time, which is why we go through the spam queue several times each day.

    Our robot marked it as spam on accident, not the plugin’s developer. The robot has no soul.

    Thread Starter Midlife Riding

    (@midlife-riding)

    11 years, 7 months ago

    So when my topics were NOT displayed in the support forum for the plugin and I had to track them down through my account settings > recent posts to be able to post my reply (404 error page fix), but clicking reply results in a “the topic has been closed and is no longer available for posting” message, what you’re saying is that really means that the “topic is open and available for posting but we’re going to lie to you and tell you that it’s closed, hide it from the site frontend, and prevent you from posting any updates.” Got it. Will take that into consideration in the future.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    11 years, 7 months ago

    Um, no, see above. It means the system thought you were spammer, and we took time out of our day to rescue you out of the spam queue.

    Mistakes happen, we volunteer to correct those mistakes.

    Please take that into consideration in the future, thanks.

    Thread Starter Midlife Riding

    (@midlife-riding)

    11 years, 7 months ago

    Since this is NOT the fault of the plugin creator, review stars changed to +5.

    Sorry for being a a-hole but I’ve run into way too many plugin authors who think that everyone using wordpress is an idiot and they fail to offer any help, support or even hints because of it. Judging by the lack of support provided to others experiencing the same 404 errors, I was expecting that to be the case with my support request as well.

    I will update my support topic with my fix and allow the plugin author to respond one way or another. I’ll give then a chance to prove me right or wrong prior to purchasing this plugin.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    11 years, 7 months ago

    No worries, in general though it’s probably best to give a free plugin developer a little bit more than one hour to respond. 😉

    Thread Starter Midlife Riding

    (@midlife-riding)

    11 years, 7 months ago

    It’s not that I didn’t get support within 1 hour. Anyone who expects that is a fool.

    It’s that within 1 hr, my topic had been closed and removed which (unaware that it was anti-spam causing it) gave the appearance and impression that the plugin author went above and beyond to bury a support topic that has been brought up multiple times by others with no resolution posted yet and the same issue is continuing to happen to folks (like me) to this day so it clearly still needed addressing. It is that kind of plugin author that I make it a point to never use their products or support them with my money.

    Knowing what I know now makes a difference. I was wrong and will admit that. Again, I apologize to the plugin author.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

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