So, someone doesn’t want to provide their valuable time to you for free and you want to complain?
Since when is making money off a plugin outside of the WP standards? I’d personally like to see where that rule is.
Automattic makes money off Akismet (actually packaged with WordPress) and PollDaddy. Now, you’re trying to say it’s against WP standards.
Thousands of other bloggers use the script (in plugin form and packaged with several themes) without a hitch because they’ve figured out how to read the instructions.
So…
1. You want the plugin to be free.
2. You want the plugin to be bug-free.
3. You want to know exactly how to get the plugin to work perfectly, in all situations, regardless off your unique setup.
4. You want the author to indefinitely provide you with free support for this plugin whenever you happen to run into an issue.
And if all these conditions aren’t met, “beware – try others”.
Personally, I’d be happy to have you move on and try other plugins.
Faen til syting da Kjetil. Du tjener jo penger på WordPress selv. Supporten hos Justin er superb, den beste i hele WordPress sfæren så denne gangen bommer du stygt…
Kan jeg få gratis annonseplass på Dolcevita ?
Kjetil – Dette er faktisk den verste posten jeg har sett her inne hittil. Å oppfordre til boikott av en plugin som er så populær og som faktisk er bygd inn i en mengde temaer. Justin er en av de som virkelig fortjener donasjoner. Han gir ut høykvalitets plugins som løser problemer for tusenvis av bloggere og skriver noen av de beste artiklene som publiseres om WordPress.
En unnskyldning er på sin plass når du blir edru.
To translate John’s post above …
This is actually the worst record I’ve seen here so far. To encourage a boycott of a plug that is so popular and that is actually built into a variety of topics. Justin is one of those who truly deserve donations. He gives out high-quality plugins that solves problems for thousands of bloggers and write some of the best articles published in WordPress.
An apology is appropriate when you are sober.
It took me exactly 15 minutes working with the Get The Image plugin before I had it implemented in a project I’m working on. The instructions are easy to read and very straightforward.
I’ve looked through your comments on that post (there’s 3 from you), and Justin answered your first 2 comments here.
Justin contributes so much to the WordPress community in the way of themes, plugins and tutorials, and he does it for free. Yes, you heard me right, FOR FREE. ThemeHybrid doesn’t cost a dime, it’s free, as are the child themes on his site. Same for all of the plugins that he’s created and released to the community – free.
Yes, he does charge $25/year to join his theme club, but that money gets you support for all of the themes and plugins he’s released. What you get in return for that $25/year is priceless. Not only do you get Justin’s help, but also help from the community that he’s built. The answers to any questions that I’ve had about the Hybrid theme or his plugins I have found there simply by searching, as most were already asked.
Its funny to expect people to pay for something they even don’t know if will work.
You didn’t have to buy the Get The Image plugin – you are able to download it free of charge. It comes with a well-written set of instructions, also for free.
Justin isn’t violating the WordPress standards at all. In fact, his business model is one that Matt Mullenweg himself has suggested numerous times to theme and plugin developers – give the product away for free and charge for support.
I wish you luck in finding another plugin that works as well as this one.
I don’t know about you guys, but even if its Saturday it doesn’t mean I’m drunk. I fact I’m just about leaving work, non-paid work since (in opposite of what claimed above) dolcevita.no is based on ten years of spare-time work for me and my wife – to give others part in great experiences from a lovely country. It is a free service – with a total income so far at about half a year’s salary for one of us.
The really good thing about WordPress is that people help each other out. Some make plugins or themes, some give advice, some nothing. And some show their appreciation by donating. Since I discovered WP about two years ago I’ve spent several hundred dollars on donations to authors I believe deserve it, and I’m also eager to praise those making a good effort. I’ve also made translations to major plugins (like the brilliant Simple Press forum), I tried to give advice on different plugins’ forums etc. I hope many people do the same.
And I don’t expect people to do “everything” for free, though WP with all extensions are based on it.
To put it short: I honor the good, and I believe it is fair to give other WP users recommendations on better alternatives
– though I have never claimed that Get the image is a bad plugin. As I said, I’m sure it’s nice. I’m guess I’m just not smart enough to figure out your instructions.
@ greenshadey / Tadlock(?)
– I have never claimed that anyone should spend their precious time on free support. It is your choice to make a plugin – and to choose if you like people to use it or not. Since you have a public comment page, some advice there might be a good thing. For some funny reason many other authors believe that is a good way to do it.
– Neither have I asked you to delete my (or others’) questions. Your censorship denies other users the possibility to help other stupids out.
– Neither have I asked others to boycott your plugin, I’ve just suggested alternatives for those not clever enough to use yours. I just had to do it in a place where it was not deleted.
Anyhow, I honestly wish you keep up your good work. I’ve seen several other sites using eg Get the image successfully, so I know it works, and I even know it is possible to implement in a site without other effort than inserting the correct code. I just couldn’t figure out how, and I refuse to pay up front for something that maybe wouldn’t work just the way I wanted it to.
I apologize if I’ve hurt anyone’s feelings by posting a note in a way I believe is fair – outside censored forums.
Kjetil
Kjetil:
after I ran into problems, I tried to ask (still on the comments’ page). Maybe because those questions were considered “negative”, they were deleted.
Maybe your questions were deleted as the article your commenting on clearly states:
Please don’t use my contact page or the comments section below to ask support questions. Use my support forums at Theme Hybrid, which is where I handle all support questions for my WordPress projects.
The plugin itself is well documented in the readme.html All info you need is there for free. However with thousands of users some might run into special problems related to their lack of WordPress/PHP knowledge or problems related to server setup or other conflicting code. If so happens theres an option to get personal support for the small fee of 25$.
I am a member on Justins forums and its the best support I have found yet in the WP sphere.
You cant expect a developer with more than 100.000 downloads of free code to give free custom support on his blog. It would clutter the comments on his great articles, and take all his time. I`d rather see Justin make some money on doing custom support and continue to give us great tools and great innovation on how to make the best use of WordPress for free, with stuff like his new great Members plugin and the taxonomy articles.
The business model is great, and its totally in line with what we want in the WP community.
…though I have never claimed that Get the image is a bad plugin.
In the kind of English I’m used to hearing and reading, “Beware” is fairly commonly associated with something that’s “bad.”
Since you have a public comment page, some advice there might be a good thing. For some funny reason many other authors believe that is a good way to do it.
There’s a world of difference between advice and support. Trust me, running support in a comments page isn’t ideal. I tried this once before eventually getting to 900+ comments and having to set up a support forum.
Neither have I asked others to boycott your plugin, I’ve just suggested alternatives for those not clever enough to use yours.
The language used in your first post in this thread suggests otherwise.
I just readed this topic. kjetilgf, many plugin developers have been wasted large and useful hours to create and maintain their works. They give us a open/free code to be taken, modified, etc. by us. The support is one of the few things can be used as remuneration source.
Even if X plugin was not documented is right receive a payment for give support (Instead, Get The Image is well documented). This is a free choose by developer, which many of them have this only source of money and they are completely dedicated to work on their plugins.
May be your claim comes from a little confusion. I hope your understanding about this, and please do not draw more comparisons between plugins. It’s fun to develop, share and receive good comments from our work (Does the life has another meaning?), and of course to receive a few coins occasionally. So man, do not take away the fun. 😉
