I’m really confused. Cloudflare is an extra option like all of the other options within W3TC and it’s not on unless you enable it and signup at Cloudflare. Otherwise it sits there doing nothing.
You’re not paying for an extremely useful plugin that probably has hundreds of hours of work in it, the author adds extra functionality that isn’t enabled and you complain about it? And since when does a plugin author have to ask their users when they want to improve their plugin? Maybe they shouldn’t of included the ability to upload to S3 or enable APC for caching. What’s even more confusing is who updated the plugin and didn’t check the change log or notice the new functionality upon review that updating the plugin didn’t break anything. This would be a little more concerning to me than the addition of Cloudflare.
If your client is calling you with such wild accusations, then they shouldn’t be given admin rights and why could you not explain to them that it’s an added feature. If they were an editor or lower they wouldn’t notice the plugin in the first place.
@kfawcett, I’m sorry if you’re confused. Cloudflare isn’t an extra option like the others, it’s an affiliate link from W3Edge (https://www.cloudflare.com/sign-up.html?affiliate=w3edge) to Cloudflare and an omnipresent advertisement that pops up at the top of websites using the WordPress Admin bar.
It appears if it’s in use or not if you’ve followed the usual process of toggling caching on using the plugin. Improving plugins is one thing but cluttering menu bars with ads and pushing affiliate links is another thing altogether.
Did the plugin cost you anything? No. Do you have to use it? No again. To come on here and complain about an added feature albeit with an affiliate link seems childish, especially from another wordpress plugin developer. I could understand your hardship if you had paid money, but you haven’t. If adding an affiliate link or two helps keep WT3C available for the thousands of websites using it for FREE, then so be it. I’m extremely grateful to have Frederick and crew making such a wonderful plugin available to all of us for free. It has greatly improved the speed of my sites with very little work on my part and I’m sure it has done the same for your client’s websites too.
Next time your clients should spend more time understanding the change log, before blindly upgrading. They’re lucky they didn’t have more serious problems with the plugin considering the amount of posts on the subject in the last few weeks.
I simple explanation can be made to client about CloudFlare. Maybe you can send an email to all of your client that now a new feature is also available for you (if anyone is interested).
This link is also invisible for clients with lower rights.
I’m not currently earning any revenues as a cloudflare affiliate. Thanks for pointing out that the menu appears even if cloudflare is off, that will be rectified in the next release.
Frederick, I wish there was a way to remove posts from WP.org, It was a stressful day handling a security concern from a vigilant client. I should have known you wouldn’t have intentionally added commercial links, sorry for the assumption.
No worries, sorry for the trouble.