michaelhart

Oh, another suggestion…

Create a widget similar to the “Upgrade the Web” campaign from Spread Firefox. http://www.spreadfirefox.com/affiliates/utw

Except, preferably, when the users already have sharaholic, hide the widget completely. I would be willing to place this on some of my blogs as well. Or let that image be a screenshot mini-tutorial on how to share. This could also be made more dynamic by allowing users to close (with an X button, similar to WP Greet Box http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-greet-box/screenshots/ setting a cookie to keep it out of their way). For tracking and global-opt out, this could all be loaded using javascript from sharaholic’s domain, so the close button works on any blog with the widget (since the cookie would be on your domain, not any particular blog).

Could get really fancy, with screenshots of the social functions of the plugin in every browser.

Anyway, just an idea 😉

sharaholic, I get that you want to promote your service and that you guys work really hard on this sexy extension. However, this was a move just like Facebook Places… It benefits mainly you (often times distracting our users away from out content; I have looked into the Analytics of this on 3 websites, and your site quickly rose as one of the top exit links, even though it does open in a new window. people have short term memory, best not to distract them.), was very rogue, and didn’t (initially) didn’t give users a way to opt-out.

Your reputation is down the drain with me right now, just like Facebook’s was (and still is) for all of the poor choices they made.

This change was NOT documented in the changelog. This change is currently not able to be disabled (without doing what is nothing more than a hack, switching to beta, and I imagine will be fixed eventually anyway). This change was very rogue, and didn’t put the users first. It was a strategy move meant only to help you, and sneak it in to unsuspecting web masters who would likely never notice.

In addition to all of those problems I have with it, the fact that it slides down even when there’s only 1 row of icons really frustrates me. I pick a select handful of icons so that it doesn’t slide down… That’s completely pointless now, thanks to that link… With no other icons coming in (most of which, that I don’t want displayed regardless of the sliding), it only serves to draw attention to the Sharaholic link moreso than the sharing icons.

If you want the PR, put it in the footer, that’s fine. If you want the users to install your toolbar or whatever, add a button for it and add it to the “Popular” configuration (or enabled by default). But don’t add a distracting link that breaks the overall intended functionality (at least for me) of the content presentation.

And really, make it an option. You’ll still get lots of linkbacks, but the people who you’d otherwise drive off will continue to use it because you gave them the option. The power of choice is a very powerful thing.

As I said, I don’t mind linking to your site or promoting your toolbar, and I have even written about Sharaholic’s toolbar and WordPress plugin in the past on my blog. But the distracting nature of the sliding (when the only thing that appears is the link) and the sequence of events that it was added, again, in a very rogue manner, are both not what I expected, and really lowers my respect and trust for you guys (now I’ll be doing file comparisons of your updates, undoing anything I disapprove of).

I do hope you will consider what I have said. I don’t know what your goals are, but there has to be a better way than the way you guys actually did it. Remember, put the users first, and NEVER make a change that isn’t listed in the changelog, especially like that. It will only drive people crazy when it breaks something, and when they figure out your plugin was the cause after hours of elimination and testing, they’ll uninstall the plugin and not think twice about it ever again. User trust is all too important on the Internet; you guys should know that.

Same problem. This addon is beautiful, and would be PERFECT if it just worked.