I did not consent to animated banner ads all over the wp-admin area

The ad concerns me a lot. I think Yoast is making a BIG mistake here. It’s indeed a clear violation of the Plugin Guidelines…
https://developer.www.ads-software.com/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/

I am very curious about the explanation of Yoast…

Hiya,

First things first, @mowininonini, I’ve removed your post here, it adds nothing to the discussing and is merely a defamatory statement.

Automattic has nothing to do with the www.ads-software.com plugin directory, we’ll just get that out of the way as well. They are a company that uses WordPress them selves, and they donate developers to work on it, but they do not control, nor have a say in, how the directory runs.

—

Now that’s out of the picture, let’s get down to it all.

The advertisement has sparked some outrage, understandably so, it’s a bold move, both with the colors, animations and placement, but it doesn’t appears to be violating any guidelines.

The ad is dismissible (the “X” in the corner, as other notices also have), and is included in the plugin assets, and thus loaded from your local site (which abides by Guideline 10 and 11).

As for guideline 7, I can not give an absolute answer, as it’s down to what the plugins team considers tracking, but per the guideline definition (and they are guidelines, not rigid rules) the banner does not track views, or contact any external services. When you click to go to a sale page, you provide generic information about the environment the plugin is used on (what language is used, what version of WordPress and the plugin is used in combination), but nothing personally identifiable, and no tracking codes or similar. This last bit is my personal opinion, and is not the final say in the matter, but I think it’s nice to get some perspectives.

Bad practice, this ad is not welcome at all.

Imagine if all my plugins put an ad in my dashboard?
You are abusing the point 11 of the guidelines.
“Should be avoided” doesn’t mean “lets put ads where I want”.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 12 months ago by nicomollet.

Hi @clorith

Thanks for the response – I appreciate you taking the time, and thank you very much for removing the distasteful comment.

Thank you for the clarification on points 10 and 11. Also, thank you for your perspective regarding point 7, however I do feel like we are disagreeing on the guideline purpose.

Whilst it seems that you are looking at the definition of the word Guideline, I am looking at the definition of the document that was labelled Detailed Plugin Guidelines as stated in the introduction of the document:

Developers, all users with commit access, and all users who officially support a plugin are expected to abide by the Directory Guidelines.

Violations may result in plugins or plugin data (for previously approved plugins) being removed from the directory until the issues are resolved. Plugin data, such as user reviews and code, may not be restored depending on the nature of the violation and the results of a peer-review of the situation. Repeat violations may result in all the author’s plugins being removed and the developer being banned from hosting plugins on www.ads-software.com.

The wording leaves very little leeway in the interpretation of the purpose of the document. These are rules and regulations. The rules and regulations themselves might have “many relevant interpretations”, but they must be adhered to.

For a plugin to automatically load an ad without any user input or manual updates is a breach of contract and trust between user and developer.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 12 months ago by fritcc.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 12 months ago by fritcc.

Also, the “X” in the corner is barely clickable. They ad changes your mouse cursor but the image is not on center with the point of the cursor, so if you move the target (their version of your cursor) over the X, you are in fact clicking on the ad instead.

Again, dishonesty from Yoast.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 12 months ago by fritcc.

can’t believe people are still using bloated/shady plugins like Yoast. Do yourself a favor and switch to The SEO Framework or something more lightweight and less commercial.

Also the (x) doesn’t work to dismiss the ad, at least for me. It just redirects back to the same admin page, with the ad still displaying. So I can’t actually get rid of it.

@maxington26

If you need, you can pop a CSS rule into your functions file to consistently hide it like this:

add_action('admin_head', 'get_rid_of_yoast_bloat');
function get_rid_of_yoast_bloat() {
    echo '<style type="text/css"> .yoast_bf_sale { display: none !important; }</style>';
}

• This reply was modified 4 years, 12 months ago by fritcc.

Absolutely valid concerns from all (and thank you for your insights on guideline 11, I didn’t mean to distract form the talk by iterating on the terminology ?? ).

The dismiss button being a bit flakey has been reported to Yoast, and they are looking into it. For the time being, you can also dismiss it by visiting mywebsite.com/wp-admin/?yst_dismiss_bf=1 (just replace mywebsite.com with your own site).

@clorith

…they are guidelines, not rigid rules

As a member of the wp.org team, you saying the above quote may very-well lead to every Tom, Dick and Jane with an approved plugin using these very words to justify pushing the boundaries as to what is acceptable in the /wp-amin area.

I think the moderators here are more than boring.
When will we get a useful reply from anyone from Yoast ?

There are so many frustrating sides to this situation, and the issue has been magnified by the PR spin we’re receiving in response to (what sounds like) a well-expected response to an egregious marketing decision.

To start, it’s frustrating that me and my clients (whom my name is on the line for, having recommended Yoast) are being forced to play Duck Hunt when we login to our WP Dashboard.

But it’s incredibly frustrating that the Developer Guidelines are being co-opted as “guidelines, not rigid rules” in order to side-step responsibility.

Here are some relevant snippets from the Guidelines:

• From the first sentence of Developer Expectations: “all users who officially support a plugin are expected to abide by the Directory Guidelines.”
• From #7: “Documentation on how any user data is collected, and used, should be included in the plugin’s readme, preferably with a clearly stated privacy policy.”
• From #11: “Users prefer and expect plugins to feel like part of WordPress. Constant nags and overwhelming the admin dashboard with unnecessary alerts detract from this experience.”
• From #11: “Advertising within the WordPress dashboard should be avoided, as it is generally ineffective.”
• From #11: “Remember: tracking referrals via those ads is not permitted (see guideline 7) and most third-party systems do not permit back-end advertisements.”
• From #11: “Remember: tracking referrals via those ads is not permitted (see guideline 7) and most third-party systems do not permit back-end advertisements.”
• From #7: “In the interest of protecting user privacy, plugins may not contact external servers without explicit and authorized consent.“

I’m not here to split hairs over the definition of the word ‘guideline’, and/or ‘explicit consent’; if you’re willing to die on that hill, so be it. Not me.

The deeper issue is one of the ‘unwritten, but understood’ rules of Open-Source Software: Product comes first. Every time.

Decisions like the banner tell us the current heirarchy at Yoast HQ is marketing first, product after; without a re-structure (ie. internal decision-making changes so product, developers, and WordPress ecosystem come first, and the sales & marketing come after), and with the addition of intrusive banners, the plugin would lose its value for me.

And therein lies the problem; I have zero faith the same management team green-lighting forced Casino-style banner ads with difficult-to-click close buttons (“Oops! teehee, sorry peeps! We’re working on making it easier to opt out; here’s a workaround buried in the comments section of one of our support tickets!” doesn’t cut it); the same management team asking support staff to push back on well-predicted complaints from the community regarding obtrusive advertising, are in the right headspace to restructure their business in a direction that will decrease revenue in the short term (short term only, of course, but short-term decision-making is how they got themselves here in the first place). And that lack of faith gives me a sinking feeling.

Yoast’s SEO plugin has shifted in direction from becoming “bloaty, but more colourful and bubbly” to becoming a free advertising siphon: “Just add a straw and suck!”

For years, I’ve touted it as the single-most important plugin for any WordPress website to have… but there’s no way I can do tht in good conscience now. Even if you right this wrong, change your tune, and backpoeddle out of this successfully… The plugin’s trajectory has been tipped.

It won’t get better, it will get worse.

And so today I’ll frustratingly, and resentfully start moving all installs under my supervision away from Yoast’s SEO plugin. But (a) the decisions which leads to green lighting the banner, and (b) the response to the community’s complaints tell me everything I need to know about the next 2-5 years of Yoast SEO. It’s been a slice.

Wow, @devc that has to be one of the best comments I’ve ever read on the w.org forums. Nicely put!

@devc That comment is spot on! You wrote out what I thought in my head. I will also transfer all clients to the other option starting coming week.

I was horrified to see a big, stridently-colored animated Yoast ad. Shame on Yoast for pushing this up into our back ends. It’s enough to make me want to uninstall Yoast SEO.