Extortion

  • Be warned! This plugin author decided that the API update was a great time to start charging for something you already use. In addition, your Admin for using the Free plugin will be filled with Ads and “Go PRO” links.

    Now, I will be the first to wish that plugin developers earn a decent living, but I feel that it is appropriate to develop new features for your paid version of the plugin. Instead, the author has lowered the bar: pay for the same functionality that you already have, or get something worse for free.

    My vote–is to find another solution where the plugin author is a consistent. Offer a plugin for free with paid version, or offer it for free–but, to demand money for something that used to be free feels like extortion.

    UPDATE: You don’t need the FREE version of the plugin at all. According to user: @froginthevalley Sylvain Carle (from Twitter)

    If you are hosting your own www.ads-software.com blog, the easiest way is to add a text widget to your sidebar (in Appereance ? Widgets) and paste the widget code you get from https://twitter.com/settings/widgets/

    You can find the entire discussion here: https://dev.twitter.com/discussions/10633

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Author Alex Moss

    (@alexmoss)

    I advertise the PRO version only on the settings page, which is something all plugin developers do when they have a PRO version. This is natural. It’s not an “ad” but simply another version of the free plugin.

    This is indeed true re: using the widget, but it does not output the same as what the PRO version does. This is obviously a choice that people have to make. For some the widget is perfect – for others it’s not.

    Thread Starter tdmarsol

    (@tdmarsol)

    Hi Alex,

    Extortion might be a strong term, but my presumption is that you developed your plugin with the feedback of the open source community, and then took that feedback (feature requests and bug fixes) and are now using it for commercial gain.

    I understand making a profit for your work–you definitely deserve that, but in the future, I propose adding MORE features and value to the paid version of the plugin. Right now, you are demanding money for the same features that the users already had.

    My response would be the same if my favorite restaurant started charging for refills on soda. If the restaurant had always charged for it, things would be fine. If the refills were still free, things would be fine. But, change the rules–don’t charge me one week, and start charging me the next, and it feels wrong. In that situation, some people are going to get angry.

    The hilarious part of this whole thing is that my clients wanted to purchase the upgrade anyways–and, the best part of it was that your PRO version of the plugin threw errors. I had TO DEBUG your paid, PRO version of the plugin. And, at this point, there has yet to be an upgrade with the code fix. (This was a minor mistake, but a major error–throwing a CODE EXCEPTION to the screen.)

    Wish you luck in the future, but with the mixed messages your business sends (free–no, wait, we want to charge for this because there is profit to be made) and the poor quality of work that you sell, your future looks cloudy . . . .

    Plugin Author Alex Moss

    (@alexmoss)

    There was a bug yes but this was updated within 12 hours. The plugin has been free for 2 years and it was Twitter’s decision to turn off the RSS feed, not mine. This made me have to change the whole plugin itself. The free version offers a widget based feed that Twitter offer directly, and they do not offer API twitter feed offerings for free either – perhaps your concerns are mirrored to them too?

    Extortion is indeed a strong term and yet you put it in the subject of your review and gave it one star based on this point. This is an opinion of my decision to release a pro version of the plugin and not at all on the free version (which this review is for).

    There are no mixed messages.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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