"Fake" Newsletter Pro plugin

There’s nothing wrong with the plugin in the Repository as far as I can tell. The fact that another plugin (that is not in the Repo) has the same name is unfortunate but that in itself is not grounds to remove a plugin from the Repo.

The other plugin developer would be best advised to change the name of his plugin and issue an update.

The newsletter Pro plugin has been around for quite some time. The people using this plugin all get an update message in their wordpress what will probably break the original plugin. ( I didn’t choose to test this yet).
In my opinion the new newsletter pro plugin should change it’s name and not the one that has been around for a long time.
Not because of the fact that the old original plugin is in the Repo or not. Think about all the people getting an update message in their WordPress breaking their Plugin and perhaps loosing their subscriber list.

It is not my plugin I’m just a user of the plugin and I was completely confused when I got the message. There is NO notice that it is not the same as the Newsletter (Pro) that is well known.
I just want to help people out before it’s too late and they press the update link breaking the old plugin.
By the way, when it’s a completely different plugin like you say. How can it be that the Old plugin gets an update message in WordPress?
Is it because they use the same name or because the plugin source code is a copy?

The newsletter Pro plugin has been around for quite some time.

Not in the Plugin Repository, it hasn’t. The Repo avoids name clashes amongst the plugins submitted to it but cannot be expected to also avoid name clashes with A.N.Other plugin hosted elsewhere. As I said, this is unfortunate but it is not grounds to remove a plugin from the Repo when it complies with all of the submission guidelines.

I get your point….. Just want to help people here.
Don’t you agree that the new Plugin should at least warn people with the Paid version not to upgrade in their upgrade message or something like that?

Next to that: It has the exact same functionality as I could read and for me it seems like a Scam.

Don’t you agree that the new Plugin should at least warn people with the Paid version not to upgrade in their upgrade message or something like that?

Not necessarily, no. Do you have any idea of how many tens of thousands of plugins there are outside of the WPORG Plugin Repository? This kind of issue was bound to happen at some point and it would be unreasonable to expect plugin devs to jump through hoops in case someone was selling another plugin with the same name elsewhere.

Pro is an paid upgrade from this very good and popular Plugin (371,034 downloads)
Newsletter

He has 27 plugins made for the WordPress community.

I cannot believe that the new plugin builder has not checked if there were any other newsletter plugins around. He must have seen the Newsletter name and he can easily see that there is an paid Pro version as well.

Paid people can only upgrade by uploading the files so the only one who can prevent an issue with the paid users upgrading and breaking their plugin is the guy from the “new” plugin.

That’s the last thing I want to say about this.

The plugin you reference in the Plugin Repository has a completely different name.

I cannot believe that the new plugin builder has not checked if there were any other newsletter plugins around.

Only plugins hosted within the Plugin Repo are forced to use unique names.

Paid people can only upgrade by uploading the files so the only one who can prevent an issue with the paid users upgrading and breaking their plugin is the guy from the “new” plugin.

Incorrect. The other plugin’s name could be changed.

I know it has a different name.
Newsletter is the free one.

Newsletter Pro is the paid version that you can download on Satollo his website after you pay a small fee.

Incorrect. The other plugin’s name could be changed.

How? If you can only upgrade by going to his website and download an upgrade.

Dear Esmi, I appreciate your time and help. I understand that you follow all the guidelines and I will not convince you or change your mind slightly.
I just hope some people read this so it prevents them from upgrading and having a bad day/ week afterwards.
Greetings from Holland!

How?

The plugin developer would need to make the change.

I do appreciate that this is a problem for the original pro plugin’s users and I have flagged it up for the attention of the WPORG plugin team but, unless there is evidence of other issues that contravene the Repo’s guidelines, I don’t see how/why the other plugin should be removed if it is compliant.

No need to remove. Just a warning message in the upgrade of the new plugin.

(When this plugin is new (see stats) why does it have version number 3.1.9? Of course the developer is free to chose any version number but if he had chosen version number 1 or 0.5 the users of newsletter pro would not have gotten the upgrade message anyway.)

Thank you for your help!

Really need to get back to work now ?? Some Magento and wordpress theme work waiting.

why does it have version number 3.1.9?

That, I agree seems… unusual. Which is why I’ve asked the plugin team to have a look at it.

Hi all,

of course I know it’s not illegal to ask and get a name which is used by plugins external to the WordPress directory and I don’t want to suspect that the other Newsletter Pro plugin did it intentionally (even if naming a plugin like another one already existent from years sounds not so nice).

By the way, I’ll patch Newsletter Pro so it cannot be updated by WordPress. As far as I know there are not best practices on how a plugin owner should do it. Probably it would be interesting for the WordPress team (which any of us should never end to thank) to add something that enable a plugin to stop the new version notices.

The problem of conflicting names cannot be solved. If I rename my Newsletter Pro as Newsletter Pro X, someone could always register a conflicting name. Changing the name, even if possible, it’s not the solution (for me at least). In my case changing the folder name of Newsletter Pro will be extremely complex since it’s not a two page plugin (ok, developer, I should used more defines… I agree).

Actually the other plugin is suspended, but I’m pretty sure it will be re-enabled. This is a lesson and a problem to any developer creating plugins not published on WordPress repository (even if not commercial) and not only plugins…!

Version 3.0 will solve definitively that problem being a single plugin with modules not subjected to update notices… I suddenly start to rewrite them this way!

Stefano Lissa.

@stefano: If you need to take this further, please contact plugins [at] www.ads-software.com directly.

@esmi: This plugin update issue has not been resolved. I just ran into it today and had the most annoying time of repairing my business sites that use it.

Please consider forceably removing the update from WordPress so that other users of this product don’t have to go through this fix. Essentially, this update isn’t just a conflict in names. It’s only purpose is to break an existing plugin. If it had a use I wouldn’t suggest this. But anyone that tries this Update will end up with an unuseable plugin.

Please remove it. Thanks!
ER4PETS