Incorrect Usage of Em Dash

Hi @qeyduey

It has always been an em dash. See screenshots on our plugin page: https://ps.w.org/business-hours-indicator/assets/screenshot-1.jpg?rev=1551528

Kind regards,
Maarten

@maartenbelmans,

Okay. I guess I didn’t notice. It’s still an improper use of an em dash though.

Please see this first article on google — https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/glyphs/hyphens-and-dashes/

Thanks in advance.

Hi @qeyduey

Noted!

FYI: The premium version has options to change it to a normal dash or another symbol. We haven’t gotten around to include this in the free version yet.

Hey @maartenbelmans,

Firstly, let me say this: I LOVE supporting developers via the purchase of premium plugins; especially when the free version of their plugin provides such a TREMENDOUS amount of value (which, for the record, yours clearly does). In fact, I have already recommended your plugin to several of my colleagues and many of them actually wound up purchasing the premium version for their needs after discovering it.

Now, let me say this: Personally, I also think this is really poor taste on your behalf to try and upsell me to the paid version of your plugin to resolve a simple grammatical error on your part.

I was simply highlighting to you a way that you could fix a grammar issue and improve your overall plugin for the general public in literally less than 5 seconds. How do I know? Because I already went ahead and made the modification before I even submitted the ticket to you. I merely made the recommendation to you publicly so that other users of your plugin could also receive the benefit of the edit.

Anyhow, since a 5-second grammatical fix is not on the “roadmap” for your free version and you’re not quite sure when you will “get around to doing it”, I could only wonder what other kinds of delays would exist for your premium plugin. Of course, I can’t tell you how to develop or support your plugin, so I will simply accept this reality and opt out of your premium upgrade at this time.

Happy Sunday, my friend, have an amazing rest of the weekend and thank you, again, for such a wonderful plugin! =D

P.S. For those who would like to make this fix on their own, until the developer takes action, simply edit the following file:

../plugins/business-hours-indicator/models/class-opening-hours.php

Change line 45 from this:

public function to_string($format = 'g:i A', $separator = ' — ')

… to this:

public function to_string($format = 'g:i A', $separator = ' – ')

Hi @qeyduey

I’m sorry you saw this as upselling as that is not my intention. As I said “FYI”, I was simply stating that if this feature is important to you, there is a way to get it now rather than waiting for an implementation in the free version. Whether or not you purchase is entirely up to you but I can only simply convey this information. I was in no way “selling it” or being aggressive in my approach

Please understand that I put many hours of support and development into a plugin that you can enjoy free of charge, and I do not ask anything in return.

That said, I am running a business and I will reserve myself the right to mention my premium plugin in a tasteful manner. I understand you may not like it, but you should understand there are real people behind plugins that are trying to make a living just like you.

Hi @maartenbelmans,

I think you are missing my point — majorly.

I was going to attempt to explain myself further, but if you missed it the first time, I don’t think it is worth the time going into any additional details.

Just understand one thing: the amount of time you’ve wasted writing back and forth to me in this support thread has far surpassed the amount of time it would have taken you to resolve the issue. Think deeply about that for a moment… and then a moment longer.

If you are willing to spend MORE time justifying why you don’t want to implement a 5-second fix than you are to solve a problem for the end-users of your plugins, I think you are setting yourself up for major failure. For without the people who are using your plugin, sir, your plugin is useless and invaluable. Always deliver more value than you receive.

I wish you nothing but the best, my friend. ?

I got your point, I just wanted to convey that if someone does mention their premium version, it’s not really unfair they do.

As to the time it takes to fix this:

1) I absolutely want to spend more time telling you why I don’t simply just do this on a Sunday because the WordPress ecosystem has a real problem with people expecting everything handed to them for free, as quickly as possible.

2) Of course it’s just changing one character in the code. However, that doesn’t mean we can just do this quickly, because:
a) We may already be implementing other changes that take longer. We would want to finish those before going live, so you would still end up waiting weeks for your one-character change.

b) You’re forgetting we have 8k+ active users that are using the emdash. Even if this change is small, I can’t simply force that change on them since this is how they started using the plugin. Instead, I should give them an option to change it. Not a one-character change anymore.

Now to address the actual issue:

We can include a WordPress filter in a next release which you can use to overwrite the character. That would be the best solution for point b) above.

If you have anything else to add on the off-topic part of this reply, please reach out to us via our website as I don’t think we should drag this out here further.