It’s a pity

Interesting observation.

I was going to suggest, that perhaps you’d not yet added a child theme, but I looked more closely at our own site, where we do have a child theme, and like you, our Neve theme footer has vanished since we updated to the latest Neve version.

I didn’t really require our footer, so no skin off our site’s nose, but I wonder if the footer vanishing in the latest Neve update is a bug rather than a deliberate bait and switch.

Hopefully, it is a bug that will be corrected on the next update.

If not, like you, we’ll be looking for a new theme.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by 1waytoheaven.

@1waytoheaven @thomhsb
Look what i found
Version 3.3.1 (2022-06-27)
[Fix] Both posted date and updated date are displayed
[Fix] {current_query_title} magic tag can’t be displayed inline with other text
From 3.3.0 we decided to remove the copyright component from the free version. You can continue using it if you roll back to 3.2.x or you can upgrade to pro, using a one-time 50% discount by using NEVEBRANDING50 discount code. The promotion is available until the 5th of July 2022.

“From 3.3.0 we decided to remove the copyright component from the free version.”

Ridiculous and damaging for the future, I’d bet on it. Not being able to remove the Neve copyright is a mistake. Giving to take back is a mistake. I have since replaced Neve on 7 websites (personal, clients and friends), and I’m still doing it. There are many more, it’s not a problem.

it’s a pity that they changed their policies, it’s one of the easiest themes to customize, i was wondering if it’s OK to hide it via CSS though? but perhaps it’s better to move to another parent theme…

You can hide this copyright, indeed. Anything is possible in programming.

But since it seems to be their policy to change things that have already been established and not to care about the changes it implies to the existing, I no longer take the risk of building with this theme and having to change 20 websites because they suddenly decide otherwise.

Updating a theme is fine, but for the better, not for the less.

Since this unpleasant surprise, I have removed this theme from all the platforms I know and no longer recommend it at all.

Hello @thomhsb, @1waytoheaven, @topboj and @mushiepops!

I apologize for the frustration this change must have caused you. I do understand that this is not a popular decision but we analyzed the product sustainability and growth and in order to further support the innovation and development we appeal to our users to further support our work by either recommending our product if they like it or financially via paying for the the PRO version. Moreover please consider that Neve is a customers funded project and without Premium product sales we can’t provide any updates whatsoever to the free product.

With that in mind we have decided that if you want to update to the newer version, you’ll either have to get the premium version to get the functionality or accept that some features would be missing. Alternatively, you’re free to continue to use the 3.2.x version for as long as you want.

If you think that Neve does not provide enough value to use it, I do understand and with the support of those that will do, we hope to increase the value over time thru new features to make it worth it for you too.

Have a great day ahead!

thomhsb is right…
no more Neve is my choice too…for the time being rollback, next days switch to other theme…

I agree with the other posters here, and on the other threads relating to this.

We all understand that the Free versions of themes may be feature limited, when compared to Pro/Paid versions, and that is perfectly reasonable.

It is NOT reasonable to quietly REMOVE features from the free version, potentially breaking site formatting at the same time.

Neve is a hugely popular theme, for good reasons – doing what you’ve done to try to force people down the Pro/Paid route is not the way to build customer trust or engagement. You should consider re-instating the functionality you’ve removed and use more positive methods to improve take-up of the pro version.

@thomhsb
@luciamarinescu

Yeah, quite awful. I solved the problem by reverting back to the previous version from a backup, and asked the same question here yesterday. Lucia kindly answered but refused to provide a code that would replace the new copyright. I guess it could easily be done with CSS if you search around, but that’s not the main point.

To the developers: it breaks the trust between you and your customers when you destroy the products they have been using – for no reason, without a warning, from one day to another. People would buy a premium version when their site starts to generate income and they need more from you, not because you decided to push them or destroy their site with something like that. This would make them hate you and search for alternatives.

“Improve the existing and make it pro options but limiting what was possible before is a marketing mistake.” – I agree 100%. I hope Neve will think about it, apologise, and bring back the old features, because the theme was good.

“Personally, I made my choice: goodbye Neve. It was nice to work with but because of this kind of surprises, I won’t take the risk to install this theme anymore.” – Quite logical. And they also need to understand that regardless if we’re using free or pro, we’ve put a lot of time ourselves into creating something with their products and they cannot destroy our work like that.

@luciamarinescu & @spwoot: +1

But in the end, I don’t think they care at all…

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by Thomas.

This explains some customers calling me asking why there is a neve signature on their website. Not only does this mean I need to change loads of themes but also I feel worse for recommending to buy pro as their websites grew.

I truly get that you’d want to increase revenue and there are lots of ways to do so, I’m not sure this is one of those.
You want to know how I look when I have to get called by customers asking about a change on their website I didn’t know about? I look stupid, that’s it. It feels like undermining your brand ambassadors might not be the right strategy, but let’s see how it affects revenue.

Have you considered how you damage webdevelopers reputations with this? I’m truly curious to know whether that has even been considered though feel like I know the answer to this one already.

@jorickvanweelie : Absolutely… and I found myself with the same problem.

I recommended Neve for over a year by installing it.

From now on, I communicate that this theme is weakened by the unreflected decisions of the developers and that the site can change overnight.

I have since changed all themes and banned Neve from my vocabulary.

I’m unsure yet if I’ll switch from theme or not, but that content from my footer is removed without notification beforehand makes that I don’t trust it will not ruin more things in the future.

If anybody likes to edit footer text, you can find the code here:

/wp-content/themes/neve/header-footer-grid/Core/Builder/Footer.php

Hi,

I want to back 3.2.x version. Where can I find that version?

Sincerely.