[Plugin: User Messages] This plugin is dead, please remove it

These is a newer thread from someone also asking for it to be removed as it seems to only support a premium edition.

I would really like the job of moderating these plugins. I made the mistake myself 3 years ago and fully understand that I done wrong. I was just out of University though.

Some of these authors have been in the industry for many years prior to releasing software on www.ads-software.com according to their blogs.

Disagree, keep this great plugin! There are hundred of users running it including me so I don’t want it to be removed!!!

@webtechglobal : are you aware of this?

https://www.csv2post.com/about/terms-conditions

“You are not allowed to resale or redistribute on the basis you made changes and modifications. You cannot release WebTechGlobal products with GPL included or similar licenses.”

Are you aware that this goes against the GPL?

The terms and conditions for the CSV2Post plugins seems to be completely against the spirit of GPL. Don’t you think that we should remove it from WordPress repository? Oh now, we should keep it because this is a great project and you did a great job!

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/csv-2-post/

This was just to show you that reality isn’t black or white but usually grey… “Do what I say, not what I do”…

To give you my personnal opinion, I believe user messages plugin and csv 2 posts have the right to be here because they contribute to a need. What they do elsewhere isn’t an issue, it allows to sustain the maintenance of the free release so fine!

The CSV 2 POST plugin is indeed GPL, it says so right in the readme.txt file:

https://plugins.svn.www.ads-software.com/csv-2-post/trunk/readme.txt

Note the line that reads “License: GPLv2 or later”.

Their plugin file itself says “Free Edition License: GPL v3”, oddly.

https://plugins.svn.www.ads-software.com/csv-2-post/trunk/csv2post.php

Either way is valid according to our rules.

Now, their pay version may not be GPL, but it doesn’t have to be. If it’s not in our repository, they can use whatever terms they like.

Regarding the User Messages plugin, does the free version no longer work at all? Not offering support is not a reason for us to kill the plugin, but if it just doesn’t work, then that might be.

Don’t remove user messages, I am using it and it is working fine. People having problems with the most recent release can use an older one or another plugin…

Then it is also valuable piece of code as an original use of WP so worth keeping it.

Good homework.

I made the mistake of providing a trial of CSV 2 POST only, in 2009. We re-developed the plugin and I quickly learned my lesson. I was straight out of University and found respect for everything WordPress.

So now I have a plan and I’m not sure there is a plugin author out there with such an ambitious project.

We are taking measures to avoid contamination of the free edition with information that only applies to the premium edition. Anything else is wrong, unethical and in violation. Our opinion but when you look at the behavior of many authors and their projects. It is becomes apparent that www.ads-software.com is being used and abused by developers who really should know better.

Our solution to keeping everyone happy is as follows…

1. CSV 2 POST change log only shows changes that apply to the free or both editions. Took a couple of weeks for this to sink in and I forgot a couple of times. There are plugins with readme.txt file full of information that only applies to the paid edition. It is unethical and just another way of advertising paid services/products. It needs dealt with.
2. Every update improves the free and premium edition. I will never allow CSV 2 POST to increase in version without some hours work being done that makes a difference in the free plugin. Sadly that is not the case for many plugins that have a premium edition. Authors are using the repository to advertise the fact that a new version exists.
3. We have a system being slowly worked into the plugin and https://www.csv2post.com where users of the free edition arrive on help content relating only to the free edition. CSV 2 POST has many Help buttons which take users to support pages specific to the feature the Help button is on. We plan for most of these help buttons to send free users to different pages than premium edition users. This will avoid confusion and we came to the conclusion that it is unethical to send free users to pages that show premium software abilities or services. It is yet another form of funneling users through advertising.
4. We removed Google AdSense from the free edition. We don’t think free plugin should be used to make money when a premium edition exists. I think it is greedy and really pushing it. However our help system will send a value in URL to the plugins website which triggers Google AdSense and WordPress affiliate banners to be displayed on all pages. I think most will agree this is acceptable

It will take the rest of 2012 to complete these goals but it will be worth it. The core of the plugin and approach is going to be used for many more plugins.

?? watch this space.

Right now I need to go release a new version of CSV 2 POST ??

Boy, this post got sidetracked.

So yesterday, 5 months after I made this post, I “accidentally” installed this plugin before reading through the first panel of info in detail and came here to look at this apparently remarkable post only to see I was the one who started it! Every time I search for messaging, this is the first plugin that comes up.

The question remains that why can’t we simply mark a plugin like this with [Inactive] or even something indicating a light or starter version? In the case of this plugin, it has not been, and will not be updated by the author, which does make it inactive, right?

So… You know how much this guy wants for his plugin? 8 euro. For a developer (unlimited sites), 20 euro. In my opinion — and I am far from expert compared to other people around here when it comes to WordPress — that’s the same as asking for a donation; it’s so nominal (again, in my opinion) that it doesn’t even rise to the level of “charging” for the plugin. He seems to follow the very friendly StudioPress model of free updates.

For what this plugin does, if this is something one needs, I don’t see many people objecting to ~$10 fee. Annually, even. I’ve paid more for much less. This is a very specialized plugin meeting a specific purpose and doing it really, really well. (I’m not endorsing it… yet.) I wish we could find some kind of middle ground that is GPL friendly but allows a plugin author to request an objectively nominal fee.

In this particular case, the first time I read through the info on the plugin I was scared to try it, the second time I read the beginning and the disclaimer was in the middle. As a suggestion, if authors could put some kind of flag in their item title, it would help us to know to specifically look for a limitation or hook or issue with the plugin.

Many people may feel I’m making a big deal out of nothing. I have a visual disability that makes it occasionally especially challenging to process information presented in an unstructured way. I’m sure anyone else has made the same type of mistake on any given day. For me, it was so telling really that I caught this annotation in the middle of the description the first time but not the second time. I hope that we can keep these listings available, but to perhaps construct some conventions that will allow everyone to easily identify irregularities in repository listings and some kind of easier, full disclaimer. Because frankly, if I knew this guy only wanted 8 euro for the updated product, I would really never have bothered with any of this.

Hi,

I am the User Messages plugin author. I have been pretty busy over the past couple of years and could not monitor the plugin support forums.

After reading this thread I though I shoudl also give my take on the subject (about my plugin, not about CSV 2 POST).

The question remains that why can’t we simply mark a plugin like this with [Inactive] or even something indicating a light or starter version?

First of all, the plugin is not marked as “light” or “free” version simply because plugin developers have no way of doing it (there is no such concept on www.ads-software.com).

In the case of this plugin, it has not been, and will not be updated by the author, which does make it inactive, right?

I don’t know if you bought the commercial license of the plugin, but that did not get a lot of updates over the past 2/3 years. Reason being I had a full change in my life, and all happened at the same time (changed city, had to build my flat, got a baby, started my own company).

So I hope you understand why I gave less attention to the free version. The commercial version got minor updates because it proved to be pretty stable and to do what people expected from it. I did not abandon the free version though. I just hope I’ll find a better way of maintaining both versions at the same time. I have several other plugins, I almost always give replies by email to people who have a question within 2 weeks. True I have not looked at the support forums (but 3 years back I don’t recall there was a way to get notified about new topics in the plugin’s support forum).

So… You know how much this guy wants for his plugin? 8 euro. For a developer (unlimited sites), 20 euro. In my opinion — and I am far from expert compared to other people around here when it comes to WordPress — that’s the same as asking for a donation;

I wanted to keep the price very affordable to people running their non-profit/community site and charge a little more for people who would use it professionally (web designers). So I’m happy I managed to provide a good plugin at a reasonable price. I also gifted copies of the plugin to non-profit organizations, that was no problem.

Concerning the donation way of getting rewarded: I have developed another plugin which got pretty successful (Email Users, over 150 000 downloads). I think I got a couple of euros from donations over the past 7/8 years (even the SVN repository lost track of the first commits which are marked 43 years old ?? ). So unfortunatly, donation does not work as people simply pay money when they have to, not when they are encouraged to.

Regards,

Vincent