[Plugin: W3 Total Cache] Installing 3rd Party options without asking.

  • Resolved christopherross

    (@christopherross)


    13 years, 5 months ago

    First off, let me say that I think this is a great plugin but the latest release installs menu items for CloudFlare, a third party commercial service. Personally, I think it’s a little presumptuous of the developers to think that my business (or my clients) would like to see an advertisement for CloudFlare at the top of our screens consistently throughout our WordPress experience.

    Why would this bother me? This morning, I was awaken at 6 by a client who was in a panic that CloudFlare had hacked their website. They suddenly saw a new commercial link on their admin and though somehow they’d been compromised.

    I’ve disabled the admin menu on my sites by disabling the CloudFlare option in W3 Total Cache but the two hours it took to do this on 50 sites could have been easily avoided in the plugin author had appreciated turning on new commercial features should be a new option, not the result of a common behaviour such as turning on site caching.

    https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • I’m really confused. Cloudflare is an extra option like all of the other options within W3TC and it’s not on unless you enable it and signup at Cloudflare. Otherwise it sits there doing nothing.

    You’re not paying for an extremely useful plugin that probably has hundreds of hours of work in it, the author adds extra functionality that isn’t enabled and you complain about it? And since when does a plugin author have to ask their users when they want to improve their plugin? Maybe they shouldn’t of included the ability to upload to S3 or enable APC for caching. What’s even more confusing is who updated the plugin and didn’t check the change log or notice the new functionality upon review that updating the plugin didn’t break anything. This would be a little more concerning to me than the addition of Cloudflare.

    If your client is calling you with such wild accusations, then they shouldn’t be given admin rights and why could you not explain to them that it’s an added feature. If they were an editor or lower they wouldn’t notice the plugin in the first place.

    Thread Starter christopherross

    (@christopherross)

    @kfawcett, I’m sorry if you’re confused. Cloudflare isn’t an extra option like the others, it’s an affiliate link from W3Edge (https://www.cloudflare.com/sign-up.html?affiliate=w3edge) to Cloudflare and an omnipresent advertisement that pops up at the top of websites using the WordPress Admin bar.

    It appears if it’s in use or not if you’ve followed the usual process of toggling caching on using the plugin. Improving plugins is one thing but cluttering menu bars with ads and pushing affiliate links is another thing altogether.

    Did the plugin cost you anything? No. Do you have to use it? No again. To come on here and complain about an added feature albeit with an affiliate link seems childish, especially from another wordpress plugin developer. I could understand your hardship if you had paid money, but you haven’t. If adding an affiliate link or two helps keep WT3C available for the thousands of websites using it for FREE, then so be it. I’m extremely grateful to have Frederick and crew making such a wonderful plugin available to all of us for free. It has greatly improved the speed of my sites with very little work on my part and I’m sure it has done the same for your client’s websites too.

    Next time your clients should spend more time understanding the change log, before blindly upgrading. They’re lucky they didn’t have more serious problems with the plugin considering the amount of posts on the subject in the last few weeks.

    I simple explanation can be made to client about CloudFlare. Maybe you can send an email to all of your client that now a new feature is also available for you (if anyone is interested).

    This link is also invisible for clients with lower rights.

    Plugin Contributor Frederick Townes

    (@fredericktownes)

    I’m not currently earning any revenues as a cloudflare affiliate. Thanks for pointing out that the menu appears even if cloudflare is off, that will be rectified in the next release.

    Thread Starter christopherross

    (@christopherross)

    Frederick, I wish there was a way to remove posts from WP.org, It was a stressful day handling a security concern from a vigilant client. I should have known you wouldn’t have intentionally added commercial links, sorry for the assumption.

    Plugin Contributor Frederick Townes

    (@fredericktownes)

    No worries, sorry for the trouble.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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