[Theme: Responsive] Throttling, please?

  • Really don’t mean to be a grump, here. The last thing I want to do is make an enemy. I write WordPress plugins and have a couple of themes in the works. But I’d like to offer that if updates are critical, then immediate versioning is definitely necessary. If they are comparatively inconsequential and only improvements to otherwise working code, bundling them and pushing once per 3-4 weeks should be sufficient. Updates carrying more enhancements can be better appreciated by users, as they see a larger change between versions. But that is not the reason I am writing.

    Due to server configs and other reasons, one of which is often security, not everyone updates their WordPress installs, plugins and themes by clicking the button, sitting back and watching. Updates are done manually and the file dates are all eyeballed to delete any that are not replaced by new versions. Users don’t know which file updates may be for tightening security, so widowed files are manually deleted to keep things clean. Some have more than one WP install to maintain.

    An update to Responsive every day for the past 3 days, 10 in 5 weeks, is out of the norm. If the aim is to reach the top of the list on the Themes page, it worked. I fully get that responsive web design is a new area and that there are going to be a lot of revisions at the beginning as the best method is hammered out to try to cover as many device parameters as possible; especially when they keep changing. It’s a new layer on an already complex situation; a lot of it reversing what has been the accepted standard for good coding practice in web design. I commend you for writing and sharing a responsive WP theme. Not an easy task and I know that you want to do the best job possible; just try to chill a little?

    https://www.ads-software.com/extend/themes/responsive/

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

  • For non-support related questions such as feedback and suggestion please see https://themeid.com/forum

    As far as the updates, well you’re in full control of that. Updates are not automatic, if you don’t want to update each time when they’re available you don’t have to.

    If I wasn’t an Admin/Theme Review Member ar https://make.www.ads-software.com/themes I would say well maybe this guy is right, often updated does NOT push Themes in any direction, nor will increase the popularity at all.

    Thanks for the feedback!

    Emil

    I agree with you Spherical.
    Despite it is an interesting theme it’s also unnecessarily complicated and that’s just what makes any thing on the web useless.
    I understand it’s a free theme, and I respect it. But it will be more profitable for the owner and fair for the free-users if it could work easier. It’s the first theme I tried in 8 years that clears out your editions automatically. I spent 2 weeks on it and that’s frustrating.
    I’d be happy to use this theme but no matter how well ranked the responsive theme is, and the very quick forum it has, I could not make it work.
    All the best,
    Rye.

    @rye Theme is absolutely one of the easiest Themes out there and sorry to hear that you couldn’t make to work, you are the first and only one so far. Have you thought about hiring someone to give you a hand?

    Thanks,
    Emil

    Here’s what I did: https://polldaddy.com/poll/6305931/ let’s make this completely fair-play and decide how often should Theme updates be released.

    Community decision over mine, how democratic is that ??

    Thanks,
    Emil

    @nichy this is for Responsive Theme only.

    Emil

    Hi Guys,

    Found this thread and just wanted to drop in our suggestion that spherical has it right when he stated:

    An update to Responsive every day for the past 3 days, 10 in 5 weeks, is out of the norm.

    One of the reason why Responsive has been so popular, and why we have adopted it as our core installation theme (over even WooThemes which we use extensively) , is exactly because of the fact that Emil is “out of the norm.”

    He is one of the ONLY theme designers in the WP repository who treats his free theme with as much love and attention as any premium theme author.

    Since it is relatively trivial to turn off automatic update notices for Responsive, and all of the improvements made by Emil have been directly in response to requests made by more than 1200 WP users in the ThemeID forum, does it not make sense that his current path is setting a new standard for how WP repository themes should be handled?

    To say to a passionate theme author such as Emil that he should “not work so hard to improve his product” sounds like something one might here amongst employees of the post-office… “don’t work so hard, you’re going to make us all look bad…” Is that really what we want for WordPress authors?

    Cheers!
    Spence

    Ulrich

    (@grapplerulrich)

    I think it is true that it is sometimes difficult to keep up with the updates. I am not sure if the solution is to reduce the updates. There are a few popular wp plugins that release regular updates. It is also frustrating when a plugin or theme is not updates.

    The solution for me would be to have a group of beta testers. These testers would test and double check the code. They could also bring suggestions to the table.

    One other problem that I have faced is that with the child themes. I would like to make sure that my custom code or child themes are up to date. Perhaps a post every time there is a release so that everyone understands what has changed. It do check the theme version tracs but it could better with a few comments from you.

    Emil, this is my honest view and I don’t want you to stop improving this theme. ??

    So release the update when it is ready but check it thougherly before releasing it.

    Ulrich
    I help out at the responsive forum and help coordinate the translations.

    Absolutely, that’s why I have this in place: https://polldaddy.com/poll/6305931/ not just for me, but also for any author out there, since this is going to be a public data.

    There wasn’t an issue with the Theme itself, from what I can understand is that @spherical was not in favor of Theme releasing updates so often and I can respect that. In a week or so Poll will end and we’ll go from there.

    Thanks all,
    Emil

    Just to throw in my few cents worth. I’m currently developing four sites with your Responsive theme. I appreciate everything you’ve done. Your coding is superb. I like how you take security serious with your work as well.

    It is time consuming when there is a major update to bring all sites up to par, especially when I’ve done some customizing with a child theme. I still have to compare the new files with the current ones. So even using a child theme, it is still time consuming. But I do them as soon as they’re pushed out.

    Recently I’ve been sort of a guinea pig for a commercial theme and that author was pushing out 4 or 5 updates a month there due to customer requests. So I learned quickly that I needed to find tools to help me.

    I use these tools to compare packages and file contents:
    https://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/
    https://winmerge.org/

    Maybe others will find those tools useful in decreasing the amount of time spent on updating their site(s).

    I even use those tools to compare WordPress core updates. I can easily discover if I just need to replace a few files or the whole package. Makes updating so much easier, especially when WordPress themselves leave out a file or more in their list of files changed (which they did in 3.3.2 see following link).
    https://www.webmasterworld.com/wordpress/4444745.htm

    So baring that in mind, to me these are considered major updates and should be pushed out immediately, regardless.

    1. Security fix
    2. WordPress core compatibility fix (whether or not a new version has been pushed out)
    3. Major (NOTE Major) functionality fix or upgrade (after confirmed working with no bugs)

    Sorry, there was no way to had a comment or extensive wording in the ‘Other’ box on polldaddy. ??

    But I really leave it up to the developer when or not updates need to be pushed out as they may see things that others do not.

    Anyways, thank you for all the work you’ve done on this theme and for providing support to everyone. I don’t think I’ve seen to many developers that provide support like you do.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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