Trickware – plugin

I’ve just installed that plugin and can confirm that it is doing what you say. Mandatory links that you cannot remove and must pay to get rid of is not allowed. It violates the guidelines for having a plugin hosted here.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/about/guidelines/

See Item 10 here which says

10. The plugin must not embed external links on the public site (like a “powered by” link) without explicitly asking the user’s permission. Any such options in the plugin must default to NOT show the link.

Added emphasis is mine. ??

Can you do me a favor? Send an e-mail to plugins [ at ] www.ads-software.com and provide them the link to the plugin here and explain that the plugin author is forcing users to pay to remove the link. Put in a link to this topic in that e-mail. That way the plugin will get looked at by the team of volunteers who managed that space.

This is the best way to report plugin issues like that. I’d do it myself but I’m about to run out. ??

Yeah. Did it, but there are so many like this. They use such tricks all the time. There should be some kind of penalty for these people. Possibly, a forum where people can list such Trickware, is a good idea! Link to such a forum should be provided at the top of the plugins search page on wordpress, so users can take a look at the list before they hunt for plugins.

It’s not ‘trickware’ it’s just someone violating our hosting rules is all. (We don’t have a link because when we did, the amount of spam made it impossible to maintain any semblance of sanity)

???
“violating hosting rules” is the only part that allows us to penalize this guy, if at all. There is no escape to this type of trickery elsewhere. So much so, that it has become a norm.
Sorry for the ambiguity, if any. But, a ‘trickware’ according to me is one which fools people into thinking it is free until they delve into installation and testing, when it makes them realize it is not.