What a kick in the teeth

ultimately, we have been his beta testers. I have no issue with that really, but the plug-in version shouldn’t have been 3.x.x… it should have been 0.x.x to let us know it was beta.

I was going to recommend to my boss that we purchase the PRO version once it was released thinking there would be added perks. Instead, I cannot update the plug-in we are actively using until I can make the case for paying.

As a non-profit entity, we cannot simply toss out money to random company X without some real justification. Our plug-in costs were rolled up into our website build total. I know how to wait for our Phase 2 build project moneys to be released to get this plug-in paid for and upgraded.

I have no issues with a developer making money from his hard work, but I do take issue with the less-than-straightforward way he’s done this. Truthfully his attitude towards his customers has always been terse and peppered with “pay for mah support bitches!” LOL

If you guys are quite done misinforming each other, then let me point out that none of these so-called underhanded or douchebaggish practices have come unannounced.

Pro was announced in July last year. Various blog posts have been made since that announcement. In atleast 2 posts I’ve mentioned and shown how the features will be divided.
(Search the AdRotate blog if you want to)

The full feature comparison has been online on the 2nd most visited page on adrotateplugin.com 2 weeks before pro was released.

Nobody cared…
All I heard was requests to finally release pro already. So I did.

AdRotate empowers you to make hundreds if not thousands of dollars per month. AdRotate provides easy to use dashboards, lots of features. Even the free version vastly outpaces most other plugins with features. Paying for updates, support is not forced on you it’s a one time purchase, and cheap too. Een if you don’t buy AdRotate pro you get relatively fast support on my forums.

I’m not having any discussion here, just pointing out that if you have such a problem with spending 25 euros you could have spoken up months before release.

With 16 one star ratings given to the plugin over the past week, it might be worth taking notes from your users (many of us who were looking forward to a Pro version, but don’t like the way it was introduced).

I’ve got absolutely no problem with paying for plugins and themes, but I’ve always felt that the way to encourage users to upgrade to PRO was to offer MORE features in the pro version – new features, better support, etc… Not to REMOVE the features from the free version, forcing people to upgrade to get the old functionality back. This (obviously) causes quite a lot of resentment, as you can see here (regardless of whether you think it’s warranted).

When I purchase a premium theme or plugin, I do it because it offers me something more than the free version. Obviously, your Pro version now offers something more than the free version, but only because you have reduced the functionality of that version. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that this is the wrong way to encourage people to upgrade.

I know that when I click update on my plugins, I do so expecting that I’ll be updating to a more stable version. I’m clearly not alone in this expectation, and I’m sure I’m also not the only one who doesn’t check the blogs of every plugin I use every week. Most of us update our plugins from the WordPress dashboard – the changelog offers no indication that features will be removed as soon as we hit update.

I was looking forward to the Pro version, and recall reading this entry at the end of July: https://www.adrotateplugin.com/2012/07/adrotate-pro-coming-later-this-year/ where you detailed some of the improvements the Pro version would offer.

The new direction will be that there will be 2 versions of AdRotate. The regular version which you have now will remain available but also there will be a Pro version offering even more features and of course great support.

The free version will of course promote the Pro version but will remain a 100% functional plugin. However, fancy new features will be added to the Pro version and not the free version. A detailed list of which feature goes where and in what capacity will be made available when such a list is made and ready.

This sounds to me more like the right way to go about rolling out a Pro version.

So true shgillane. Adding more to PRO not taking features away and moving them to Pro…. thats just 100% Lame… its like spitting on user faces.

And the ‘warning’ on he’s blog? Is it a JOKE ?! Who reads it!?

Totally agree with shgillane and butcher-pl.

Hi Arnan, I do hope you check back in on this thread and try to assuage your customer base so that the transition to Pro won’t be such a bitter pill.

My situation is this: We’re a small non-profit in the US who paid another small local company to build us a website. We have trained one of our own semi-tech-knowledgeable employees (me) to maintain the website while doing many of the other duties she was originally hired to do. We don’t have a dedicated website person.

I read your blog (and all the other plug-in blogs) as I can, but I always read the changelog before each update (some people don’t!) The changelog for the 3.8 update said nothing about turning off/removing features that we rely on.

Last I read in your blog about Pro was the July post talking about how the current plug-in features would remain and there would be more perks. I thought this was a fantastic idea and was already pitching Pro to my boss.

I was told there would be no monies released until next fiscal year (July ’13) to upgrade. Now I have to make the case for special funds and explain to the sales guy that we will no longer be able to use schedules or some reporting he relied upon.

I have no issues with you being paid for your hard work. I think a lot of people who might not be watching your blog are in the same pickle. I think just understanding that we’re not all ungrateful thieves who never never intend to pay you might go a long way towards a happier, paying customer base.

Your terse responses to others and in your blog might keep people from purchasing your products. I would very much like to see Pro, and you, succeed.

All the best,
Diana

Yeah, look at these reviews: https://www.ads-software.com/support/view/plugin-reviews/adrotate?filter=1

This situation is really f-ed up. Now I’m ready to purchase Pro version, because I’ve stable advertisers and I need those features. Now I’m looking to the “Cart” on Adrotate website, but I feel kinda being cheated and can’t cleck “Check out”.

I think I’m better to move to Google DFP or another Pro (paid) plugin.

Why can’t you check out? It works for many others…

Yeah, but I mean, I feel like if pay I will be cheated to buy it.

When I purchase a premium version, I do it because it offers me something more than the free version. But your Pro version now offers something more only because you have reduced the functionality of free version.

Well this is all just a bit meh – oh well ya win some ya loose some was great while it lasted, kinda wish i didn’t update the thing but no point crying over spilt milk it’s only 20 bucks.

if we where all gonna have a sook over all the people online that pulled tricks or tried to put a few extra bucks in there pocket i think well a lot of people would be really ticked off, there’s a lot worse than this going on.

I get where you guys are coming from cause it’s happened to me but it’s done now. someone could go to freelancer or outsource a plugin for a few hundred dollars or we could just bite the bullet and pay 20 bucks ??

Love and light guys – Love and light.

Or we could just downgrade to 3.7 (as someone on the reviews suggested) and keep all the features for free again.

fiveslam
Yeah, as I did ?? But I’m a little bit scared of possible bugs and vulnerability.

This is such a great plugin and the developer has kept it updated over the years and added new and better features. He’s even provided some light support for free. Most of all, when I was still using the plugin, it made me money. Maybe his notices about the upcoming changes didn’t reach everyone, but back when I was using it I remember that his blog updates showed up in my dashboard. Terse or not, the guy has made something extremely useful and it has been free for years (and still is, in fact). Even this current version’s feature-set is better than many (all?) alternatives.

I donated a long time ago when I was actively using the plugin. If you have “hundreds of advertisers,” then maybe you should have been using that donate button for a long time now. Can you imagine the hundreds of hours the developer must put into this?

I agree with shgillane, and others.

Offer a pro version of the plugin, entice us with must-have features, and most us will probably shell out the cash to help the developer earn a living and maintain the plugin.

I’m running adRotate on a multisite, and having just now upgraded find all my subsites borked. Thanks a pant-load. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a plugin intentionally crippled like this. Not cool. Not cool at all!

If you don’t want to upgrade to the handicapped restricted free version, download the last stable full version here: https://downloads.www.ads-software.com/plugin/adrotate.3.7.4.3.zip

Then go to your theme’s functions.php file and add this code anywhere. It disables the update notification for the AdRotate plugin:

function filter_plugin_updates( $value ) {
unset( $value->response[‘adrotate/adrotate.php’] );
return $value;
}
add_filter( ‘site_transient_update_plugins’, ‘filter_plugin_updates’ );