You’re absolutely right! I haven’t paid a dime to WordPress or anyone connected with the project!
Howwever, I have promoted your product far and wide by using it on several sites.
I’m the one telling people to ignore the warts your program (or anyone elses program) has, and help them to learn and use YOUR work. I’m the one who tells them that something stupid in your program will probably be worked out in a future release and help YOU keep your product out there.
Getting your name in lights is the real reason most people code for open source projects, and I’m sure some actually code for the love of the game, honing your skills, but your primary motivation is not The Money – which you typically make somewhere else.
When an open source app gains critical mass to the extent that it has developer mind share, and demand from users for the product is high, you all enjoy your moment in the sun, while those of us out in the real world implement your work.
When support at an individual level is impossible because of the popularity of the product, we have to dig and search for real contact information and weave thru several walls and levels of obfuscation to get to the real people behind the walls. Dealing with arrogant “Read the FAQ” or “RTFM”, and “You Can’t Complain Lest You’ve Paid” (Monty Python) attitudes when those of us who promote your work is additionally frustrating.
I keep absolutes to a minimum, and I was truly seeing a problem – and if you or anyone else had seen it on my browser the way I did, then it wouldn’t be so easy to be so dismissive.
When Google’s cache or some cache related issue with their servers or my browser or whatever is the issue, is finally resolved, then things work. This delay in feedback makes determining the problem even more difficult because we want to fix things, fix them quickly and we expect a “hmm maybe” vs “you’re crazy” when illuminating an issue.
When an issue is dismissed out of hand without a “maybe” and when others who think they are helping become equally dismissive, it pushes your product into an unsupportable situation, making me want to find one that does what I need.
Thanks to all those who did try to help.
