Jim Carlton

Daniel: I inadvertently cloned the default theme and was making changes to that, so none of them applied. Once I started changing the correct theme, it got a lot easier! ??

I think the only problems I was actually having were that the button was repositioned by your new coding (and therefore off by 20 px) and that the font wasn’t being inherited from my theme, which you are fixing now. As a workaround, I changed the font in the popup theme to the same font as my theme, so that’s not a problem for me anymore. All is well.

I do have a feature request, however: right now, if you have a popup set to have an overlay, the user can click on the overlay to close the popup. If you have the overlay disabled, however, clicking off the popup does nothing. Not a big deal, but it would be cool if clicking off the popup in this situation closed the popup, like it does in a Facebook photo gallery, for instance.

Thanks again for such a wonderful tool!

Daniel: here’s a url for you: https://collegica.com/b/

I zeroed out the height/width, but the font is still defaulting to that Times-like font. Also, unlike laughhearty, I have a button background color set, which shows that the button dimensions are also a bit messed up. The “position” values (bottom, right) don’t seem to change anything on the actual page, although they affect the position on the button in the theme preview. Also, I’m not sure if this matters, but I didn’t create a new theme, I just changed the default theme.

Thanks in advance for your help, and thanks for a great plugin. ??

Same here. All button styling is gone for the close button, including the font (which is displayed like laughhearty’s font-some default font like Times). The button is hanging off the page, too. This has only been happening for the last few days.

Using X theme, btw.

TimeTrade looks okay, except that it doesn’t accept payments for appointments or services. That’s the really tricky part… integrating services with a shopping cart and checkout system. Since I needed that, WooCommerce was the way to go. It was definitely complicated, though… and Woo’s support system completely sucks; although the individual techs are friendly and helpful, you have wait a week for their response.

BirchPress was good, and fairly responsive on the support end. I ended up having to go with WooCommerce Bookings because of my specific needs, but their support is terribly slow. Both of these cost a pretty fair amount of money.

That was on accident, Jan – I only wanted to leave a comment, not a review (since I haven’t tried their service).

Please consider my star rating blank!

vCita Team: perhaps you should rethink your website design. It definitely left me with the impression that your company is not forthcoming. Well, that and the fact that you engage in the rather annoying–if increasingly commonplace–monthly subscription model.

You want a smart business model? WooCommerce. They have lots of upsell, but you never feel like you’re paying for the same thing month after month, or that your entire business is contingent upon some third-party company’s solvency.

Yeah, well said. Wow. This is insanely expensive and your entire business relies on this website. Who would go for this?

I have to agree with ehickstech to some degree – this company has a ridiculous business model.

Here’s how using a paid plugin usually works:

1. Buy a plugin.

2. Receive updates for a specified period (usually a year).

Here’s how this company, WPMU Dev, wants it to work:

1. Buy a plugin.

2. Forget to cancel your “membership” – which is a monthly charge for the same amount as the plugin (or a slightly higher monthly charge for all their plugins, most of which you’ll never use).

3. If you do remember to cancel the recurring monthly charge, you’ve just bought a plugin that WILL NOT BE UPDATED. Yes, you can gripe about it (if you can find their support, which is difficult if you’re not a paying member) and if you do they’ll probably try to keep you happy, throw you a bone or whatever. The support people are fairly cheerful. But the fact is that the plugin you just bought for $20 costs another $20 every month for standard bug fixes (not necessarily new features).

In addition, you have to install another plugin, an extremely ugly “dashboard,” in order to get your upgrades. This dashboard is a sales tool for WPMU: if you’re a “free member” (i.e. someone who paid for their plugin but didn’t sign up for support) you will constantly be implored–in your own WordPress dashboard–to “Upgrade your membership to unleash the full power of WPMU DEV.”

Why the hell would anyone knowingly sign on for this predatory business model? Because they have a crapload of plugins. And for a few bucks more per month, you get access to all of them, and every upgrade, and support too. This is their goal: to get you to pay $25 per month, month in and month out. I understand why they’d want this… I’d want it too. But do you really need this avalanche of plugins?

No, you don’t. Most of these plugins have free counterparts. Or well-supported paid counterparts that will still cost you less in the long run. I disagree with ehickstech that this is a “scam” – it’s all pretty well spelled out. In my case, I set a reminder to cancel the recurring billing in time, and I only paid the original plugin fee. But it’s an infuriating business model that is an insult to its customers’ intelligence. I find it predatory, and I strongly urge potential buyers to think twice about buying this company’s stuff. In my opinion, It’s just not worth the hassle, and I hate the idea of supporting this sort of business model.

And by the way, the support–which the company touts heavily on its front page–isn’t bad but isn’t particularly great either. It’s very difficult to find support on their website, and of course when you try to access it through the hideous dashboard mentioned above, you are once again cajoled into “upgrading” your “membership.”

If you want to deal with this sort of thing on an ongoing basis, go for it. But if all you want is a plugin, RUN the other way. There are plenty of plugins out there that obviate the need to support a company like WPMU Dev.