Displaying 31 To 60 Of 69 Comments @Sherry – Your opinion is 100% incorrect. So you may want to start listening to some of the other commenters on this post… they know what they are talking about. » Posted By Carl Hancock On August 31, 2010 @ 4:35 PM Should Themes Have Plugin Functionality Built-In? Here is the problem with putting lots of functionality in a theme… BUGS. Nothing is ever BUG FREE. Unless the theme has a rock solid upgrade capability built in… i’ve yet to see one that does… the more features that are built into it the more of a pain in the ass it is going to be to apply bug patches when they are needed. Themes on the other hand are not so simple to update. Themes are designed to be hacked away by the user if they so desire… building functionality into the theme makes this impossible as it eliminates the capability of doing updates to the functionality. The utopian scenario is a parent/child theme setup where you can upgrade the parent without impacting anything. But good luck getting the average users NOT to edit the parent theme directly. As soon as they do, it makes upgrading pretty much impossible without losing their changes. That results in pissed off users, even if it is their own fault. Plugins are designed to be updated frequently because the more complex the functionality, the more bugs and the more updates that will be required. They are designed to handle this. With plugins, the user doesn’t typically edit the plugin. They can quickly and easily receive updates and fixes via the plugin automatic update functionality. That is what plugins are designed to do. » Posted By Carl Hancock On February 11, 2010 @ 11:56 AM @Cristian Antohe – Support Tickets are better when passing sensitive information back and forth. They are more private by nature which makes requesting and receiving information such as site logins much easier to manage… with forums you have to take those conversations to email or private messages. Support Tickets are also easier to manage from a support team standpoint. You can assign tickets to specific people, etc. You can cut down on duplication of effort (multiple support people responding to one forum post). There is a reason why large companies with massive user bases typically rely on a support ticket system rather than forums for a paid support environment. It’s easy to manage. A lot of support ticket systems also enable you to turn selected support tickets into FAQ items that are then made public in a knowledge base. » Posted By Carl Hancock On January 29, 2010 @ 5:10 PM My question came out of wanting to improve the support that we offer customers. Currently we have an FAQ (that is just getting started) and a forum system. My issue with the forums is it sometimes feels like organized chaos. I don’t always find them efficient for finding what I am looking for and sometimes feel like I spend too much time searching for an answer. This is my experience with most support forums. What got me interested in exploring other options was this post on the 37Signals blog about their new Answers system. http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2122-launch-37signals-answers They are basically blending a Question and Answer system into what effectively becomes a FAQ system powered by user submitted questions. Duplicating what 37signals has done as a WordPress Plugin would be pretty cool. My issue with this is I don’t think it would work paired with a Forum. As you mentioned, you can’t do all of them… so what combination works best? » Posted By Carl Hancock On January 29, 2010 @ 5:07 PM There were 400-500 people in attendance. The conference took place over multiple spaces across 3 or 4 different floors of the NERD center with 4 different tracks + an unconference track. » Posted By Carl Hancock On January 27, 2010 @ 3:43 PM Our panel could have easily gone another 45 minutes, as Jake mentioned. It was just starting to get rolling when we ran out of time. Don’t be discouraged by one person who didn’t understand what the panel was about. It was pretty clear it was about monetizing WordPress. Not monetizing blogs, but monetizing the WordPress platform itself via products and services. It was clear from the questions that people did ask during the panel that most of those in attendance DID get it. Doing a tavern version of the panel sounds like a great idea. I’m available whenever you want to do it again. » Posted By Carl Hancock On January 26, 2010 @ 6:11 PM Core Plugins Are Just An Experiment Akismet is not and will not be a core plugin. Akismet is a commercial product offering that is owned and supported by Automattic. An anti-spam plugin that is compatible with Akismet may be introduced as a core plugin, but it won’t be the existing Akismet plugin. » Posted By Carl Hancock On January 12, 2010 @ 3:32 PM Canonical, Core, Something Plugins @Keith Casey – You bring up some of the same concerns I have and by giving these plugins some sort of special label such as “Canonical” or “Core” or whatever it maybe you are elevating them above the rest of the plugins in the community in the eyes of the average user. Just because a plugin is canonical doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to be the best at what it does. Sure that is the goal, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. But unfortunately because a plugin has been anointed as canonical… they are going to view it as being the best. Right or wrong. Thats why I do not think labeling these plugins with some sort of special designation is a good idea. Just give the plugin itself a name and release the damn thing. My other issue is support. Who is going to support these canonical plugins? Support is a big deal to the average user… and as someone who deals with support for a commercial plugin I shudder at the thought of supporting a plugin that may have an install base as big as a canonical plugin may have. » Posted By Carl Hancock On December 19, 2009 @ 6:07 PM New York Matt Mullenweg Interview I want that beer… I’ll consider it an IOU. » Posted By Carl Hancock On November 21, 2009 @ 10:51 PM Small Potato Coming Back Again @Benjamin – Given the price was so cheap it was easy for him to do. At todays theme prices, good luck giving refunds to everyone. @Leland -Yea, I wouldn’t hold my breath on this one. He also says he has a dozen free themes in the works, he just needs to find the time to make them. If he’s doing premium themes, he isn’t going to have the time to churn out a dozen free themes… not of good quality. People’s expectations are higher than they were last time he was around. They expect higher quality themes, code and support and not something that was just thrown together. » Posted By Carl Hancock On October 6, 2009 @ 11:19 AM *yawn* I give it 15 minutes and then he will disappear again. Do you want to buy a theme from a guy who may not be around to support it? I certainly don’t. » Posted By Carl Hancock On October 6, 2009 @ 11:01 AM Hey Martin, responded to your email. As for the reCAPTCHA error. We are looking into it. We use a bbPress plugin for the reCAPTCHA so it has something to do with that plugin. It doesn’t happen every time someone tries to register, so it isn’t a consistent issue. We’ll get it fixed. It’s not Gravity Forms related, it’s a bbPress issue. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 27, 2009 @ 1:27 PM @shawn – Yea, I understand. Gravity Forms doesn’t do the callback, WordPress does when it does the callback looking for plugin updates. Gravity Forms just hooks into this process and when WordPress pings the repository it also pings our server to check for upgrades. The plugin itself doesn’t do it, nor does it tell WordPress when to do it. Currently Gravity Forms is primarily for front end forms. However, the more advanced it becomes the more usable it will be for back end forms. Reading your reply, you actually gave me a good idea for a future feature that would make back end forms a possibility. If you have any other questions, etc. Don’t hesitate to ask. Thanks! » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 17, 2009 @ 8:19 PM @shawn – I’d like to add that the “callback” in question isn’t a hack and is nothing more than hooking into the automatic upgrade process that WordPress makes available to plugins. It takes advantage of available hooks in WordPress that are there for that very reason. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 17, 2009 @ 7:58 PM @shawn – I think you are misunderstanding what the plugin does, at least as far as encryption goes. The plugin isn’t encrypted. The ONLY thing that is encrypted is the license key when it is stored in the database. None of the PHP is encrypted. Why is the license key encrypted? Because users requested we encrypt it so that their users and clients couldn’t easily swipe it by looking at the plugin settings page. Originally we didn’t encrypt it and it was added to the most recent version at the request of our users. The code isn’t encrypted, the license key is just hashed in the database. As for “callbacks”, what do you think EVERY plugin you download from the WordPress repository does? It calls back to the WordPress repository every so many hours looking for updates. It’s how automatic upgrades work. Automatic upgrades are impossible without a callback. Why does Gravity Forms callback to our server and not the repository? Because it isn’t hosted in the WordPress repository so it has to ping our server looking for updates. If an update is available it gives you the option of automatic upgrade just like any other WordPress plugin. So do you actually remove all the plugin repository update callbacks from every plugin you download? Seems like overkill to me. Not to mention renders the convenience of automatic upgrades useless as they don’t work without a callback. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 17, 2009 @ 7:56 PM @donnacha | WordSkill – The license key for Gravity Forms is entered once on the Settings page of the plugin and it is then hashed and stored in the database so that other users with admin access cannot see your license key. The license key then comes into play when WordPress checks for plugin updates. Automatic upgrades are only available to users who purchased the plugin. When WordPress cron job runs to check for plugin updates, it pings our update server to check if an update is available and passes your hashed license key as part of the request. If the key is valid and an upgrade is available, automatic upgrade takes place just like plugins from the repository. The license key is also tied to our support system. It helps identify you as a customer. When you register on the support site it knows if you are a customer because your email is tied to your license key. So it then unlocks areas of the site that only customers have access to. You enter your license key once, most likely the first time you activate the plugin. Not being able to reach our update server does not prevent the plugin or forms from working. It just prevents automatic upgrades from taking place if one is available. A valid license key also automatically removes the “Buy Gravity Forms” message that appears in the admin side of the plugin when no license key is present. As for the demo not fully showing what the plugin can do, unfortunately its very difficult to provide an online demo of the plugin that gives users full access without…. giving users full access. We did what we could given the security issues. If we made it wide open, a small percentage of users would end up purposely causing problems with the demo WordPress install and it’s just not worth the headache. That is why it is locked down. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 17, 2009 @ 6:26 PM Screencast: Basic Image Editing In WordPress 2.9 @John Myrstad – Thats good then, as long as it’s got the necessary hooks to be able to either replace it or build on it. But then again i’m sure it will. It’s WordPress after all. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 12, 2009 @ 11:37 AM I still think this is plugin territory. I hope it was implemented in such a way that a plugin could replace this with more advanced functionality and capabilities. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 11, 2009 @ 5:56 PM Sitepoint Interview With Matt Mullenweg @donnacha | WordSkill – Just for future reference…. while i’m the primary marketing voice and face of Gravity Forms, it is a team effort. It is a product of our company, rocketgenius. The team consists of myself, designer Kevin Flahaut and developer Alex Cancado. A lot of people single me out as the developer of Gravity Forms and I just want to make sure that the rest of the team is recognized also. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 7, 2009 @ 5:58 PM @donnacha | WordSkill – The reasons you outlined in your comment are precisely why I am no longer in support of a commercial plugin area on the repository, at least not if it followed the same model that was used with the commercial theme area. Although I will say that just because you have a free plugin in the repository does not necessarily mean you have contributed far more to the WordPess community than someone that releases a commercial plugin. Thats a broad generalization and it’s certainly not the case in every situation. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 5, 2009 @ 4:23 PM I’m not going to wade into the commercial plugin debate, I have my own thoughts and opinions on the matter but i’ve chosen not to discuss them in public. However, I will comment on the commercial theme page and why I think it was created. It was a carrot dangled in front of the theme developers to adopt the GPL. Prior to the commercial theme page the vast majority of commercial theme developers were not releasing their themes under the GPL. This tactic was a big success for Matt and the WordPress.org team, it resulted in a large number of commercial theme developers adopting the GPL with only a few notable exceptions, Thesis being one of them. I don’t think it is a coincidence, no matter what theme developers may say, that so many theme developers adopted the GPL licensing at the same time almost immediately after this page was added to the repository. What has happened since the commercial theme page was added? The quality of the themes and developers on that page has plummeted. Many of them I had never heard of before they were added to the page. Take a look at many of the theme developers that have been added to that page and you will find plenty of subpar themes being touted as commercial quality when in fact they wouldn’t even be good as a free theme. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 5, 2009 @ 2:48 PM Vote For WordCamp New York Logo Thanks for the explanation Jane, that sounds perfectly reasonable! » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 9, 2009 @ 4:15 PM @Brad – Los Angeles and Chicago and the 2nd and 3rd largest cities in the United States and the sponsorship packages for NYC are orders of magnitude higher than the sponsorships for LA or Chicago. The single largest expense when looking at hosting an event like this is most likely going to be venue, I know i’ve looked into hosting one locally, and in this case WNET.ORG is sponsoring the event and providing the venue. So if the venue is covered… why the need for such steep sponsorship packages? Are speakers being compensated and all their travel arrangements being covered? I know some WordCamps don’t do this and the speakers volunteer so that could be one reason. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt that the event could be expensive… just curious what’s going on at this event that makes it so much more expensive to sign up as a sponsor. There is probably some very good reasons, just don’t know them from looking at the site. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 3, 2009 @ 6:43 PM By comparison… here are the sponsorship prices for other upcoming WordCamps in some pretty web markets: WordCamp Portland WordCamp Seattle WordCamp Los Angeles WordCamp New York I know the New York event is going to be a good one. But at those prices good luck finding actual WordPress related businesses that can afford the sponsorships. Most have been priced out of the market, which is a shame given it’s a WordPress related event. Jeff, you plan on signing WordPress Weekly on as the Platinum sponsor for WordCamp New York? » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 3, 2009 @ 11:56 AM Considering the amount of money they are asking for sponsorships for this community driven event… couldn’t they have just paid a good designer to come up with the logo? - Platinum Sponsor $10,000 I haven’t seen sponsorship prices anywhere near this high for the other WordCamp events we have looked into. Pretty crazy. Still looking forward to the event, but not going to sponsor it at these rates. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 3, 2009 @ 11:44 AM Magazine/News Themes The New Black? Magazine themes are consistently the top sellers for the theme developers. Even some of Woo’s old original magazine themes are still consistently some of their top selling themes despite their age. I don’t think they ever waned in popularity. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 1, 2009 @ 7:29 PM GravityForms Launches Demo Site Yea, we plan on doing more with the demo site in the future. Unfortunately we have a time constaint and locking everything down and making more available is going to take time which is better spent working on enhancements to the plugin. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 1, 2009 @ 5:18 PM Just wanted to note that this is a limited demo for security reasons. We can’t open up the entire WordPress administration to random people without the minority ruining it for the majority and causing problems by deleting things, etc. Some of the areas you can’t access as Post and Pages, which is an area where you can easily integrate Gravity Forms by inserting forms into posts and pages wherever you want. You also can’t save changes to forms, you can edit them and add fields, but your savings won’t actually change. it is primarily to give people a taste of what the admin looks like. It’s still a work in progress so if anyone has any suggestions for making the demo better… we are all ears. Thanks! » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 1, 2009 @ 12:04 PM Which Theme Company Has The Best Word Of Mouth? @David Coveney – I’m not entirely convinced the free to download, pay to get support model is going to work long term. I know that when RevolutionTwo first launched (pre-StudioPress) they used this model but fairly quickly reverted back to the standard pay to download w/support model. I wish it did work, we’d make Gravity Forms free to download in a heartbeat if we thought that enough people would opt to sign up for support, etc. But I have major reservations about it. » Posted By Carl Hancock On September 2, 2009 @ 9:05 AM GravityForms Launches To The Public The documentation is available to people who purchase the plugin via the support centric http://www.gravityhelp.com site along with the support forums. This information is not available to the public because as a GPL plugin, part of what you are buying IS this information. The forums are publicly accessible, with the exception of the support forum which is for customers only. » Posted By Carl Hancock On August 31, 2009 @ 11:32 AMComments Posted By Carl Hancock
Sponsorships are $250, $500 and $1000
Sponsorships are $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000, $2000
Sponsorships are $100, $250, $500, $1000, $2000
Sponsorships for individuals are $250, $500
Sponsorships for businesses are $1000, $2000, $5000, $7500, $10000
- Gold Sponsor $7,500
- Silver Sponsor $5,000
- Bronze Sponsor $2,000
- Small Business Sponsor $1,000
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