[wp-forums] Dhoppe at it again

[Mika A Epstein]

Yeah, if you look at my screenshot, though, you'll see that's ALL the ads are. Yes, I installed it to look.

That post is for the previous version of the plugin, which he removed (or had removed) for some reason...

Anyway, I'll follow up with Mark et all at plugins. I think he should be blocked, since he's abusive, but I do have a (minor) concern about preventing him from being able to 'help' people with his plugins. I am having trouble typing that with a straight face.

On 14 Mar 2012, at 11:03:49AM, Francisco de Azevedo wrote:

> Has anyybody seen this
> thread<http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-post-page-associator-this-plugin-spams>?
> Many users complained about excessive ads all over the admin section (I
> think ads were limited to specific sections of the admin, if I'm not
> mistaken), and that there was no option to turn them off. According to one
> of the users, it would seem that DH actually modified the plugin to render
> the removal of the ads more difficult. This, in my opinion, constitutes a
> violation of the Preamble of the GPl, which goes:
> *" the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to
> share and change free software — to make sure the software is free for all
> its users"*
> What do you guys think?
> 
> 
> On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 12:33 PM, Mika A Epstein <ipstenu at ipstenu.org>wrote:
> 
>> I'll had to install his plugin and see how atrocious these 'ads' are. I
>> mean, Yoast's got some on his SEO plugin, but if you look at them they are
>> appropriate, tasteful, and easy to ignore. (I did donate, though)
>> 
>> http://cl.ly/3P3x3e2Y0J1d3G192V2y
>> 
>> Honestly, that's what I'd consider fine. He's upselling the pro-version,
>> but in a non-agressive (if eye-rolling) way.
>> 
>> The banner/textlink ads in that guideline means a little more like 'Don't
>> put Google Ads in your plugin admin screen, morons.'  Notice how it falls
>> under Rule 7: "No "phoning home" without user's informed consent. This
>> seemingly simple rule actually covers several different aspects:"
>> 
>> ----
>> Mika A Epstein (aka Ipstenu)
>> http://ipstenu.org
>> 
>> On 14 Mar 2012, at 10:25:37AM, Chip Bennett wrote:
>> 
>>> Actually, per the current, detailed
>>> guidelines<http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/about/guidelines/>,
>>> admin advertising is NOT allowed [*emphasis *added]:
>>> 
>>> *In general, things like banner or text link advertising should not be
>>> anywhere in a plugin, including on its settings screen.* Advertising on
>>> settings screens is generally ineffective anyway, as ideally users rarely
>>> visit these screens, and the advertising is low quality because the
>>> advertising systems cannot see the page content to determine good ads. So
>>> they're best just left off entirely. Putting links back to your own site
>> or
>>> to your social-network of choice is fine. If the plugin does include
>>> advertising from a third party service, then it must default to
>> completely
>>> disabled, in order to prevent tracking information from being collected
>>> from the user without their consent. This is the method commonly known as
>>> "opt-in".
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I'm sure there's some gray area there; I'm also quite sure on which side
>> of
>>> that gray area these particular Plugins fall, if they solicit multiple
>>> support topics from end users.
>>> 
>>> Use that as you will; personally, I think his disrespectful attitude
>> toward
>>> the community - and especially toward his own end users - has no place in
>>> the WordPress  community.
>>> 
>>> Chip
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 10:12 AM, Mika A Epstein <ipstenu at ipstenu.org
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Advertising IN the plugin admin is allowed (if asshattery IMO).
>>>> 
>>>> But GPL vio... Can you point to one specifically?
>>>> 
>>>> ----
>>>> Mika A Epstein (aka Ipstenu)
>>>> http://ipstenu.org
>>>> 
>>>> On 14 Mar 2012, at 10:07:46AM, Francisco de Azevedo wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> From the research I made, it seems that several of his plugins (past
>> and
>>>>> present) have violated GPL, included very spam-like ads in the admin
>>>>> section, and asked for very expensive compensations for premium
>> versions.
>>>>> In a word, his attitude is not very wordpressy, so blocking him would
>> not
>>>>> constitute a huge loss for WP users, IMHO.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Marventus
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 11:43 AM, Mika A Epstein <ipstenu at ipstenu.org
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>> 
>> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-associated-posts-lite-spam?replies=7&view=all
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Basically he's insulting people who use (or want to use) his plugin.
>>>> He's
>>>>>> done this before. Seehttp://
>>>>>> lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-forums/2011-June/007085.html
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> At this point, he's basically being an ass. I'd block him, but he has
>>>>>> plugins... Should we just punt him? He's not helping anyone.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
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