[wp-forums] dealing with fundamental CSS, PHP, and HTML topics?

[Mika A Epstein]

Basically, I don't think the -free- forums is a good place for 
supporting pay-for plugins and themes.

There's responsibility on us to be good WP stewards, and a huge part of 
that is encouraging community growth. We can't have growth without 
respecting the devs who provide support for their products behind a 
paywall. Think what you like about WPMUDev or Genesis - Their stuff is 
behind a paywall. We owe it to them to send people back there.

If they want to offer some free support themselves, that's on them.

Remember: There is -no- requirement to provide free support :)

> Francisco de Azevedo <mailto:frandeazevedo at gmail.com>
> October 4, 2012 1:38 PM
> Hi Ipstenu!
>
> I think I agree with your input, but I'm having a hard time understanding
> whether you are exposing general views on the matter or defending a
> particular stand-point. Either one is perfectly fine, of course, and I'm
> only asking to understand your point better.
> 1) I agree with this 100%. But who do you think should be the one(s)
> providing that support? IMO, it should be the devs, not mods and
> contributors.
> 2) I didn't quite get what you meant here. But coupled with your next
> remark, in that case, if we don't help out users with premium software,
> aren't we in a way contributing to premium devs' livelihood? More
> specifically, if premium users get free support from the forums, they will
> be more reluctant to pay for premium help, and that can also constitute a
> nice sales pitch to premium devs.
>
> Cheers!
>
>
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> Mika A Epstein <mailto:ipstenu at ipstenu.org>
> October 4, 2012 1:09 PM
> My issue with that is two-fold.
>
> 1) You paid for it. You should get support.
>
> 2) If it's a pay-for-support deal, we're making it harder for people 
> to earn a living in WP.
>
> The second reason is really why I do it. I love ThemeHybrid, and the 
> code is free, but Justin asks you to pay for support. It's not a huge 
> amount, and if this is really your 'life!' (tm the guy I argued with 
> last week), then FFS, pay the $25 and grow up. Justin deserves to be 
> able to make a living.
>
> Also in the cases where premium themes eff off and refuse to help, 
> well, that's good too. Why? They get people running away in droves.
>
>
> Mar Ventus <mailto:marventus.wp at gmail.com>
> October 4, 2012 1:00 PM
> Hi, guys!
> Since you opened the "what should be added to the Forum Welcome" debate
> (and yeah, it is too late to back down now, heehee), what do you think
> about reinforcing the "no support for premium themes" rule? Lately, I've
> been noticing a lot of users with premium templates and plugins trying to
> get support on the forums. I suspect that some of them are even fully 
> aware
> of the rule, but still post nonetheless without sharing a link to their
> site (i.e., so that you can't tell what their themes are).
> More concretely put, what I was thinking was expanding the "Include as 
> much
> information as possible" paragraph and explicitly ask users to post a link
> to their sites (whenever possible). IMHO, said changes should help users
> better abide by the "What not to do" section.
> Cheers!
>
> Marventus
>
>
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> Jan Dembowski <mailto:jan at dembowski.net>
> October 4, 2012 5:09 AM
>
> +1 for adding a couple of sentences.
>
> Some of the questions are acceptable such as how do I remove "Leave a
> Reply" or modify the margin or padding and I think those aren't bad at 
> all.
> I don't think those necessarily should get "See a CSS forum" right off the
> bat.
>
> But a couple of sentences in the Forum Welcome page along the lines "CSS
> customization is outside of the scope of these WordPress software support
> forums, for more generic formatting support see a CSS forum" wouldn't 
> hurt.
> If a topic started getting deep into CSS customization (again) then that
> could get pointed to as a reference.
>
> Jan Dembowski
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> Michael Stolze <mailto:alchymyth at gmail.com>
> October 4, 2012 4:30 AM
> there is a substantial amount of topics which are primarily about
> formatting (or other rudimentary skills) which often get the usual 'please
> use firebug..and ask at a css forum' answers.
>
> I suggest to add a sentence or two to the forum rules (not that anybody
> ever reads them before posting) to set in more details what questions
> should (or should not) be asked in this forum (similar to what they 
> have at
> the WPSE http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/faq )
>
> I am looking forward to hearing your opinions about this,
> cheers,
> Michael
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-- 
Mika A Epstein (aka Ipstenu)
http://ipstenu.org | http://halfelf.org