Am I Allowed To ( I need an official answer )

But how do you know they are lying? They are linking to actual tests after all and very open about it.

I guess it’s simply a case of stale data perhaps? :joy: :joy:

Inform the author and find out. I wouldn’t be worked up about it though. Just skimmed their comments and this is what they said, which does make sense:

Surely we always do our best to increase performance. The demo page is not designed to be fast, it has all possible features in the theme, and naturally it will be heavy.

Bottom line, their customers are in the perfect position to complain about this, not you. So far, they all seem happy. Theme has a 4.74 average based on 2692 ratings :muscle:

You must be joking right? Users are influenced by Item Descriptions Pages. Not all read comments. The Terms and Conditions tell us to not false advertise. Do not tell a theme does something and it doesn’t? Am I wrong? @Typps

Does the Terms or something like that state that we must be accurate with our Item Description? Isn’t inaccurate lying?
Cheating? Tricking users in believing something that is not real?

Isn’t our duty to check those and point them if they aren’t?

So you want to expose other users/items in your item description? Your item description is the place where you describe you item, not call out other users/items.

Plus…
You agreed to the following by creating your account:

And the Community Guidelines say:

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This is not a personal attack. This is a shocking news! I am not in Top Sellers but hey if you agree with this kind of deceiving information. Be my guest.

This is no personal attack this is a real fact!

Typps raises a very valid point. Are you running these test on the demo, or have you bought the actual item and are running the tests on that?

@SpaceStockFootage These tests are made by taking the live links. As every other client is doing!( or should do or done )

So if a client just believes a false advertise he is deceived!

Take the demo links and test them yourself! Someone needs to investigate this! This is not fairness! Come on people, common sense!

I don’t make tests on my Pentium 2. I am not the benchmark entity. The benchmark entities are: GTMetrix, Pingdom and Google Page Speed.

If those entities don’t stand for something than i don’t know what does!

Even if it’s a real fact, you’re still calling them out, which is NOT allowed.

How come Avada doesn’t lie? Do you see me telling something bad about Avada? Actually Avada scores very good above 94% as they say!

How come other theme from like Enfold, doesn’t lie, how come Bridge doesn’t lie? They do what they say. They do not deceive. At least from what I have searched.

Isn’t our responsibility to also check or at least see that everyone plays by the rules?

In sports is the same. Other teams or competitors will always call someone if they bring proof they are deceiving!

In business is the same. It is a race and must be fair. Deceiving is not respect or fairness!

Stop Defending! Calling without proof is an attack.

Calling someone with proof is showing the truth to users! The truth to theme 7,8, 9,10. They all have been disadvantaged by this!

I revealed a false advertise. I did not in any way, or have the intention to attack someone personally.

We here have a deceiver caught! Isn’t false advertising deceiving ?

Tested again the live links! GTMetrix and Google Page Speed results show the same!

Just report it to support, which is the right thing to do in this case. I’m pretty sure everybody will be grateful :smiley:

The reason you are getting negative responses is due to you wanting to call out other authors on your item page as you’ve stated in your thread by running a comparison.

I don’t care. You can be negative or positive. I just need to be in my legal rights. That is all. Actually I am considering another alternative. I may do another way. An official answer will come either way, if it is from a reviewer or a staff we will see! Then I will do what I consider! :slight_smile:

Someone deceived users for a few months. Deceived his fellow competitors( the users from place 7th, 8th and so on )

This is not fairness or respect.

@ Posting a forum thread and calling staff names( I am able to call staff names to read? am I! I was mean Typps :slight_smile: I kindly apologize for me being mean with the staff names :slight_smile: )

@KingDog, @OsamaSayegh Is being, or will it be, investigated?

Who said something about me calling comparisons on the Item Description? So me being fair and asking before is wrong?

Oh I guess I should have kept my mouth shut and just done it!

I apologize for me trying to be fair and asking!

The theme in question is actually a theme I appreciate the most. But now, after realising that he false advertise, it makes me wonder, question the fairness :slight_smile:

So from what I see, as long as you are on top 1-20 you are safe. Nice :slight_smile: ( Nice job Avada, Enfold, Bridge for being accurate with your Item Description Pages ) Thumbs up for you :slight_smile:

This is my last comment for this post. I honestly have better things to do. I asked a fair question, I was fair to ask and not act.

I pointed something from live links. Not fake. And instead of seeing. Stop! We have to investigate to see if you are right. We will be right back. This is a serious call! Please wait.

Nothing like that. Only defending without investigating.

I see no one from Envato Staff is interested in responding. I am under the impression that the rules are not for everyone! The post will be buried.

I worked for 2 years for my upcoming project. I will want to see how it does. I will do my best to meet the requirements. I will not call any name. I will say and let users search! But one thing is sure. This will be my last project on Themeforest!

I had some hard 2 years working, never gave up! My only objective was to try to bring something new to the table!
I had a big success having a 4th best sold HTML item. The only thing that I want is I want to see how the new version does on Wordpress!

Thank you Envato for the almost 7 years of the ride!

PS: @KingDog Please give an official answer or lock the post! I honestly don’t care anymore. Do as you please!

Hi @mediacreed, all good questions! We’ll pass them along to the right people to have a think about in case there is a need to create or improve policy on what you’re asking. :thumbsup: Until then however, may I advise the following?

###General Advice

  • Focus on, and promote the highlights and benefits of your own items.
  • Don’t compare your item with other items.
  • If anyone sees outlandish claims anywhere on Envato Market, please send them to the Help Team via a ticket, they’d be glad to investigate. Items/authors are not permitted to be called out in the forums.
  • If you want to show your own benchmarking stats on your own item page (with NO comparison to anyone else’s items) then consider using a respected benchmarking tool and always disclose/cite what tool you are using and what environment the benchmarking was performed under to quantify your claims and to further assist customers. If you go down that path however, be prepared that others may challenge your stats just as you are challenging other’s stats.

###Author Terms Reminder

Here are some specific terms that you agree to as an author that I think are very relevant here. Emphasis is my own for relevancy, but just based on our existing terms I would say that comparing your item with other items on your item page on Envato Market is not permitted:

Your promises and responsibilities:

(26) As an author you promise to us and each buyer of your items that:

  • the item is of acceptable quality and fit for the purpose for which it is ‘sold’;
  • the item matches the description given by you on the item preview page, as well as any item preview;
  • you will honour any express promises given to buyers that are not contained in the Envato Market Terms;
  • the item and its description are not false, inaccurate, misleading, fraudulent, unlawful or defamatory;
  • the item and its description do not violate any applicable law or regulation (including those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, criminal law, pornography, anti-discrimination, trade practices or fair trading);

###Further Thoughts on (External) Item Comparison

I think the bottom line is, comparing your item to other items is not permitted on Envato Market (based on my interpretation of the terms quoted above). If anyone wants to pursue item comparison externally however, I would put forward the following thoughts for consideration:

  • If you or anyone else are really adamant about going into detail comparing your own item(s) with other items, I would suggest that the best short term way of doing this is via your own website, externally, and not on Envato Market. Be careful however that what you say/imply does not violate any applicable law or regulation. You could find yourself in hot water legally not only with a competitor if your claims are untrue, but also with customers.

  • Appreciate that, comparing stats with other items could be a very redundant process - your competitor could update their item 5 minutes later and your stats would immediately be out of date. This could (and probably would) lead to a lot of untrue and/or misleading information for customers which is not good. It would also breed a lot of ill-feeling amongst the entire community so it’s probably not a good idea ultimately.

  • Be mindful that there are lot of variables that go into site optimization and page load speed. Where sites are hosted (and by which company) is just one area of many. A customer with knowledge/experience could also improve what they purchase with further optimization. There are even tools and services that can assist with this. The main point here being, how solid are stats really? The phrase “actual performance may vary!” springs to mind. One has to be very careful about what you share with customers so that it is not meant to be untruthful or misleading in any way.

  • If anyone wants to compare items quantifiably and as scientifically/truthfully as possible it’s not an easy process which is why it can be a very tricky thing to do fairly. Having the same parameters and environments for each test (computer, browser, hosting benchmarking tool(s) etc…) can prove tricky. Realtime video benchmarking with the same environments and parameters may be possible, but that seems like an awful lot of work! Again, I can’t express enough - pursue this externally if anyone is inclined to do so, it shouldn’t be posted on Envato Market. But also know that the process may be plagued with inconsistencies and customers may doubt legitimacy…

My personal take with item comparison is that it’s wasted time that could be better spent on focusing on your own item’s strengths and benefits. By citing other items you may actually lose a customer and be inadvertently promoting your competitor’s item!

###Conclusion

I would say Envato’s current policies are very clear about avoiding item comparison even if it is not directly referenced. It’s strongly implied.

I think you do raise a valid question however about what happens when authors make certain claims on item pages that are simply not true. Again, the terms clearly disprove of this, but we’ll definitely get someone to take a look at this to see if any tweaks or additions are needed to help improve guidelines and policies for the benefit of the entire community. In the meantime however, again, we have a process already in place where anyone can report any outlandish/untruthful claims made on item pages, to our Help Team, for further investigation.

Thanks for taking the time to raise the questions. :thumbsup:

6 Likes

For the record, this is not true. :slight_smile:

We do read everything and we’re across everything. We just may not be able to respond to everything (for a number of reasons…). :thumbsup:

If there’s a “fire” that needs putting out (e.g. something is broken or so urgent that staff need to be alerted), simply flag the post. Please try not to single out a specific moderator or staff member. We can assign it to the right person for you once you’ve flagged it. Sometimes we see multiple staff and moderators contacted with a @ mention but this is unproductive time wise as you can imagine.

The flag tool is your friend. :flag_black:

Hope this helps clarify to anyone who ever wondered about any of this. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

A Friendly comparison with our theme competitors should be fine inmo but not when you are selling through Envato as per their guidelines.

If you sell through your own website, you are free to do that just like most of the hosting companies I came across do.