I am aware of the item support policy and it is since then we cannot ask for item support with the author once the support is expired. We need to buy extended support for this feature. I came to notice that once support is expired you are also not allowed to access the support forum for items. This means that you can see any kind of post posted in support forum as you will not have login credential for purchased items.
So, I am just wondering, once item support is expired why not we should just allow to visit support forum for any kind of the post made under the purchased item without contacting the Author. I think this should be allowed and there should be any problem with that. Just once support is expired the buyer should be unable to create posts or ask anything related to products with the author but they should allow to visit the support forum.
Just a thought. What you all think about it. Sorry if my english is bad.
It would serve to cause confusion. Inevitably there will be buyers who don’t fully comprehend the limitations and bear in mind that not all authors even have support forums.
I agree that not all authors have support forums. Item support policy also doesn’t mention anything about access to support forums. The limitation is just we cannot contact authors or ask anything for support.
Author’s support forums are nothing to do with envato so they can’t make any rules or influence this.
You will probably find that there are some authors (those with big teams) who may allow people outside support periods to still have read-only access (although from a technical perspective it’s probably easier to remove all access).
I thought same, author’s support forums nothing to do with envato and Author should allow to read-only access to support forum once the support expired but I was told that they could not do any exceptions and the rules are to make their follow. And I read Item Support Forum, there is nothing such rules that which includes read-only access won’t be available if support is expired. So, I am here to know more details on this.
The support forums are irrelevant - envato don’t enforce them so there will be no rules specifically about those.
Envato suggest that authors should not be providing any form of support outside of the 6 months or extended period. If an author follows the guidelines properly and suspends all support access after the first 6 months then continuing to allow access to public “support forums”, even if someone can’t ask questions would still go against the policy.
For what it’s worth I am certain that there are several authors who still offer support like it was previously, however they shouldn’t be doing this under the support terms.
Thanks Charlie, its nice talking with you. I understand but I am still concern, if some of the update crashed brings lots of problem and without support terms, we are simply doom. At least read only access to support forum should be included in free support terms who purchased the product. Just a thought.
I do see your argument but like with all envato policies they will never be able to please everyone and have to find the fairest ground.
As with your example - if they upgrade works as it should with the theme but breaks individual sites the chances are the break error is down to something in each site e.g. css or other plugins etc rather than a generic issue.
Imagine a theme which sells hundreds or thousands of copies - it’s unlikely that public access to forums will really solve the problem and unrealistic for authors to help so many buyers individually.
At least paid support subscriptions would give authors the incentive/resources to help.