What is KILLING WORDPRESS?

What is Killing our beloved Wordpress?
For me is that lack of responsibility from Theme sellers who don’t give assistant to customers after purchase. Many have initial interaction with you before you purchase the theme after that you are on your own. Take for instance, that you website brakes outside that 6 months of support. There is no way you can get support from them (seller/author) of theme. Can you imagine how frustrating it is? Neither the seller or Wordpress give a them about that pity customer who is now frustrating. My own case was that after update most of my themes are not working properly. Now if I want that resolved I have to purchase new support for all the 8 themes that I have. Say that I do extend support for another 6 months, surely I have to keep buying it because so far, evidence shows that some updates brake wordpress sites. I presume Wordpress need to get grip on this because people give up when they don’t have where to go for assistant when they need.
There are good Themes there which are selling in numbers and these are the ones that don’t care because they know if I don’t by someone else will, but they forget that that another someone will have same problem and will be frustrated to the point of reacting badly and they could move to other sources.
We love wordpress and would really like for them to get grip on this.

Jus for clarity (speaking as a power buyer) - the 6 month support is actually more than buyers get on a significant number of other marketplaces. It’s not really fair to hold it against authors who are not able to or who choose not to support buyers outside of that period, given that:

  1. this rule is made very clear whe buying items.

  2. updates (in most cases what is required to make a theme work) are accessible for the lifetime of the item so no support is needed.

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I stand for what I said and as customer it is important to acknowledge my opinion and try to correct it rather than fight against it. It is a fact that this is killing wordpress. I have been with wordpress for years and I have been introduced by people who were advocates of wordpress and most have now moved on to other platforms. If my customer tells me he did not like this and that I have the right to contest it as you are doing but but if his grounds are nonsensical or factualess.
You said it’s not really fair to hold it against authors who are not able to or who choose not to support buyers outside of that period, doesn’t it feel bad on you that someone bought a product from you in which he will use for 6 months and have to find alternatives just because you the seller cannot be hold responsible to help your buy sometimes with simple instructions? Do you recognise there is seismic number of wordpress users that are not developers and they use wordpress because they think it is simple to use until they start to understand that there is no support? As a fact, use “comments section” on most of themes that sold over Hundreds to see that. Do you actually checked why most of authors have bad reviews? Did you ever asked why? Or it does not care as someone will buy it cause they need it?
When you state “rules are very clear” don’t you feel that saying that you are demonstrating frightening character towards buyers? Do you want or expect him to comeback and buy from you or recommend you? This is not perishable goods, you are not buying it to consume it right away, this is something that you are buying with concept to use it for a long period of time.
Of course updates are lifetime and it is great. However, you as an author have to find a way to accommodate customers who are impacted from those updates whether they still or not on 6 months support period.
For me, SUPPORT is an issue that wordpress need to thing about if it wants to survive.

With respect, and I don’t mean this as bluntly as it may unavoidably seem, but that is quite a one-sided and in some ways, naive view.

Our comments are not at all about criticising or trying to correct anyone’s’ opinion – it is about offering an alternative perspective that ensures clarity and is based on significant experience (to reiterate I am part of a power buyer team, not an author, nor employed by envato).

To try and explain our view (and we are entirely open to be proven wrong!):

  • It’s important not to generalise – different themes, different authors, different buyers all act and are impacted differently.

  • It’s not fair to expect authors to continue to maintain everything (beyond the already generous 6 month period) with no ongoing reward. This is precisely why extended support, that benefits both buyers and authors, and to your point is the same for any other non-perishable goods.

  • If envato were to pressure authors to do this then it would mean fundamental changes to their business model, and inevitably drive a big % of authors away, which in turn would harm buyers.

  • If this is a significantly big problem for anyone then buyers really should not accept the T&Cs. This is not about being ‘frightening’, it’s just stating the obvious, that no one can accept T&Cs on anything and then criticise when it doesn’t suit them

  • Alternatively, should they not be talking to agencies about retainers? If buyers want a more cost-effective solution, then inevitably it’s not reasonable to expect the same standards.

At the end of the day we are very happy to be proven wrong, and I am certain that if it is a reasonable or achievable expectation, then envato would be keen to hear of any marketplace that offers lifetime support and updates at no extra cost?

Could you share an example?

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We can do two things: ignore the obvious or correct it. I put my point so you are entitle to yours. They call it free world. This is my live experience and being an wordpress fun I could not stand still and watch other platforms thriving.

Can you please name those other platform which provide site templates for $60 or less, come with 6 months of support (with usually very fast response time, but that is different author to author of course) and lifetime free updates?

Do you work for free? I guess not, then why do you expect that from others? Again, we are talking about $60 piece of software (usually even less). That is less then an average hourly rate for a web developer!

The risk and the downside you are describing has nothing to do with the WordPress nor any other similar platform. This is a basic economics. You get what you pay form.

The alternative is to pay several thousands $ to an agency to build a custom solution. But even that agency won’t provide free support forever.

I understand you apparently had some bad experience with some themes, but your narrow-minded outlook on things certainly isn’t helping the WP community either. You need to take a look at things in much broader scope.

As I said, We can do two things: ignore the obvious or correct it. I put my point so you are entitle to yours. They call it free world. This is my live experience and being an wordpress fun I could not stand still and watch other platforms thriving

What exactly you want to correct and how do you want to correct it?

I put my point so you are entitle to yours. They call it free world

Why do you even have a need to say this? Did anyone here in this thread told you you can’t voice your opinion or what?
Of course you are entitled to your opinion, but what is the point of sharing it if you are not open to hearing others opinion? I heard your opinion. You want to lift the paid support because in some cases this can result in some non-marginal additional costs down the road. Nobody is happy about the unexpected expenses. I would be pissed too if I was in similar position.

But here is my point of view, as an author here. No business can run forever without sustained cash flow. The WP market is currently oversaturated. The sales are in a slow decline. The paid extended support is one of the solutions to keep our business afloat. If Envato decided to lift the extended support purchases and forces us to provide lifetime free support, then I, and I am sure many other authors as well, would simply leave the marketplace sooner or later, because we wouldn’t able to sustain our business. How that would be any help for the WP community?

So please explain to me, what exactly is your proposed solution?

I did not read your answer on its entirety, actually I read first paragraph and will not go farther has I found nothing constructive on first paragrapgh so I lost interest on reading it farther. All I was doing on this tread was to put a point which don’t need argument or name calling it may need discussion and if you are on position of decision making you understood my point and can do something about it if you care. And escuss me if I made you feel bad with facts.

I am certainly not in a position of decision making. I am just an author. And I am interested in a constructive conversation. But it is hard to have a constructive conversation if you don’t even read my opinions.

You have a problem with paid extended support, is this correct? I totally understand that you want the best service for the lowest cost. Everybody wants that. I told you my stance on the matter, from the author point of view, why I think the extended support purchases are necessary.

So again, what exactly do you propose? Just to remove extended support purchases and that’s it?

Just to interject once more - no name calling or unpleasantness…

Could you please share another marketplace that offers lifetime support and updates with a single purchase?

If this model is common sense, achievable or necessary then this should be easy to do right?