Tag: Ideas

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Life Code

Meeting life’s challenges can be as easy as 1, 2, 3 …

if ( ! empty( $life ) && isset( $lemons ) ) {
    return $lemonade = $life . $lemons;
} /** End if - life gives you lemons */
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Six Weeks

Wow … has it really been six weeks?! I’m still alive … really, I am.
You will just have to trust me on this; or feel free to consider this a true ghost writer experience.

I have been busy with keeping my WordPress projects up-to-date, as well as coming up with a couple of new WordPress plugin ideas … both will hopefully be more than Mallory-Everest ideas.

There are big changes coming up in the next six weeks, too. No official announcements, yet … just this little teaser before I get back to being a lot more busier than I have been in quite some time.

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Education

Learning something new may not always be the easiest thing to do, but there is no reason anyone should ever consider themselves not capable of learning.

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A Multitasking Game / Test

As some may know, I am not a fan of the idea of multitasking; but I also recognize others differ in their opinion.

Earlier this week I was invited to have a look at the following “Multitask Test” that can be found here:

It’s an interesting exercise in how computer gaming can be used to test various ideas, although I am not so certain it was an ideal test for “multitasking” as it requires a certain amount of manual dexterity above and beyond what I would think the primary testing criteria should be … which is mental acuity. What do you think?

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You Are The Competition I Want

I would love to read that from my competition … obviously written in a good way.

You might ask why, which is really rather simple to answer.

  1. I have no reason to poach your clients. There are simply too many potential clients in the marketplace and definitely more than enough to share and prosper with.
  2. I recommend end-users seek you out for support of your themes and plugins first … it just makes sense. Addressing an issue with code in one installation does not serve the greater good of fixing the issue at its root and having the entire installation base benefit.
  3. If you need a quick answer with something and I know it, or have a reasonable suggestion, I am more than willing to share. A simple thank you is more than fair compensation for my time.

I help you, you help me; the WordPress community wins … and, you are the competition I want.

To see the Aside click here.Read the thoughts of my competition

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Unpaid Expectations

One must always remember … demanding a task be accomplished with little to no compensation by a specific deadline provides no leverage in its negotiation.

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All BNS Plugins Ready for WordPress 3.5

It’s been busy but I finally finished updating all of the BNS Plugins in preparation for the pending release of WordPress 3.5

My self-imposed schedule had me a day late on two out of 16 of my WordPress plugins (BNS Featured Tag and BNS Body Classes) but their respective updates were of particular importance. BNS Featured Tag was brought in line with its cousin BNS Featured Category while BNS Body Classes has taken a turn to something potentially very exciting.

Look for at least one more update to BNS Body Classes later this month as my idea comes to fruition.

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No Charge

I write WordPress Themes and Plugins and often contribute them to the WordPress community by submitting them to the relevant WordPress Extend repository. This provides an extensive distribution venue and allows these themes and plugins to be available to millions of users all over the world … all at no charge. Let me repeat that, with emphasis, no charge!

Now, let’s have a look at that idea. I have spent in some cases quite a bit of time developing a theme or plugin; and, I take pride in the work I do. I have spent many hours debugging and improving my themes and plugins with every intent to make sure they are of the best quality every time I release a new version. So, if an end-user points out something I’ve missed then by all means I note the issue and address it at no charge. Let me repeat that, again with emphasis, no charge!

Also, if an end-user of one of my themes or plugins offers an idea I feel would provide “greater good” benefit I make note of it; I review what would be involved to implement the idea; and more often than not I add it to the theme or plugin; and, yes, I do it at no charge. Let’s repeat that one more time, with feeling … no charge!

So, when someone expects me to provide “free support” for one of my contributions to the WordPress community I look at what I already offer and weigh if what the end-user is asking fits into the above ideals, or is more suitable to a chargeable customization … or if it’s just a Five-Minute-Fix:

The five minutes is purely subjective and completely based on my personal opinion. If I believe a project should take five minutes then that is how long the project will take. If it takes five hours, or five days, the cost will still be the same: free!

Be that as it may, I fully understand if an end-user expects “free support” for a “free product” downloaded from a “free source” and in many cases I also agree with their “reasonable” expectations as I still to this day have not been able to assign a value to the free advertising and exposure provided by the WordPress repositories.

Even though I agree with providing free support on items with “reasonable” expectations, I do not agree with nor do I offer support for unreasonable requests or outlandish ideas. If an end-user wants a specific customization, or requests a specific feature, that is not currently scheduled or under consideration to be added the end-user can just as reasonably expect their request to not be no charge.

If the end-user has modified the code in the theme or plugin; finds it no longer works as expected; and, then requests free support … really? seriously?! Why would that be no charge?

What support do you offer at no charge?