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“They started banging on the walls and rattling the door. Babysan was unwilling to face them. He decided to exit through the roof, breaking through the tile roof(it was a nice outhouse).” – absolute comedy, and my Dad thinking out of the box
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can’t really get my mind around this; Alex is supposed to help Anubis Marketing for free…why, exactly? unbelievable demonstration of arrogance and ignorance from Anubis here
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boycott Anubis: they give free software developers a hard time when they won’t provide free service and support
tecosystems
links for 2006-12-13
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Lara - Anubis Marketing says:
December 14, 2006 at 6:30 am
I absolutely DO give free support.
I’ve spent THOUSANDS of hours in the WP forums, and have received many phone calls, emails, and questions from people asking me for answers. I give these away without ever demanding money.
What you appear to have missed is the fact that all I did was ask, “Where do I put the file?”
A simple, one liner like, “I’m not sure, but I can work on finding out for you if you want to set up a consulting project,” (because he later admitted to me on the phone that he didn’t know the answer) would’ve done fine.
Or, had he known the answer, to say, “You put the file ___________.” would not have taken a second. Instead, he rather wanted to argue and call me on the telephone to explain himself. How does this make sense?
If he’s SO busy, and SO above answering with a one-liner – why did he call me, post about it, and rile up the community to make suggestions like “she should be hit with a Louisville Slugger” ?
I’ve not a problem paying for support either. As mentioned on my site, I’ve done so before, and intend to do so again. But I’m not paying someone $150 an hour to tell me where a file is supposed to go.
Get all the facts before you start bashing and boycotting. Just because I’m not as popular as him, doesn’t give anyone the right to say the things they’ve said to or about me.
sogrady says:
December 14, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Several points:
1. The Louisville slugger bit is deplorable, and I can assure you that Alex would never condone that kind of commentary. And he certainly did not encourage that type of response, either implicitly or explicitly. Holding him accountable for comments posted is really reaching.
2. The question that, to you, appears simple, is in fact not. The migration path using Alex’s template is not terribly difficult (I’ve used it), but certainly not a place it here, press a button and you’re done. That’s why he “didn’t know the answer.” And why he’d charge for a response.
3. It’s terrific that you answer questions for free – so has Alex in the past. But the difficulty is that there’s a lot more demand for his WordPress expertise than for yours, and answering everybody’s questions simply doesn’t scale. Even were the question as simple as you think it to be, answering it thousands of times is a little much to ask.
4. This is not about popularity; I could care less how popular or not Alex is. The fact is that someone provided a very useful piece of software for free, and because he wouldn’t answer your question you questioned his integrity. Your reaction was both inappropriate and rude, and that’s what the community is reacting to. If he’d behaved the way you have, the community would be bashing him instead.
Those are the facts I need.
Lara - Anubis Marketing says:
December 14, 2006 at 3:30 pm
1. He’s accountable for whatever appears on his website. He owns the site, and like I’ve had to remove comments from my site, he could very well remove those types of comments from his. If you’re sure he wouldn’t condone it, then why is it still there? I’m not reaching – I’m suggesting that maybe he should consider the fact that he either needs to post the whole story (which includes his time-wasting phone call to me to demand an apology for my stating in ONLY an email to him (and not in a post or anything like that) that I would never again recommend him to anyone who asked) or that he should remove the link and direct finger pointing (as was suggested by someone I truly respect, Andreas Viklund) and just tell the story if he needs to.
2. If the question’s not worthy of a simple answer, then he should’ve said in the first place (and not later on the phone once he’d pressed enough buttons) that he didn’t know the answer, and to find it for me would take time, and therefore a consulting fee. Once again, I’ve NEVER had a problem paying for support. The paying was not the issue – it was the way it was handled even before he posted what he did. I appreciate the fact that YOU took longer than he did to explain that it’s not a simple answer. Bottom line? Were you to be able to offer the exact answer I need, I’d be willing to send you something for your help. Again, it’s NOT about the money.
3. You’re right – he’s a guru and a half, and as was pointed out in the comments on his site, I’m essentially a “nobody” comparatively. Totally understandable. Wouldn’t it be nice though, were it a simple answer, that he take a second and put it in the readme.txt for the file? We’re back to that completeness thing. He couldn’t stand to tell me that he didn’t know the answer until he was in the middle of his telephone tirade. Why wouldn’t someone expect that he knew how to use the code he wrote himself? I fully expected complete instructions in the readme… and they weren’t there, so I asked.
4. It’s not because he wouldn’t answer the question for free that I questioned his integrity. It was the way he responded to me. It was the fact that he created something that he later admitted to not knowing how to use, but wanted to charge me to find out (which he should’ve known from the beginning). Essentially, he wanted me to pay him to learn how to use something he created. How does that hold up any amount of integrity?
4a. It IS about popularity on the internet. His site is older than my business site. He has a tremendously larger following than I do. And he’s pointing directly to me with nothing but negativity… I’d done nothing of the sort. Is it really the case that sending an email to someone (one individual person) expressing your disappointment and opinion on their way of “doing business” deserves all of this?
4b. Even this very page is listed as #7 in Google when a search is done on my business name. This very page where you’re telling people to boycott my company, and you have never had any immediate dealings with me, and you don’t know me personally. You’ve read two paragraphs out of half a dozen back-and-forth emails and knew nothing about the phone call I received, and your post about boycotting my company ranks #7 for my company name. (As I mentioned before, my business site is barely over a year old…)
4c. He DID behave poorly. Calling someone up, placing them on speakerphone to hear you and your cohorts laughing (ed: Alex works at home, and doesn’t use a speakerphone) at them while you demand an apology for them stating in a private email to you, essentially that they’re disappointed in the way you handled things is anything and everything but unprofessional. Doing that, and posting what he did, linking to my business, and allowing people’s comments like those that were made remain on his site is behaving poorly. I did none of those things, ever.
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The bottom line is this: It’s not about the money. It’s not about paying for support, and it’s not about his skill or intelligence or overall generousity to the WP community. I have always thought he was a valuable resource (free and paid) and yes, I even own his Tasks software. This isn’t the first time I’ve ever used free plugins or anything like that – and I’m always grateful and very often send donations via PayPal if there’s a link up or if I can get it out of them what their email address is.
I’ve also gotten minor amounts of free help from someone (who is also fairly well known in the WP community) that wound up with him being on my “list” of people to call on for paid programming help (one project got him over $1000). We’ve already been down that road together, and I will continue to do so in the future. We have a great working relationship, and it all started with his answering a question about one of his free plugins… for free.
However I have never had the chance to be heard about any of that (until now, which I thank you for the opportunity to have a polite exchange of views on this, here on your site) because people were so hell bent on namecalling and defending Alex – how on Earth was I to respond to any of that? How is the way in which myself and my company are being treated in all of this comparable to one part of an email conversation he and I had? I just don’t understand it.
sogrady says:
December 14, 2006 at 4:51 pm
1. You’d have to ask Alex, but were I in his place I’m not sure that I’d remove it. First, because it’s clear to me that it’s just a joke in remarkably poor taste – not something truly threatening. Second, because I generally don’t like removing comments (just as it is with posts, incidentally) – I’d prefer to let the community police itself. Which it has, with Geof Morris chiming in with “Guys, just because this lady is clueless doesn’t mean that we should speak menacingly or threateningly towards her. That just makes all of us look like an angry lynch-mob, and we don’t want that.”
2. I don’t agree. I think, in fact, that this entire dispute stems from your misunderstanding of the complexity of the task involved. I don’t believe it’s Alex’s – or any other developers’ – responsibility to correct that. I would never expect a developer that I’d never met to help me with software that they built on a 1:1 basis. It’s not scalable; there’s a reason that forums exist, and a reason that Alex and other developers point users to them. When I need help – whether it’s WordPress plugins or Ubuntu or Apache – I head to forums. I don’t email the original developer.
If I desperately needed help with a plugin or other application, I would lead with an offer to pay. I don’t care if it’s a one line answer: it’s just common courtesy.
3. “He couldn’t stand to tell me that he didn’t know the answer until he was in the middle of his telephone tirade.” He couldn’t know the answer, because he doesn’t know how you’re set up. You seem bent on proving that he “doesn’t know” how to use his software; this is false, as he’s helped us use it to migrate. The problem is rather that it’s more complex than you’re allowing for.
“Why wouldn’t someone expect that he knew how to use the code he wrote himself?” He does. But he’d need more complete instructions, which would take time, which is why he offered to set up a consulting project for you. Which triggered this situation.
4. “Essentially, he wanted me to pay him to learn how to use something he created. How does that hold up any amount of integrity?”
No. He offered to customize the template for your particular installation.
“It IS about popularity on the internet. His site is older than my business site. He has a tremendously larger following than I do. And he’s pointing directly to me with nothing but negativity… I’d done nothing of the sort.”
Alex has contributed thousands of hours of effort to making people’s live simpler. I benefit from his work every day, as do millions of WordPress users. He asks for very little in return for these gifts to the WordPress community.
But you come along out of the blue, and impugn his integrity for asking to be paid to customize software that he makes available for free – software that you admit you don’t fully understand (and persist in charging that he doesn’t either). I don’t blame him at all for pointing directly to you with “nothing but negativity.” Attacking someone’s integrity in any context is a serious charge, and he’s right to take it seriously. If I were you, I’d simply admit my mistake and apologize.
“You’ve read two paragraphs out of half a dozen back-and-forth emails and knew nothing about the phone call I received, and your post about boycotting my company ranks #7 for my company name.”
You’ve personally attacked a good friend of mine – one who’s given a lot back to both my organization and a host of open source communities. Moreover, you’ve shown no remorse whatsoever – no admission that anything you’ve done has been at all incorrect. Maybe you feel that way, but the volume of comments on the subject – and on the blog entries you pulled – would, I think, be an indication that you might want to rethink that opinion.
This situation can be salvaged, I think, with an apology. But if you continue to insist that you’ve done nothing wrong, then I think you’ll continue to have problems.
Lara - Anubis Marketing says:
December 14, 2006 at 7:43 pm
“No. He offered to customize the template for your particular installation.”
That’s not what he offered, and that’s not what I asked of him. I was almost all the way through with the process and needed help with what I then perceived to be a small question. Had he told me initially that it was more complex than that and that it would require him to be more hands-on, rather than hand me a “I’d tell you, but you have to pay me,” type attitude – maybe I’d have understood that and not had issue with paying for his help. However his words were, “I don’t know the answer to your question because I’ve never used it – I built it for a friend – so I’d have to take time to find out.” and that was only over the phone when he called to ridicule me. (Once again, I don’t mind paying for time if it’s situation specific – but nothing had led me to believe it was at the time. How can I apologize for not being told what I needed to be told in order to better understand something?)
For the record – this is not about doing an import. I’d done that already. It’s about using the 301 redirect file. That’s all. I’m still unaware of how it could be that complex when I’ve downloaded it, chosen the one I wanted to use, and made the required edits already. I just don’t know MT and didn’t know where to put the .php file. I still don’t. If it truly is more complex than “where to put it” – I would to this very moment be more than willing to pay anyone who offered for their support. But YOU are the one who explained it to me graciously and in detail enough. Once again, thank you.
“But you come along out of the blue, and impugn his integrity for asking to be paid to customize software that he makes available for free – software that you admit you don’t fully understand (and persist in charging that he doesn’t either).”
It’s not customizing the software. I did that.
I “persist” because those were HIS words. He said he didn’t know where to put the file.
“When I need help – whether it’s WordPress plugins or Ubuntu or Apache – I head to forums. I don’t email the original developer.”
I did that too. And the people who posted my very same question never got an answer, and neither did I.
Maybe it was miscommunication from the beginning, I don’t know. But I’m speaking based on what was said to me, and how it progressed. I still don’t think he handled it professionally or thoroughly from the beginning, especially after the harassing phone call he made to me. I still think that the post, the comments, and all the retaliation by his friends and fans is undeserved. I would never do that to someone – and I stand behind that.
I do feel that “integrity” was probably a poor choice of word to use, and for that, I’m sorry. It implies his entire persona, and really that’s never been my issue. It was specific to one situation and the related communication… not his entire career.
I’m sorry that there was a misunderstanding from either side at any point, that led up to this kind of bashing and harassment. I am sorry that the community that responded never got the whole story from both perspectives (there are always three sides, you know), and I’m sorry that people think I’m some kind of greedy, ignorant idiot who wants everything for free. I think I’ve clearly stated that’s not the case, and whether people choose to believe me at this point or not is not up to me.
I’ve also stated several times, including in the emails, that I do feel he’s given a lot to the community and that I have been grateful even to be able to read his thoughts on things over time. (The themes competition itself was mind blowing… and as I said, I have purchased software from him.)
I don’t hate the man, nor do I truly think negatively of his entire operation or ways of going about things. I hate this single, solitary situation and moreso, all it’s resulted in.
So, there it is. Take it for what it’s worth, and there’s really nothing more I can say about it. Once again I thank you for your gracious attempt at clarifying things, for allowing me to explain where I truly was coming from, and for managing a discussion without the need of namecalling. If I’m still misunderstood at this point, and people still choose to bash me or what have you – there is nothing more that can be done. I’ve said all that I’m able to.