Somewhat Less Than Complementary
Trackback pointed out a somewhat less than complementary review of YAK.
I think the reviewer probably has a valid point in regard to user-friendliness, but otherwise hasn’t appeared to put a huge amount of thought into his review. In fact, it was negative enough that I feel the need to post a rebuttal both here and in a comment on his post. I don’t mind constructive criticism (as I said, I tend to agree on the user-friendliness front), but I’m less than impressed with criticism that’s based on a fundamental lack of research.
Here’s my comment (hopefully it doesn’t come across as too defensive…):
A question for you: did you happen to scroll down the YAK project page (here: http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/projects/yak-for-wordpress/)?
I’m not trying to be snide, but your review mentions a lack of documentation, and there is basic installation documentation on the main project page.
A lot of open source projects make money by selling documentation. It’s pretty much a standard practice. Some users want to pay, some would rather figure it out themselves. That’s flexibility for you. But you don’t have to waste time figuring it out for yourself, because you can buy the handbook — so I find it rather trite for you to suggest that it’s somehow okay to pay for a plugin with documentation, yet it’s not okay to get a free plugin and then pay for the docs.
Yes, YAK is basic. That was one of the initial goals — along with tight integration within WordPress. So no, there isn’t a way to insert product images from YAK. Instead, you insert them in your post — your post is your product. That’s the foundation of YAK: post as product.
YAK originally had its own menu option, but before the new design of WP, I felt it took too much menu real estate and figured users would prefer if it was included within the standard WP menu structure — settings went into WP->Settings. Orders and Products and then Reports went into the Manage menu (which has now become Tools). I haven’t had any complaints or suggestions to change it, so far.
On the “lack of help” front, there is a forum on my site. A responsible reviewer might’ve taken a look there first — and found that, as with many open source projects, the forum is reasonably active, with support requests, and discussions on how to do things, and so on.
YAK might be lacking in user-friendliness (something I’m trying to address over time, but as a single-developer project, it’s slow going), but an accusation of lack of support is, quite frankly, groundless.
In the distant past, I was one of the editors of a (printed) technical journal in the US. Generally if we were reviewing a product, we’d contact the company in advance for review copies (giving them the opportunity to provide additional information if they wanted). In this case, and for any future reviews you decide to write, I believe you’d be better served contacting the developer (or developers) and give them that same opportunity. It is perhaps a better form of journalism not to rubbish a project or product without actually doing a little research in advance…
My comment posted to same “review”:
Just wanted to mention that we have been using the YAK plugin, and have found it is perfect for our simple needs. The software is flexible and fits seamlessly into the blog model. I actually think it is really quite clever how it works.
We have been using it exclusively on our website http://www.52teas.com, if you would like to see it in action. We’re starting to get a lot of orders through our site, and YAK has held up beautifully.
When we have had questions or concerns, the developer has been more than helpful and extremely responsive on his website. I have to agree that it seems quite unfair and unfounded for you to say that there is a lack of support.
Speaking from my experience as someone with NO coding experience (I’m a tea blender), I found that once I read through the information on the developer’s website and asked a few questions, I had NO problem getting YAK up and running, and have even been able to go back in and make some minor tweaks of my own here and there (with help from the developer and his forum).
Thanks! And I’m still waiting for you to start shipping tea internationally….
My comment I have replied on the blog:
I do understand that you feel as this review is snide, but my intentions were to give an honest opinion, which is what most bloggers do. I have already tried paid and open source e-Commerce plugins and with most open source plugins they provide documentation for free. Therefore I wouldn’t have to spend my time looking through the forum and sending emails to yourself. Wouldn’t that make sense to have a solution with easy instructions to support the install and usage of a product? Most people don’t have time to wait for responses.
Also, I did not critise for a “lack of help”, nor did I talk about no support from you in my review. I am sure that you offer good support as you have commented on my blog promptly.
My opinion here should be taken as constructive criticism to improve the quality of the plugin and to make necessary adjustments to support users. I am probably not the first one who has tried this plugin and said the same thing, the only difference is, I gave my opinion on my blog.
You’ve got me wrong. I don’t think the review is snide. Just a little short on research.
In regard to “lack of help”, perhaps it’s my misunderstanding of your heading “Documentation And Help Is Hard To Find”. Maybe you were talking about help in terms of docs within the plugin itself, rather than help in terms of support.
I would still argue the point that basic instructions are available from the main project page. I feel there’s enough there to get a user going. But I will look at adding a little more detail on creating products — like you say one person saying something on their blog, is probably the tip of a less vocal iceberg.