Does Not Work on Large Image Folders

Hi @co50,

Thanks for your review.

Next time you leave a bad review, please have a look at the support thread where we’ve been discussing exactly this issue, and I announced that this would be fixed in the next version.

I can’t add a warning to the description at this point because I can only edit it by uploading a whole new version of the plugin. I don’t want to bother users by forcing them to update the plugin which only includes a few more sentences in the description. If the plugin doesn’t work with them, they’re free to look for alternatives.

The fact is that not everyone has “several thousand images” in their uploads folder. 3000+ users are currently using this plugin and don’t don’t have any problems. It’s a very time-consuming task to make a program compatible with all available OS, PHP versions, WordPress versions, other plugins, themes and other factors that might influence the way Thumbnail Cleaner works.

That’s why, I find giving the worst rating available because it did not work with your particular setup simply not fair. It also implies that all other features and aspects of the plugin are bad.

Lastly, I’d like to remind you that I do all of my plugins for free and without any ads or pro versions. Thumbnail Cleaner is not the only plugin I have to maintain, and even though I manage to provide individual support for all users that contact me, I simply can’t devote as many hours into the maintaining of my plugins as I’d like to. After all, I still have a full-time job.

I hope you don’t consider this as whining about a bad review. I’m always open to criticism as long as it is expressed in a constructive and fair manner. But a one-star rating is more than inappropriate, I think.

Yes – I consider it whining. Big-time. What, because the plugin is free, 1 star ratings are prohibited? The fact is, it times out after 1 minute on an ultra high-speed VPS server with PHP 7.1 and with all the PHP and WP limits set well beyond what a normal user would have them set for. That’s awful. The fact that a plugin of this nature is programmed to still be dependent on PHP timeouts and does not use AJAX as others have for years is insane.

Next time, read my whole review where I said I’d change it when you supported Ajax.

It looks you’re the one who hasn’t read my whole reply. Of course, every user is free to rate the plugin as they wish; user feedback is the only way that allows me to improve the plugin.

However, I find your rating disproportionate. That’s all I wrote and I gave you an explanation why I think that way. That has nothing to do with “whining” or even “prohibiting” anyone from giving the plugin a low rating.

Changing the cleaning method to be based on AJAX is a justified critical point which I’ve acknowledged within dozens of support threads. This will be implemented as soon as I have the time and the resources to thoroughly test the new version.

But if you’re so unhappy with my “insane” plugin, you’re free to program one yourself. But don’t forget to keep it up-to-date and compatible with 3000+ individual WordPress installations, different server settings, and lots of plugins and themes.

Programming WordPress plugins isn’t my job. I’m supposed to do the job of everything I use that doesn’t work right, is that what you’re saying? So if my trash collector misses my trash, I’m supposed to become a trash collector? If my car won’t start I’m supposed to become a car manufacturer? If I have a problem with the President, I now have to run for President? Am I following that logic correctly?

If you don’t have the time or resources to work on your plugin, it can’t be that important. And if it isn’t that important, my rating isn’t a big deal. It’s one or the other.

Trash collectors, car manufacturers and presidents are being paid for their work. Plugin developers aren’t. They develop plugins for the WordPress community for free in their own time, and most users show some kind of gratitude for this voluntary work.

If you demand a plugin that works flawlessly with your individual specific setup, you should consider hiring someone to do the job. Some people just take it for granted that people spend hours and hours on programming plugins without ever charging anyone.

Developing plugins isn’t my job either, how can it be if it doesn’t generate any income? It’s a hobby that I enjoy doing whenever my actual work that pays my bills allows me to do that.

My plugins are important to me. But if you expect me to drop all other responsibilities of my life to keep fixing every issue as soon as they appear, you’re wrong.

I suggested programming your own plugin because your one-star rating means that Thumbnail Cleaner is a bad plugin. If this plugin is so bad, developing your own without paying anything would be the best solution for you. I’m saying this to help you find a way to get what you want. Still, I appreciate you for bringing this topic up once again.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by thaikolja.

Basically, it all comes down to this: Your plugin isn’t “bad”. It’s not evil. It’s not malware. It just doesn’t work. And the reason it doesn’t work isn’t because I have some weird setup or plugin conflicts. It simply is designed poorly – subject to PHP timeouts which means anyone with more than 1,000 or so images cannot use this plugin – which is a huge huge number of installs. Your existing install base is tiny, which is why this doesn’t crop up much. But checking your support threads, it’s cropped up enough to be considered a major issue.

That’s great that you do this for free, but that doesn’t in turn exempt you from honest reviews. If you choose voluntarily to submit your plugin to the WP repository, you are subject to many rules including licensing restrictions and the fact that people can review your plugin. Nobody is making you do any of this. I’d be happy to pay for a plugin that works – in fact that is what I did.

As promised, I will change my review once the plugin can support all but the smallest of image folders.

Again, I don’t mind honest reviews; I even welcome them. I depend on the WordPress community to give feedback so that I can improve my plugins, no matter if they’re bad or good.

What I do mind are reviews that condemn a whole plugin based on one issue. It is a major issue, yes, but the plugin doesn’t consist only of one class that uses an outdated method to run time-consuming processes.

However, all other parts of the plugin fall into the one-star rating as well even though they work perfectly fine and are, in my opinion, programmed sophistically. You could have considered this in your review, but you chose to limit your rating only to one factor. Only this is what I criticise about your rating, and I gave you an explanation for that which you, unfortunately, stamped as “whining”. I hope you understand why I consider your rating as a bit unfair.

As of restrictions: Those may exist in theory, but they’re not being applied. I’ve installed dozens of plugins in the past that consisted of code snippets stolen from other plugins and functions that were too unreliable to use. I’m saying this to point out that there is no quality assurance when you use free WordPress plugins, just like with other things that are available for free.

I’m trying to avoid just this with my plugins. I aim to provide a certain level of quality. Whenever there’s a bug or a suggestion from users about any of my plugins, I’m doing my best to improve them. But this takes time, sometimes more, sometimes less, and unless this is a paid job, my personal responsibilities come first.

I hope you’re more happy with your paid plugin than with mine and I still very much appreciate any critics and suggestions how to improve Thumbnail Cleaner.

@co50 the plugin isn’t working in your specific case and you are leaving the worst rating possible (1 out of 5)??? You should know that the majority of wordpress users won’t have several thousands of images. YOUR REVIEW is misleading and just a cheap revenge because you didn’t get what you want for free. Your review says more about you than about the plugin which is very useful for the average wordpress user. If the plugin doesn’t work for you go ahaed and find another solution. Your review is discouraging developers and misleading users. Your review is not for wordpress users but you are trying feedback extortion in order to get what you want for free. Users will read the feedback the right way. Actually most one star ratings on www.remarpro.com say more about the users than about plugins this is no secret. This review just casts a dubious light on @co50.

Lmao. ^ Here’s a guy who has so much time in his life that he literally goes from plugin to plugin ridiculing anyone who leave a one star review. Go ahead and check his post history. 100+ posts of butting into review threads and taking down anyone that leaves a one star review. Get a life, bro. No seriously, I know you want to reply again and tell me want a horrible, terrible person I am. Instead, why not Google some interesting hobbies and then consider taking one up?

In fact, I find most of @cinematic’s arguments justified. Still, I’d like to stress that bad reviews are and should not be prohibited. If a plugin sucks because it has too many bugs, is integrated poorly, has too many ads, leaves security holes, gives false results or does anything else than what it’s supposed to do, then yes, it deserves a negative review. How many stars it’ll be in the end should be considered based upon the individual critic points of the plugin.

Which is what you, @co50, did not do. You judged a plugin based your personal experience on a system that is far from the average WordPress user and ignores all other parts of the plugin. This was enough for you to give it a one-star rating, and as you see, I’m not the only one criticising this.

Why @cimatic spends time criticising other reviews that were rated with one star is completely unrelated to this discussion. Maybe he’s just fed up with users like you who demand that every WordPress plugin or theme must be of perfect quality AND be available for free and, if they aren’t, then discourage developers by giving them unfair ratings. But to be honest, I’d have loved to hear your reply to what he wrote instead of trying to discredit him by “exposing” what he does in his free time.

I don’t need to reply to him. Nothing he said is relevant to my review. I do not have a special use case. The entire plugin did not work as described. Period. It didn’t sort of work. It didn’t work except for one small insignificant glitch. It flat out did not do what it said it would do. The end. Full stop.

One thing this thread has changed for me is going forward I will be much more likely to leave negative reviews for plugins that don’t work. I rarely did this before but the completely uncalled for response has led me to believe I’ve been much too forgiving. Knowing there are devs out there like you gives me pause. It’s so important that the really good free plugins, and there are many of them, rise to the top. There are so many great authors out there that not only produce great work but when they get a bad review all they care about is fixing the issue. Authors who produce plugins that both don’t work as advertised and who think they are entitled to only a 5 star rating or no rating because their plugin is free should be called out more often.

@co50 the reason why I critizised your feedback is that your review is misleading. I have used this plugin and know that it is very useful. I have already left positive feedback. I find it annoying reading one star ratings from users who just want to extort the plugin author to serve their specific needs. 5 stars gives you the option to choose between 1-5. To weigh what is good, what is not so good and then choose the number of stars. One star means there is nothing good at all and this is simply a false review and I find it so annoying that I wanted to comment. Not because this is my hobby but because I find your comment simply wrong and selfish. Btw I am not a “he” but a female developer. Sorry if I do not fit in your scheme of things. I have said what I wanted to say and now you can go on ranting (I know that’s what you like most ;))

@cinematic, just forget about it, please. It’s now more than obvious that @co50 has absolutely no idea what we criticise. For some reason, he still believes that I’m writing all this stuff here because I can’t accept bad reviews and that, instead of acknowledging the technical issue that has caused it and fixing them, I’m only interested in protecting my ego.

I’ve tried explaining it to him in a polite and friendly manner because I care about the people that use my plugins and I’m always open to criticism, something that @co50 “gives him a pause”. It didn’t work. And yes, @co50, the reason why the plugin times out actually is because of one small part of the plugin and not an overall design failure.

I hope you’ll be more lucky with other plugins in the future. Have a nice day.