“Existing Image Optimization” – functionality unclear

Rant
I don’t like to be negative about plugins which are developed and offered free of charge, however this plugin is in a different category given it’s part and parcel of paid services offered to Siteground customers…

But it seems like another example where a plugin is released well before it has been adequately tested – and where those who opt to update first unwittingly become beta testers. I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday on a client’s site attempting to get to the bottom of an issue (or issues), had to go through the process of reverting the plugin on two sites, flushing this and that, talking to Siteground support etc etc.

And by the look of these forums others have had similar experiences directly relating to the versions of the plugin after 4.0.7.

It’s great that fixes have been released reasonably promptly. However, that doesn’t change the fact that many people have unnecessarily wasted many hours on avoidable problems.

Please Siteground – develop a system for adequately testing your plugin *before* releasing it into the wild. Using your customers as beta testers is uncool.

Existing Image Optimization
When I go to the “Image Optimization” page, in the section entitled “Existing Images Optimization” the first line says “We will optimize all your existing images with minimal or no loss in quality. Note, that this will overwrite your original images.”

That’s fine – however directly below that line is a ‘dialogue’ (not dismissable) with a green tick suggesting that this has already been done on existing images:
“All images in your Media Library have been optimized successfully! Force re-optimization of your images.”

There is no toggle in this section. So I am left wondering – has this updated plugin just gone through and overwritten my entire media library with ‘optimized’ images using a process that is not explained or detailed anywhere without my first giving the plugin permission to do so?

If so – why on earth would you do that?! No matter how well-intentioned, words like sabotage, vandalism (and others not suitable for this forum) come to mind and I would strongly suggest that functionality is removed forthwith.

If not, please make the intention and functionality of that section a lot clearer.

That would also go for the other sections – “Frontend Optimization” and “Environment Optimization” – I see no explanations for what are complex and delicate operations that can easily break things.

Asking people to blindly opt into these seems irresponsible.

Looking forward to seeing the next iteration of this plugin.

Thanks Siteground

#BeBest