Notifications never, ever go away

Hi,

Could you make sure you are using the latest version of WordPress 5.5.1, Yoast SEO for WordPress 15.1.1, and the latest version of your other plugins and themes?

In v15.1 of Yoast SEO for WordPress, we merged the indexables and link indexing tools into one process. There were also some instances where the permalink was flushed:

-Flushes all permalinks from the indexables tables when the value of the permalink_structure option changes, and introduces a notification to ask for a reindex in that case.
-Flushes all permalinks from the indexables tables when the value of the home_url option changes, and introduces a notification to ask for a reindex in that case.
-Registers a cron job that checks whether the home_url was changed manually and resets the permalinks accordingly.

Would it be possible for you to try and run the SEO data optimization again in the WP admin dashboard > SEO (sidebar) > Tools section and see if it completes the whole process and doesn’t ask you to re-run it again?

– everything is up to date. I run all updates every other day to keep things updated.
– I’ve not changed anything in either my permalinks or your plugin in at least 2 months. 15.1 is only a few weeks old. So this is not applicable.
– I’ve run both notifications at least 5 times now. They say they are done, and go away for a few hours and then return. Once it stayed away for 1 day, but still returned without me doing anything.

Just to humor you, I’ll run both once again.

I followed your advice. Went into the plugin, clicked the button, waited for a long while and waited until it said it was done.
I opened up a random page, which showed me: https://ibb.co/YQX385Z
Then I went into a post, which shows the same.

Then I went back into the plugin, and the button has returned.

I have done this many times before, just like I already mentioned in my OP. But just to humor you, I did it once again. And once again without any result.

@supervinnie40

There was a previous issue but this was fixed in Yoast SEO 15.1.1; just noticed you mentioned your site is running 15.1.1 already.

We are unable to replicate this on WordPress 5.5.1 running Yoast SEO 15.1.1. Therefore, we ask that you report the issue on GitHub. You may find this article helpful for the process.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Maybellyne. Reason: updated information about the issue

We are going ahead and marking this issue as resolved due to inactivity. If you require any further assistance please create a new issue.

How is this resolved? There has not been an update that fixes this. The issue is still open and still valid. Don’t falsely claim to have solved something just because you haven’t been able to give an update.

Or would you think its normal when the mechanic tells you he has fixed the car, just because he hasn’t yet done anything to it for a little while?

At Maybeline,

Why should I need to report the issue somewhere else?
I update every single item every other day. So my system is pretty much always up to date. So anything new from the last 1 or 2 days, is present on my site. And yet the issue still hasn’t dissapeared.

I have reported it to you here. I have given you answers to your questions. This is your plugin, that you have build. Please explain to me why I need to go somewhere else, even though I have just informed you of the problem.

You could ask a few more questions if you need to get more info. But don’t just tell me to bother somebody else. We both know that that would be a journey without an end. I would be sent from 1 person to another, to another, to another… just as long as it’s needed until I give up.

Besides, I am also a paid member. Not that this should make any difference. But as a paid member I want a working plugin. I don’t pay for bugs and other crap.

We are sorry to hear that you are still experiencing the issue. We totally understand how that could be frustrating for you to see a false positive notification that says you’ll need to run the SEO data optimization and you can’t even dismiss the relevant notification. Let’s see what’s going on here.

The issue you are currently experiencing was a known bug specific to Yoast SEO v15.1 and we have already released a fix for this in v15.1.1. Can you please confirm whether you are running the latest version of the Yoast SEO plugin now on your site? If yes, are you still experiencing the same issue?

On the other hand, we mark any inactive thread here to keep the overview of our forum. The issue you are experiencing was a known bug and has been fixed in v15.1.1 and as such, we have marked the thread here as resolved as there was no activity from anyone.

Last but not least, we see that you don’t wish to report the issue somewhere else and that’s completely fine. However, we requested to report it on GitHub as we think this could be either a bug or an issue specific to your setup. We only track bug reports on GitHub and not on the forum and as such, we wanted you to make a proper report so our development team can investigate this further as well and so does anyone else (if there are) still experiencing the same issue like the one you do.

That said, we see that you have mentioned you are a paid member. In this case, we can take a look at your setup and investigate the issue further for you. If you’d like us to do this, please do feel free to send us an email directly at [email protected] email address and including the link of this thread so that we can start investigating the issue immediately by taking a look at your setup or submit a bug report if necessary on behalf of you.

We hope this clarifies your concern!

As I said before, and was also stated by your coworker, I was already running 15.1.1, in fact by now it has turned into 15.2: https://ibb.co/Kby4Pfn

I have tried to run the optimizer 2 days ago, with no luck. Just for fun, I will let it run again after I am done typing this reply.

Regarding Github etc. Isn’t it a bit odd that you sent me, a customer, to go somewhere else to mention the bug, even though you are perfectly capable? If my webshop has problems, I don’t ask my customers to contact my developers. I ask them several questions regarding the problem, and then contact the developers themselves. It is MY shop, MY responsibility, and I am NOT gonna bother my customer by telling them to call somebody else and report it to them. That is a piece of effort I will have to make.
I should not be the one to file a bug report, it is your plugin. It is NOT very customer friendly to tell your customer to go somewhere else, and file reports with somebody else. That is a piece of effort your are supposed to make. You are an employee of Yoast, the plugin is made by Yoast, so YOU can contact your coworker about the bug. If your coworker wants more info, you ask me.
Its something that is often called: customer service. I have found over and over again that this is something that Yoast knows very little about.

The same goes for sending an email. Am I not contacting you right now? Am I not telling you about the problem right now? So instead of you simply offering me the service that I might expect, you are again telling me to go another route. Why should I be the one that has to go another route? It would take you 1 e-mail, or perhaps a shout over the office, to inform the other person. Or would you be the person? If I sent an e-mail, I get a reply from you? Which raises the question: why e-mail if you already know?

The replies you get from Yoast are usually reasonably friendly, but you really don’t understand customer service.

Hi @supervinnie40

We understand you’re frustrated that we weren’t able to provide you with a satisfactory level of customer service. We’d like to help and try to explain things so it is clear and we can help further.

For the users of the free version of Yoast SEO for WordPress, we recommend our Help Center and these free www.remarpro.com support forums as our avenues for support. When there is a bug or feature request (after it has been confirmed on these forums), we refer the users to help us and log the bug report on GitHub, where one of our developers will be able to take a better look at it. We then advise the users to subscribe to the GitHub issue so they can check for updates from there, and we usually resolve the forum thread here on WP.org in order to keep the forum overview. This is our standard process.

We didn’t realize that you had a subscription for the Yoast SEO Premium and Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin, so for that, we apologize.

One of the benefits of the premium subscription is personal email support from our team. We provide support for the premium version of Yoast SEO for WordPress and we’ll be able to take a better look at the issue if you send us an email, since these forums are for support for the free version and we have limited access with regard to the information we can request through these forums. We hope you understand.

If you could send us an email at [email protected] (you can refer here on how to avail of premium support) and outline the issue you’ve encountered here (you can include this forum thread link as well), we’ll be able to take a look at it and provide you with support.

Please understand that I am not so much frustrated with the bug in the plugin. Plugins are a huge amount of codes, and a mistakes in those many variables is easily made (even though it should be fixed as soon as possible).

I am frustrated because you are not making much effort to solve the issue, even though I took the time and effort to report it to you.

Your plugin is your success. Yoast is dependant on the performance of that plugin. If it sucks, nobody wants to use it and nobody will choose the premium version. Also, they won’t buy the other plugin. You’d loose residual income if your plugin doesn’t perform like on of the best.

Here I am, a customer who has a premium version (which should not matter!) who has taken the time and effort to let you know that there is a flaw in the plugin. A “mistake” that needs to be corrected. I am actually helping you to keep your marketshare, and to remain in the top 10 of SEO plugins (which helps you to earn money).

Instead of begin thankful, and taking this oppportunity to perfect the plugin, I am told you can’t replicate it. End of story.
Then I see that the issue is marked “resolved” falsely, even though nothing has been resolved. You probably just do this to prevent the stats showing how little issues are actually resolved.
After that, I am told to go somewhere else to report the bug that I have already mentioned to you.
In the end, because I mention that I am a premium member, I am redirected once again to another form of communication.

So instead of being thankful, and taking this opportunity to show me (and any other reader) how well you handle the situation, you decide to either close the situation or redirect me to other places.
If you still consider this “customer service”, I’m afraid you’re not the right person for the job.

If my customers take the time and effort to inform me of a problem with the website, I usually sent them a written thank you note to show them how much I appreciate their help. I am not the one who should be put to work, that is YOUR job.

THAT is what is frustrating about dealing with Yoast!

Now regarding the issue with the plugin. The issue is now known. I have reported it several days ago. Whether or not you are interested in solving the bug is not longer my concern. You expect your customers to do your job for you, which is NOT what I paid for. So I just cancelled my renewal for the Yoast plugins and opened a Topic on the WordPress forum, looking for an alternative.

If you don’t appreciate your customers (don’t argue on this point, you can read above the facts that show how little you care about providing customer service) you are not the party I want to partner up with.
The bug is annoying, but I will compensate manually to keep my SEO score at the same level.

P.s. it would be unfair, and not a proper show of character if this would be marked “resolved” even though it is clear the case had not been solved. It is escalated and the customers has decided to leave you even though the case has not been solved.

We appreciate your clarification on everything. We understand our support didn’t meet your expectation. This is on us and we’ll do better.

That said, the issue you are currently experiencing seems specific to you only as we didn’t see the same report after releasing the Yoast SEO v15.1.2 and as such, we want to take a look at your setup.

Since this is a public forum, we can’t do that here. In this case, would it be possible for you to send us an email directly to our support inbox?

We’ll make sure to deep dive into the investigation as soon as we receive the email from you.

We look forward to hearing from you.