Sitemap and Other Issues

  • Resolved Bryan Hadaway

    (@bhadaway)


    4 years, 7 months ago

    Hello,

    You’ve received several complaints already, so you’re probably already on top of it, but I wanted to express my concern as well.

    I love All in One SEO, and have used it for years, on dozens of sites, dozens of sites where I also use the XML Sitemaps plugin, and therein lies the problem.

    1. Yes, I know that I can disable the sitemap included with your plugin under the Feature Manager, and I’ve done so. However, there is some redirect or other issue left behind now that’s not allowing me to view my original, and heavily-tuned sitemap. It just 404s.

    2. The new notice about plugin conflicts is dismissible, yes, but it’s not *permanently* dismissible (a very important distinction), as others have already beaten you over the head with.

    I understand that you’ve decided to make XML Sitemaps and Performance enabled by default in the new update, and I can only imagine the long internal meetings that took place before finally pulling the trigger on that decision.

    I’m sure you weighed the pros and cons and expected some level of backlash over this new change (people hate change). I get all that and can empathize. You’re probably not looking to completely roll it back or spend a lot of time or money on adjusting the approach much further, but just in case this gets to one of the devs and my suggestion is actually considered, it never hurts to ask…

    Request:

    Can you please change the default behavior to instead of enabling XML Sitemaps, gracefully *not* enable them if another popular sitemaps plugin is detected?

    Otherwise, this creates a massive amount of manual work I’ll have to do to sort this out on many sites. Right now, I’d like to stick with the dedicated sitemaps plugin, but I did review your sitemap settings, and they do appear to be very similar in the granular control offered, so I’ll consider making the switch at some point, but right now, this is breaking a lot of sitemaps.

    Thank you!

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

  • A very diplomatic post Bryan. However, bottom line is that they’ve messed with an SEO critical aspect of our websites without consultation which is not acceptable. Deliberately launching functionality which is known to conflict with the behaviour of other plugins is also not acceptable and needs to be addressed asap.

    I’m holding off at the moment but I’m aware that others are already escalating this to the core team to see if anything can be done. Like you, we’ve used and loved this plugin for a long time but the recent direction is rather disconcerting. I’m sure the devs will do the right thing and sort it per your suggestions.

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by sponwp.
    Plugin Support Steve M

    (@wpsmort)

    Hi @bhadaway and @sponwp,

    Thank you both for your feedback.

    We’ve confirmed the reports of our XML Sitemap module interfering with other sitemap plugins and have opened a high priority issue to fix this.

    We’ve also confirmed that the notice only dismisses for 3 minutes and then reappears. This was not the intention, our intention was to make this permanently dismissible, so we’re already working on a patch to fix this which we’ll release very soon.

    Thread Starter Bryan Hadaway

    (@bhadaway)

    @sponwp

    While I’ve never managed a plugin with millions of users (that would be pretty scary to be honest), I have managed one with tens of thousands of users, and faced the same dilemma multiple times as a plugin developer.

    The larger your active user base is, the scarier it is to make these kinds of changes. While it might seem irresponsible or flippant, plugin devs really do try to make these types of transitions as smooth as possible. No matter what though, mistakes will be made and people will be upset.

    Nothing lasts forever, and as a free user of a free plugin, I don’t feel that they owe me anything. I offer my feedback when I notice an issue, but never with anger, as that doesn’t help anything or anyone.

    @wpsmort

    Thanks. I’ll await version 3.4.3 then and confirm the issue is fixed before updating any of my sites further.

    @wpsmort – thank you, appreciated.

    @bhadaway – agreed. However, in this case I think lots were deeply frustrated because a critical function had been “adjusted” which impacted elsewhere. We look after hundreds of WP sites, some with excellent ranking positions in very competitive niches and we get very sensitive about stuff like this. The developer has made an excellent response which is appreciated.

    As someone who has developed software for over 40 years I think this change is just careless. One would have to know it would have serious effects on existing sitemap plugins. Now I’m worried that they will decide to implement another feature that will kill some other functionality. There is something to be learned “stay in your lane”

    Thread Starter Bryan Hadaway

    (@bhadaway)

    We’ve confirmed the reports of our XML Sitemap module interfering with other sitemap plugins and have opened a high priority issue to fix this.

    This still isn’t fixed. Any chance we can at least get a quick hotfix for this while waiting for the overall update?

    Thanks

    Plugin Support Steve M

    (@wpsmort)

    @bhadaway This is still in development, once it’s gone through testing and code review we will release it.

    Plugin Support Steve M

    (@wpsmort)

    @bhadaway The fix for the rewrite rules for other sitemap plugins has now been released. Make sure to update to the latest version.

    The latest version also fixes the issue with notices reappearing after you dismiss them. They should now stay dismissed. Make sure you clear any caching including browser caching which can cache notices.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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