PhotoJoFo

Sorry Richard but I disagree with your comments.

First of all, I did not ‘shoot down your recommendation’ – I disagreed with cutting back the number of testimonials was a solution, it was a compromise, nothing more.

Yes I did make a judgement based on your suggestion, and in spite of various attempts to resolve the matter before contacting you, the Javascript on the plugin was the issue.

That’s fine about the refund, I did say this to you in my email, I asked and you declined.

I think suggesting that the I hadn’t purchased the right product is a bit disingenuous on your part – I’ve been using WordPress, themes and plugins for long enough to appreciate the good and the bad, and I’m savvy enough to figure out what I require to meet a specific requirement or task.

I was quite clear in that I purchased the pro version for the themes ad support. But after upgrading my website earlier this year (after buying your plugin) I found the styles were not suitable. No problem at that stage until I tried using the rotator.

The big issue is the JS of the plugin. I found it caused problems and your ;solutions’ noted above would not have resolved this.

My feedback is based on my own experience of the plugin. That others may find the plugin works without problems is irrelevant – the bottom line s this is an expensive plugin, and when it doesn’t work efficiently there’s nothing you can/will do. Buyer beware.

I’ve stopped using the plugin. If others wish to try it and it works then great, I hope it doesn’t cause them any problems.

If the author can offer some support and assist then I may amend my review. I can only base my review on my own experience, that’s not ‘abusing the review’ as you put it. Good luck.

Give me some credit, the plugin is pretty straightforward and the instructions clear and made sense. the point is that the plugin, both free AND paid, USED to work, now NEITHER work.

‘Honest reviews’. Perhaps I don’t quite get what you actually mean, there’s nothing dishonest about my review. Perhaps you could offer some advice on how to get the plugin to work, rather than shoot the messenger? I;m not the only person to have issues with this plugin, it certainly doesn’t work for everyone.

There are no promises with the paid plugin either, but it gives people a good idea that if there’s zero support with an expensive premium plugin, what kind of support do they expect with the free version.

Would be better if the plugin author came on and helped/explained……no response on here OR via email, kind of says it all really.

Also Massimo, I tried the free version again and it doesn’t work properly.

No it doesn’t work for me. It WAS working, now it doesn’t. Maybe it works for you, though your comment ” the plugin has some issues and php warnings/notices” contradicts your opening sentence.

Also, it does not work well for larger sites as it is slow and slows down your site. The premium version includes a caching option which significantly speeds up the processing – when it works.

The free version is fine for smaller sites, when it actually works.

Yes, but if the Plugin developer isn’t replying to direct emails then perhaps he would read this and respond. Unfortunately he hasn’t. Waste of time and money. Zero support.

Not even a response, total waste of money.

**Update 17/07/2015:

OK I updated to the lates version of Pro. It is certainly faster to load, but still not FAST.

A problem I can’t seem to overcome is how do I force galleria/Pro lightbox to cache using W3TotalCache? All other files cache no problem, Pro lightbox won’t cache.

If there is a way to force pro lightbox/galleria to cache then, at last, Pro could be quick enough…..

OK, well if the Pro lightbox feature can load instantly (or very close to instant) plus pagination on Masonry then I would certainly consider testing Nextgen Pro in future.

Hi Erick,

I appreciate you trying to defend the Pro version, but let me assure you that I’ve spent a considerable amount of time with my web hosts testing and checking where the ‘bottleneck’ comes from.

Rigorous testing showed that it was the Pro version that was the problem. Please don’t ‘assume’ that image size or server issues are the problem. All of my images have been fully optimised for use on your galleries – 920 pixels wide on the longest side, compressed using Smushit etc, all following the instructions from your operating guide.

You’re right about the problem with the slow page loads – Masonry doesn’t have any ‘load more’ or pagination option (JIG does) so your software tries to load all the images in one go. A simple thing to solve but as yet not part of the Pro version…….a workaround is to use the less attractive Pro-film thumbnails with pagination. But that doesn’t fix the main issue with Pro lightbox – slow to load (when it does actually load).

The point is that the Pro version, in operation, when used to display large galleries, is not capable. That would be fine if the Pro version was free, but it’s not. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time testing your product, my server, MaxCDN and various other ‘potential issues’ that I know exactly where the problem lies – Next Gen Pro.

It’s all very well saying that lots of people use the plugin, but size/number of users on its own is no measure of reliability or function of the software.

I’d love to hear from anyone who uses the Pro version to host galleries containing over 400 images and can send me a link to their site to show the software works without a hitch…….

The point is that it’s great to hear you will release an update, at some point, to improve operation of the Pro version, but that doesn’t help anyone right now who has invested money and, more importantly, considerably time and effort, trying to get your software to work.

Read the reviews since Pro was launched and it’s clear Photocrati have a history of releasing Nextgen software not fit for purpose.

” if you are having 30 second gallery load times there’s something else going on” – no Erick, there’s not. And the ‘support’ I received was basically ‘wait for the next update, it’ll solve these issues’. There’s a contradiction here – you say one thing, support says another.

I really, really, wanted this software to do what it claims to do. Maybe one day it will. I stand by my comment that this software, the Pro version is not any better than a beta version.

Anyone considering using Nextgen should take a look a JIG and use the wordpress built-in gallery feature. You get some of the functionality of NextGen Pro (masonry display) along with Google being able to see your images for indexation.