As some of you know I purchased and installed the WordPress plugin, Standout Comments last week. It took a couple of hours to set-up as it covers so many different areas which I liked – hence the reason I purchased it.
It also allowed me to deactivate 4 other plugins.
But it has a few bugs including a ‘really annoying’ one:
Not allowing commenters to unsubscribe from receiving the ‘follow-up comments’ email.
Commenters would get the email but they couldn’t unsubscribe. There was no link within the email.
So if they had subscribed to receive emails and the blog post received 50 comments, they would receive up to 50 emails – that could annoy a few people.
AND IT DID!
A couple of good blogging friends told me – so I stopped replying to comments – and I believe in replying to anyone who has written a comment, here on my blog.
The feeling that I was not replying, felt weird. It felt uncomfortable. It felt disloyal.
Last week I wrote to the Standout Comments support area for help.
My email was ignored.
This week, Tuesday I wrote again.
My email was ignored.
I wrote again yesterday.
They said I should upgrade to the latest version via the dashboard and they are testing “the unsubscribe feature”.
How do you upgrade?
The WordPress dashboard doesn’t tell you there is an upgrade available, click a button and hey presto, within seconds it is updated.
Oh no – nothing as simple as that.
I cannot wait another week for their support to come back to me – so I have dumped it and asked for my money back.
Oh and I’ve reinstalled the 4 original plugins.
It’s a shame because it is a great plugin (in theory). Once all the bugs and the support gets better, I might go back but not for a few months.
Now let me start replying to comments…
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I have never heard of this plugin before but now I may avoid it since you have had so much trouble with it. Sometimes I think that plugins are more of a hassle than help, especially if they are buggy like this one.
.-= Tiffany @ passive income opportunities´s last blog ..My Keyword Academy Case Study – Two Month Update =-.
Tiffany,
I like what the plugin is trying to do – there are just too many bugs for my liking.
I think they should have waited a month before launching…especially as it is not free.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Standout Comments: Dumped =-.
Andrew, sorry you had a rough time with the new plugin.
I’ve seen a few other blogs that automatically have the Subscribe to Comments box (or similar) checked, and I don’t dig that. I often do click the subscribe to comments because it reminds me to follow up on the conversation.
Question: what plugin does the followup comments you have? I like that, assuming it’s only replies to my comment.
.-= John Soares´s last blog ..Selling Information Products Weekly Reading =-.
John,
I use Subscribe to Comments (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/) and you get ALL replies if you subscribe – not just to yours.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Standout Comments: Dumped =-.
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for the heads up about the plug-in. I hadn’t heard of it before, but I am glad I am now…DO NOT INSTALL.
I’ve been having probs with sexy bookmarks lately also.
Brandon
.-= TheInfoPreneur´s last blog ..Success From Failures…Sleeping Like a Baby =-.
Brandon,
It’s a shame because I like what the plugin is trying to do!
What problems you having with SexyBookmarks? I know in the latest upgrade – you have manually go in and re-set the options.
That is going to be the subject of my next blog post.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Standout Comments: Dumped =-.
Hey Andrew,
On one blog it was with ticking full or partial icons. when I had full icons…it would wipe out all the text in the post. with partial it was ok.
with the new blog I’ve taken over this week…I have no idea yet but it shows blank dashes the whole way down the side of the post. 🙂
ugghh….i’ll work on it again soon.
B
.-= TheInfoPreneur´s last blog ..Success From Failures…Sleeping Like a Baby =-.
Brandon,
Sounds like you may have a plugin conflict.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Standout Comments: Dumped =-.
I’m still hoping that the plugin will be worthwhile. That or maybe I’m hoping to win the iPad – it could be the only thing stopping me from freaking out about it. I like the theory that people can subscribe to the feed an mailing list in one go for the convenience perspective.
@John Don’t worry, if it works out, I won’t do the “automatically checked” thing. Although I have noticed that some sites simply remember your answer from last time you filled them out, so if you subscribe to comments on one post, the next post you comment on will have the checkbox automatically checked.
.-= Kristi´s last blog ..Fetching Friday – Resources, Guest Blogging Contest & Rocket Timelapse =-.
Kristi,
I just didn’t was to annoy any more of my commenters as they couldn’t unsubscribe and the support was non-existent.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Standout Comments: Dumped =-.
Oh, I would still use it with the other Subscribe to Comments plugin just for the dashboard management and the unsubscribe link. I like to know which posts people are interested in coming back to when there are new comments.
.-= Kristi´s last blog ..Fetching Friday – Resources, Guest Blogging Contest & Rocket Timelapse =-.
Can understand but I just got fed up and if the support is as poor as what I received – then I’m not happy.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Standout Comments: Dumped =-.
I was one of these very annoyed readers who had somehow subscribed to comments and couldn’t figure out how the heck to unsubscribe. I figured I must have been stupid…. lol
So glad that’s gone!
.-= erica mueller´s last blog ..How To Upgrade WordPress from Older Version =-.
Sorry, Erica!
And that’s exactly why I stopped replying to comments and now the plugin is no longer active.
The last thing I want is annoyed visitors.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Standout Comments: Dumped =-.
I was thinking last week that I was getting a lot of comment emails from your site, but it’s usually good reading, but there definitely needs to be a way to unsubscribe.
.-= Mike Roosa´s last blog ..Above The Fold: Making Good Use Of Every Pixel On Your Blog =-.
Mike,
Sorry!
And totally agree – I’m surprized that was overlooked during the building of the plugin.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Need Some Blogging Help? =-.
To the rescue!
The “same” plugin for free – http://www.jimvesting.com/jimvesting-comment-miracle/
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..It’s His FIRST Comment Contest! =-.
Good find Dennis and thanks for sharing!
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..The not-so-secret Diary of the Confessional Blogger =-.
Welcome!
I haven’t installed it yet, but I’m thinkin’, since he uses an actual subscribe to comments plugin already available, the feature should be there. 🙂
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Less is More – Here’s My Current To-Do List =-.
I like reading comments but yes sometimes when I am too busy it can be annoying having an inbox filled with them because I don’t have time to read and have to concentrate on something else.
Oh well this happens. I am sure they will hurry now to resolve the problem.
Saki,
Yes, they should hurry but to be honest it shouldn’t have gone live with such a bug!
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Need Some Blogging Help? =-.
But it has a few bugs including a ‘really annoying’ one:
Not allowing commenters to unsubscribe from receiving the ‘follow-up comments’ email.
Yup, and thank you for making the change! I generally stay subscribed for a few days, then unsubscribe. 🙂
.-= Colleen@Kennewick Real Estate´s last blog ..West Pasco Washington Homes For Sale =-.
That’s what I do, as well!
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..SexyBookmarks Plugin Upgrade =-.
Oh man we always have experiences like yours. It’s just strange that they wouldn’t reply to your request.
Good to see that everything is back to normal. How is everything going by the way?
Julius
All is going well at the mo. Pretty busy – I have a new client who wants 10 blogs set up!
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..SexyBookmarks Plugin Upgrade =-.
Thanks for sharing this experience. This is in fact a good review of that product in itself.
.-= Julius´s last blog ..Web Accessibility Benefits Persons with Disabilities and … Who Else? =-.
Thanks, Julius.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..SexyBookmarks Plugin Upgrade =-.
This is my first time hearing of the Standout Comment Plugin. Some plugins can be buggy and cause problems when using on blog sites. At least, you can get back to doing what you love which is connecting with the readers.
Terry
Big difference here is it is a premium plugin – i.e. you have to pay for it and you shouldn’t expect to get too many bugs.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Advice´s last blog ..SexyBookmarks Plugin Upgrade =-.
Love the plug-in but I ran into an issue. Somehow, the button gets pulled into the RSS feed as well which breaks some things on a site where we syndicate the feed. Is there any way to ensure that the button/functionality does NOT appear within an RSS feed? Perhaps a toggle in a future version.
Hitesh
You need to ask the Standout Comments support guys.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..SexyBookmarks Plugin Upgrade =-.
Thank you for the review of Standout Comments. I’m sorry that you had a bad experience with the product and I have already refunded your money.
The fault was solely on my side. As you were submitting problems, our support partner Jeff was fixing all of them, but due to the finals week of my dental school and then me going off to Vegas to celebrate for a couple of days right after, I did not notify you of the latest version of the plugin that solves every one of the issues that you had.
The new version of Standout Comments 0.95 is up and running, and now that issues are fixed we’re working on more cool features. So we hope you’ll try us again in the future. 🙂
.-= Alex Shalman @ Standout Comments´s last blog ..Official Launch of Standout Comments [and a Chance to Win an iPad] =-.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for coming across.
I will be back when some of the new cool features are released – I’m sure.
Dont suppose I’ll win the iPad now!
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..The Biggest Cash Blogging Contest EVER =-.
Yeah Man..Same problem with me..Even I purchased it almost a week back specially to increase my newsletter subscribers which I have just started but the plugin didn’t worked with v 3.0. The settings menu was not appearing…I opened a ticket on 18th June and they haven’t replied till now.
So I just told them few hours back to refund my money through paypal dispute feature…I hope they at least listen to this…
I don’t know how they are going to run this business when they don’t consider the need to reply quickly.
I’m looking forward to use a new plugin to be brought by MaxBlogPress team..And everyone knows how nice they are..So I’m eagerly waiting for it.
.-= Typhoon´s last blog ..5 Tips To Write Blog Articles Quickly =-.
Typhoon
That’s too bad…I did get my refund – no questions aksed.
I’m playing with the MaxBlogPress one now.
I’ll let you know how I get on.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Overcoming Blogging Burnout: Here Is How =-.
Typhoon, I refunded your money after receiving your request via e-mail today. Good luck blogging 🙂
.-= Alex Shalman @ Standout Comments´s last blog ..Official Launch of Standout Comments [and a Chance to Win an iPad] =-.
Yup, just got the refund..Thanks for the quick response..
I hope you set up a customer support team soon otherwise people will really get annoyed when their question don’t get answered.