Simple History has historically been one of the best plugins ever written for WordPress. Pär Thernström aka Bonny is a brilliant developer. I contributed financially to the project before there was a commercial version. Unfortunately it didn’t go very well.
Instead of adding a simple CSV export feature for the €270 I offered, Pär decided to add two different kinds of complex export (json, xml) before he added CSV.
Then Pär took the project commercial.
I reminded Pär at the time about how open source developers complain that no one contributes to their project, but then will do nothing for those willing to sponsor the projects:
I’m very tired of open source developers complaining that no one contributes and then when people come forward to contribute, the open source developers complain they have no time and are bored with the project anyway. This is why we cannot enjoy high quality FOSS software. And instead have to overpay for over-marketed buggy commercial software run by ethically challenged MBA types or get-rich-quicksters. Yes, I’m frustrated Pär.
The danger is that leaves space for a commercial solution to come in and usurp the work of the FOSS pioneer.
What a great contribution (Simple History) to WordPress just being left to atrophy and rot. All hail FOSS! Instead we will all have to deal with absolute crap adware tracking solutions full of admin notice interruptions, ads and annual renewal licenses. What’s even better about WordPress these days are the plugin authors who claim their plugins should stop working after the license expires.
Or perhaps some low life comes along and buys good software, hikes the prices and turns it into adware (Syed Balkhi, Yoast come to mind first). Or Matt Mullenweg comes along and buys the software and privatises it (rolling it into WordPress VIP or JetPack). That’s what happened to Markdown for WordPress.
Instead, what happened to Simple History is that Pär did his own dirty work. Simple History has gone from being free to being very expensive. To use it across twenty sites is now $500/year. No issues with Pär charging for Simple History but he’s infested Simple History with adware.
- Settings – featuring 3 ads (premium version and 2 more addons)
- Stats & Summaries [new] – showing 1 not very useful graph and 6 more obscured graphs which act as advertising, see screenshot below
- Help & Support – support, docs and FAQ links and a useful “Debug” section + the same 3 ads
- Export – nothing bad here
- Get Premium – these 3 ads again
Also all Simple History admin screens feature a yellow ad stripe at the top, see the “Simple History menu opened” screenshot.
We removed the following bits and pieces:
- Add-ons link in header
- Yellow bar on top of the page
- Right sidebar ad boxes
- Upgrade to Premium to get access to more date ranges. blurred graphs on “Stats & Summaries” page
- “New” badge in header links
- Footer link asking for a review
Consider giving Simple History a nice review at WordPress.org if you find it useful.
That’s a lot of work, work that every user of Simple History should not have to do. Here’s a current version of Simple History without the ads. We’ll update it occasionally.
https://github.com/AlecKinnear/Adfree-Simple-History/tags
The WordPress plugin directory has let us all down. This is not what FOSS should be.
Alec Kinnear
Alec has been helping businesses succeed online since 2000. Alec is an SEM expert with a background in advertising, as a former Head of Television for Grey Moscow and Senior Television Producer for Bates, Saatchi and Saatchi Russia.
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