few helpers – huge amount of visitors
why not come around and help us some?
also, we definitely are not experts on every plugin around – we tend to leave those for the plugin authors
Your observations may be overlooking what is really driving your perceptions. The support forums at wordpess.org are free of charge, supported solely by community volunteers (as far as I know), whereas full access to the support forums at StudioPress, is available by purchasing their products and services. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, I think you may be overlooking the glaringly obvious differences between the two.
StudioPress: Commercial theme designers with an outstanding reputation, who offer access to complete support for their product, once you make the decision to purchase that product. – That sort of obligates and motivates them to maintain support. They get paid. 🙂
ww.wp.xz.cn: Free themes, plugins, and the WordPress software, that you are pretty much free to do whatever you wish, with. For Free. The support is free. It’s provided by those who try to give back to the community that provides the Free software and framework upon which so many people have built their own businesses, and are actually making a living from. (see what happened there?)
Sometimes it can be difficult to get answers to very specific topics or situations. That’s the nature of requesting assistance from volunteers. Not all are going to be technical experts on your particular subject. On the other hand, when you have a question specific to a product you purchased for use with WordPress, and you ask the experts you paid to support you when you purchased that product, then I think you can expect a different result. That’s their business. You buy, they supply. They’re actually motivated to keep their good name by providing you a level of service one would expect when purchasing their product.
I’m not saying your sentiments are entirely incorrect, I’m just trying to highlight the possible errors in your comparison. Apples and Oranges.
On a personal note, I think the last half of your post appears promotional and self-serving. Almost seems like the whole point of your post, when measured against your topic title.
Good luck to you!
Samuel B, ClaytonJames,
Good points, both of you. As I learn more and run into questions where I can help, I’ll be pleased to do so. ClaytonJames, are you sure the forum managers and moderators in the StudioPress forums are paid? That certainly makes a difference. It’s still impressive support even at that, but you make an excellent point.
One of the things I am striving to do is to help reduce friction in our lives collectively. And recognizing contributors from others seems a good thing. It could also be seen as self-serving and there is an element of that, but it’s also a voluntary service. Maybe there are bloggers who are actually realizing ad revenues; I’ve added ads to mine, too, though I have little hope it will ever rise to anything above pennies.
Hi, cloudstepper!
ClaytonJames, are you sure the forum managers and moderators in the StudioPress forums are paid?
My thoughts were not so much that the mods or managers for their support forums are being paid, (I have no actual knowledge of that) but that you receive full access to support and service for their products, because that’s a service you paid for when you bought from their theme selection. So, it’s in their best interest to provide a higher level of (and full access to) premium support to individuals like yourself, who have made the decision to purchase and use their framework and child themes.
Well said, Clayton James.
