Posts by Parallelus

We’re making our framework, Runway, open source and releasing it as a new project. We adapted our old theme framework into Runway and now we’re building all of our new themes using it. I had not heard of Ultimatum before, but in some ways they are similar. The idea of exporting the a child theme or template into a standalone “framework independent” version of the theme is one of the cornerstones of our framework built into the core.

It’s still in the early stages and we’ve only just started writing documentation, but we have a beta version out now for testing. If you wanted to get involved or just give it a try you can check it out here: http://runwaywp.com

And to get the beta access: http://beta.runwaywp.com

This is a long term commitment for us. Over a year of development is already in the code and we will be building all of our future themes using Runway. We have 2 dedicated staff members that work on only Runway development full time so it’s a major project and investment for us that will continue for a long time.

mountainthemes said
Wordpress is a Php bad practice in itself

That gave me a smile. I’m sure I couldn’t do any better but still hope to have a bad practice of my own that’s just as successful some day.

Regarding the original question. I’ve used a download feature like this in themes to make a backup or export file available. If you can add some security to ensure that the user is logged in, has admin access and fix the path of the download location so that a custom file location cannot be fed to the readfile() command you should be safe. Just make sure to hardcode it so that there is no possible tampering by any outside source.

I would also be prepared to have the item initially get soft rejected if you upload it to ThemeForest. You can include some details of the security and precautions in your submission for the reviewers. Even if it does get soft rejected you can easily explain the situation and they’ll look at it closely and if you did everything right it should be approved. The reviewers run ‘theme-check’ and it will flag the same things as you’re seeing now. If they don’t investigate it further it’s possible that you’ll need to give justification for the use. The reviewers are very good about these things and will work with you so don’t fear it but expect to have it come up.

familychoice said

Parallelus said

These concerns are unrelated to the topic. I don’t want this to turn into another debate over these same old issues. I was asking a very specific question with no intention of discussing the ethics of item support or justification for 1 star ratings.

There are plenty of topics already discussing (arguing) the difference in views between buyers expectations and author requirements with regard to support and updates. If that’s what you care about please seek out one of those threads and voice your opinions there.

Don’t be so rude.

Your thread is about ‘justification’ for 1 star ratings and I’m giving up my free time providing customer feedback on how we rate our purchases and what we consider justification for a 1 star rating.

I was not trying to be rude. You missed the point of the topic and my comments. I understand a buyers prerogative to give a 1 star rating. It happens, I know. I also do not agree with those that want to compel feedback for ratings (sorry other authors). Buyers can rate a theme however they like. I’m concerned with unethical behavior by other authors giving a 1 star rating to hurt their competition. That is the point of this thread. I’m wondering if other authors have seen a trend of 1 star ratings appearing immediately after reaching a 5 star average.

It’s not very often an item gets 30+ ratings and has a 5 star average. I happen to have an item that did and that’s how I was able to pick up on the activity. It may be a coincidence, but if it’s a trend that many have experienced that is less likely. That’s all I’m asking.

I never have complained about 1 star ratings. Look at my items and you will see that I get them too. I focus on doing good work and letting the 5 star ratings speak for themselves. You can look at my forum posts since my first day as an Envato author, I have never participated in a conversation on justification for 1 star ratings. I believe a customer has the right to give the rating they want and feel an item deserves.

I hope that helps clarify my original post.

aleluja said
The thread is not about 1 star rating but about 1 star rating from another author that wants to sabotage your item.

Yes, exactly. This is the point.

candeed said
@Parallelus

- Why don’t we just forget about that 1-Star-Rating.. and collect 5-Stars-Ratings as much as we can. That disturbing trend will get buried. Buyers not blind.

- Is the trend only happen to you, Parallelus? Or it happens to other Elites too?

I’m not concerned with 1 star ratings. I’ve never complained about them and that’s not what I’m doing now. I am looking for feedback to determine if something unethical is happening on the marketplace.

I don’t know if it happens to others. That’s the question this topic is asking.

familychoice said

loveetc said
familychoice:

I just wanted to say that your reasons for 1 star do not look good to me.

1 star – doesn’t work/no support/author vanished/no updates

When an author submits a theme, reviewers carefully check it. They don’t even approve if there is even a single PHP Notice (yes, a notice, not a warning). They do not approve a WordPress theme if it has any warning from the WordPress standard checking plugins (so there should not be such thing that the theme does not work. Sometimes a user is unable to figure out and he concludes that the theme does not work.

Just to confirm there were issues with several themes we purchased, which were acknowledged by the author (who couldn’t fix them), the files were checked by TF and we were provided with refunds. I’ve been building websites for 20 years and have been working with Wordpress for nearly 10 of those – I can assure you it wasn’t down to ‘user error’.

...

These concerns are unrelated to the topic. I don’t want this to turn into another debate over these same old issues. I was asking a very specific question with no intention of discussing the ethics of item support or justification for 1 star ratings.

There are plenty of topics already discussing (arguing) the difference in views between buyers expectations and author requirements with regard to support and updates. If that’s what you care about please seek out one of those threads and voice your opinions there.

bianca20576 said
You have to be logged in as a customer/buyer in order to give a rating right? I’d say show the profile picture of those who rated you. I see no reason why not and it resolves mysteries like these. Also puts ratings in perspective to the buyer.

Or similarly, I would love to see a section on each user’s profile that shows, “Average rating given: 3.2 * * * ”, and that might say a lot. For example, I’m not going to name names, but I’ve had a customer in the past that I ended up search on Google just to see if s/he treated other authors the way they did me, and I was disgusted with what I found. If that person wrote some nasty stuff in my item comments and users clicked on their avatar only to discover they have 50 purchases, 40 ratings and the average rating is 1.2, it speaks volumes towards the comments being posted.

I had no intention of kicking a hornet’s nest with this thread, or reveiving the “how to fix the rating system” conversation (again…) but honestly just wondered if others saw a similar trend. It sounds like there are similar situations with other authors and I think knowing about it and sharing makes the community stronger and encourages improvement.

The points about image and audio files is a very good one. That’s absurd to see those ratings when you know exactly what you’re getting. It’s almost like they’re having to buy the item because a client insists on using it but they hate it personally? The only thing I could guess. For example, I’m not a huge fan of WordPress but I develop for it because that’s what people want. I’d probably give WordPress 4 stars, or if I was a jackass I’d give it 1 just to take it down a peg.

BenSheppard said
It’d be nice if they did what they do on Ebuyer

I’ll be totally honest. Before the ratings breakdown came out I was not a fan of it, but immediately after I was able to see the stars for my own items I changed my tune. Seeing an item with 4 stars can lead a buyer to believe it’s not a great item, but when they see it consists of 200 ratings at 5 stars and just a a dozen (or so) at 1 star it tells a story and I like that buyers can now see this.

VF said

RubenBristian said
Today one of the buyers who rated my item 2 stars just switched his rating.. To a 1 star

Or this also a possibility: someone who already rated 2 star now updated into 5 and someone updated from 5 into 1 in single night

For me it was a new rating. The total number increased so it wasn’t a changed rating. This item hasn’t had any changed ratings unless there were to at the same time that swapped spots.

doru said
...

you can pin point this particular individual from those that had items in the top list the same time your file was there. also, restrict the list by looking at those who have very similar items AND don’t get this one star treatment that was applied to you.

Should be pretty easy to spot him after a while.

Envato should think at better ways of displaying valuable items since with this average search system the popular list is probably one of the main place where buyers look for the items they need.

Staying there is important and can bring you thousands of dollars. Investing some of those money to bring down competition makes sense. Is immoral but is how capitalism works so no surprise there.

I’m not looking for someone to blame. It’s my item and if these 1 star ratings were my customers that are unhappy or believe the product is that poor of quality I would really like to know. My main point for this topic is to see if others have similar experiences. If it’s a plague across the marketplaces I think it is good to have awareness of it. Maybe we can adjust the author terms and conditions to make these actions something you can be banned for to make you think twice.

I understand what you’re saying. What caught my attention was when the stars for the item looked like this:

• 5 star (16)
• 4 star (0)
• 3 star (0)
• 2 star (0)
• 1 star (1)

Like I said, I didn’t think much of it at the time. Just a person that was unhappy and wanted to punish the item (or me) for whatever reason. I understand being frustrated with a product, especially when technology is involved. But when it happened again almost immediately after getting back to 5 stars it really got my attention.