Weird effect report: grabbing the top of the EW window (launched from SU) makes the arrows and home button disappear.
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Looks like it’s shaping up to be:
Free Extensions (DIY donations)
Perpetual (license) → Trial option (Trimble Vendor Program)
Subscription (license) → Trial option (Trimble Vendor Program)
Listing Page → ??? Perpetual, Subscription, Donations (Trimble Vendor Program, DIY Self-sales, DIY donations)???
That all seems about right. Perpetual and Subscription could have the price and try or purchase buttons. Listing Page requires the developer to write a description. Yes, you have to look at the page but Listing Page buttons don’t display as “Free”. So that would be solved. Since Listing Page info is user-defined, it’s up to them to put correct details about whatever DIY (non-Trimble Vendor) stuff they are doing and the extensibility team doesn’t have to track it. Yes, a bad actor could leave that information out but that would be a great way to earn a bad reputation.
Free extensions are ‘perpetual’ by default (you have it, it’s yours) but you wouldn’t be entitled to updates. A subscription implies -to me anyway- that the software is being actively maintained. Sometimes a subscription ends, and then you can’t use the software anymore. Sometimes it just means you can continue to use it but can’t get updates. The little gripe would be that “Perpetual” implies but doesn’t explicitly state a license is required. I think that’s commonly known (and it doesn’t say “Free”). There’re being categorized as ‘Not Free’.
It looks like the Reset button is being triggered when a search is submitted instead of saving the search until the Reset button is actually pressed. The javascript might be missing a event.stopPropagation(); … actually:
A form field element has neither an id nor a name attribute.
Maybe they just stubbed something new in there and it’s not working yet?
It also looks like the landing page has changed. Some of the ‘featured’ extensions are ‘winners’ or ‘participants’ in from their developer sessions at 3D basecamp, no?
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Thanks for reporting this. It’s a bug and will get fixed.
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We are all user advocates :-). However we have not had a dedicated developer advocate for SketchUp onboard until now.
Some of you may have noticed that we ran a trial during February of an in-application messaging system that we used to solicit feedback from users of Extension Warehouse.
This has been deployed in other features and is very successful at gathering quantitative feedback from customers and users at scale.
We are working on using this kind of mechanism so that we can triangulate feedback we get in customer interviews and in the forums with what our customers tell us in the application.
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Are you speaking of @CraigTrickett ?
What are the duties of a “developer advocate” ?
Was there a formal announcement ?
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Hi Dan,
Yes I’m here and always willing to talk to you about any of the problems that you are facing. In fact let’s setup a meeting this week so that we can cover off some of your concerns.
Do you want to drop me a message on craig_trickett@trimble.com and we’ll get something pencilled in?
Speak soon,
Craig
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This is not as easy as it seems. Should we unilaterally change all free extensions? What if they are actually free? Do you know which ones are actually free? What if they have a free and a paid version? How good does the free version need to be for it to be ok to post as free? What if they are freemium? etc
There are over 1,000 extensions on EW. Would you like us to check each one and make a decision? What if we get it wrong? What if this adds loads of time to approving extension reviews?
If/when we change guidelines, then it will take time for all the extensions to change. So it will probably continue to be frustrating for many for a while. I don’t think there is a magic wand here.
Right now I think what’s best for the user is that as many extensions as possible can be found on EW. We would prefer to have some misleading listings than no listings. That does not mean we don’t care about these comments - it just means we’re not rushing into changes before we’re sure about what we’re doing.
We really want to create an environment where people don’t need to sell outside Extension Warehouse. The least friction between consumer and developer is best for everyone. To do that we need to chip away at servicing all the different ways developers want to sell their extensions and as I said in the first response, this is our top priority.
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Just let the developer choose the indication of free versus paid. So you fon’t have to ask yourself 1000 questions.
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give me two weeks and a decent check and I’ll take care of it.
trimble has a market cap of 17 billions.
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As a developer, I agree that it should not be that difficult to fix the long-standing major issue of showing extensions as free that are not actually free.
Just give us another option instead of ‘free’ or ‘paid’ (as has already been suggested).
Developers don’t want to be perceived as deceiving customers and most will be more than happy to mark their extensions accordingly and contribute to a better customer experience. It should not be SketchUp’s responsibility to check all of them. Only check if someone complains.
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@corney @ChrisFullmer
Can you please give some indication of how much longer we are going to have to wait for this to be resolved? I’ve had two very unhappy customers contact me this week blaming me for trying to deceive them. I feel I am doing everything I can do make it clear in the Extension title and description that our extensions are not free, but some people are still not getting it.
Then, when I explain the situation, they get upset with Trimble / SketchUp. It’s a very bad look for both of us. Why has this issue not been given a higher priority?
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The feedback has been heard loud and clear and is factored into longer term planning for EW.
We are not in the business of making public commitments as to when we are going to make software changes or updates, so I’m sorry but you’ll just have to hold tight and trust us it will eventually get addressed.
If this is an urgent problem for you I would recommend you request to change to a listing page or contact @CraigTrickett about selling your extension directly through Extension Warehouse.