Need a Hero?

It’s true — there are still heroes looking out for the rest of us!

I’d like to give a big shout-out to David Lingren of Fair Trade Judaica, author of the Media Library Assistant plugin for WordPress. If you take a peek at the support threads for the plugin, you can see how diligent David is about solving the problems his users have.

Recently I’ve been looking for a few plugins to solve some other issues. I always look at the support threads first. For one thing, you can see if a plugin has been abandoned. But, and more importantly, you can also see how the developer handles issues — and how users are treated. It’s pretty discouraging to see some of the responses. The conversations back and forth get more and more heated and the thread is closed, usually without resolution. And what I see most is the developer saying something along the lines of, “This plugin is free, do you expect it to work? I have a job and a real life, too.”

I don’t install those.

I do appreciate free plugins. I don’t “expect” them to work, but it sure is nice when they do. And when they don’t? More often than not, I uninstall them and move on. Because, you know what? I have a life, too, and a job, and too many projects and hobbies. I don’t really have the time to mess with something that doesn’t work. But I did spend quite a few years working QA at the OpenOffice.org project, before it went to Apache. From that, and the website stuff, I know there are always going to be little glitches that need attention, no matter how careful you are. And it truly is a blessing when someone takes the time to at least let you know about the problem.

David seems to embrace this philosophy. He’s always patient and helpful, and thanks the user for reporting and helping to solve the problem. He’s made major changes to his plugin to address specific issues, and though he travels often, he leaves a message in the support area letting people know he’ll be away for awhile. And still keeps up with the new posts, and the old ones, answering when he can or “I’ll take another look at this when I get back.”

I have special issues with my media files and directories — and the lack of organization, yes, is one — and David spent a lot of time investigating the situation. He identified the problem with the thumbnails and had it fixed within 24-hours.

I have a different kind of set-up here, and I understand that. When I told David that I could adjust the way I was doing things, he told me he wanted to fix the problem because it may affect other MLA users in the future. Is that kewl or what?

If you’re looking for a great plugin for your media library, MLA is free. But you can donate to David’s organization, Fair Trade Judaica and make everyone happy all at once!