A very popular plugin “WP User Avatar” has just taken a big step. Some hours ago, it has been changed completely. It has become “User Profiles, User Registration, Login & Membership – ProfilePress“.
WP User Avatar was a great solution to upload author avatar locally instead of using Gravatar. ProfilePress Team has just killed this beloved plugin! And they are getting negative review from its users.
I was a fan of this plugin. I was happy, very happy, till version 2.2.16. Then the version 3.0 came and it has turned into something different.
What is it offering now
- Added custom login forms.
- Added frontend user registration form.
- Added User Profiles.
- Added Member Directories.
- Added Content Protection.
- Added Admin bar and dashboard access restriction.
What’s The Big Deal
Regular maintenance and update is crucial for a plugin for security reasons. To do so, plugin authors modify their plugins to keep it alive. Adding some features is even very welcoming matter. But changing the plugin to something new is really unexpected. See what users are saying:
“From a simple one-job plugin to an absolute behemoth which tramples over other plugins I already had installed. Ugh.“
“This is really outrageous: to make the plugin with the update to a completely new application, compleetely other than what it was before the name change. And that without warning! I didn’t want a membership plugin, but what it was before the update: Use user avatars, no more and no less.“
Crush My Site
“I had custom user profile systems. After update this plugin, url “/profile” just crush this page. Very BAD!!!!“
“Plugin deleted ( too heavy): after the last update the website become so slow and i deleted this bazar.“
To Push The New Premium
“Unfortunately this rebrand and major change to a larger, heavier plugin… I realize the author wanted to push the new premium to all users but all it made me do was to deactivate it across all sites“
Trust Issue
“This plugin used to be JUST a little feature to change your user avatar. Now it is a whole membership plugin with loads of functionality that I do not need nor want. Absolutely insane. I will now create the functionality myself in order to just delete this nonsense. I will probably think 5 times and not just twice before ever installing a 3rd party add-on again.“
“A mouse just become an elephant! Why did you do that? You could have created a new plugin. Why have you ruined it?“
To Maintain The Number of Installs
“Yea but the audacity to switch a current installed plugin to something that bloatet, which adds 3 tables to your database and messes with your registration forms and notifications? Seriously, they did that to maintain the number of installs.“
The Disadvantage of Auto Update
This is a disadvantage of auto update for WordPress plugin. Yet I think auto update should be enabled for security reasons.
What Can You Do
- You can use WP Rollback plugin to rollback to the the previous version(WP User Avatar). Or
- Use Simple Local Avatars plugin as rolling back is just a temporary solution. This is the best free alternative to WP User Avtar plugin.
