[theme-reviewers] Removing core features

[Justin Tadlock]

My audience is all over the place.  They range from better developers 
than myself all the way down to people who signed up thinking themes had 
something to do with Blogger.  I also have a mixture of free and 
commercial products and services.

Give some more specific examples though, even if they're fictional 
scenarios.  I'd love to hear more about what you have in mind as far as 
companion plugins are concerned.

On 5/22/2013 11:05 PM, Bryan Hadaway wrote:
> There are no examples to use (that I'm aware of), we're speculating 
> about things to possibly come.
>
> Yes, but what's your audience, mostly tech-savvies or at least 
> moderately familiar? Also are you dealing with tens of thousands of 
> people, mixed of free users and paying customers?
>
> The dynamic changes too.
>
> For instance, you can safely assume that people on wordpress.org 
> <http://wordpress.org> browsing for stuff already have experience 
> (with themes and plugins) and already have WordPress installed.
>
> But, when you're attracting customers directly to your website, many 
> of them have never even heard of WordPress (they might not even have 
> hosting yet or are coming from .com [which involves remolding their 
> thought process in and of itself]). They're not necessarily looking 
> for a /WordPress theme/, but a /website solution/.
>
> I certainly cannot speak for all communities, but among those I run or 
> manage, I'm 110% accurate when it comes to expectations and pitfalls. 
> Also, who the product is aimed at severely impacts the savviness of 
> the attracted end-user. It sounds like your community is very 
> self-efficient (the same is true of one of my very developer/designer 
> driven projects). However, the big premium communities I work(ed) with 
> are generally very much looking to pay, set and forget.
>
> The idea of even needing to upgrade to newer versions of themes is 
> startling for many. I am very thorough and informative, it's often 
> just something they don't want to hear.
>
> I've managed support, including helping to actually create the support 
> methodologies and procedures for two huge theme shops now. Paying 
> customers are a tough breed. Informing them and controlling 
> expectations is a massive, yet delicate task. Throw a pie in their 
> face, they might still miss it. That isn't an insult, they just have 
> no intention, interest or time to learn. Stuff that may be simple to 
> us can be very daunting to others, if they even care to try.
>
> I've also witnessed the vast difference in free communities vs paying 
> communities, from the users to those managing them. And if you combine 
> the two, methodologies butt heads and your way of thinking has to 
> evolve. Again, I'm not sure whether you mainly offer free products, 
> premium ones or a balance of both. I'm also not familiar with the 
> general demographic your products attract.
>
> But, I have a finger on the pulse of all 3 scenarios and a 
> headache-inducing amount of experience and knowledge of what I'm 
> talking about. Certainly, it won't apply to everyone, but I know there 
> are other companies that know exactly what I'm talking about. I've 
> managed maybe 4-5 different WordPress related communities and other 
> non-WordPress-related ones. While there's subtle differences and 
> nuances, I think support in general no matter what community/company 
> is difficult and deeply psychological.
>
>
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