XPress - A theme and bridge for bringing WordPress into XenForo [Deleted]

We've tried that, but people were choosing that option even if they weren't ready to handle the issues and complexities they ran into, ultimately coming back to us and complaining that it was our fault.

That's what you assume.
Let me tell you our experience. Our software guy is well experienced with php, js, apache, etc, and he found a solution to the buggy release (the one before the last one) after hours of working on your code. You replied to the ticket 1 day later. Unfortunately I was so naive to upgrade on a live site, thinking that it would work out of the box.
The first time I came in touch with xpress I downloaded and installed the software by myself (been working with forums for nearly 20 years now, even if I'm not a coder), on 3 different websites. Easy, even if not so straightforward as you claim it to be.

So what happened, if WP and XF have been constantly upgraded to their last release? The only variable is this addon.
I've been running Xenword for a long time, and it didn't have 1/10 of the issues, even if it was doing exactly the same thing as xpress.

So maybe you shouldn't complain about your customers being idiots. Just look at the number of issues posted in the last 3 pages in this thread, which all came out of a sudden after the buggy release I was talking about.
 
So maybe you shouldn't complain about your customers being idiots.
Please don't claim that I insult people when I haven't actually. All I said was that a lot of people who have chosen self-installation weren't ready to handle the issues they ran into. Doesn't have anything to do with being an idiot or not. We've already provided support way past what we actually would be required to for many of them, and we're still doing it on many fronts.
 
Please don't claim that I insult people when I haven't actually. All I said was that a lot of people who have chosen self-installation weren't ready to handle the issues they ran into. Doesn't have anything to do with being an idiot or not.

reading between the lines that conclusion is quite obvious:

We've tried that, but people were choosing that option even if they weren't ready to handle the issues and complexities they ran into, ultimately coming back to us and complaining that it was our fault.

Sorry, but it is definetely your fault if you sell a product intended to be installed by forum admins, and they can't do it without assistance.
 
reading between the lines that conclusion is quite obvious:
Your reading between the lines and my actual statement don't match in that case then.

Sorry, but it is definetely your fault if you sell a product intended to be installed by forum admins, and they can't do it without assistance.
Certainly is on many fronts, hence why we still provide support for people who've bought it before the first change in pricing. After that first change, we clearly listed during package selection that it requires technical knowledge beyond "typical forum administrator knowledge" to install and use this product, and that we will not provide installation support for people who select that option.
 
We've tried that, but people were choosing that option even if they weren't ready to handle the issues and complexities they ran into, ultimately coming back to us and complaining that it was our fault.
Sorry, Lukas. I don´t want to start blame wars here and was thinking the last hours about, wether I should comment on that or not. Not only because it´s just quite offending to the customer base of Themehouse, most of them customers for over a decade. On the other hand, it's not correct what you have written. Our last ticket is now about one month old and basically it's all about the same bug that everyone else here seems to have. With subliminal messages like in your quote I have had to deal in our ticket now unfortunately more than once and such an attitude annoys oneself as a customer. Especially if you're already exchanging information with other users of the same add-on, and to find out that you're not so stupid after all and pretty much everyone else has the same problem - of which you told me until recently that it was me or my server. I don't know how many customers there are who can't cope with the documented setup of your flagships - I obviously don't know any of them - but such a sweeping statement is quite violent.

I understand very well that your X-Series, in view of the necessary commitment of Manpower & Time, is no longer financially viable at all. But to blame this on the customer and at the same time to use it as a reason to raise the price to dizzying heights that AFAIR has not been reached here, I feel as "brave" - not to say outrageous.

I may still understand that you now make the setup of the software a requirement for all new customers. That saves you a lot of trouble, the customers a lot of trouble and on top of that you get an additional $100/h in the till. This is certainly a win-win-win situation for you - but not for the customers. And that´s where this ship gets a flip side. Because now that the majority of customers have been trying to use the products for almost a year now, but - and I'd like to emphasize this - due to the large number of identical and reproducible bugs in the software and the increased ticket support for this circle of users, this price increase unfortunately feels to me more like deterring new customers and giving you some air. But nobody here puts on the pants with the pincers and in view of the fact that the price increase concerns also and in particular the existing customers, who bought the products for a completely different base price and also a completely different renewal price, a customer nevertheless feels a little "irritated" that it shall be them to pay the coal mine now and to restore thereby the profitability of the products.

Your argument is the customers would be those responsible for the drastic price change, since they aren´t able to configure the software. If this would be in fact the case, I´ld have no problems with that. Period. But the point is, that this would - and first of all - imply, that the software is error-free and the increased need for support is actually indeed due us incompetent customers. But this is not the case here, as the homologous, reproducible errors show in this thread here alone. The fact that Themehouse has to process tons of support tickets due to this erroneous functioning of the software is, of course, annoying for you. Not only because it costs time and money for Themhouse, but also keeps you from working on other things. Since the cause of the support - at least in our cases - is owed by the software, this is a very classic case of support. Just to break the leash recently, because somebody has calculated the whole situation through and found out that you have taken over with it and there is no break even anymore.

But then to unilaterally change the terms of purchase for the existing customers in order to achieve a loss compensation and thereby at the same to finance the developing time for the bugfixing, seems to be a very questionable business practice and I - personally, as a business economist - feel unable to consider this as serious. And it doesn´t make it iany better to read a statement, that it would somehow be a generous demonstration of Themehouse´s good will to continue the ticketsupport for the already existing customers free of charge, is nothing but a resounding slap in their face. May be you forgot about that - but they already paid for it. And may be you forgot about that too, that it have been the same folks, which have supported Themehouse in all the past years with their purchases.

I have been a Themehouse customer for 20 years now. Ultimately, I was always just about having working software, which basically - with perhaps a few, occasional hooks and lugs - was something I could rely on. But at the moment I do not like the path that is looming with this at all - and I do not see that I would be willing to go on with it from here on, since this feels like a breaking point. And that´s a pity.
 
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If you don't see any WordPress menu items in the WordPress dashboard, you're on an account with only subscriber privileges. You can set up promotion rules in the XLink user settings to have your account automatically promoted to an Administrator.

Eventually worked it out. I am sorry but there is basically no documentation for the promote user which is worrying because the last thing I want to do is accidentally create administrator users that are not meant to be.

In the past when i have asked questions of support i have been refered to the near useless documentation. The ease with which you shrug customers off is not one that encourages me.
 
OK well i am telling you here and now that you have an important feature with 0 documentation. You are now saying that every user is to open a ticket? why not just increase the documentation. I had to have an argument with you before purchase because the answer to a presales question was RTFM, the "M" that did not answer the question....
 
@Lukas W.
Maybe just an idea but haven’t you ever considered taking over XenWord now that it is only half-assed being developed and supported (if at all) by the original developer?
I have used it in the past and can tell confirm it had far less issues then this addon here. It seemed quite robust and straightforward to setup and maintain.
 
The reason for the price increase and requirement of installation is due to the challenges associated with integrating two platforms and the initial set-up. It is clear that the best way to support new XPress customers is to help with the installation and for our current XPress customers we provide support and resources to help.

@Thunderchild As far as documentation, I apologize if there is an important component missing or not explained enough. We do have a section on User promotions here. Could you please start a ticket here so I can learn more about what is missing? I would be happy to help.
 
That is not dedicated to user promotion but general user management. The promotion bit has the first page of setting explained with the other 3 long pages of settings being a mystery.
 
..and for our current XPress customers we provide support and resources to help.
Victoria, yes, since that´s what both parties agreed for per license agreement. What the current customers haven´t agreed on, is that Themhouse unilaterally doubles the prices for their renewals. They are now forced to pay the same price again they had already paid for the basic product. That´s an almost 100% price increase for none additional value they haven´t agreed on. All they can do now is ditch the Themhouse products, cause - at least I - have no idea wether you´ll exercise this business practice now on more or all of your products or to pay you the additional price increase for...erm.. .what exactly?
 
or to pay you the additional price increase for...erm.. .what exactly?
The issue is we are losing time in support tickets unlikely a normal product because the community has unique WP boards with complexities that are taking a lot of time to fenagle. The core product is stable and we have it working just fine on projects where we control the environment.

We may just remove it from the marketplace in general, we are trying to keep it in for your benefit. It saves a lot of time and money, and if you disagree then do not use the product. I know its not fair to you to do this, but its not fair to us that we're really deep in installation or third party configuration tickets. Its the nature of a bridge. It works fine for maybe 85-90% of installs, but that other 10% has tickets with us for long periods of itme.

Im trying to be as fair as possible but what we have now is not sustainable.

One idea is we will hold a webinar for one day where you can get one on one dev time through a live stream. Still working through the idea.

We have to remember the alternative here is just not having these features. You can always have WP without a matching theme, matching widgets, comments just being a thread, etc. The problem is some people use all kinds of different WP addons and they dont always play nice because they expect a WP environment, not a XF.

We have a product, Featured Threads and Content, which uses XenForo all the way and to date we've had maybe 10 tickets? Those products make sense to support and keep licenses as they are and not force installation on our part. This product here is going to be treated in part like a service. Its the nature of doing what this does. You can have WP bridges that do not do the theme or other advanced features and its fine, heck we built the one that just does user integration. But for now this is the happy medium.

I've been running Xenword for a long time, and it didn't have 1/10 of the issues, even if it was doing exactly the same thing as xpress.
They are not similar. They both claim to be WP bridges, but XPress does theme and other very detailed tasks. If you do not use the theme, then you wont have any WP issues. We might even just separate out the products...
 
Even at the new price the addon is by far one of the best value for money addons you can buy.

The price changes are pretty black and white. Issues are coming from third-party wordpress plugins which TH are having to support. Time spent supporting these fixes is eating up TH time. Time = Money.

If you don't like the new price simply don't purchase the product. I guarantee if you get a quote from another agency for these features you'll be back with your tail between your legs.
 
At this stage i am even confused as to what xpress does other than stuff the xenoforo menu and colours on disable some of the wordpress features. The documentation is piss poor and getting answers presales was not easy. I dispair. I now have a ticket open that basically with a p.roper written manual would not be needed but the documentation is just awful and falls just sholt of not worth reading as often it just expands on what things are not what they do and what to use them for.
 
At this stage i am even confused as to what xpress does other than stuff the xenoforo menu and colours on disable some of the wordpress features. The documentation is piss poor and getting answers presales was not easy. I dispair. I now have a ticket open that basically with a p.roper written manual would not be needed but the documentation is just awful and falls just sholt of not worth reading as often it just expands on what things are not what they do and what to use them for.

If you don't understand what it does then I don't think you should have purchased it 🤦‍♂️
 
That is not dedicated to user promotion but general user management. The promotion bit has the first page of setting explained with the other 3 long pages of settings being a mystery.
That's the default XenForo User criteria tabs. They're used in various places around XenForo. You basically build your own set of rules and only if a user matches all of them, he'll get promoted to the usergroup you selected in the first tab. If you want different conditions to lead to a promotion to the same group, you create multiple usergroup promotions with one condition (set) per promotion.
 
We are moving to a different support and pricing system just for this product. Due to its popularity and it's unique needs we will be including installation in the base price, but the base price is going up as well.
While I feel that the price increase is pretty hefty, I think we can deal with that.

One question though:
Is the included installation required, eg. the product must be installed by ThemeHouse?
If so this would mean that we can no longer use your product as due to legal requirements we can't give third parties access to our servers.
 
While I feel that the price increase is pretty hefty, I think we can deal with that.

One question though:
Is the included installation required, eg. the product must be installed by ThemeHouse?
If so this would mean that we can no longer use your product as due to legal requirements we can't give third parties access to our servers.
We can technically help you install it over a call. Its more support time in general we're watching for.
 
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