Unless i’m very much mistaken. in which case I apologise in advance, Joe Workman’s video omits showing the DuckDuck information that appears at the foot of a search: in my view the omission is a misrepresentation.
I don’t have the stack, but that video was made nearly three years ago. Likely that the service from DDS has changed since then. Entirely possible that when video was made and the stack released DDS didn’t add that to the bottom of all search results.
Either way, an email to Joe would I’d have thought been the best first step to getting the issue resolved. Starting a thread questioning a developers representation of his products, even if you then put in a caveat, isn’t really going to win you any friends!
I state pretty clearly on the product page that the search results are displayed on the DuckDuckGo.com site. My stack allows you to customize the color scheme of the result search page. However, I have zero control over what DDG place on their site. The demo on the product page is a live demo. If you do a search from there, you see the same exact results that you displayed above.
I attach 2 screenshots from/via your product page. On the via, the style of the DDG differs substantially from my own experience. I have skim-read your product page but cannot find whereabouts you clearly state that the results are displayed on DDG.com with the DDG stuff at the foot of the search results.
I did not misunderstand what your product does. What wasn’t made clear by you before committing to buying is that the result of a search includes DDG stuff over which (a buyer of) your product has no control. Given DDG ethos, I am not surprised it should want to promote itself wherever but I am surprised that a paid-for stack from a respected addon developer should not be able to disable advertising by a third party. (With RW, I can enable or disable ‘credit Rapidweaver’ )
I asked for your help with the installation. all you could come up with was to reiterate what should happen. I then had to post here before you came up with some constructive help.
For the record on 20 April I contacted you direct to say:
“Good afternoon (UK) I have just bought the subject (DuckDuckSearch stack). The 2 files were downloaded and I double clicked DuckDuckSearch.rwaddons But where is the stack? I tried again and it said it was already installed, but where? It doesn’t show up in the Stacks library on my website and there is no stack by the name of DuckDuck (amongst the stacks) in the Library rapidweaver folder. The only files downloaded were DuckDuckSearch.rwaddons and DuckDuckSearch.rwsw. Help, please.”
On 22 April (no issue re delay), you replied: "The stack is inside of the rwaddons file. When you double clicked that, RapidWeaver should have installed the stack for you. "
13 minutes later I replied “You say ‘should have’ but as I said, I clicked on the addons file and the installer displayed the yellow colour stack, but I cannot find the stack itself and it’s not showing in the project library. I have entered ‘duck’ in the search box and even searched manually, nothing. Where is it?” I also sent you two screenshots.
It was only after I posted elsewhere on this forum did you reply direct with constructive help - which I then posted for the benefit of others.
So yes, all this going and back and forth is helpful. A: to my way of thinking, “customer service” includes stating clearly everything a product does and is capable of, and not omitting anything that the buyer might find objectionable; especially with something like a website where the overall impression to visitors in the target market is important; B: to have offered constructive help to begin with rather than waste time reiterating what I’d said
I assure you I wouldn’t be wasting my time posting this had I considered your description of the product was both accurate and transparent.
I also don’t have the stack but I can say Joe has always been tremendously helpful with some of his products that I have used on projects. His demo page seems pretty clear to me.
Regardless, I’d reply to his question as to whether there is anything he can do to help you - he’s one of the good guys (IMHO).
Its clear now that you simply wanted a stage to vent your frustrations. I am sorry that my stack did not do what you thought and that I did not live up to your expectations. I have sent you a refund.
I see both sides… Joe is a great dev who did the right thing. This is why people are so supportive of Joe’s work and products. I believe a refund was the correct action here. I am a Joe fan…
I would like to point out that indeed people can get frustrated with Rapidweaver in general. Many people using these products don’t use them daily or even monthly. It is frustrating when you set aside a day to work on your website and get stuck on something. I believe this was a legitimate gripe but should have been handled with Joe directly. I wish all involved the very best.
Fascinating collection of disapproving comments from people that don’t say they’ve actually got the subject stack. I guess it’s a trend of social media to want to take sides; also a feature of ‘parenting’ to try to impose disapproval of others’ behaviour, in this matter how I’ve gone about handling a legitimate complaint.
I’ve been using RW since RW 4, I tend to my 500+ pages website at least once a week; and my other sites are almost ready for publishing. I have had custom stacks designed to my spec, Also, I have bought other stacks from Joe which is why I bought the subject.
As I said, i did request help from Joe direct but finding it of no use I posted here instead. The matter has only escalated as a result of indifferent attitude in the first place. A gesture of goodwill, I also subsequently posted Joe’s constructive response in case others encounter the same installation issue.
Joe, I wasn’t asking for and hadn’t expected a refund but thank you anyway.
You purchased the stack on Saturday (of Easter weekend) and I responded to you Monday morning (remember that I am on the other side of the world from you). Your support email was all about having issues getting the stack installed. I was able to help you get it all installed within an hour of my first response to you. I saw zero indication or other email about any specific issues with the stack.
Earlier on this thread, I asked you here if there was anything that I could do to help you. You never stated if there was anything that I could do to make the stack better for you. You were determined (as it seemed to me) to slur me instead. This is why I thought my only course of action was to provide you with a refund.
I stand by all of my products and do not want anyone to pay your hard working money for a product that clearly did not meet your expectations.
As for the product page not being clear, I will re-evaluate the verbiage that I used for future purchasers.
If you would still like help with implementing my DDS stack, I would be happy to help. Just let me know what specific issues you have. Maybe even provide me with a URL to see things first hand. However, I don’t have any more time to devote to the he-said-she-said comments.
I was going to write a thoughtful reply about the the tone in which you write and if you are aware of just how combative it is but then I just thought…
