The new support forum appears to be working and I think (so far) it is saving me time – time will tell if this trend continues. But something that may help further is a comprehensive guide to Subscribe2 produced independently by the iAssistant.

The guide is 40+ pages long and it provides an in depth set of instructions and descriptions of Subscribe2 features. I have had a very small part in the production of this guide (mainly pointing out additional areas of functionality and clarifying how some things work). It has been written in an easily understood manner that the novice will comprehend. I hope you will consider using this guide if you are struggling to start using Subscribe2.

And since the release of version 5.1 has bumped the download counter past the 200,000 mark and there have now been more than half a million visits to this site I guess there are quite a few of you who will find this guide worth every penny!

Version 5.1 of the Plugin is now available for download. This version has been tested on WordPress 2.8.4.

Versiom 5.1 contains the bug fixes and requested feature improvements listed below.

Obtaining Support:

Version 5.0 introduced a new support model for the plugin. Previous posts explain the issues and my proposed solution. To seek support read the support forum. If you have a bug, please report it on the forum.

If you have an issue that you can’t find an answer for then by all means post your question BUT if you get no response it is because the answer is already available or the problem is pretty unique to your install. In these cases be prepared to pay for assistance – ONLY the plugin is free!

If you use this plugin consider making a donation to support future development!

This version also contains the following bug fixes and improvements:

• Add widget options to add custom text before and a after the dynamic Subscribe2 output – thank to Lee Willis
• Add protection against SQL injection attacks to the data entered into the Subscribe2 table
• Applied a fix for WP_User_Search on PHP4 installations
• Collect IP address of subscribers either at initial submission or at confirmation as required by some hosts to allow relaxation of email restrictions. IP details are in the database or available when the mouse pointer is held over the sign up date in Tools->Subscribers
• Fix for script execution time limit code for sites that have safe mode on or that have disable ini_set()
• Display category slugs when mouse pointer is held over the name in the category form area
• Fixed display of HTML entities in the subject of emails by using html_entity_decode()
• Fixed substitution of the MYNAME keyword in notification emails
• Added option to use BurnURL as an alternative to TinyURL to create shorter link URLs

Version 5.0 5.0.1 of the Plugin is now available for download. This version has been tested on WordPress 2.8.4.

Versiom 5.0.1 contains bug fixes for the menu system that were introduced by changes in version 5.0.

Obtaining Support:

Version 5.0 introduces a new support model for the plugin. Previous posts explain the issues and my proposed solution. To seek support read the support forum. If you have a bug, please report it on the forum.

If you have an issue that you can’t find an answer for then by all means post your question BUT if you get no response it is because the answer is already available or the problem is pretty unique to your install. In these cases be prepared to pay for assistance – ONLY the plugin is free!

If you use this plugin consider making a donation to support future development!

This version also contains the following bug fixes and improvements:

• Added links to online Subscribe2 resources into the Options->Subsribe2 page
• Fixed Digest Time Dropdown to recall Cron Task scheduled time
• Fixed code using updated Admin Menu Plugin API
• Fixed foreach() error in widget rename function
• Improved layout of widget control boxes
• Improved identification of Administrator level users on blogs where usermeta table entries for user_level are low or missing
• Removed avatar plugin support on WPMU due to processing overhead
• Improved the layout of the digest email with respect to inclusion of unnecessary white space
• Extended maximum script runtime for servers not using PHP in safe mode

If you saw my post from about a month ago then you are already well aware of my increasing frustration with respect to supporting the Subscribe2 plugin. In my musing over what to do about this situation I stumbled across this old post from Skippy. This post announced the transfer of Subscribe2 from his stewardship to mine and he makes the following comment:

As an aside: useless bug reports — those reporting “It doesn’t work!” with no other details — contributed greatly to my abandonment of subscribe2. Please don’t wear Matt down with the same.

Well, this got me thinking, you see I gave Skippy (Scott) my word that I’d support the plugin and I have always hope I’ve been principled enough to keep my word. So, support will continue BUT it will no longer be free. I’m hoping that demanding a fee to provide support will encourage people to read the documentation provided and spend more time searching for an answer to their question.

I’m still astonished that so many people apparently have virtually no understanding the free software does not also mean free support, free customisation or free fix-my-problems.

So, the next release of Subscribe2 (Version 5.0) will be available shortly. At that time this site will become an announcement site only, comments will be disabled. A support forum is already online and I will be monitoring it to populate it with more questions and answers and this will also be the place to report bugs.

Many users of Subscribe2 post comments commending the outstanding support that is offered on the plugin and ruing the fact that this does not happen more. The sad fact is that a great number of the comments posted are either issues that have already been discussed many times over and the answers are already available, or they are requests for custom changes from the default plugin for an individuals benefit.

Recently, the folks at WordPress have reviewed their software licence and introduced Commercially Supported Themes on the main WordPress.org site. They have also introduced enterprise-level support for large-scale users of WordPress.

So, that leaves me wondering how to handle the continued support of Subscribe2. You see, much as though I think I should support my plugin and help people to use it as best they can I am often left bewildered that it seems to be overlooked that both the plugin and the support are currently FREE. And yet the level of functionality and support seem to be more consistent with that of software that has been bought!

Perhaps I should start acting more like other plugin authors and provide little to no support. Maybe I should direct everyone to the ReadMe and FAQ section of the website. Perhaps I should start charging for my assistance.

I really don’t know for sure what will happen next. I think I have decided already to start directing queries to the FAQ and ReadMe more however when I’ve done this in the past it really doesn’t save me any time – I still have to make the comment and I still usually get a follow up reply.

So, what would you do if you were me?

Version 4.18 of the Plugin is now available for download.

If you use this plugin consider making a donation to support future development!

Version 4.18 is for 2.6.x, 2.7.x and 2.8.x users. (Although it should work with WordPress 2.5 too!) This version has been tested on WordPress 2.8 and 2.8.2.

Users of WordPress 2.0.x should download Version 2.22 of Subscribe2. Users of WordPress 2.1.x and 2.2.x should download Version 3.8.

This version contains the following improvements:

• Option to sort digest posts in ascending or descending order
• Check that plugin options array exists before calling upgrade functions
• Improved reliability of the Preview function
• Extended Preview function to digest emails
• Fixed a code glitch that stopped CATS and TAGS from working
• Fixed incorrect sender information is emails are set to come from Post Author
• Simplified email notification format options in Users->Subscriptions for per-post notifications
• Added Bulk Manage option to update email notification format
• Simplified the usermeta database entries from two format variables down to one
• Removed trailing spaces from some strings for improved i18n support
• Improved Bulk Subscribe and Unsubscribe routines to avoid database artefacts
• Moved Select/Deselect All check box to the top of the category list in admin pages
• Fixed small layout glitch in Manage->Subscribers screen
• Added ChangeLog section to ReadMe to support WordPress.org/extend development

There are currently no known issues affecting this version

To install correctly use the WordPress Auto Upgrade feature or:

1. Deactivate your exisiting Subscribe2 Plugin
2. Use FTP software to delete the old plugin folder and upload the new version
3. Ensure that the complete subscribe2 folder is uploaded
4. Activate the new version of the plugin

Version 4.17 of the Plugin is now available for download.

If you use this plugin consider making a donation to support future development!

Version 4.17 is for 2.6.x, 2.7.x and 2.8.x users. (Although it should work with WordPress 2.5 too!) This version has been tested on WordPress 2.8 and 2.8.1beta2.

Users of WordPress 2.0.x should download Version 2.22 of Subscribe2. Users of WordPress 2.1.x and 2.2.x should download Version 3.8.

This version contains the following improvements:

• Tested for compatibility with WordPress 2.8.x
• Added TAGS and CATS keyword for per-post notification templates
• Fixed bug where confirmation emails may have an empty sender field if notifications come from post author
• Fixed a bug in WPMU CSS
• Added option to exclude new categories by default
• Fixed a bug where emails may not be sent to subscribers when a user subscribes or unsubscribes
• Improved accessing of ‘Admin’ level users on blogs where user_level is set below 10
• Added ability to send email previews to currently logged in user from Settings->Subscribe2
• Styled admin menu form buttons to fit with WordPress theme
• Improved handling of confirmation sending to reduce errors

There are currently no known issues affecting this version

To install correctly use the WordPress Auto Upgrade feature or:

1. Deactivate your exisiting Subscribe2 Plugin
2. Use FTP software to delete the old plugin folder and upload the new version
3. Ensure that the complete subscribe2 folder is uploaded
4. Activate the new version of the plugin

I’m not going to be around for the next two weeks because I’m going on holiday with my family. I’m unplugging from the ‘net for the duration of my holiday and won’t be looking in on this site or checking my emails.

So, if you have a problem please search this site thoroughly, use google and try the WordPress forums. Also, read the documentation that comes with the plugin and play around with the settings. If you still can’t find an answer to your problem and feel the need to post on here to ask for help bear in mind that I’ll be catching up on my return so please be patient.

Subscribe2 attempts to check that emails have been successfully sent by reporting the callback returned by the WordPress wp_mail() function.

In your server or WordPress install are not correctly configured this can result in error message despite successful sending of emails.

To overcome these issues access the PHPMailer files directly, locate a language error file and uploaded to your WordPress site (wp-content/languages/ for example).

Next, get yourself a Mailer plugin like the one suggested here and put the following line in the code.

$phpmailer->setLanguage( 'en', '../wp-content/languages/' );

This will ensure that you don’t get:

Language string failed to load: instantiate

Version 4.16 of the Plugin is now available for download.

If you use this plugin consider making a donation to support future development!

Version 4.16 is for 2.6.x and 2.7.x users. (Although it should work with WordPress 2.5 too!) This version has been tested on WordPress 2.7.1.

Users of WordPress 2.0.x should download Version 2.22 of Subscribe2. Users of WordPress 2.1.x and 2.2.x should download Version 3.8.

This version contains the following improvements:

• Correct minor layout issue in Settings->Subscribe2
• Allow users to define the div class name for the widget for styling purposes
• Select from a greater number of notification senders via dropdown list in Settings
• Improved efficiency of newly added WordPressMU code
• Added ability to manage across-blog subscriptions when using WordPressMU
• Fixed bug whereby Public Subscribers may not have got notification emails for posts if Private Posts were blocked
• Added ability to define email Subject contents in Settings->Subscribe2
• Sanity checks of email subject and body templates to ensure they are not empty
• Introduced s2_html_email and s2_plain_email filters to allow manipulation of email messages after construction
• Amended handling of database entries to simplify code and database needs
• Improved the layout of the Subscriber drop down menu
• Added bullet points to the TABLE of posts
• Ensure database remains clean when categories are deleted
• Added new option to manage how auto-subscribe handles excluded categories

There are currently no known issues affecting this version

To install correctly use the WordPress Auto Upgrade feature or:

1. Deactivate your exisiting Subscribe2 Plugin
2. Use FTP software to delete the old plugin folder and upload the new version
3. Ensure that the complete subscribe2 folder is uploaded
4. Activate the new version of the plugin