Even finding time to write this blog post is problematic, having to push it into the few spare minutes during my lunch break. I simply have not found the time to work on TDO Mini Forms. Well that’s not entirely true, I haven’t found time and motivation this last six months.
Part of the problem is that I implemented TDO Mini Forms for fun, a neat little plugin for WordPress I could use on some web projects (all dead now by the way). Then it was driven by my love of coding and the small crowd of users. But I changed projects in work several months back and could no longer slip the time in to bash away at some code for myself, at least during the daylight hours and now there is a mountain of support requests on the forums that I can’t even comprehend getting through and a slow disconnect between what I enjoyed about it and what I wanted to enjoy about it.
Essentially, it’s not fun any more. It’s bug fixes, RTFM and maintaince upgrades (with WordPress 3.0 is coming and that’s like a big stomping unstoppable giant, which I fully expect to splat my plugins…) it becomes daunting. I’ve added too many features (that can do wonderful things), and people either complain about them (“it’s too complex”) or demand more (“editable image uploads ftw!”). The whole code base of TDO Mini Forms evolved chaotically and the idea of re-writing (and having to maintain some degree of backwards compatibility) it’s quite off-putting.
And then I’m working on another creative project that I’m genuinely motivated about, but isn’t software. And when I have free time, I dive into this project, because I want to, not because I have to.
It might be more interesting if I was getting more out of it, say I was a web-developer (I’m not, I’m embedded engineer) and it was promoting my career or getting my clients, I was a big wordpress-advocate and people were coming to my blog to hear the cool things I say (I don’t have much cool things to say, unless you like tabletop roleplaying…), I was making enough money from donations I could afford to get a new gadget every once in a while or it was powering a big project I loved, but it’s not.
So I’m not sure where that leaves TDO Mini Forms. I think probably it’s been on an unofficial hiatus for the last while already. I don’t want to dump it, but I’m not sure of when I’ll get back to it. I have been thinking about it a lot, but not working on it. (I may write up those thoughts in a future blog post).
One thing I will say, if you’re building a professional website using WordPress and require some special user interface that hides the backend UI, it’s great to mock something up with TDO Mini Forms. But I can’t help but think, it would be better to build your own custom version. TDO Mini Forms is incredibly flexible, but it can’t do everything. And the more complex it gets, the more bug prone it becomes and hard to support and… well it also suffers the fickleness of an author that isn’t under contract to support it long term either. Just saying, it’s not as I’m being paid. 
I have to send out a big thanks to all the people who have donated to the plugin. I really do appreciate it and it’s why I went so far with it. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for a great plugin - too bad I just stumbled upon it now once you are cutting back on development. Do you offer paid support on the plugin? I am stuck with some file uploading issues.
Dude I totally understand. Do what keeps you doing. For what it’s worth, your plugin is awesome. Hope you get some chance and motivation to give it a once over update sometime but I understand if you don’t. I know you got new projects you are working on, but have you thought of releasing a “light” version of this, and then move some of the fancier features to a “pro” version and charging for it? Maybe the financial incentive would help. Just a thought.
Oscar.
Hi Oscar,
I have thought of some options like. I thought perhaps of allow people to donate towards different features until they hit some targets or even have a sort of “pro” support service (support is where I got most donations from).
I have even considered moving towards a more official open-source project, but tbh I’m not sure about how to do that.
My deepest sympathy. I can understand your position for I have been in that moment several time in this life. One thing for sure, even if you finally decided to totally quit tdomf, you have made your mark, and it’s a huge mark within this industry. Personally I hope that you don’t give up. There’s always solution out there…
BTW, pro support is indeed a good alternative. And the launch of wp3.0 would be a good starting point.
Why not partner up with another developer/marketer that wants to take on the mission.
Your celebrity status as the creator can be tied with an official version that includes basic, and pro releases. The pro release being the paid version of course, that can include a support forum, etc. Maybe team up with “Wishlist Insider” which is how I found your plugin. They’re great developers and marketers at the same time.
Then you simply sit back and take a small royalty check every month in exchange for your occasional consulting, blessing, etc.
The royalty can go to the “TDO fund for useless stuff foundation.”
- Tony
Your plugin is fantastic don’t let it die. Solution is quite simple. Make TDOMF an open source project. Set up a forum and a trac to allow other people continue development. Perhaps you can appoint someone skilled to lead the development. Just make a blog post or inform the community through your forum and wordpress forum about your eventual decision, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of volunteers. You’d just make sure to be listed as plugin original creator and founder, you could always offer paid/premium support, etc. Just don’t let this plugin die please
speaking of… actually there seems to be a bug with TDMOF latest build and WordPress 3.0 which is a bit critical: it’s impossible to drag forms in the form builder; it’s not a browser issue, disabling other plugins or reinstalling TDMOF doesn’t help - in the form creator page php returns this error:
@Fulvio I suspect it’s some small piece of CSS that has been changed or a jquery script that has been modified/moved/removed with WP 3.0. I should really have made that UI totally independent of WP because it’s constantly being broken with each upgrade of WP. *sigh*
Hi,
I think you end with the right point - it is better to develop something custom once the scope of this plugin becomes too limited (rather than demanding upgrades!). This is one of the pitfalls of open source.
People seem to expect customer service even on free projects - without putting anything in (donations or helpful code additions).
For my part, we have used this plugin on a number of our own development projects, but these are sites with which we look to move away from WordPress altogether once things expand (if they ever do) and then we start paying developers to do this - like you said, if that were you it would make sense to employ you!
Projects grow and evolve - but try not to get married to doing it if your hearts not in it: I’m pretty sure this plugin is a big enough and good enough idea that it could have its own little website and team of developers chipping in little bits of fix. Alternatively, you either let it die or pass it on to someone new to develop it further in future. Or you commit a chunk of your time to its future development yourself (I wouldn’t recommend this as it sounds like you are stretched as it is!).
The first option (set up a website with all the plugin bits and pieces on it) is great, because it allows both revenue streams (advertising etc) and an exit strategy (you can sell off the website as a standalone community when you want out). I’d be willing to help with this, if you like?
Rob
hey mate,
it’s a very sad news, why don’t you continue this plugins under business model? and paid plugins? you’ve done alot of great feature for this and alot of ppl know it, i’m sure no one think twice about buying your plugins.
I agree with AliMH !
Your plugin would beat many other Paid plugins if you continue improving it. Not all the people would have knowledge to do what they want . But the experts like you can do . We can donate or pay the charges to support you
Thanks !
OMG, this is like reading something from my own mind a year or two ago!
I ended up leaving a couple of plugins to slowly die. Users seem happy so long as it keeps working (I haven’t had any problems making them work with new versions of WordPress) and I patch any security issues that crop up.
@Ryan Hellyer
Sadly now TDOMF has been taken down from the WordPress repo because of a potential security exploit. It shouldn’t affect the majority but it’s there and I simply haven’t had the time or heart to fix it.
But yea I imagine I’m not the only plugin author who comes out the other end this way.