Question How to disable forced advertisement "Hire a developer"?

[Hangover2]

Server operating system version

Debian 11

Plesk version and microupdate number

18.0.59 #2

Hello,

as the title says: how can we disable that advertisement in the WordPress toolkit?



We are actually not amused, that Plesk wants to catch out clients.

 

[custer]

@Hangover2 Sorry to hear this wasn't helpful to you guys. To clarify, we're not "catching" anyone's clients since we're not a WordPress development shop -- the purpose of this integration is to help those who don't know where to go when they need help with WordPress development. Since this could cause a conflict of interest in some cases, we've made sure server administrators can hide this feature.

You can usually find information about disabling or hiding features in the product changelog. I've highlighted the relevant part of the changelog for you, hope this helps:

 

[Hangover2]

We did not install 6.3.0 yet. We are still on 6.2.15. So this feature was deployed by accident to older versions?

At least the setting does also work for 6.2.15.

 

[nmdpa3]

...where was the link being displayed, we could not find it after the update? We also posted questions about this in the Plesk Extensions forum and did not receive a reply.

Question - WP Toolkit Codeable

The 6.3.0 (27 Mar 2024) release notes for WP Toolkit contains the following: [+] Added a link to Codeable platform for site admins: Codeable provides access to WordPress experts and developers for WordPress site administrators Unlike many freelancers, Codeable experts and developers will...

talk.plesk.com

 

[Bitpalast]

@custer I think the problem could also be that Codeable is way too expensive.

When customers here ask for assistance we normally refer them to Fiverr and recommend choosing an expert from Pakistan or Indonesia as these have often proven excellent work while charging a very low price. Codeable is way more expensive. For many users in low income countries, 80 - 120 US $ that Codeable asks per hour are unaffordable. Also, even when a freelancer found on Fiverr (or another similar platform) fails, the customer may lose a few bucks, but then can still get the project completed with another freelancer for much less. So even a failed fully paid project included, the customer will still pay a lower total than when choosing a rather expensive expert from Codeable.

Overall I like the idea that there is an option for a link where to ask for assistance, but the target URL and name should be freely configurable. Also think of all the web agencies that sell hosting and PHP service. They could then direct customers to their own offer. Result: For the time being I had to remove the link from all of our installations as we cannot recommend Codeable with good conscience.

 

[nmdpa3]

fyi...for those watching this thread but not the other...more info was posted there.....

Question - WP Toolkit Codeable

The 6.3.0 (27 Mar 2024) release notes for WP Toolkit contains the following: [+] Added a link to Codeable platform for site admins: Codeable provides access to WordPress experts and developers for WordPress site administrators Unlike many freelancers, Codeable experts and developers will...

talk.plesk.com

 

[Hangover2]

@Bitpalast I also like the idea that we could set the link to an own target to advertise our own WordPress developers of the company as some of our clients do not know, that we also have this service. This would also help the intended purpose of Plesk, that the:

purpose of this integration is to help those who don't know where to go when they need help with WordPress development

 

[custer]

@Bitpalast I think allowing to customize the link is a fantastic idea, Peter! I just wish you've shared it a bit earlier, before we released this, since it would indeed help us a lot to achieve the intended purpose (as quoted above by @Hangover2).

I'm talking to my team about estimating how expensive this change would be. Technically, you can change the destination URL even right now, but the text in the pop-over won't be modified, so we'll have some work to do on that front.

 

[custer]

We did not install 6.3.0 yet. We are still on 6.2.15. So this feature was deployed by accident to older versions?

At least the setting does also work for 6.2.15.

The integration was technically delivered in a minor 6.2.x release for extended testing, but it was completely hidden from customers. This is actually an unexpected side-effect, thanks for letting us know!

 

[Dave W]

So let me get this straight, you're placing a link in WP toolkit to a thridparty business provider so that they can poach business?

This should be disabled by default and enabled by admin if required.

 

[Tobias Sorensson]

to disable WP-Toolkits "Hire a Developer" add this to panel.ini file

[ext-wp-toolkit]
appModeFeature = on
codeableIntegrationFeature = off


so far what i know is that appModeFeature ebables WP-Toolkit integration with the new Dynamic view and codeableIntegrationFeature is the "hire a developer" text.. have not tested WP-toolkit after the inactivation of codeableIntegrationFeature. but my hope is that everything will be ok. if not i will be back.

 

[cloudbridge]

I think that PLESK should STOP with this type of invasion without us being asked if this is what we want. Clients call me asking how to register here, why everything is in English here. WTF... The customer just called and says I will order the services from you here, I am saying that this is not even our service and we do not recommend anything.

 

[JB-K]

@Hangover2 Sorry to hear this wasn't helpful to you guys. To clarify, we're not "catching" anyone's clients since we're not a WordPress development shop -- the purpose of this integration is to help those who don't know where to go when they need help with WordPress development. Since this could cause a conflict of interest in some cases, we've made sure server administrators can hide this feature.

@custer; I have my doubts about this... Sure, you're not "catching" clients in the literal sense; since you redirect them to another company.... Has Codeable sponsored / paid Plesk to integrate them as the default service?

I don't mind that this feature exists but this 100% should have been an opt-in feature , not something we need to manually disable later

 

[Dave W]

Since this could cause a conflict of interest in some cases, we've made sure server administrators can hide this feature.

This should NOT be an opt out feature. Codeable has a partner program, if we as admin want to use this then that should be our decision.

the purpose of this integration is to help those who don't know where to go when they need help with WordPress development.

I call BS on this, the purpose to to feed Codeable. Why Codeable, why not the myriad of other service providers, how you do know users dont contact their admin for help?

I would also be interested in the legality of inserting code that is designed to poach business.

D.

 

[Tobias Sorensson]

why not have it as a variable to let the admins input there own url in the Hire a Developer and it be a opt-in feature AKA turn on if admin wants to use the hire a developer feature with there own dev team etc.

 

[custer]

why not have it as a variable to let the admins input there own url in the Hire a Developer and it be a opt-in feature AKA turn on if admin wants to use the hire a developer feature with there own dev team etc.

Hi Tobias, this is what you can do in WPT v6.4 -- put your own URL instead.

 

[Mark Bailey]

This kind of tactic makes me want to reconsider using Plesk. We are a hosting and web development company, yet Plesk inserted an ad for a competing service into our clients' control panels. It's bad to promote anyone, but Codeable is not a good company in my opinion, for several reasons.

This is not the first example of something like this. We have had Plesk upgrades presented to our clients, which confused them as they didn't understand why they were being upsold (but we weren't doing it).

Keep this kind of thing up, Plesk, and we'll go elsewhere.

 

[afuego]

New update:

[ext-wp-toolkit]
hireDeveloperFeature = false

https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/...o-disable-Hire-a-developer-link-in-WP-Toolkit

 

[ninjadev02]

I hope this is going to be opt-in only going forward. Feels very slimy to have an advert in the control panel!

 

[keithD-VF]

In full panic mode!!!! We run hundreds of sites in WHM with WP-toolkit on each cPanel account, and need this to go away ASAP! We really don't want to have to take away WP-Toolkit from these accounts but we will if we must