Helping Out – A “Related Post-type” Plugin
I had the opportunity to work with a excellent plugin developer this past week. It was not something I set out to do, but when a user of one of my plugins came to me with a problem they were having, it ended up taking a turn in a different direction.
The user has mentioned that they had a great plugin that stopped working for them when they moved their site to e new host. They were not sure if it was causing a problem with my plugin or not so I offered to take a look at it to see if I could figure out the problem and see if it really was causing a problem with the site.
After a few minutes, I figured out the cause of the issue. The plugin had not taken into account that this specific WordPress install had the core files in a different location than the root folder. The plugin was assuming that all WP installs are in the root – and now a days, that is not so much the case.
I fixed the plugin for him and mentioned he might want to let the creator know what was happening. Within minutes, the plugin creator contacted me to see what I had done to fix it. Turns out, he had been trying to figure out a few problems with the very things I adjusted to make it work. Since I had recently tackled the same problem, it was an easy fix. And after a few emails back and forth, the developed fixed his plugin. The best thing is, he took my suggestions and ran with them, coming up with some great solutions to so very common bugs in many plugins.
Normally I wouldn’t go that far out of my way for some other person’s plugin, but in this case there were three things that drove me to help:
1. The original person who contacted me REALLY loved the plugin. They were upset it was not working any longer.
2. The plugin WAS really a great plugin. I didn’t want to see it fall to the wayside and get bad feedback for a few small issues.
3. The plugin creator was extremely eager to get the plugin fixed. He didn’t throw a fit or give me any attitude for the fix I provided and he was genuinely interested in my feedback to help make it better.
That is the perfect combination. And an already great plugin just got better!
If you would like to use the plugin, it is called “Where did they go for here” by Ajay D’Souza. This plugin will show “Readers who viewed this page, also viewed” links on the page. You can find it on his site at http://ajaydsouza.com/wordpress/plugins/where-did-they-go-from-here/ or on the WP Repository at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/where-did-they-go-from-here/

Many thanks to Don and Ajay for collaborating on this fix! Where Go, as well as all the other plugins that Ajay authored is a great addition to my site. Upset? Nah! I was more dissapointed that it stopped working and grateful for all the time that Ajay put into trying to fix it for me.
It was a stroke of luck that I found Don through an equally impressive plugin I use, Amazon Plug In Post. This the best Amazon affiliate plugin! If you affiliate with Amazon on your WordPress installation, this is a must have!
Thanks again guys, good karma your way!
Thank you once again for the help.
My next step is to fix my other plugins