Dream thieves. Custom developments and multi(mis)purpose themes.

In recent days we have been able to read different opinions about the lock-in effect of custom developments and multipurpose themes by Fernando Tellado «Custom developments: The true lock-in effect» y Pablo Lopez «Custom developments»: My two cents»

For those who have not read these two articles, I invite you to read them and give your opinion on the subject. 

What is the lock-in effect?

Lock-in is another of those "words" in the language of Shakespeare that have become fashionable to refer to those situations in which we are "tied" to certain software that prevents us from migrating or replacing it with another with similar functions. 

I don't have a "book" definition, but I put an example associated with WordPress to clarify the concept:

You use a multipurpose theme in your WordPress (which works the same for starting a blog as for, for example, an online store or a social network) that allows you to do a thousand cute things, which includes lots and lots of options and therefore You decide to switch to another theme that you like better and everything breaks, your content is not displayed and all the work you have done for (years?) goes to waste.

This is the case of what is known as the lock-in effect that I encounter most frequently.

Then there are those who think that custom development, even the use of custom posts, have the same lock-in effect, since if the client stops using the theme that you have custom developed, the same thing happens as in the previous case. of the multipurpose theme.

Do you really believe it?

The true lock-in effect

I have been working with WordPress for many years, since 2005 if memory serves me correctly, and I have been able to see everything throughout these years. 

I have met great professionals and people with very little professional ethics. 

Regarding the former, today I share with them, friendship, events and meetings about WordPress, learning from them on every occasion.

And then we have the seconds…

This type of “new pro” is one who has jumped on the WordPress popularity bandwagon and, after taking a couple of video courses for a few bucks, offers their professional services as a “WordPress expert.” Horrible I would say.

This type of upstart and close is the one who commits one of the biggest crimes that someone can commit, does the most damage: Steal dreams from others. 

These "gross" in WordPress, make use of the two hours of online course they have done to offer their unsuspecting clients the possibility of having a WordPress-based website "for a handful of dollars" euros, as he told us comrade Pablo López in his article.

Or what is worse, in exchange for a few thousand euros. 

I have found clients, here, in Chiclana, who have paid 17.000 euros for the installation and configuration of a "zimforest" theme that is worth 59 dollars, because as the "grocery" has learned to use this multi(mis)purpose theme to do that shows all its appearance and beauty (did I say beauty?) has made the innocent client believe that this piece of site has been made for him (the face) in his image and likeness. 

And what happens when the guy who did this heist disappears? because you already know that these guys eventually end up falling, they don't last long, but they leave a very important trail of corpses.  
Well that, what comes to you, with a major disaster on your website, dozens of plugins without updating, touched cores, modified themes without children, ... does it ring true?

I have also known custom developments, themes created on purpose for a specific client, that there was nowhere to take it. They would certainly take a more advanced course, maybe a few more hours, but the effect they create, more than lock-in, is one of abandonment. They leave their clients unable to grow because they don't know how to do it (well, they usually say it can't be done with WordPress, you know).

Well this friends, is the true lock-in effect. Kidnapping, mugging, armed robbery. 

Don't let them steal your dream

I have found throughout these 13 years that I have been working with WordPress clients who have invested their money, which is so hard to get, in WordPress projects at the hands of these dream thieves. 

They have invested, in addition to their money, a lot of time, passion, to find themselves alone, abandoned, with a website that they do not know how to manage, that they do not know how to maintain, that they do not know how to update, that they do not know how to administer. They are hairdressers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, artists, electricians, decorators, THEY ARE NOT PROFESSIONALS SPECIALIZED IN WORDPRESS, They don't even want to be, and no one told them what this was about having an online site, what their needs were, or what could happen.

And you, shameless, have wanted to steal their dream by offering a service that you don't know, leaving them in the lurch and thinking not that you are cheeky, since you know how to sell yourself very well, but that WordPress is crap. Excuse me. 

I have had to literally rescue these people, professionals, companies that had the dream of starting on the Internet, of making their business or company grow through the opportunity that WordPress and the democratization of the network offered them. 

I have found places truly KIDNAPPED, where there was no choice but to start from scratch, copy the contents by hand and not lose hope in the process.

This, friends and friends, is the true lock-in effect.

Only once in more than a decade of offering developments with WordPress have I had to tell a client that the development they had paid for only two years ago could no longer be updated and would no longer be able to be used safely on the web. next WordPress update. It was a long time ago and for offering a commercial theme, which was later abandoned by the developer because it was no longer profitable or for any other reason that I don't know. I informed him of the two possibilities, the cheap commercial theme and custom development, from scratch for him. And against my advice, he chose the cheapest path in the short term.

This hurt me a lot, and those who know the contract-budget document that I send to my clients know that one of the points that I emphasize is precisely this. I cannot be responsible for the decisions or work of third parties. 

The subject does not make the monk

At this point and truly moved to go through my mind each and every one of those cases in which I have had to help people to recover their sleep, I really believe that there are no themes, plugins or custom developments that imply, per se, a lock-in effect. 

If you are a true professional, you can offer your clients solutions based on custom developments, custom themes and plugins or make use of Divi, Avada or similar themes. The problem is not the software. As Fernando Tellado rightly says in his article, the developers of these themes are not fools, they are real cracks, of development with WordPress. The problem is the use you give to that software. 

In my case, I do not usually recommend the use of commercial themes in more than 1% of cases, and it is usually in those in which the person who wants to have a presence on the Internet does not have a penny. Yes, that simple. If you don't have a euro, WordPress is still your friend and you can get totally free themes and plugins that will allow you to take your first step In this online world, you can even get free accommodation thanks to friend Matt Mullenberg. Many NGOs and people who want to undertake but don't have a penny write to me. I'll have to think about it one day.

If my client really wants to launch a web project and you have a minimum of money for it, even if it is the equivalent of what two or three monthly rents would cost you for a small store in your town, I offer you, always a customized development and a specialized hosting and maintenance service, to accompany you along the way and that you can ask me as many questions as you need, technical, commercial or simply human, doubts or advice. Propose improvements to your website, which, since it is created in a simple and clean way, you can do with me or with any other WordPress professional of your choice (at some point I will retire to the virgin islands, I say) 

Some will say that this is a lock-in effect. But I am locked-in by my clients and they are locked-in-is that I can offer them this service. 

You may not be a developer or do not have one on your team and you want to offer services based on WordPress, such as you buy a theme, configure it for your client and accompany, advise and help whenever necessary. It is totally lawful and valid, but also remember that you are not a developer and that you should not define yourself as such. Implementer or even Wordress Consultant would be more correct. We no longer go into if you're a Diviloper, an Avadawan or another type of fan boy, that's your problem, but be honest and go to a developer when things get ugly. 

Seriously, if you are not a professional and want to launch a web project with WordPress, put yourself in the hands of a true professional, as the Bible says, you will know him by his works.
When my car breaks down I take it to the mechanic and if something hurts I go to the doctor. I could also fill myself with "democratizing professional services" and try to fix my car myself or self-medicate, but boy, maybe not a good idea.