@DavidW, I’m sure he means the api key you receive will only be valid for free upgrades for one year, after that you will have to renew the license or membership if he choose to make a members section for updates.

@Dan again, As for the free version, I will be greatly disappointed if the free version goes away, I could see the free version being made WP eCommerce Lite and allot of the functions removed, but to make everyone start using the other plugins would be sad.

@DavidW, your right, great discussion topics.

@Tom, I think my next article will include your blog. You have lots of great input here. Thanks!

Will you still have a free version? I think it’s a great entry point for many folks.

I just searched for your name in my inbox but found nothing – apologies if you fell through the chinks. The best place for support is our forums – if it looks like a bug as opposed to new work somebody will normally help you. Generally speaking (and this is the same for most forums – including wordpress) if you’re not getting helped quick enough then you should pay for somebodies time.

In terms of $$$. Although WP e-Commerce is free our time is not and $25 does not even pay for an hour of our time, an hour of time costs me a lot more then that and I have a team of guys to pay. By upgrading you are helping keep the best e-Commerce plugin on the planet alive.

…that said you could always buy some premium support time over at wordpress.org if you feel like spending over $2500

To give Dan credit, WordPress e-Commerce Plugin is the best out of the cart plugins yet.

I tried them all, YAK Cart & Quick Shop – not worth your time.

eShop – lots of features and cleaner code, but still lacks allot of the features WP e-Commerce provides. Adds way to many tabs to your dashboard! If your not HTML proficient, don’t bother or your shop will look like it’s stuck in the 90′s.

Paypal Shortcodes – good if your selling a couple items and don’t know how to add PayPal buttons or are just to lazy.

zencart-and-wordpress-user-integration – must be knowledgeable of zencart. I’m not a fan of zencart.

WordPress Cart – rating is 1 star and published in 2006, so I’ll assume it’s not worth the time.

WP e-Commerce – fully loaded, but gold cart is $25 and not alot different from the free version. I still bought it hoping for future releases. If things improve, I’ll update this post.

http://www.instinct.co.nz/wp-e-commerce-release-candidate-3/#comment-2195

1. We are optimizing the next RC as much as possible and taking all these sorts of issues into account

2. The latest version has much tidier code. Variations has been completely overhauled. We’re working on a Template engine which means all display code has been tidied up. We’re moving all Javascript to jQuery. And we have moved all ajax into two new files, one for admin ajax and one for frontend ajax.

Anythink eles you want to know?

3. For the past four years our Gold Files have been unlimited downloads (providing you don’t loose the email with the link). We’re in the process of making our own shop more of a mall where you pay one price for everything – but you only get access for one year.

Tom – Bro. Love your work. Funnily enough I’d rather be writing too

1. When the next release comes out, can you make it have the option to run only on a particular page rather needing to add code to every page outputted. I don’t want my cart on my article pages, just my product pages. Or do you currantly have a solution.

2. Will the code ever be cleaned up. I would spend the time to do this, but I’m sure a new update will come in and override the work or I’ll be stuck with the older version.

3. If we pay for goldcart, are new release or updates free? and if so how long?

Tom – sorry for interrupting your thread, but Dan owes us some answers. I’ve tried a thousand different ecommerce software over the years, plus several WP carts, but WP eCommerce so far has the most options and for those that can’t code is perfect for them, but I’m some what anal retentive when it comes to how things are. So if I can’t get it to w3 validate, I get rid of it.

So on that basis I would still recomend using crafty cart and the WordPress e-Commerce Plugin for the additional functionality.

Hopefully one day Eli and I can collaborate on something awesome

“What would be even better is a Market theme that integrated with the WP e-Commerce plugin given all the additional functionality that WP e-Commerce comes with.

It would be trivial to make a WP e-Commerce powered website using the Thematic theme framework that looked like Market theme… ”

Maybe you should stick to benefits for the readers, rather than self promotion and trashing of your competitors.

There’s nothing wrong with two paths working toward the same goal. More options for the user is always better.

Eli