{"id":1852,"date":"2011-09-20T12:34:05","date_gmt":"2011-09-20T03:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-09-20\/1852"},"modified":"2011-09-20T12:34:05","modified_gmt":"2011-09-20T03:34:05","slug":"saga-of-frustration-developing-and-abandoning-a-lightroom-plugin-for-500px","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-09-20\/1852","title":{"rendered":"Saga of Frustration: Developing (and Abandoning) a Lightroom Plugin for 500px"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This is a long post explaining — venting — why I have<\/span> not released a Lightroom<\/span> plugin for 500px.com.\nThis post will not be interesting if you don't care about 500px.com.<\/p>\n\n

I've worked with a lot<\/span> of companies during my life developing plugins\nfor Adobe Lightroom<\/a>. I've got 32 different plugins<\/a> at\nthe moment. With some companies like Flickr and Google and Facebook, my\ninteraction is as an anonymous faceless third-party developer, but with\nmost I have<\/span> an ongoing personal interaction... for example, I work with<\/span> Alex at Zenfolio,\nand with Dave and Andy at SmugMug. There's a long<\/span> list.<\/p>\n\n

For the most part, I feel a<\/span> strong partnership with the companies that I\nhave<\/span> a personal<\/span> relationship with, and that really helps when technical or\nlogistic issues cause friction in the development\/support process, as one\nmight expect happens from time to time over the years. The relationship<\/span> is\nbuilt on respect, which helps it withstand minor bumps along the way.<\/p>\n\n

On the flip side, an active lack of respect drives me away from a\ncompany.<\/span> For example, I spent<\/span> many hours helping DeviantArt develop their\nthird-party API, but walked away from them and from an\nessentially-completed plugin when it became clear to me that the folks\nthere were a bunch<\/span> of dirtbags. But this type<\/span> of thing doesn't happen often\nbecause most people are not dirtbags, and frankly, it doesn't take much\nintelligence to realize that it's a good<\/span> thing if you can get someone like\nme to develop, for free, something that helps your customers. Most business\nfolks I deal<\/span> with care about their customers.<\/p>\n\n

I tend to keep it to myself when things do go bumpy, but the demand for\na Lightroom<\/span> plugin for 500px<\/b> is so high that I feel<\/span> compelled to\nspeak out to explain why a plugin<\/span> for their service will not be coming from\nme any time soon.....<\/p>\n\n

I started getting a lot of requests for a plugin<\/span> for 500px.com this\nspring, and after enough requests I finally<\/span> sent 500px a note<\/span> asking about\nan API with which I could<\/span> write a plugin.<\/span> I got no response.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I still got a lot of requests, so a month<\/span> or so later I sent<\/span> another\nnote. I got no<\/span> response, but eventually saw messages on Twitter saying that\na Lightroom<\/span> plugin would be coming by summer. Ah, well, if they're working\non it themselves, or perhaps with another developer, they don't need me,\nwhich explains the lack of a reply.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

But I continued to see 500px's tweets promising a plugin,<\/span> but no plugin,\nso I continued<\/span> to get requests from their customers.<\/p>\n\n

Their occasional tweets had made it clear that a plugin<\/span> was forthcoming\nsoon, so I was<\/span> surprised on July 11th to get a note<\/span> from Evgeny at 500px\nasking how we can work together to make a 500px<\/span> plugin a reality.<\/span> Cool.\nPoint me at an API and I'll make it....<\/p>\n\n