On February 2013, more than one and a half year ago, we released our very first theme as Codestag: Proxy.
It was a one-page portfolio theme that performed very well in terms of sales, and was used so creatively from our customers, that we could ever imagine. However, very recently we took the decision to retire it. So, based on that, Proxy will be retired by Monday 15th of September 2014.
We took that decision because we want to be honest primarily with ourselves, and then with our customers. Proxy did not reflect the new approach that we have been following at Codestag the last months: Simple to use, consistent themes that provide a unique experience and follow the best practices in terms of design and code. Proxy was good, but it was not perfect. At least as close to perfection as we wanted it to be.
What happens to existing Proxy customers?
We are extending the support for Proxy for one week, ending on Monday 21st of September. After that, support will no longer be available. We would like to say a big “thank you!” to all Proxy buyers for their support and trust, and for their understanding. You are awesome.
Any plans for relaunching it?
We might release Proxy again in the future, completely updated regarding design and code, but this is not something we can commit to. So far we have been going with a flow that allowed us to be flexible and effective, and we don’t know where this flow will lead us. There are great things coming, that’s for sure.
What’s next?
Many things. We have been really busy lately. We now have a new logo (stay tuned for this), re-designing our website, building a brand new knowledge base with integrated online documentation, and we are changing the way we handle support, aiming to offer a more personalized and effective customer service. Oh yes, we are working on a couple of awesome themes too.
There are great things coming, and we can’t wait to share them with you. Stay tuned!
8 Responses
And what happens with your phrase: “Free Lifetime Updates. We always update our themes do be fully compliant with software and industry standards.”. I think if you want to be honest (with what I’m agree totally) you must remove this sentence also please .
Proxy has been (by far) your best work. As your customers what guarantees do we have now that the same thing will not happen with other themes that we have bought or buy running out updates to the year of purchase?. I wish you the best … bye bye Proxy & bye bye Codestag :'(
Hi Paul
Although I understand your frustration and dissapointment, you must know that it is very common in our industry to retire themes after a certain period of time. Themes are digital products that many times are based on design trends that -as all trends- expire too. In the case of themes, it is not always that easy to push an update that introduces many many changes, because this affects the users that already use the theme.
As it mentions in our article, Proxy was really lacking many things, and we felt it was better to retire it than push an update that would cause conflicts with the way customers already use it. Believe me, it was not an easy decision, and from a business perspective it was one of the themes that have returned us the most revenue.
Statements like “Free lifetime updates” refer to the lifespan of the product of course, and does not mean that there will keep pushing updates until we leave this vain world. However, even such statements will soon be completely removed as we are changing many things in our business/pricing model. As all companies that live and breath in an industry, we find it is a matter of great importance to be able to adapt to the ever changing market conditions.
Again, sorry to see you go, however we still believe that we have created a product with great value, that has served greatly the customers who trusted it. As for guarantees for the other themes, I’m afraid that there cannot be any guarantee.
As for Proxy, it’s already full compatible with WordPress 4.0 and probably will be in next major release two, however, if you find any incompatibility, you can always hire a developer to get it fixed easily.
All the best!
John
This is kind of messed up. I really like Proxy. I would consider buying another theme, but does this mean you constantly retire themes? I would not want to purchase another one only to have it retired….AGAIN.
Hi there! No it does not mean that we always retire our themes after such a short time, but also it does not mean that our themes will live forever :)
Proxy was our very first theme and we have explained the reasons at the post above. It was a tough decision, but we had to take it.
Thanks!
Wow, completely missed this message. Did you send an email out to customers? Not even an optional discount to purchase a different theme? While I understand about a “lifespan”, I don’t get “more than one and a half year ago”. Then again, maybe purchasing another theme wouldn’t be great idea, if retirement comes quicker than time spans between Hobbit movies.
Had used the theme for my book, but looks like I’ll just use a theme with a longer life-shelf.
Hi Thomas
Sorry about that. Since sales were conducted via Themeforest for the Proxy theme, we cannot have a list of the customers of each theme, unfortunately. However, about ten days before the retirement, we posted a public comment at the theme’s page at themeforest, created this post here and posted at our social media channels.
Also, we are unable to offer discounts for the themeforest themes, since it is not allowed by their platform.
Again, sorry about that, but it was not an easy decision. It was our highest selling theme at that time, however it was far away from the best coding / design practices that we follow, so we decided to retire it since an update would require development from the ground up, and would break the sites of existing customers.
Hope this clarifies.
Thanks!
Hi there,
I am updating my site and a proxy customer. What theme do you suggest we migrate to?
Hi Naim,
You can check out our Slope theme which has a nice widgetized page feature for your customized page needs, it also comes with WooCommerce support.
Give us a wave for any other questions – https://codestag.com/get-touch/