[wp-hackers] Plugin Site

[Danny Dawson]

My recommendation:

Follow the example of Mozilla's Extensions:
http://update.mozilla.org/extensions/

1. The plugin is hosted on Mozilla's servers, along with a version history.
2. A prominent link to the plugin's homepage (i.e. the author's
website) is displayed if one exists.
3. Date added, Last Updated: both dates displayed, showing project (in)activity.
4. User comments are displayed, making the page enough like a forum
for general feedback, but if would be useful to have threaded
conversations for community plugin support.

In answer to the issue of whether or not the author wants the plugin
hosted by WP-Plugins.org:
1. In most cases, the plugin ends up on wp-plugins.org because the
author submitted it.  The author can specify if they'd prefer not to
have it hosted anywhere but their personal site.
2. In cases where the author is not the submitting party, contact with
the author should be attempted to confirm that hosting on
wp-plugins.org is acceptable.  If this contact cannot be made, use
discretion.
3. In cases where the author would prefer to be the only party hosting
the plugin, an entry should be made on wp-plugins.org with a link to
the author's website, any known information on version history and
update dates, and a comments/forum section.

Whenever I've written plugins for open-source projects, I've preferred
that I'm not the one hosting.  It eats my bandwidth.  A link to my
website is sufficient.

When I download a plugin from places like Mozilla's Extension website,
I always check the author's website first for updated versions anyway.


On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 16:14:44 -0400, Tor Bjornrud <bjornrud at msu.edu> wrote:
> 
> On Jul 16, 2004, at 3:56 PM, Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Tor Bjornrud wrote:
> >
> >> Respectfully, I think having a system that relies on everybody being
> >> the sole provider of their "open code" not only defeats the purpose of
> >> Open Source, it ends up making a fragile network of available plugins.
> >> In no way is it reasonable, in my opinion, to have people committing
> >> Open Source changes to a OSS project and expect to act as if it's not.
> >
> > The problem here is that it has been an established tradition; changing
> > that tradition can harm relationships. Harming relationships with
> > existing
> > WP developers is not in WP's best interest.
> 
> What you say is an established tradition, I merely see as a project
> that the WP community hasn't gotten around to yet.  It's my
> understanding that things work this way not because of an agreed upon
> decision to keep plugins separately hosted, but merely the most
> convenient way of distributing them with the least amount of work (at
> that time).  Given the popularity of WordPress, and the vast wealth of
> plugins now available to it, the value of a consolidated plugin library
> is now much more clear and present than ever before.
> 
> I fully agree that harming relationships is in nobody's best interest,
> but we certainly have to balance people's wishes with protecting the
> project longevity and making it as easy as possible for WP users to
> extend their setup.  I don't see everybody walking away from this
> completely satisfied, simply because we have differing extremes.
> 
> 
> > My personal choice would be a compromise:
> >
> > 1) People who prefer to host their plugins on WP's page can do so.
> > 2) People who would prefer to host their own plugins, for whatever
> > reason,
> >    can do so, but should offer a copy up for the WP plugin page,
> >    including any updates to said plugin. This copy would not be shown
> > on
> >    the WP page *unless* the primary site was unavailable for an
> > extended
> >    period and the developer had not offered a change of location.
> >
> > I'd say a reasonable time for 'extended period' is two weeks, though,
> > as
> > with anything, that's debatable.
> >
> 
> I'm a bit confused as to #2. Is this period a timeframe from the
> beginning of the offering of the plugin?  Where if the developer keeps
> the plugin hosted for the "period" WP will host it indefinitely?  Or
> are you envisioning something where the plugin will be hosted as long
> as the developer's site stays alive for a two week period, and if it
> goes down, the plugin will be temporarily disabled?
> 
> Best,
> ~Tor
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Danny Dawson
http://quasistoic.org/ts/