[wp-hackers] Plugin Site

[Carthik Sharma]

I have been thinking about this, and even had plans for a "wordplug.org"

What I finally thought would be acceptable, after the previous
discussion on the same topic, was to have a simple site with a list of
all the plugins and hacks. That's it.
I had an workaround for the problem of authors not wanting to lose the
traffic that would otherwise come their way. The plugins website would
link to the author's specific plugin page. If the plugin is GPLed, it
will be mirrored off of wp-plugins.org, and the mirror for the
download would be become active when the author's site is down,
temporarily or otherwise, unless the author insists to the contrary.
No major technology would be required for this. A mail to the admin
from a disgruntled user who can't find a download at the plugin
author's site will cause the admin to enable a link to the
cached/mirrored copy, till such time as the author's site does not
come back.

As for maintaining the site, and admin, or a bunch of them would have
to do it, and I have seen that with feedster, pubsub etc, and the
support forums and wiki, one gets to know of all kinds of plugins, I
have even come across some that have only been announced only at the
author's site, not even at the wiki or support forums. For now, i
manually add links to these plugins from the wiki plugin page, but
adding them to a plugin website should be no biggie.

Each author can get right to post/edit info related to his plugin at
the wp-plugins site. When a new author's plugin is included, she can
be sent a mail informing her that her plugin is now described/listed
at wp-plugins.org, and that she can optionally become an author at the
site.
If she chooses not to, it will fall upon the admin to update the
plugin. The admin will be amply helped by the end users who can leave
php.net style comments or send emails to inform the admin and others
about unnoticed plugin upgrades etc.

Of course, it all runs off of a wordpress blog.

I kind of extended get_posts (the template tag) with the goal of using
it to power the intended plugins site I had in mind.

The way I saw it, the website would have 

1. An announcements section
2. A good inbuilt search (which wordpress has)
3. Plugins sorted by
a. Name(alphabetically)
b. Date
c. type
d. author
e. popularity (downloads/pageviews)
f. user ratings

Each plugin will have :
1. A detailed description
2. A brief synopsis
3. A link to the author's article describing the plugin
4. Comments

With the currently available hacks/plugins and the get_posts function,
all this should be  doable (easily?).

I suck at css, and my adviser is breathing down my neck, else this
would have been done by now :P If you need any help please let me
know.

And before we start advising plugin authors about the licensing terms
and issues related to GPL and such, we need to clarify WordPress'
license and take care to conform to GPL's terms. I have no option but
to think that there is a problem with WordPress' GPL licensing, since
I have had one developer reply in a coherent manner, and that reply
acknowledged the problem and the need to fix it.

Regards,
Carthik.

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 19:08:54 -0700, Craig Hartel <milquetoast at telus.net> wrote:
> Guys and gals,
> 
> All great feedback, and I have read everything with great interest and with the
> respect due to your many talents, abilities, and experiences.
> 
> Here are a few of my specific thoughts which may or may not raise some more
> comments and suggestions:
> 
> This site is for users. It's not for hackers. What I mean by that, is that my
> plans are to serve the community's needs first and foremost. The needs of the
> authors will be accommodated to the very best of my abilities, but they are
> secondary to the user needs.
> 
> I will not host anything that is not expressly permitted by any author.
> 
> Links to authors will be a link to the site, or specific section dealing with
> the plugin. It will not be a link to a download. Many sites have Google AdSense,
> and PayPal opportunities, and I believe that every author is entitled to expect
> that any user of their work might help out by click-throughs or direct donations.
> 
> The structure of the new Mozilla updates site was mentioned, and I do like some
> aspects of that idea.
> 
> I see no reason why authors could not have donation links on the wp-plugin site.
> I'm not sure of the logistics of such a thing, but perhaps a link to their
> donation link might be a plausible alternative.
> 
> I don't really want the site to be a support site in the sense of the current
> wp.org support forums. Rather, I would be more agreeable to provide a way of
> sending feedback to the authors from the site, as well as providing a link to
> the wp.org support site and / or the WP Wiki.
> 
> I'd like the site to be a nice clean design. I don't want to overwhelm visitors
> with a myriad of things that are irrelevant to their experience.
> 
> A listing would contain information on the purpose of the plugin, at least a
> screen shot, a link or two to a working example or demo, a link to the author's
> site, the license under which it is provided, and the date of publishing. Maybe
> someone can create a plugin that will allow authors to pingback to the site when
> they post an update and any new information can be posted automagically on the
> plugin site.
> 
> Just some thoughts. All are open for discussion and debate. I'd rather do this
> right from the start than make a mess of it and have users and authors not
> bother with the site at all.
> 
> Craig.
> 
> 
> 
> 


-- 
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone -- 老子 Lǎozi

University of Central Florida
Homepage: http://carthik.net