[wp-hackers] Offical Plugins, repository, and extending WordPress

[John Watson]

I think you've hit the nail on the head here.  I think it's important to 
realize that there are probably (forgive me for the false dichotomy) two 
groups of users out there: a group who wants to just get a plugin for 
their blog software and doesn't really care about any of the development 
or open source or any of the stuff we are talking about right now; and 
then there's everyone else.  I bet MOST people who use Wordpress fall 
into the first group.  I think the ease with which Wordpress installs 
ENCOURAGES those kinds of users -- let's face it, if it's hard to 
install, neophytes aren't going to use it.  And honestly, we want as 
many users as possible because it makes us feel good that our software 
is helping people be creative and express themselves, right?  :-)

I think it's important that we have a central plugin repository that is 
reliable and guaranteed to be around for as long as Wordpress is.  The 
only way to do that is for Wordpress to host the site and the 
downloads.  I think it is also important that the typical user's 
experience with Wordpress is a good one, which means that if he 
downloads a plugin from the official repository he should have a 
reasonable expectation that it will do what it was intended to do.  The 
only way to ensure that is for someone to volunteer to check plugins 
that authors submit to the official repository before adding them to the 
repository (the check could be as simple as install and make sure it 
doesn't break WP).  And I also think that it is important that we 
support the entire community of plugin developers and to do that we need 
a place (a wiki page, for example) where authors who don't want to host 
their plugins in the official repository can let users know where to go 
to get them.

scriptygoddess wrote:

>page won't suffice. If it were me as the user, and I could download
>all my plugins in one place - I probably wouldn't even visit the
>authors site. Why should I? Maybe if I had free time to wander around
>and surf.
>