[wp-hackers] [WP 2.0 RC1] WP API Key ... Follow the google/amazon/ebay path ...

[Matt Mullenweg]

Douglas Daulton wrote:
> Mainly, I think
> folks like me who run their own server, will end up creating a lot of dead
> wp.com sites just to get an API key.  So dead.wp.com will be just that ...

There are a lot of "dead" Yahoo profile pages too. It doesn't matter. 
The only argument for "preserving" the good names, which is a battle you 
will always lose anyway. That's a reward for people who get there early. 
  At the end of the day WP has a couple of hundred thousand users, so 
even if every single one got an account (and they won't) it's still a 
fraction of the size of most online services.

> Create a new sub-domain called dev.wordpress.com (or something similar).
> Have devs register there.  Once registered, one dev gets a single API key.
> If, for some reason, (tracking, stats, etc.), we need an individual API key
> for every site we create, then have devs register new sites as part of their
> account and then append some unique number or string to the end of the
> existing API key.  Viola!  Unique, trackable API keys by domain or even
> subdomain.

The API keys aren't for devs, they're for users. They're tracking and 
controlling usage per user, not application or developer.

> 6)  This could open up a whole new slew of cool, centralized WP-driven
> services like statistics and performance analysis, SPAM Blacklists (like
> Akismet), dev directory and ranking. Common tag libraries, etc.  None of it
> should squelch ideas and new project.  Just the opposite, it should drive
> them.

In theory that sounds great, but I see no connection between what you 
described and point 6 above, unless there is a missing 5.5: create an 
enviroment for arbitrary hosted applications to run and store data on 
the WP.com infrastructure, which is not currently planned. (Access to 
blog data and such already has a standard API, the Metaweblog.) If 
people could give me real-world examples (NOT theoretical) of things 
they want to build but can't because of current limitations, I'll see 
how I can help.

I'm very open to ideas, but I prefer development (especially in APIs) to 
be extractions from real-world use rather than a lot of work for 
theoretical usage. Amazon and eBay have iterated their web services many 
times based on actual usage.

-- 
Matt Mullenweg
  http://photomatt.net | http://wordpress.org
http://pingomatic.com | http://akismet.com