[wp-hackers] Seeking feedback on Plugins UI

[Ozh]

My thoughts:

I don't see much improvement in the Plugins page. The bulk selection stuff 
is cool, but I'm definitely not fan of the "let's split the plugin list in 
3 parts" move: yet another area in the admin where I will be scrolling 
back and forth like crazy to find what I'm looking for (especially between 
the "not active" and the "recently active" lists)
What I find more efficient and would like best would be a single list with 
filtering capabilities:
<http://planetozh.com/download/plugins/better-plugin-page-demo/>

Note about the wording: "available plugins" might be confusing here. A 
plugin can be available "on my blog" or available "for download from 
wp.org", so I recommend the good old "inactive". "Available" makes more 
sense on the page where you browse and pick a plugin to install.

The other pages under the "Install Plugins" page are definitely cool and 
bring true features.

I'm not sure we need a "recently updated" list: either we get notification 
updates for plugin we have installed, or we find a cool plugin by browsing 
through popular or by searching, right? "Newest" can be a cool page to get 
some inspiration ("hey, nice plugin idea, I'm going to try this") but I 
can't imagine why I would ever look at the "recently updated" list.

More infos in the "Install Plugins" pages would be cool: average rating, 
sure, but how about the number of ratings, the number of downloads, and 
infos about version compatibility (a lot of plugins are mentioning they're 
compatible up to 2.3)

I think there's an inconsistency between the main plugin page and the 
Install Plugins / Popular Plugin page: plugins URL are either the real 
plugin page or the page on wp.org/extend, plugin authors are either linked 
to their own websites or to their wp.org profile. I think I like first 
option best (real page, website).

Wording: "term" is unclear to me on the search page. Does it mean "search 
from title / description" ? I wouldn"t have thought about searching by 
authors but this is very cool.

A cool feature to consider would be a way to rate a plugin right from my 
own Plugin Management page. That would increase connectivity between blog 
users and wp.org/extend and make those ratings more relevant with more 
votes.

All in all, very impressive work again DD. Definitely something I'm 
looking forward to using in next WP.

Ozh